Ok Jonathan Isaac, Welcome Back and Please Stay

Photo by Fernando Medina/NBAE via Getty Images, Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

I don’t know if the term FOMO is used much anymore but when it comes to a big slate of NBA games my Fear Of Missing Out is a serious thing. Well, particularly as it was just the second day of the season and 12 games were on the go.

Never the less, I’ve always found it pays off to choose the one game you’re going to watch and watch it. Makes sense right?

Don’t keep switching back and forth as you don’t get a great understanding of any game then! As tempting as it is to make the switch, stay loyal.

Here are some things I learned.

1. Hello Jonathan Isaac and where on earth have you been?

Jonathan Isaac is a name people know, but we don’t really know what he can do in this league yet because he’s had some horrible injury luck. After tearing his ACL in the Bubble around 3 years ago, “since the 2020 season restart, he’s appeared in 11 games in three seasons.” — thanks for the info there NBA.com.

From what we saw yesterday I’m going to say he’s healthy.

The block at the end of the third was elite, as was the celebration afterwards as Jalen Green lay on the ground deflated. I’m glad somebody got the photo of it.

“DPOY” was what teammate Cole Anthony tweeted after Game 1 for Orlando. We love an early take but I honestly really like someone like him bringing attention to Isaac’s defense, health has been a long time coming so I hope Isaac can string together a good amount of games this season as this was a great start.

2. Cade Cunningham is back

Speaking of being back in a big way, Cade Cunningham, a personal favourite of mine.

After a stress fracture in his shin allowing the former overall number 1 pick to only play 12 games in his sophomore season last year, let’s just say that many were keen to see him play yesterday.

I’m always on guys like this who can potentially be a little too unselfish to shoot the rock some more but Cade took 27 shots against Miami so I’ll be quiet now. 30 points, 9 assists, only losing to a team like Miami by 1 point, I’ll chalk this up as a great start for Cade individually and the Pistons as a whole.

3. Two of the NBA’s best uniforms were on display

The Orlando Magic’s bright, bold blue uniforms with pinstrips and stars involved in the design, just a great look and feel to them which I’m a big fan of.

Same with the Utah Jazz’s purple uniforms with a yellow trim. An elite look, and a vintage look at that.

Name some better uniforms than these two would you? The list is small.

4. The best part of Malik Monk’s dunk, may not have been the dunk

I’m reaching here, as the dunk was pretty insane.

But what I’m getting at is… I love the fact that no technical fouls were called.

Basketball and sport in general is emotional. We have a habit to call tech’s on players for reacting to emotional plays. This was a big play and Monk has a right to scream in celebration and if he’s in Kris Dunn’s face, a pilot little shove is fine in my eyes as well, as long as nothing escalates from there. Well done refs, well done.

5. All eyes and fanfare on the rooks

It’s easy to put all your attention on the rookie class once you see them playing for the first time.

Wemby debut, boom, awesome, that’s all you see on Twitter for a bit. But it’s the other smaller things like Ausar Thompson having 3 blocks in his first 5 minutes, 5 blocks in total becoming the youngest ever to do so in a debut, or the play style of Jaime Jaquez Jr. who I already kind of love despite seeing like 2 made buckets from.

It’s fun, it’s what the season beginning is all about in some ways.

6. It won’t be all sunshine and rainbows for young talent coming in

As much as I would have liked Scoot Henderson’s debut to be an emphatic one, it wasn’t, and that’s okay.

It’ll be a long season for Portland at this rate and the Clippers were just too good for them in game 1. Scoot himself didn’t score until the start of the third quarter and was pretty quiet with 11 points, 4 assists and 3 rebounds which actually looks more impressive than it was as most of those came in the final quarter when the game was done.

Chet Holmgren, now the Thunder won so it doesn’t hold as much weight as Scoot’s but he had just the 11 points. He was also on the wrong side of some highlights which is more so where this angle is coming from, with Andre Drummond breaking his ankles on his way to a layup past him, and Nikola Vucevic with a bit of a welcome to the NBA moment himself.

But it’s quite literally game 1 for these young guys, ups and downs is a certainty for any player let alone a young one.