Doing this instead of various more specific threads seemed to work well last year so here's one for this season.

A few observations of the early goings of the season:

- The Mavs do not look good at all. Hollinger wrote a piece that basically said teams that go on to win titles never get blown out at home twice in a row, and rarely get blown out twice at home period, or by the extent they did to the Nuggets. Their perimeter defense has gotten worse and they no longer have Chandler to protect the rim. That's a bad combo. Vince Carter looks to be done as an effective player. I think a big slide should be expected from this team.

- Both of the teams that crushed them should have very good seasons. Everyone expected that from the Heat, but I really believe the Nuggets are primed for an excellent season. They may have the best depth in the league as they have a lot of solid to good players, but no great ones. That may not be a recipe for success in the postseason, but it is in a condensed regular season, especially when half of the games are played at high altitude. They were also excellent after the Melo trade last year.

- The Heat meanwhile looked tremendous against the Mavs. Most importantly, LeBron showed off some of his newly worked on post and mid-post game and it looks like they may have a solid PG in Norris Cole.

- The Lakers have started 0-2, which isn't that surprising given Bynum's absence. I've actually been pleased with some of the role players such as Ron, Murphy, and McRoberts. Two bad that the latter two play the same positions as 2 of the best 3 players on the team and Artest is most effective in the post, where most of the other top scoring options are most effective. With all that said, I think they're done as a title contender unless they upgrade the roster.

- Lob City didn't have a great debut, but pulled out the win thanks in large part to CP3. It would be great to see him in a Lakers uniform, but he'll be more exciting with the Clips.

- Lastly, did anyone see the Thunder-Wolves game last night? That was a great game! The Thunder are the favorite in the West and the Wolves should surprise people. Even if they don't make the playoffs, they will be one of the more entertaining teams to watch with the additions of Williams, Barrea, and Rubio. The latter is an exciting play maker to watch.

Looking forward to Boston-Miami tonight.