As the NBA season approaches the halfway point, let's look at the winners and losers so far

With 2024 in full swing, let’s award the winners and losers of the first half of the NBA season. It’s been a banner year, but not without controversy and major development. Many questions are left unanswered. Will the Lakers regain their contender status? Can the Thunder compete this year? Are the Knicks back? But, enough conjecture. Let’s get into who has gotten the most and least out of the 2023-24 season thus far.

After back to back to back years in NBA hell and at the bottom of the standings, the Rockets hired Ime Udoka to right the ship. As he did in Boston, he has done in Houston, turning the once hapless Rockets into a playoff contender. The Rockets currently sit fifth in defensive rating, a massive jump from last year’s 29th spot. Even more astonishing is that the main rotation largely remains the same. While they did add veterans Fred VanVleet, Jeff Green, Reggie Bullock, Aaron Holiday and Dillion Brooks, only Brooks is a respected defender. Udoka has mostly engaged the young core, getting the best out of Alpern Sengun, Jabari Smith Jr. and Tari Eason. The Rockets are a lock for the Play-In and could rise in the standings to secure a playoff spot by season’s end. The future is bright in Houston, as they have one of the league’s best young cores, plenty of draft picks and a superstar in Sengun. How far they go this season depends on whether Green can bounce back from a down year to regain his first-option status. Based on the sharp turnaround in just one season, Rocket fans have plenty to be thrilled about.

This is the year of the giants. Or maybe aliens. Perhaps giant aliens? One thing is for sure: there has never been a player like Chet Holmgren. Except for Victor Wembanyama. That both are celebrating their rookie seasons this year makes their entrance into the league magical. Both seven-footers possess dense guard skills, including their handle and ball control, making their mixtapes deserving of repeat viewings. The Rookie of the Year race has been surprisingly neck and neck, with Holmgren taking the lead after Wembanyama was expected to sweep the category. Both have secured themselves as franchise cornerstones for years to come. Even more impressive, Holmgren has turned the Thunder into a bonafide contender in his first year. Not to be forgotten, Derek Lively is also a top-five rookie, and his impact as the Dallas Mavericks starting center has been paramount to their success. It doesn’t say much about the Mavs’ ability to scout big men, but Lively is already the best center since Tyson Chandler, who led the team to a championship in 2011.

You have to look beyond the mainstream media’s “Knicks for Clicks” narrative to find substantive coverage of the team’s success this season. Tragedy sells, but the Knicks are no longer bound by poverty. Since taking over the team in 2020, Knicks’ President of Basketball Operations Leon Rose has dug the team out of the muck and established them as a contender this season. He has done so methodically, cultivating additional draft capital while executing shrewd trades and free-agent signings. The biggest was Jalen Brunson, already the best free-agent signing in franchise history, and the continued All-NBA development of Julius Randle, who the team stayed loyal to through the ups and downs. The Knicks have taken another leap toward a championship after the recent RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley trade for OG Anunoby. They seem to be a backup playmaker away from winning it all, while possessing the draft capital and tradable assets to make another superstar move in the future if needed. The key word is “if” because the Knicks are good as is and finally have returned to the gritty, tough culture of the 1990s era. For the first time in 20 years, the Knicks do not have to trade for a superstar, and it’s because of the excellent work Rose has done to reestablish the Knicks as a powerhouse.

Speaking of that Knicks trade, Quickley finally has the key to the franchise as the lead guard, a role he would have never had in New York behind Jalen Brunson. In Toronto, his shoot-first mentality pairs perfectly with the playmaking of franchise cornerstone Scottie Barnes, who he will pair with as the team’s future. Quickley was a part of every top +/- lineup the Knicks had and will bring his elite point-of-attack defense and craft mid-range floater to the North. It’s the perfect audition for Quickley to make a case for what size bag he should get this summer. He and the Knicks were far apart on negotiations, with Quickley wanting around $25 million per, whereas the Knicks felt more comfortable with $20 million. Toronto should overpay for Quickley as an investment, as whatever price tag (within reason) they give him, he will surely earn. He has upside on both sides of the ball and is incredibly teachable, having survived his developmental years under Tom Thibodeau.

Few Mavs fans can name or pick out Brian Dameris from a basic lineup, but the Bally Sports Southwest’s broadcaster went viral in a November rant on James Harden. The explosive and demanding rant was before the Mavs took on Harden’s Clippers in Dallas. The Clippers are Harden’s third team in two years, and much has been made about his ability to be productive in the modern NBA at 34. At the time, the Clippers and Harden deserved the ire. Around that time, the Clippers’ offense ranked 27th in the league during that stretch, and their defense was at a dismal 25th place. The combined effect? A net rating of -10.3 is good (or bad) enough for 29th place out of 30 teams. But since Dameris rant? They netted 12 victories in their last 14 games. That’s enough to catapult the Clippers into fourth place in the West. They’re breathing down the necks of the top dogs and the whole league is taking notice. Harden’s scoring isn’t setting the sky on fire yet, but his game goes way beyond the bucket. More importantly, the wins are piling up, with 12 victories in their last 14 games. That’s enough to catapult the Clippers into fourth place in the West. Nothing shuts up bums like putting in the work. Needless to say, everyone has gone back to forgetting who the hell Dameris was in the first place.

