Luka Doncic leads the NBA in PER after the first week of the season with a mark of 43.3, followed by Cam Thomas, Donovan Mitchell and Joel Embiid.

NBA PER (Week 1)
1. Luka Doncic: 43.3
2. Cam Thomas: 38.5
3. Donovan Mitchell: 32.8
4. Joel Embiid: 32.3
5. Stephen Curry: 30.1
6. Paul George: 29.8
7. Nikola Jokic: 28.9
8. Jalen Duren: 28.6
9. Tyrese Maxey: 28.4
10. Kristaps Porzingis: 27.6
11. Derrick White: 26.5
12. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: 25.7
13. Anthony Davis: 25.4
14. Devin Booker: 25.2
15. Lauri Markkanen: 24.9
16. Kelly Olynyk: 24.7
17. Zion Williamson: 24.7
18. De'Aaron Fox: 24.6
19. Ivica Zubac: 24.4
20. Cole Anthony: 24.1

Now that Scott Perry has moved over to the media, he explained the decision by the New York Knicks to not embark on an all-out pursuit of Donovan Mitchell during the 2022 offseason. Mitchell was widely expected to eventually be traded by the Utah Jazz to the Knicks, but they instead moved him to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

“Obviously we made a push to trade for him,” Perry said on a recent episode of "The Hoop Genius" podcast.

“But it was going to be done within reason. He was a good player but he needed more around him to win. Because if he was that singular force, Utah probably would’ve been in the conference finals if he were that singular force. But he wasn’t that singular force. That’s not a criticism against him. That’s just an evaluation that you must make.” 

While the Cavaliers were able to trade for Mitchell without parting with any of their core three players of Darius Garland, Evan Mobley or Jarrett Allen, the Knicks likely would have had to trade RJ Barrett and one or more other young players. The Cavaliers did include Lauri Markkanen, who emerged as an All-Star with the Jazz.

“(Mitchell’s) an excellent basketball player. Multi-year All-Star. Tremendous young man. New York kid,” Perry said. “But you got to ask yourself, if the other team you’re tracking with is wanting to take two-thirds or three-quarters of all your young talent, and all of your draft capital, is what’s left behind going to good enough for you to win rather than hold on to what you have and be a little patient?”

The NBA contends that their studies no longer support the notion that strategically resting players avoids injuries. 

“Before, it was a given conclusion that the data showed that you had to rest players a certain amount, and that justified them sitting out,” said Joe Dumars.

“We’ve gotten more data, and it just doesn’t show that resting, sitting guys out correlates with lack of injuries, or fatigue, or anything like that,” Dumars said. “What it does show is maybe guys aren’t as efficient on the second night of a back-to-back.”

Dumars added that the “culture” in the NBA should be that “every player should want to play 82 games,”

“Obviously everybody’s not going to play 82 games, but everyone should want to play 82 games. And that’s the culture that we are trying to reestablish right now,” he said.

The NBA is hoping to reverse the trend of load management by enacting the player participation policy. The changes come at a time when the league's television deals with ESPN and Turner expire after the 24-25 season and was worth $24 billion over nine years.

“All of this matters — the reaction to the fans, players, your TV (and) broadcast partners,” Dumars said.

The Houston Rockets were interested in signing James Harden during the offseason, but appeared to change course after hiring Ime Udoka as head coach.

The Rockets instead signed Fred VanVleet, which was a preference of Udoka. VanVleet is a more capable player without the ball than Harden. Houston believed VanVleet could better complement players such as Jalen Green than Harden could.

"Nothing against James," Udoka told ESPN, "but Fred is just a better fit. I coached James in Brooklyn. He's one of the smartest players I've ever been around. The words 'Ime doesn't want James' never came out of my mouth. It was, 'Let's look at the best fit.' If we want Jalen and the young guys to take the next steps, we need them to have the ball. As for me saying I don't want James, that was never the case. It was about fit."

Jalen Green is entering his third NBA season after averaging 22.1 points over 76 games with the Houston Rockets. Green was the No. 2 overall pick in 2021.

"Rival executives often project his potential peak as similar to those of Bradley Beal and Zach LaVine, and some statistical models suggest those as decent comparisons," writes Zach Lowe at ESPN.

The Rockets are expected to be an improved team this season after hiring Ime Udoka as head coach while also signing Fred VanVleet and Dillon Brooks in free agency. 

"This is a huge year for him," Rafael Stone told ESPN about Green. "It's on him to really put together all the things he's worked on. You see individual games where he's locked in -- whether it's on-ball defense, help-side defense, making the right reads in the pick-and-roll. And then there are other games where he just kind of let go of the rope. He's a bucket. It's about all the little things."

"I can contribute to winning," Green told ESPN. "I'm an all-around player."