Each NBA team’s biggest concern a month into the 2022-23 season (2024)

We’re about one month into the 2022-23 NBA season, and for many fan bases — including that of the defending champions — optimism has slowly evolved into uneasiness and confusion, and it can be hard to pinpoint the reasons why.

That uncertainty expands to those who know the team best too. Among the initial responses The Athletic NBA staff jokingly (or maybe not-so-jokingly) submitted for this exercise: “Talent,” “Being better” and “Everything.”

Even for the best of teams, concerns linger. Here is what our staff determined are the biggest ones for each squad one month into the 2022-23 season:

Atlanta Hawks

What’s wrong with … Trae?The good news for the Hawks is that their biggest concern is not what usually has been their biggest concern: defense. Entering Thursday, the team was 12th in defensive rating at 111, which is a monumental leap from 26th (113.7) last season. But equally stunning is that Trae Young has struggled with his shooting. It’s not a major concern at this point because the Hawks are off to a good start and Young leads them in scoring at 27 points per game. But through 14 games, he had career-low percentages in field goals (37.8 percent, down from 46.0 last year) and 3-pointers (30.9, down from 38.2). The Hawks as a team rank only 28th in 3-point shooting, but this is an area they figure to improve in, particularly after Bogdan Bogdanović returns from a knee injury. — Jeff Schultz

Boston Celtics

Robert Williams’ health: Despite the jolt of Ime Udoka’s suspension and the impact of Robert Williams’ early-season absence, the Celtics are cruising along. Eventually, they will need Williams to return and play at a high level. His absence has left holes in their defense and revealed a lack of frontcourt depth. They can get away with minutes for Luke Kornet, Blake Griffin and Noah Vonleh now, but if Williams’ knee issues linger for the whole season, the Celtics will feel the strain. His injury history is troubling, but he will transform them if he gets right physically. — Jay King

Brooklyn Nets

Where do we start?I can only pick one? Ben Simmons looks like a shell of himself after undergoing back surgery and not playing in 16 months, and he’s missed multiple games due to knee soreness. Kyrie Irving is currently suspended, and his return is unknown. All of this puts an extra burden on Kevin Durant to carry the team, which was one of his reasons for asking for a trade over the summer. The Nets are treading water right under .500, but is this sustainable? — Alex Schiffer

Charlotte Hornets

Injuries … again: Through 16 games under Steve Clifford, Charlotte’s defensive rating compared to the rest of the NBA was better (20th) than it was at this time last season (26th). The biggest concern has been injuries. LaMelo Ball was out until last weekend with his ankle trouble, and, guess who, Gordon Hayward has missed most of November with shoulder trouble. As any Hornets fan can attest, Hayward’s inability to stay healthy and his massive contract have wounded this team deeply, and the trend continues. Charlotte, which is 4-12 entering Friday, stands to get much better offensively now that Ball is back, but will the defense suffer? — Joe Vardon

Chicago Bulls

Stuck in the middle: The short-term concern has materialized into a hard truth: The Bulls are mediocre and maddeningly inconsistent. The long term and larger concern is the Bulls have boxed themselves in as a middling franchise. This season isn’t off to a promising start, and the long-term outlook isn’t appealing either. Major concerns are brewing in Chicago. Problems are aplenty. Solutions are in short supply. — Darnell Mayberry

Cleveland Cavaliers

Recent struggles on defense: As of Nov. 17, the Cavs have the sixth-best defensive rating in the league at 109.5. But recently things have been much worse. The Cavs are in the midst of a five-game losing streak, with losses to the LA Clippers, Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors, Minnesota Timberwolves and Milwaukee Bucks, and they gave up 127 points to the Kings and 129 points to the Wolves. The Cavs have to find their way back to being a strong defensive team and playing to the standard they set last season. — Kelsey Russo

Dallas Mavericks

What’s up with ballhandling?The way this roster is built, it must unavoidably lean on Luka Dončić and Spencer Dinwiddie above all else — for scoring, for shot creation, for offensive initiation, even simply for ball possession. Without Dončić, as seen in Wednesday’s loss to Houston, his teammates look flat and diminished. It works with him out there at his best, but it’s not a sustainable plan for the future. It might not be fixable this season, but this flaw has to be prioritized for this coming offseason. — Tim Cato

Denver Nuggets

The Jamal Murray experience: Don’t look now, but Murray is looking a whole lot more like himself these past few weeks. The 25-year-old whose torn ACL cost him all of last season and nearly half of the one before, and who looked so understandably rusty in the early going of this campaign, is scoring at a higher clip and showing signs that his swagger is finally on the mend too. These Nuggets will only be a title contender if Murray looks like Murray on a consistent basis again, and it’s still too soon to tell if that will be the case. — Sam Amick

