Fool’s gold or not? Let’s rate the Celtics, Lakers and Nuggets

We’re a little more than a week into the NBA season. Each team has played four or five games, so of course the popular artists on TV and the Internet have these fun topics to talk about:

• Do the Celtics have a chance to become the greatest team of all time?
• Are the Lakers title contenders under new coach JJ Redick?
• Are the Nuggets in trouble?

If the season ended today, you could easily argue “yes” to all of these questions. But the NBA season is 82 games, not four or five, so let’s take a look at these early trends and assess whether they’re sustainable, fool’s gold, or somewhere in between.

Foggy: The Boston Celtics (4-1) are the best regular season team in NBA history!

As suggested in our preseason power rankings, there are many similarities between the 2023-24 Celtics and the 2014-15 Warriors. Both had historically good regular seasons with double-digit net ratings per. 100 possessions — Celtics with a plus-11.6, Warriors with plus-10.2. Both tore through an injury-riddled field of opponents (not their fault!) en route to championships and perhaps didn’t get the respect they deserved heading into their championship defenses.

The 2015–16 Warriors opened their season with a 24-game winning streak and dominated the rest of the NBA (except for their last three games – all losses – losing the NBA Finals to Cleveland) and won a record 73 games in the regular season. .

Led by Jayson Tatum, a bona fide MVP front-runner, the Celtics won their first four games this season in similarly impressive fashion, posting a plus-15.3 net rating before dropping an overtime game on the road to the Pacers on Wednesday. Boston leads the NBA in three-point attempts (51.6), three-point makes (21) and is second in three-point efficiency (40.7 percent).

Will this trend continue? Yes! Well, at least within reason. There is more parity and talent in today’s NBA than in 2015-16, and the team will be without Kristaps Porzingis for a few months, so the Celtics probably won’t win 70-plus games. But don’t be surprised if they run away from the NBA again (although the Thunder and Cavaliers might hang with them).

Foggy: The Lakers (3-2) are title contenders again!

Told you Redick would make a good coach. The Lakers burst out of the gates with three wins against quality opponents before losing to the Suns and Cavaliers.

Anthony Davis has gone full Godzilla mode, averaging 30.6 points, 12.2 rebounds, three assists, two blocks and 1.6 steals per game, and he would likely win MVP and Defensive Player of the Year awards if he continued to play like this all season.

LeBron James, even though he has looked rusty, is still capable of GOAT level rip offs.his fourth quarter against the Kings on Saturday.

Will this trend continue? Yes, with some caveats. As always, there is an “if LeBron and AD can stay healthy” caveat. Additionally, the front office needs to do something to bolster rotation depth, perhaps adding Jerami Grant from the Trail Blazers or bruising center Jonas Valančiūnas from the Wizards.

Foggy: Lack of depth will doom the Nuggets (2-2).

Here’s a stat that doesn’t even sound real: Through the Nuggets’ first three games, the team had one plus-1.5 net rating when Nikola Jokic was on the court and a negative-30.5 net rating when Jokic was off. He had only been on the field 33 minutes in a game. The Curse of Russell Westbrook, now with the Nuggets, is real!

The Nuggets (2-2) got smoked by the Thunder in their opener, lost to the Clippers and needed Jokic to don the Superman cape to escape potentially disastrous losses to the lowly Raptors and Nets. We knew the front office’s decisions to let Bruce Brown go two offseasons ago and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope last summer could come back to haunt the Nuggets, but no one expected them to struggle like this out of the gate this season.

Will this trend continue? Probably not. The Nuggets should be just fine as long as Jokic stays healthy. The two overtime wins over the Raptors and Nets should have been losses, but Jokic calmly went to work on every possession down the stretch, ensuring Denver got a quality shot. And guess what? He’ll do that in every close game — he’s still the best player alive — so as long as the Nuggets don’t get blown out, they should still be a playoff team and potential contender.