Unpacking the wildest stats from the NBA's opening month

We're a month into the 2024-25 NBA season, and American Thanksgiving is upon us. It's an interesting time to reflect, because while the league landscape is taking shape and certain trends are beginning to calcify, we're still dealing with a small sample size that contains plenty of outlier statistics.

Let's unpack some of the opening month's wildest and most fun numbers, which may or may not be sustainable.

Historic offenses atop East

The "most efficient offense ever" title has lost meaning over the years, as the NBA's 3-point and analytics revolutions have sent scoring and efficiency soaring. But what's transpired in Cleveland, New York, and (to a lesser extent) Boston is legitimately historic.

The Cavaliers and Knicks aren't just setting the standard with the two most efficient offenses of all time. These devastating attacks are also incredibly superior compared to the league average. What Cleveland and New York did through the season's first quarter, when taking that average into account, is unlike anything we've ever seen.

It gets even more astonishing when you factor in the defending champion Celtics, who currently rank third in offense after setting the overall efficiency record last season. The Cavs, Knicks, and Celtics are all outscoring the 2024-25 league average by at least 8.1 points per 100 possessions. To put that in perspective, only three teams between 1950 and 2024 outperformed the league-average offense by at least eight points.

Best offense relative to league average

(Stats courtesy: Basketball Reference)

In New York, the pick-and-roll combination of Karl-Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson is picking defenses apart, with the two stars surrounded by shooting and the ruthless efficiency of OG Anunoby. In Cleveland, head coach Kenny Atkinson has the Cavs moving more, while empowering Evan Mobley and creating off-ball opportunities for Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland. Meanwhile, the Celtics are on pace to shatter the record for 3-point attempt rate. Good luck stopping a star-studded team that takes more than 56% of its shots from deep while converting nearly 38% of them. - Joseph Casciaro

Jokic's on/off splits

Stop me if you've heard this one before: the difference between Denver's net rating when Nikola Jokic is on the court vs. when he's on the bench is the largest gulf for any player in the league. It's a gap of 30.5 points per 100 possessions this season, according to Cleaning the Glass (which filters out garbage time), which is insane even by Jokic standards. It's by far the biggest positive differential for a qualified player in CTG's 22-year database, besting Draymond Green's 25.6-point split from 2015-16.

That's obviously a testament to Jokic's abilities first and foremost. With him on the floor, a team with a slumping lead guard and nothing resembling a second All-Star has a 130.8 offensive rating, which is more than six points per 100 possessions better than the Knicks' and Cavs' historic marks. The thinned-out Nuggets have asked Jokic to ramp up his already onerous creation load and he's met the challenge with characteristic aplomb.

He's averaging a career-high 37.4 minutes and garnering a ridiculous 112.9 touches per game, which is 15.8 more than any other player. He's a fraction of a point away from averaging a 30-point triple-double - with 10.6 assists and a league-leading 13.1 rebounds - on 66.5% true shooting (nine percentage points better than league average). He's getting double- or triple-teamed on almost every post-up, which is why he's seen a dip in efficiency at the rim and from floater range, but he's compensated by becoming the most accurate 3-point shooter in the league.

This stat is also a reflection of the sorry state of Denver's shooting-starved bench, which is producing a meager 95.3 offensive rating (almost 10 points worse than the 30th-ranked Wizards) and being outscored by 15.9 points per 100 in non-Jokic minutes. Dario Saric hasn't been the answer at backup center. DeAndre Jordan hasn't been much better. The Russell Westbrook roller coaster can be exciting but is liable to induce nausea. Julian Strawther needs more seasoning. The less said about Zeke Nnaji's season the better.

No starter besides Jokic has been able to prop up mixed units with those bench guys. It's no wonder coach Michael Malone, when asked about the ideal minutes load for his three-time MVP, answered: "Forty-eight." - Joe Wolfond

OKC's turnover differential

The Thunder are forcing a league-high 19.3 turnovers a night, and giving the ball back just 12.1 times. To put in perspective how big an outlier that plus-7.2 margin is, I used Basketball-Reference's Stathead tool to comb through every season since 1968-69, when the NBA started tracking turnovers as a team stat. And what OKC is doing blows every other team in recorded history out the water.

The biggest differential any team has produced over a full season to date: plus-5.1, by the 1987-88 Nuggets, followed closely by the margin-obsessed 2022-23 Raptors.