On the opposite end of the Rockets is the Washington Wizards. Jordan Poole is the perfect avatar to understand the franchise’s poverty and lack of winning culture. Every night, Poole puts on one of the worst offensive displays in the league, and the Wizards remain at six wins on the season. How bad has it been? Over his last five games he had 10 points (4-10 FG), two points (0-4 FG), eight points (3-11 FG), 13 points (6-14 FG), and five points (2-6 FG). Yuck. It gets worse. A total of 520 players played in the NBA this season, and Poole is currently dead last in +/- with a -342. While the +/- metric is a simplistic way to analyze players, it does make Poole the worst player in the NBA under that stat. I wonder if he wishes he would have never left Golden State to be “the man” in Washington?

The NBA can never virtue signal as a bastion of ethics and cultural equity. The way they butchered the Miles Bridges situation when there appeared to be overarching proof he beat in the face of his ex-girlfriend in front of their kids. As of today, both Bridges and Josh Giddey — who is accused of having sex with a minor — are active and playing in the NBA. Both have been routinely booed by opposing fan bases and cringingly cheered by their home arenas. Bridges received three years probation and a 30-game suspension by the NBA in April, with 20 games credited for time served. He still suits up every game for the Hornets even after he was additionally charged with child abuse and injury to personal property after allegedly threatening his former girlfriend and damaging her car while their children were in the car. Bridges allegedly threw pool balls at the car, smashing the windshield and denting the windows. His current girlfriend reportedly kicked the car. Bridges is also accused of telling his former girlfriend that if she told the police about the incident, he would withhold child support money. Yet, his jersey can be bought in Charlotte’s arena and worn while rooting for him at any of the Hornet’s upcoming games! The league has stated that because it’s only an accusation, Giddey will not be suspended until charges are brought forth, even though police are investigating Giddy’s potential improper relationship with an underage girl. It’s an embarrassing ball drop, considering how (rightly) sanctimonious they have responded to outbursts on and off the court by Kyrie Irving, Draymond Green and Ja Morant in the past.

The Chicago Bulls prove that trying to buy a contender doesn’t work. In 2021, they traded away young talent to build an aging roster of DeMar DeRozan, Alex Caruso, Nikola Vucevic and Lonzo Ball to add to Zach LaVine and 2020 Lottery pick Patrick WIlliams. Today, the Bulls are 10th in the Eastern Conference standings and look to go through a partial rebuild. Vucevic cost them picks, and the young Wendell Carter Jr. is more of a traffic cone than ever at 33. LaVine has zero trade value on the open market, thanks to a ridiculous ascending deal that pays him $49 million annually in 2027. Ball is out indefinitely with injured knees, leaving DeRozan as the only piece with trade worth. The Bulls have only made the playoffs once with this core, losing in five games in the first round in 2022. Now they are stuck with the lowest ceiling in the NBA, no promising young stars and over-paid aging stars. Oh, and one of the worst playoff coaches in the NBA in Billy Donovan (.413% playoff record).

No jokes to be made here: We wish Beal a speedy recovery. It’s been hard to watch him miss almost all of the season’s first three months with a sore back. The Suns gave up what little draft capital they had left from the Kevin Durant trade to acquire Beal from the Wizards for Chris Paul, Landry Shamet, Bilal Coulibaly (No. 7 pick, via Pacers), four first-round pick swaps and six second-round picks. That’s a massive haul to mortgage the future on a player with a severe injury history and declining skill set. Beal is the perfect third option for Phoenix’s championship aspirations, if healthy. But that operative phrase started off in the worst way possible when Beal injured his ankle in his first game back from injury, forcing him to miss more time. But now Beal is back and playing fairly well. If he can stay on the court for at least 60 percent of the Suns’ games moving forward, especially in the playoffs, it gives them as good a chance as any team to reach the Finals in the West. For now, that is a massive if.

It’s impossible to talk about the losers of this NBA season without including the most losing coach, Monty Williams of the Detroit Pistons. The Pistons went on a 28-game losing streak to start the season, losing in almost every way imaginable, sending the team to a boiling point. Williams took most of the blame, as he should have, after earning the largest coaching contract in NBA history at six years, $78.5 million last summer. Relief finally came on Dec. 30 against the shorthanded Toronto Raptors, who had just completed a mega-trade without their new additions. Williams was expected to be the veteran voice the young locker room needed to take the next step toward the Play-In Tournament. But Williams has been harshly criticized for his bonkers rotations, keeping last year’s lottery pick Jaden Ivey on the bench, former number one pick James Wiseman out of the rotation, and this year’s lottery pick Ausar Thompson at just 24 minutes a game. The only thing worse than the Pistons’ record is their coaching staff’s playbook.