Garbage Time: What's Real?

Welcome back to Garbage Time, theScore's NBA roundtable series. 

In our third rotation on the floor, Joseph Casciaro, Blake Murphy, and Joe Wolfond explore some early-season storylines: the upstart Sacramento Kings, the Golden State Warriors' defense, and a reborn Chris Bosh. 

Is it time to take the Kings seriously?

Casciaro: It's still too early to say the Kings are for real. They had a great opening two weeks and got off to great starts against the Mavs and Grizzlies, but 5-4 isn't blistering enough of a start to convince me. DeMarcus Cousins is the real deal as a superstar and he can keep them in games himself if he avoids foul trouble and stays on the floor, but Rudy Gay's shooting will likely regress to the mean and they just don't have enough beyond that to survive the Western Conference minefield. Six of their next nine games are against playoff teams, and two of the other three are against the New Orleans Pelicans. If they come out of that stretch still above .500, then I'll be a believer.

Murphy: The Kings? Not really, no. Cousins as an MVP candidate? Absolutely. I've been all aboard the Boogie train for a long time, but the Cousins we've seen these first few weeks is a different beast. Mature, measured but still aggressive, engaged defensively ... he's the complete package. His ascension raises the Kings' ceiling appreciably. Unfortunately, the rest of the team just isn't all that good, and despite a 5-4 start they would still need to go 41-32 to sniff the playoffs. They're better than I thought, but that only means they could be an also-ran instead of an afterthought.

Wolfond: This kind of depends on how you define “real.” The Kings won’t be a playoff team in the cruel Western Conference, but they appear to have turned a meaningful corner. Everyone knows Cousins is a stud, but it’s the way the roster has filled out around him that has this team carrying a measure of forward momentum for the first time in forever. Gay’s jumper has returned after several seasons in the wilderness, Darren Collison is taking excellent care of the ball, Carl Landry is gobbling up truckloads of offensive rebounds, Ben McLemore is starting to deliver on the promise that got him nabbed seventh overall last year, the defense looks improved, and the team is collectively parading to the free-throw line at a rate that would rank second in NBA history. The Kings haven’t won more than 28 games in six seasons. At the least, they should blow past that mark this year.

Are the Warriors a defensive juggernaut?

Murphy: It seems crazy that a team with Steph Curry and David Lee actually had its issues on the offensive end a year ago, but the Warriors' defense has been on point for a minute. With Andrew Bogut providing terrific rim protection, Andre Iguodala and Klay Thompson locking down the wings, and Draymond Green adding another versatile defensive specialist, this team is absolutely for real on defense. They ranked fourth a year ago and the roster continuity helps, so they're right there with Houston, Memphis and, eventually, Chicago as the league's most difficult teams to score on.

Wolfond: It always seems surprising that defense is the Warriors’ calling card, because the perception of them really skews the other way. But their whirring, breakneck-paced, 3-point-bombing offense ranks just 18th in the league right now. Their defense ranks second, even though five of their eight opponents are top-eight offenses from a year ago. Credit the rim protection of  Bogut, which has the Warriors giving up by far the fewest paint points per possession. And credit the team’s headiness and speed, which has allowed them to remain middle-of-the-pack in transition points allowed despite leading the league in turnover rate. The Warriors are stocked with quality defenders, from Bogut to Iguodala to Thompson to Green. They won’t maintain their sterling 97.7 rating, but health permitting, they should remain a top-five unit all year.

Casciaro: The Warriors' D will regress to the mean at least slightly as the season wears on, but they've been a top-tier defensive team for a couple of years now, so no one should be waiting for a massive drop off. The bigger issue for Golden State is taking care of the ball and constructing an offense that's as effective as it should be with their wealth of scoring talent.

Is Bosh a true No. 1 option?

Wolfond: Bosh has evolved into a legitimately terrifying shooter - not just for a big man, but for any man. He’s taking more threes than ever and knocking down 32 percent of them, while also hitting  46.2 percent of 2-balls from 16 feet and beyond. Combine that with his mobility and nimble feet, and he’s a matchup nightmare for the vast majority of forwards and centers in the league. His usage rate is up six percent this year - to 28.8, the highest rate of his career - and his rebounding rate (15.8), true-shooting percentage (56.1), and PER (23.0) are all up there with his career highs. He can struggle at times to create offense for himself, but he’s thriving for the first time since his days in Toronto in Miami’s intuitive, pass-happy system.

Casciaro: Bosh is absolutely a top-tier offensive player. He was a 24 and 10 guy the last time he was a legitimate go-to guy - on a fringe playoff team - and he's only expanded his game in four years since. Now he's about a 22 and nine guy for the Heat as the No. 1 option on a pretty good Eastern Conference team, and he's also a huge part of what the Heat do defensively. Simply put, there aren't many big men alive today with a game as complete as Bosh's.

Murphy: Bosh was never on great teams in Toronto, but that doesn't change the fact that he averaged 22.8 points over five seasons from 2006 to 2010, with a robust 23.3 PER and a 27 percent usage rate. That's no easy task, and while he didn't have nearly that level of production as a secondary cog in Miami, the skills remain. Bosh is one of the game's best mid-range shooters, he's effective on the block despite an unfair reputation that says otherwise, and he can handle a heavy workload. He's not the No. 1 on a championship team - few are - but he can lead a playoff-bound Heat team in scoring.