Highest turnover differential since 1968-69

(Stats courtesy: Basketball Reference)

The Thunder are winning the turnover battle to such an extreme that they're handily winning the overall possession war despite ranking bottom five in both offensive and defensive rebound rate.

At the defensive end, they play a hyper-aggressive style that leverages their army of quick, strong, rangy, handsy wings. They have eight rotation players averaging at least 1.5 steals per 36 minutes, and their 12.1 steals per game as a team rank third all time. Mark Daigneault has them executing shape-shifting schemes and fluid principles that funnel the ball from stars to shaky decision-makers more liable to panic and make mistakes. Whether they're picking up full court, blitzing pick-and-rolls, converging on roll men with multiple taggers, digging down on drives from the strong side, or playing a pressure zone, they always keep opposing offenses guessing.

The other half of the equation is OKC's ball protection on offense, and the team can largely thank Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's unparalleled ability to shoulder a massive offensive workload without giving possessions away for that. The truth is the Thunder aren't a great passing team, so they don't do it all that often, ranking 27th in passes per game and fourth in isolation frequency. They bend defenses out of shape with drives, rather than audacious skips to the weak side. It's a fairly low-risk style, but one that leans into their strengths and facilitates their historic turnover advantage. - Wolfond

Rim attempts vs. Wemby

Victor Wembanyama is holding opponents to 41.1% when he contests their shots at the rim, per NBA Advanced Stats. In other words, a layup or dunk attempted in his vicinity has about the same likelihood of going in as a Royce O'Neale 3-pointer.

The Spurs phenom is challenging seven rim shots per game. If his defensive field-goal percentage holds, it'll be by far the lowest for any player with anywhere near that contest volume in the 12 seasons the NBA has tracking data for. To this point, among players who've contested even five rim attempts per game, the lowest opponent shooting mark anyone's registered is 44.9% (Roy Hibbert in 2013-14). Next best is Jaren Jackson's 46.9% mark from his 2022-23 Defensive Player of the Year campaign.

Interestingly, Spurs opponents don't attempt rim shots that much less frequently when Wemby's on the floor. That'll probably change with time. For now, though, players are surprisingly willing to challenge him at the basket, perhaps believing that getting a shoulder into the chest of the slender Frenchman will provide enough separation to finish.

But between his 8-foot wingspan and his extraordinary balance for someone his height, taking a bump doesn't prevent Wemby from altering or swatting away a shot at the basket. Meanwhile, his teammates are perfectly happy to chaperone opposing ball-handlers on fruitless voyages to the cup.

In any event, the 20-year-old's well on his way to becoming the youngest DPOY in league history. And it's very possible - likely, even - that we're witnessing the rise of the greatest rim-protector anyone who wasn't alive to watch Bill Russell has ever seen. - Wolfond

Dyson Daniels is everywhere

There are numerous ways to statistically capture Dyson Daniels' defensive impact in Atlanta. The third-year guard leads the league in steals per game (3.1), is on pace to be the first player in 31 years to average at least three steals per game, and is second only to Wembanyama when combining steals and blocks (4.1 per game). Earlier in November, Daniels also became the first player in 38 years to record at least six steals in four straight games.

However, the most impressive stat from Daniels' first quarter-season - and the one that best captures how active the 6-foot-7 Australian is - isn't found on a traditional boxscore. Daniels is averaging 6.7 deflections per game, according to NBA.com's hustle stats. No one in the NBA's 10-year database ever averaged more than 4.2 per game.

Most deflections per game in a season (since 2015)

(Stats courtesy: NBA.com)

To further illustrate how unbelievable Daniels' defensive activity has been: The gap in deflections per game between Daniels and No. 2 Alex Caruso (who led the league with 3.7 last season) is equivalent to the gap between Caruso and 258th-ranked AJ Green.

You wouldn't know it by Atlanta's overall defense, but Daniels is wreaking absolute havoc on that end of the floor. - Casciaro

Giannis dunks

With 62 crams through 16 contests, Giannis Antetokounmpo is dunking 3.88 times per game on average. That puts him on pace for 310 over the full season if he doesn't miss any more time, which would break the official record (since the NBA started tracking dunks in 1996) of 306 set by Rudy Gobert in 2018-19. Gobert played 81 games that season, averaging 3.78 dunks per.

