The Heat Are Flailing, Ty Jerome Can’t Miss and the Thunder Are the 49ers of the NBA

There are two ways to leave a team that isn’t ready to win now. You can go to a team that is, or you can go to a different team that isn’t. Giannis Antetokounmpo picked the second one, and the Heat are 2-5.

He is playing at an MVP level and Miami is flailing, which is a bad combination for everyone involved. On Monday night he had 30 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists in Los Angeles, and the Heat still lost 138-117 to the Lakers. The team he left is 1-6. The team he joined is 2-5. That’s a combined 3-11, so nobody can say he played favorites.

Look at what Miami gave up: Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez, Kasparas Jakucionis and a pile of picks. Those were the supporting cast. What’s left is a great front court in Giannis and Bam Adebayo, stars who overlap a little, hardly any role players and a back court built around Davion Mitchell. Don’t get me wrong, Mitchell is cold (he went 5-for-5 on Monday). But is he the third dog in a three-headed monster? Not yet. He certainly could be.

The defense is where it really shows. Giannis is the best defender on the roster, and past him and Bam I’m not sure who Miami trusts to guard anybody. The Lakers shot 57 percent on Monday. Klay Thompson is 36 now, and nobody is putting him on Kyrie Irving in the 2016 Finals anymore (he scored 19 and was a minus-22).

Giannis can be a free agent next summer. If the Heat miss the playoffs, why would he re-sign? He left Milwaukee because the Bucks weren’t ready to win now, and he moved to a team that doesn’t look ready to win now either. He basically traded situations. At least the weather’s better.

The Wolves without Ant

Minnesota beat my Bucks 112-100 on Monday, and I’m going to move along from that quickly. (They’re developing.) The real story is life without Anthony Edwards, who scored 47 at Cleveland on October 26 and hasn’t played since. He had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee and is out about two months. The Wolves were 3-1 with him. Since he went down they’re 2-2, and the two wins came against the Clippers and the Bucks, who are a combined 2-12. The losses came against the Warriors and the Spurs.

So my read is that when the Wolves aren’t playing one of the worst teams in the league, they’re losing, and the standings back me up. LaMelo Ball had 34 on Monday and he’s doing his part. The rest of the roster hasn’t covered the gap yet, which is a little of what I figured would happen without Naz Reid, who was a huge scoring bump off the bench before Minnesota traded him to Charlotte in the LaMelo deal. Wednesday night they’re in Houston, which is 7-1. We’ll learn something.

Luka and the crossover

Luka Doncic had 42 points and 13 assists against Miami on Monday, because of course he did. He’s probably the best offensive player in the league. Now rewind to Friday night, when Steph Curry crossed him up in the third quarter so badly that Luka basically kissed the earth, and then Curry hit a wide-open three. They won 112-95 after trailing by 25. It was a disgusting crossover.

Curry said afterward that he was only looking for a little space and didn’t expect it to get that ugly, which is the kindest way I can think of to put it. I get it. Luka is electrifying, and this is an offensive league, so he’s still a great player. He lacks on the defensive end, though, and a night like Friday is what that looks like. You just want to see more.

The Ty Jerome Show

The Grizzlies might be the best show in basketball, and nobody saw it coming. This was supposed to be a rebuilding year. They finished 12 games out of the play-in last season, and they were the last unbeaten team in the league until Monday night, when New Orleans beat them 135-134 in overtime. They’re 6-1.

The show is Ty Jerome, and I’ll be tuning in more and more. Nobody saw this out of him, and I include myself. He came into the season as a role player. He had 45 in the opener against Utah and 40 on Monday. He’s Luka Doncic who plays defense, and he literally cannot miss this season. (He did miss eight times on Monday, which I’m told is a lot for a man who cannot miss.)

The role players are playing above their standards without doing anything superstar-like, so the plan has mostly been to put the ball in Jerome’s hands and watch. Cameron Boozer is doing some dirty work in the post (18 points, nine rebounds and five assists on Monday), and he’s the betting favorite for Rookie of the Year. My pick right now is still Yaxel Lendeborg of the Warriors, who had 31 and 12 in Denver last week. It’s way early.

The 49ers of the NBA

The Thunder are the 49ers of the NBA this year. (I don’t know if they also have a substation near them. That’s a 49ers joke.) Jalen Williams fractured his left fibula and dislocated his ankle, Cason Wallace tore his labrum, and Chet Holmgren is out eight to ten weeks. That’s the starting center, two other starters and some rotation guys, all dropping like flies.

They still have Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is probably the best point guard in the NBA right now and an incredible two-way player. He scored 43 in Cleveland on Monday and Oklahoma City won 117-112. (Yes, 11 of 12 from the line. Come on. He’s a bucket getter.)

The Thunder built themselves around good defense and role players who are solid at every spot, and I think that gets them through it. Isaiah Hartenstein had 14 rebounds Monday and Ajay Mitchell scored 20. We might not see the total domination of the last two years, but I still expect them to make the playoffs, and hopefully they’re healthy by then.

So that’s the league this week. The team built to win now, Oklahoma City, is missing three key players. The team that was supposed to be rebuilding, Memphis, was 6-0 until Monday. Giannis gets to pick again next summer, and there are still two ways to do it.