My mother always tells me that the only guarantees in life are death and taxes. And while some pro athletes like Sam Cassell and the Cincinnati Bengals' Chad Johnson are known to guarantee victories, I would like to serve up a guarantee for all of you.

I guarantee that the first week of the NBA season is and always will be misleading.

I, for one, am not someone who can be influenced by the play of any individuals or teams this early in the season.

Some squads are off to impressive starts, but were expected to play well (Indiana, Miami, Utah and Phoenix), while others are winless but playoff-quality teams (New York, Memphis and Sacramento). Then there are the teams who are playing well but have no business being where they are.

Last season's Detroit Pistons set the standard for how teams need to play to win: hard-nosed defense and team basketball.

Two undefeated teams at press time don't come close to cloning that blueprint: the Toronto Raptors and the Dallas Mavericks.

The Raptors are a team waiting to self-destruct. Jalen Rose is on the downside of his career. Rafer Alston can't stay focused for an entire season. It's only a matter of time before Vince Carter fakes an injury to sit out until he is traded. Toronto might as well rebuild around Chris Bosh and move on with the mess head coach Sam Mitchell inherited. They are 3-0 at home, but I expect them to fall once they hit the road, beginning tonight in Sacramento.

The Dallas Mavericks are a team that confuse me. After last season's disappointing campaign, Mark Cuban traded for Erick Dampier, Jason Terry and Jerry Stackhouse to be this year's players thrown into the rotation to take Dallas to the top, even though they have all been allergic to winning since coming into the league.

While Marquis Daniels and Josh Howard are pleasant surprises and Dirk Nowitzki is ready to carry the team on his own, the roster is too soft. Stackhouse has faded since leaving Detroit. Terry can't make anybody around him better. Michael Finley's numbers keep decreasing. Losing Steve Nash, Antoine Walker and Antawn Jamison will hurt even though they didn't mesh well together last season. There have just been too many roster shakeups in the past two seasons to take the Mavs seriously. So far, they've been able to play good defense in their first three games, but don't expect that to last much longer.

So although some of you think the teams are the real deal, remember, we still have 95 percent of the season to play.