Detroit Pistons

Can the Pistons develop amid injuries?Detroit’s rough start to the season wasn’t all that unexpected. The Pistons are a young group and had a pretty difficult schedule through their first 10 games. The real concern rests in the ability to progress toward the next stage of the rebuild, and finding a way to do it with so many injuries. Marvin Bagley III missed a month. As soon as he returned, Isaiah Stewart went down with a toe injury. Cade Cunningham has sat out the last week with left shin soreness. It’s possible he could be back next week, next month or even later this year. Injuries happen in the NBA, but it feels like Detroit’s have really been crippling. The Pistons have to find a way to gain momentum with so many pivotal young pieces sidelined. — James L. Edwards III

Golden State Warriors

The state of the youth movement: James Wiseman is in the G League, Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody are on the fringe of the rotation, and both Patrick Baldwin Jr. and Ryan Rollins are never used. In the cases of Wiseman, Kuminga and Moody, that’s a hindrance on their development. It’s difficult to get better if you barely play. They need countless reps, and they’re barely getting any on a win-now team employing Stephen Curry. Then there’s the flip side. Those five plus the inactive Andre Iguodala and the vacant slot (for tax purposes) are creating a crater on the back half of the roster. Depth helped the Warriors win a title last season. They appear thin right now. — Anthony Slater

Houston Rockets

Inability to take care of the ball: The Rockets’ 17.9 turnovers per game is the worst in the league. Young players tend to make mistakes, and Houston is stocked to the brim with them, but its turnovers tend to have a snowball effect. There’s been a real lack of offensive cohesion, which leads to execution issues, which in turn manifests itself in the sort of displays of frustration we’ve seen recently. Growing pains is one thing; stagnation is a whole different story. — Kelly Iko

Indiana Pacers

Can they tank?This is going to sound slightly crazy, but the Pacers biggest challenge is going to be getting themselves back into the Victor Wembanyama Sweepstakes. Following the example set by the Utah Jazz and the Oklahoma City Thunder, the 7-6 Pacers are doing a miserable job of tanking, playing inspired, free-flowing, 3-point-crazy basketball while standing sixth in the Eastern Conference entering Friday. That wasn’t the plan, but Bennedict Mathurin has been the best rookie not named Paolo Banchero, Myles Turner has produced career-high numbers across the board, Tyrese Haliburton has made Most Improved Player noise, and the list goes on. At some point, Pacers president Kevin Pritchard will have to trade Turner (he’s a free agent at season’s end) and/or Buddy Hield, who has played very well but has an onerous contract. Problem is, it’s hard to see this team going away. Tanks a lot. — Bob Kravitz

LA Clippers

Kawhi Leonard’s availability: Pardon me for picking at low-hanging fruit, but Leonard has only been available for three games, and one since the first weekend of the season. It’s not Leonard’s injury status that is the biggest concern, as the team hasn’t been discouraged along his path to get back on the floor. It’s the fact that the team has been so ordinary without Leonard, even with Paul George playing at a high level and the schedule resembling the opposite of murderers row. — Law Murray

Los Angeles Lakers

Deficit in the standings: The Lakers’ slow start isn’t exactly a surprise considering their roster construction and strength of schedule. They’ve essentially only played playoff-caliber opponents. But few expected them to be *this* bad. Just about everything has gone wrong for them: injuries, historically poor 3-point shooting, collapses in crunchtime, two five-game losing steaks. At 3-10, every game feels like a must-win for Los Angeles, which is a lot of pressure for a rookie head coach and a largely new group. — Jovan Buha

Memphis Grizzlies

Bench play: The starting backcourt is going gangbusters, but it’s already clear the Grizzlies bench isn’t going to carry the team the way it did a year ago. De’Anthony Melton’s departure in particular looms large now that Desmond Bane will be out for multiple weeks with a sprained big toe. Brandon Clarke remains a bolt of energy at backup five, and Tyus Jones is a stabilizer at the point. But minus Melton and Kyle Anderson, there are too many stretches where the Grizzlies count on not-quite-ready rookies or marginal players at the two through four spots. — John Hollinger

