9. Dallas Mavericks
It should come as no surprise that the Dallas Mavericks are playing above expectations at this point in the season. Luka Doncic is playing like an NBA MVP and Kyrie Irving has been excellent this season in keeping his head down and sticking to basketball. He hasn't been a distraction by any means and has been a viable supporting star next to Luka. The Mavs have even gotten extremely valuable contributions from their retooled supporting cast.
The big question for the Mavs is whether all this is sustainable. Can Kyrie continue to remain a non-distraction for the team? Can Luka continue to avoid the injury bug and still play at an MVP level? Can the supporting cast continue to provide consistent value to the team? If the answer to all those questions is yes, the Mavs may have something.
Through the first quarter of the season, so far so good for the Mavs. But Dallas is going to be measured by what they do during the second half of the season because that's when it all began to fall apart for the team last year.