It's unlikely Giannis will play enough to actually eclipse Gobert's total, considering he's already missed some games. But if he keeps this pace up, he can establish a new per-game benchmark, eking out Shaquille O'Neal's 3.87 average in 1997-98. No one else in the league is dunking anywhere near as often as Giannis is this year, with second-ranked Evan Mobley averaging 2.7 per game. Entering play Wednesday, Giannis alone had more dunks than eight teams. The rest of the Bucks have dunked only 21 times combined.

Giannis has basically excised threes from his diet - they make up a career-low 4% of his shots this season - in favor of assaulting the rim even more frequently than he already did. He's scoring 9.4 baskets per game inside the restricted area, which leads the league by a country mile (Anthony Davis is second at 6.5) and is the highest average for anyone in any season in the NBA.com database, which also goes back to '96.

But the most impressive thing about how often Giannis is scoring at the rim is how many of those buckets he's creating for himself. Of his 2-point field goals this season, a career-high 63.1% of them have been unassisted. That sets him apart from his peers and from every other high-volume dunker of recent vintage - be it Shaq, Dwight Howard, Amar'e Stoudemire, DeAndre Jordan, or Gobert - all of whom are or were far more dependent finishers. Gobert's unassisted 2-point rate in his record-setting '18-19 season was 26.5%, with a good portion of those buckets being putbacks. O'Neal created only 29.3% of his own baskets in '97-98.

Simply put, we're seeing arguably the most prolific interior scoring season in modern NBA history, from inarguably the greatest self-initiated dunker of all time. We don't need to make dunks worth three points to appreciate how valuable that is; Giannis is leading the NBA in scoring as it is. - Wolfond

Grizzlies' injury bug (again)

The Grizzlies simply can't stay healthy. After enduring a painful 2023-24 campaign that saw Memphis lose a league-record 592 man games to injury and suspension while using a record 33 players, the only thing the team can say on the health front right now is that it's healthier than that. But they're not healthy. Far from it.

The Grizzlies once again lead the league with 101 man games lost, which puts them on pace to be the second-most injured team in Spotrac's 14-year database, behind only last year's Grizzlies. Teams like the Pelicans and Raptors have lost more value to injuries, but Grizzlies rotation players such as Ja Morant, Marcus Smart, Desmond Bane, Luke Kennard, and Zach Edey have all missed at least five games each already. Even a couple of youngsters who earned their stripes while filling in for the MASH-unit 2023-24 Grizzlies have been sidelined this year, with GG Jackson yet to play due to a broken foot and Vince Williams Jr. currently out with an ankle injury.

What makes the decimated Grizzlies remarkable is they've not only survived all these absences, but have found a way to thrive. The 12-7 Grizz sit fourth in the West and are the only team boasting top-six marks on both ends of the court. Sure, Memphis has enjoyed one of the league's easiest schedules so far, but given its nightly injury report, no one should be taking anything away from them. Give head coach Taylor Jenkins, star big Jaren Jackson Jr., and youngsters like Jaylen Wells, Scotty Pippen Jr., and Jay Huff their flowers. - Casciaro

Looney's offensive rebounding

Kevon Looney currently has an offensive rebound rate of 25.3%, per Basketball Reference. In other words, when he's on the floor, he alone is recovering more than a quarter of the Warriors' missed shots.

Looney only plays 15 minutes a night, which ranks him 12th in the clown car that is the Warriors' rotation. But if he can maintain his ridiculous rate of second-chance generation, it'll be the greatest per-minute offensive rebounding season in recorded history, shattering Andre Drummond's record of 21.5% from last year and leaving a whole bunch of Dennis Rodman and Moses Malone seasons in the dust.

His work on the glass is reflective of a broader trend, with the NBA as a whole falling back in love with offensive rebounding in recent years after a period in which it was steadily de-emphasized in favor of transition defense. This year marks the highest league-wide offensive rebound rate in a decade, and half of the top 30 seasons in individual offensive rate have occured in the last five years.

Even in that evolving landscape, Looney stands above the rest, despite being an undersized center who can't jump over a piece of paper. With physicality, intuition, and a bloodhound's nose for the ball, he's using his short bursts of playing time to help sustain the league's No. 5 offense in his own unique way. - Wolfond