Miami Heat

Roster construction: When they play through Jimmy Butler, the Heat look like a team capable of getting within one shot of making the NBA Finals. Otherwise, it’s a disjointed mess, in which the 3s are not falling like last season. The Heat haven’t had Victor Oladipo at all and Tyler Herro has missed time recently with injury, which would help, but even with those two, Miami still needs more from Max Strus and Duncan Robinson. That’s one problem. The other —the Heat aren’t defending right now (18th in defensive rating). They don’t have P.J. Tucker on the roster, and it’s been noticeable. Two glaring problems, but only room in this drill for one big concern. Taking into account they are not playing to standard on either side of the ball, I’ll say the biggest concern is the roster. — Joe Vardon

Milwaukee Bucks

Can offense flip the switch?The Bucks haven’t been healthy thus far this season. Khris Middleton and Pat Connaughton have yet to play a game, and Jrue Holiday and Giannis Antetokounmpo have each missed games, so there are plenty of reasons to believe their offense, currently a bottom-10 unit, will get much better. But, until it does, that will be the Bucks’ biggest concern. Their offense bogging down in the postseason has been a problem during the Mike Budenholzer era in Milwaukee. — Eric Nehm

Minnesota Timberwolves

Can Towns and Gobert play together?Yes, there are questions about D’Angelo Russell at the point and why Anthony Edwards is not yet making The Leap in Year 3, but this is the existential question in Minnesota. Putting the two of them together, and paying a premium to do it, was a risk. So far, the fit has been clunky, and the Wolves have been underwhelming. There are small signs of things starting to smooth out, but the early returns have been that Towns is having a hard time closing out to shooters on the perimeter as a power forward and Gobert is not yet synergizing with Russell and Edwards on offense the way the Wolves envisioned. It is way too early to make a call on the decision, but the fact that we have not yet seen the two of them dominate like they need to is a real concern in Minnesota. — Jon Krawczynski

New Orleans Pelicans

Consistent stops: The Pelicans have as much offensive talent as almost any team in the West. Zion Williamson is a monster in the paint. Brandon Ingram is one of the top wing scorers in the league. CJ McCollum is finding his way as a full-time point guard. Jonas Valančiūnas is even a potent weapon in the post. But the Pels have to find lineups they can trust at the end of games to get stops. Jose Alvarado and Larry Nance Jr. have made big contributions off the bench to help in this area. Still, New Orleans won’t reach its ultimate goals until Williamson, Ingram and McCollum can hold their own defensively on a consistent basis. — William Guillory

New York Knicks

Shooting — as we all expected: The Knicks are 28th in 3-point percentage. They have one player — Obi Toppin — hitting better than 34 percent of his deep balls, and he was a supposed non-shooter as recently as a month ago. It’s not just about New York finding points from beyond the arc either. Spacing in the first unit is difficult to find. Especially when Mitchell Robinson is healthy, four of the Knicks’ starters are most comfortable in 2-point range. Julius Randle wants to get to the paint or operate from the nail. RJ Barrett is a slasher. Jalen Brunson needs time to get off those funky, low-post spin moves and pivots. Robinson is a rim-diver and offensive rebounder. Even new starting wing Cam Reddish likes to drive. The Knicks could use shooting; they could use space. They’re finding other ways to score, like upping the pace of the offense. But once they get into the half court, things get cramped quickly. — Fred Katz

Oklahoma City Thunder

Can the young guys shoot?The truth about this Thunder team is there is truly no pressure on them. If they win? Well, they are ahead of schedule and it’s a sign of things to come. If they lose? Well, they were supposed to. With the emergence of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as a top-tier player, it’s become clear that he needs more shooting around him. As of Thursday, the Thunder are 20th in offensive rating and 20th in 3-point percentage (34.4 percent) 13 games into the season. There’s some hope of internal development with players such as Tre Mann, Jalen Williams and Ousmane Dieng. More than likely, the improvement will come from future draft picks or trades. — Andrew Schlecht

Orlando Magic

Where are the guards the team can rely on long term?That super-big front line is coming together well in Orlando, but the guard play, well, not so much. Jalen Suggs continues to struggle offensively. He has a 47.4 effective field goal percentage, and he’s in the 11th percentile in turnover rate, according to Cleaning The Glass. Cole Anthony is in the 17th percentile for assist-to-turnover rate, and he’s shooting 41.5 percent from the floor. Paolo Banchero has done it all for the Magic so far, in part because they need him too. They’ll get Markelle Fultz back at some point, and maybe he can help. But he’s far from a certainty. — Mike Vorkunov

