10 Key Takeaways from the 2024-25 Season So Far

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The unofficial midpoint of the NBA season is valuable primarily for what it suggests for the second half. What have we learned so far? The defending champs in Boston have no worries. We might have a new Kia MVP. A much-maligned crop of rookies has produced some helpful role players. Three-point mania continues unabated. And Anthony Edwards knows all the words and gestures.

Half-empty only matters when it becomes fully full.

Still, here are 10 things we’ve learned through the season’s first half:

1. Cavs vs. Thunder Finals would be dynamite

Forget market size. Ignore “flyover-ness.” Cleveland and Oklahoma City are contenders in full whose times have arrived. Both rosters are brimming with young talent and worthy All-Star candidates, and only the Cavs’ stocked roster keeps them from having a leading Kia MVP candidate like the Thunder’s Shai-Gilgeous Alexander.

Coaches Kenny Atkinson and Mark Daigneault masterfully have kept their respective squads focused and together (although team chemistry and winning have that classic chicken-or-egg dynamic). We got a taste of a possible Finals matchup last week in Cleveland — the Cavs won 129-122 — and we get a second Thursday in OKC (7:30 p.m. ET, TNT). Then, maybe, 4-7 more in June?

2. A new MVP, but yes, another international winner

If ballots were cast today, Gilgeous-Alexander probably would win the Kia Most Valuable Player award and, in a nod to the legend after whom the trophy is named — Michael Jordan — become the first perimeter player to snag it since James Harden in 2018. But like the winners over the past six seasons — Jokić (three), Giannis Antetokounmpo (two) and Joel Embiid (one) — the Thunder’s leader is an import, born in Toronto.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. The slender scorer is on pace to become only the second player in NBA history to average at least 30 points while shooting better than 50%, along with at least five rebounds, five assists, two steals and one blocked shot. The only other guy to do that — and he did it twice — was Jordan, back in 1987-88 and 1990-91. The latter season probably appeals more to Gilgeous-Alexander and Thunder fans, since that produced the first of Jordan’s six championship rings.

3. Wembanyama might keep that streak going

It’s not as if there’s a shortage of candidates to keep the run of internationally produced MVP winners alive. Dallas’ Luka Dončić has finished in the top eight of voting for the past five seasons and still is just 25. Gilgeous-Alexander is 26 and driving a team that figures to be good for a while. However, Victor Wembanyama might be the biggest obstacle to domestically grown MVPs in the coming years.

The 7-foot-4 product of Le Chesnay, France, will be an All-Star, a likely All-NBA pick and possibly the Kia Defensive Player of the Year in 2024-25. From there, the MVP isn’t far away, especially if the Spurs improve as much next season as they seem to have this season (on pace for 19 more victories).

4. Embiid’s windows could be closed

The Philadelphia 76ers’ center was a part of that foreign MVP core two seasons 

ago and

 finished second in 2021 and ’22. But he has missed 65% of the Sixers’ games so far, he’s lugging a list of career injuries as long as his inseam and he turns 31 in two months. It’s hard to see a lot of individual or team success in his near future, too, with five teams to climb over for the assured sixth playoff spot in the East. And their next 15 games are against opponents who either are ahead of them in the standings or boast better win-loss records.

5. Talent + numbers + coaching = Rockets, Pistons

The ingredients were there when the season began, and — no guarantees this would happen — both Houston and Detroit have shown tremendous improvement. Ime Udoka and the Rockets are seven games better (at 26-12) than at the same point last season, are No. 2 in the West and have a nice blend of young talent, salty vets and toughness.

Detroit is about a year behind in development, but this is coach J.B. Bickerstaff’s first season there and already the Pistons have won 17 more games than a season ago (4-36). Both rosters are deep but individually, Rockets big man Alperen Sengun and Pistons playmaker Cade Cunningham are the straws stirring these drinks.

6. Hawks put right pieces around Trae Young

Finding the right mix of teammates, in skills, temperament and needs, to put around Young had been a challenge for much of his first seasons. The 2021 crew peaked in the Eastern Conference Finals but the Hawks slid back after that. Now, Hawks general manager Landry Fields, coach Quin Snyder and the rest have found a formula that works and the players to execute it. Explosive wings, rim-running bigs and Young at his best (26 games of 10+ assists already) have afforded Atlanta the luxury of starting raw rookie Zaccharie Risacher, the No. 1 pick overall, to expedite his learning curve.

7. ‘Heat Culture’ isn’t bulletproof

Miami has prided itself on being different — more demanding, tougher, less accommodating to dilettantes — than many NBA franchises in this era of player empowerment. But that blew up in the Heat’s faces last month when Jimmy Butler — already Hamlet-in-a-headband (“To play or not to play…”) — talked about his inability to find “joy” while being paid $48 million to play basketball in Miami. This, despite a $52 million option for next season, after which he’ll turn 37. The league’s most celebrated culture is saddled with the poster guy for turning off fans everywhere.

8. KAT as big dog in New York

Karl-Anthony Towns wasn’t the problem in Minnesota — OK, he can be a bit sensitive and he’s foul-prone — but the Timberwolves traded him away because of his contract. All that time making the two-bigs lineup work with Rudy Gobert and the team’s first Western Conference Finals in two decades wasn’t enough to roll the dice again. Towns is worthy of starting in the All-Star Game(s) and getting MVP votes, with 26 games of 20-plus points and 10-plus rebounds. The Wolves are getting traction with Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo in Towns’ place, but the Knicks so far have won the trade.

9. 40 is the new 30

James (40), Durant (36), Stephen Curry (36), Russell Westbrook (36) and Harden (35) took home nine of 10 MVP trophies from 2009-18. They’re not likely to add a 10th but they are thriving at a point by which many Hall of Famers already were done. James, Durant, Curry and Harden are scoring north of 20 ppg, with the first three at least likely to be showcased in San Francisco on All-Star Sunday. Harden has been solid except for inaccuracy, while Westbrook is rejuvenated playing next to and for Jokić.

10. The Warriors should be buyers

Golden State’s 12-3 start is looking like fool’s gold in the context of its 7-17 struggles since. The personnel that got them to 46 victories last season has sagged. The Warriors are No. 21 in offensive rating, No. 24 in true shooting percentage and last in free throws and foul shooting percentage. With four titles, there is no reason to fret about Curry’s legacy, should this team fail to contend as his career closes out (Dallas sputtered through Dirk Nowitzki’s final three seasons, but he and the Mavericks still were better off for staying together). But the fans who pay the hefty prices at Chase Center demand more than what they’ve gotten lately, and a move by the Feb. 6 trade deadline seems mandatory.

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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.

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