Look who’s crashing the NBA contenders’ party

We entered the 2024-25 season with two clear-cut contenders for the NBA title: the defending champion Boston Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder. Through the early part of the season, both teams have lived up to the hype. 

The Celtics are 10-3, have a plus-10.8 net rating per 100 possessions and lead the NBA in three-point attempts and three-point makes. The Thunder are 10-2, have a plus-12.5 net rating and the best defensive rating in the NBA by far.

But three other teams have joined the Celtics and Thunder as bonafide contenders — and it’s not necessarily the teams most expected when the season started. Let’s welcome the Cleveland Cavaliers (13-0!), Phoenix Suns (9-3) and Golden State Warriors (9-2) to the contenders’ party.

Cleveland Cavaliers 

The Cavaliers, one of six NBA teams to start a season 13-0, are amid one of the greatest starts in league history. Cleveland is annihilating opponents with a plus-11.7 net rating and what would be the second-best offensive rating in NBA history if they continued scoring at this rate (121.7 points per 100 possessions).

New head coach Kenny Atkinson has figured a way to distribute touches among the Cavs’ four best players (Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen). 

Mitchell is putting up an efficient 23.6 points per game with 47-41-85 shooting splits and dishing out 4.1 assists per game. Mobley is playing more like the elite two-way force he projected to be in his first two seasons, averaging 17.8 points, 8.6 rebounds and 1.5 blocks.

Garland looks much more like the point guard we thought he’d develop into before the Mitchell trade. He’s averaging 20.5 points and 6.5 assists with 53-45-89 shooting splits. Meanwhile, Allen is doing his best Tyson Chandler impression, averaging 13.3 points, 10.7 rebounds and 1.2 blocks and shooting 63.9 percent from the floor.

This team is for real.

Phoenix Suns

This one looked a heck of a lot better before Kevin Durant’s most recent calf injury (he’ll be reevaluated later this month). 

Through nine games, the 36-year-old was playing MVP-level basketball, averaging 27.6 points, 6.6 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.4 blocks with hyper-efficient 55-43-84 shooting splits. He has also hit plenty of huge shots and is the main reason the Suns are 7-0 in Clutch games in which he has played. Assuming Durant can maintain some semblance of good health, there’s no reason to believe he’ll be slowing anytime soon.

While the Suns are overleveraged more than any team in the league, the byproduct of that is that their roster is pretty loaded with talent. Devin Booker is one of the more well-rounded superstar guards in the NBA and is putting up 23.3 points and 6.8 assists per game — those numbers should increase during Durant’s absence.

While not the All Star-level player he was in Washington, Bradley Beal is still a capable generator of offense who can pick up the slack if one of his superstar teammates is out or struggling. And Mike Budenholzer, who has won 60.6 percent of his games as a head coach, has the rest of the team playing hard and smart.

Golden State Warriors

It’s starting to feel a lot like 2021-2022 for the Warriors.

In that season, which culminated in the fourth title of the Stephen Curry era, Golden State stormed to an 18-2 record. They finished 2021-22 with the top-rated defense and the fifth-best net rating per 100 possessions. This season, the Warriors have the fifth-best defensive rating, second-best offensive rating and third-best net rating, outscoring opponents by plus-11 per 100 possessions through 11 games.

Curry is playing his customary top-notch basketball, routinely giving opponents his “night, night” finishing celebration in big moments and averaging 23.9 points, 6.6 assists and 4.8 rebounds and putting up a 48-42-94 shooting split. 

Meanwhile, Draymond Green is anchoring the defense and dishing out 5.2 assists per game. Plus, Buddy Hield is doing his best prime Klay Thompson impersonation, averaging 17.6 points with 50-47-86 shooting splits, and Jonathan Kuminga (14.7 PPG) and Andrew Wiggins (14.7 PPG) have figured a way to be effective two-way forwards.

Look out, NBA. The Cavaliers, Suns and Warriors are in the race for the title, too.