Philadelphia 76ers

Offense, particularly without James Harden: Even if Joel Embiid doesn’t put together more 59-11-8-7 lines, he appears to be back to MVP-level form. That is good news. The problem is all those numbers were necessary for Philadelphia to beat Utah recently. Particularly worrisome is an offensive scheme that is isolation-heavy. Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris have struggled shooting, and without Harden, this has turned into a team entirely reliant on defense. Doc Rivers has to find a way to get more role players involved offensively while making life easier on Embiid. — Rich Hofmann

Phoenix Suns

Devin Booker’s durability: With Cameron Johnson (knee) out indefinitely and Chris Paul (heel) banged up, Booker is carrying a heavy load. He’s more than capable. Booker can distribute. When double-teamed, he’ll always make the right play. But he played the entire second half in Monday’s loss at Miami. He’s averaging a career-high 36.8 minutes, which ranks among the top 10 in the league. (At 34.5, Booker tied for 21st last season). He can handle this in the short term. But if it becomes the norm, the only way Phoenix can win, it will hurt his production. — Doug Haller

Portland Trail Blazers

Jusuf Nurkić: Whatever answer I go with feels like nitpicking, because the Trail Blazers have been really, really good while amassing their 10-4 start. I’m a little concerned about the team’s health (Damian Lillard has missed five games, Anfernee Simons two and Nurkić four), but the team’s depth has filled in admirably thanks to the likes of Drew Eubanks and Justise Winslow, so … for my biggest concern, I’m going to go with Nurkić. The big guy has been solid this season — he was averaging 12.6 points, 10.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists and has even hit 6-of-11 3-pointers entering Thursday’s game against the Nets but if there has been a shaky-at-times link to the free-flowing joy that has been the Blazers, it has been Nurkić’s durability and consistency. Some games he just isn’t a good matchup dictating the Blazers play small with Eubanks or Winslow and lately he has been battling an abductor injury that sidelined him for four consecutive games. While it feels a little unfair to single him out, it feels like Nurkić has yet to join the party in a season that has exceeded expectations. If his health continues to be an issue, or if he never finds consistency, center could be a concern, but history tells us the Blazers are usually at their best when Nurkić is available and contributing. — Jason Quick

Sacramento Kings

How to (finally) defend: The Kings have been playing horrendous defense for the past 16 years, and that has everything to do with their playoff drought that is the longest of any of the four major North American sports teams (beginning in 2007). Yet while this present-day team has looked capable of breaking that streak for the past few promising weeks, the awful defense remains. They’re 26th in defensive rating —a mark that must improve drastically if they’re going to be a playoff team under first-year coach Mike Brown. As the Feb. 9 trade deadline nears, one can safely assume they’ll be on the lookout for athletic bigs to help on this front. — Sam Amick

San Antonio Spurs

The play of the veterans: By and large, this is going as planned —the Spurs are taking their lumps while young players develop. The problem is that Doug McDermott and Josh Richardson have been two of their least effective players; these were the guys who were supposed to both steady the ship for the kids and offer a return as trade bait come February. Both those premises feel shaky at the moment. — John Hollinger

Toronto Raptors

Scottie Barnes’ sophom*ore slump: The Raptors need to get healthy, and the half-court offence remains a big issue. However, from a big-picture perspective, Barnes’ so-so start to the season is the thing to monitor. Barnes’ playmaking skills have flashed multiple times, but his shooting from all areas of the court has lagged, especially since Pascal Siakam got injured. This is a young player stepping into a bigger role, so some struggles should be expected. The return of Siakam should allow him to more comfortably navigate what is being asked of him. — Eric Koreen

Utah Jazz

Turnovers and transition defense: These mesh into one big issue for the Jazz. They have been awful at both, and it has had a big hand in a three-game losing streak after a 10-3 start. Utah turned the ball over 21 times in the defeat to the Knicks on Tuesday night. The Jazz rank in the bottom three of the league in transition defense. Translation: When the Jazz commit a live-ball turnover offensively, the opposition gets layups at the other end. “We’ve been terrible at getting back defensively,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said. The irony is Utah is second in the league in half-court defense, so if the Jazz make teams actually execute against them, they are pretty good. But … those turnovers. — Tony Jones

Washington Wizards

The inconsistent defense: The Wizards’ defense has been up and down. The five-game down stretch, from Oct. 28-Nov. 4, coincided with ace defender Delon Wright being unable to play because of an injury and two-way player Jordan Goodwin not yet a part of the playing rotation. Wright is still a ways away from returning, and Bradley Beal just came back following time in health-and-safety protocols. For Washington to contend for the playoffs, it must continue to play strong defense, particularly on the perimeter. — Josh Robbins

(Top photo of Moses Moody and Jonathan Kuminga: Andrew Wevers / USA Today)