NBA Review : Week 2 - The Brow & Mr Boogie

Published on 13-Nov-2014 by Colin Chiles

Basketball - NBA    NBA Daily Review

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NBA Review : Week 2 - The Brow & Mr Boogie

In some instances, Week 2 in the NBA has revealed more of what we saw in Week 1.

The longer these things go on, the harder they are to ignore.

With only 14 days of the campaign in the books, so much can and will change before we get to April. Already, though, three storylines are becoming prominent. Here are two of them:

1.     Anthony Davis

Yes, it's The Brow himself. This should surprise no one: Anthony Davis is exceedingly good at basketball.

However, this might surprise a few of you: Anthony Davis is quite possibly the third-best player in the NBA already. If he isn’t right now, he will be before you know it.

Let me throw some early season numbers out there. Davis has begun the season scoring 25 points per game, grabbing 13 rebounds per game, and smashing an impressive 4.4 blocks per game back into opponents' faces. Now, that block number will probably come down, but don’t be so sure the other two will.

The Brow has greatly improved his offensive game. He’s been splashing mid-range jumpers -- 44% this season from 16-23 feet -- and doing Anthony Davis things around the rim. An article came out on ESPN today, discussing how Davis’s on-ball defending isn’t particularly impressive, but if he’s going to continue blocking almost three shots a game -- as he did last year -- or even more, assuming he’s going to improve, I’ll take a bit of shoddy pick-&-roll defense. Just back it on up to the rim and dare them to drive.

And remember, Davis is only 21 years old.

The Brow knows how to fill out a stat sheet. Last season, he even finished with 1.6 assists per game and 1.3 steals per game from the post. In comparison, Kevin Durant in his second and third year finished with 2.8 assists and 1.3 then 1.4 steals per game.

The difference between a star and a megastar is the former plateaus on a very impressive stat line. The megastar continues to improve in every facet of the game. Davis had a line of 20 ppg, 10 rpg, and 2.8 bpg while shooting 52% from the field. For him to go 25 ppg, 12 rpg, and 3.5 bpg this year at an improved shooting percentage should not surprise anyone.

2.     Mr Boogie Cousins

Elsewhere in the world of former Kentucky centers -- I’ll try to hold in my vomit for making a Kentucky reference -- Mr Boogie Cousins, as he seems to be known these days, has been tearing up the Western Conference quite a bit himself.

Just looking at his baseline numbers for the year so far, Mr Boogie has thus far posted a very similar line to last year. He’s at 22 ppg, 11 rpg, and 1.3 bpg and 50% from the field. However, when you look at some of his single performances, and when you’ve watched some of his games, Mr Boogie jumps off the screen.

He dominated Blake Griffin and the Clippers in his third game in this early stage of the season, posting 34 points and hauling in 17 boards. And watching the game, he was a bully out there. It doesn’t get much more physical than Demarcus Cousins right now.

Two games later, he posted another 30 point, 11 rebound game against the lowly Nuggets. But anytime a dude is regularly posting 30 points and doubledigit rebounds, he's probably beasting out there.

Well, Mr Boogie is beasting out there.

His worst performance this season came against the Thunder, which could be explained by the following video clip where Kendrick Perkins gets ... umm ... real:

Most impressively, here's the Mr Boogie stat of the season so far: zero technical fouls. He’s had between 12 and 17 each year in the NBA to date. Stay tuned; will he keep his cool if they start losing?

Most adorable clip of Boggie this year? I’m glad you asked:

The third storyline I'm seeing in the early season will be detailed in our next instalment.