And just like that, the NBA is back. With the official start of the NBA season less than a month away, it’s time for fans across the world to prepare for another season of intense basketball.
With the 2022 NBA season ending with the Nuggets winning their first ever championship in franchise history, there are plenty of storylines to follow this coming season. Which players will seek a trade? Who needs to see improvement this season? Which team is potentially a sleeper pick for the playoffs? With all these questions around this season, let’s dive right into it.
- Familiar Faces in New Places
With the start of every season, we see fan favorites make themselves at home on new teams. This offseason, we may have seen one of the most polarizing trades sending Damian Lillard to the Bucks. Dame had recently stated his disdain for the Trailblazers organization and requested a trade in early July. This trade caused multiple teams in the eastern conference to try and make moves to level the playing field. Most notably was the Boston Celtics; who acquired both Kristaps Porzingas and Jrue Holiday.
- Needs Improvement
As we all know, not every team can be winners at the end of the season. But which team needs to see major improvement and fast? Well we asked around, and the most common answer we heard was the Dallas Mavericks. The Mavericks have been a fairly good regular season team (thanks to Luka and company), but they are yet to put it together in the playoffs. Since 2018, they have only made it as far as the conference finals. Even worse, since pairing Luka together with all-star Kyrie Irving last year, they missed the playoffs entirely. So what can the Mavericks do to improve? When asked, one Bingham student said that “time,” would be the most important thing for the mavericks. This student said that “Giving their offense time to integrate and letting the team learn from each other,” would be the Mavericks key to success.
- From Peasants to Kings
We saw the Kings last season stun nearly every NBA fan when they finished with the 3rd seed in the Western Conference, finally making the NBA playoffs after 16 years. With the Kings finally having a competent roster and a hopeful future, it’s safe to say that the Kings are in a reasonably good position for the near future. With their success story in mind, there are teams with similar stories I think are set for success this season. As of now; the Spurs and Pistons have not made the playoffs since 2019. With both teams making major changes to their teams,I think both have a chance to be a play-in team or fringe playoff contender. The Spurs recently drafted rookie phenom Victor Webanyama, a 7 foot forward who has handles like a guard. With their roster slowly coming together piece by piece, don’t be surprised if the Spurs sneak their way into the play-in this year. Same goes for the Wizards, who recently dumped off their veteran allstar Bradley Beal, and now have young bucket getter Jordan Poole. Now that the Wizards are making an attempt to get a younger roster, and put pieces around Poole, I think this team can make a splash in the postseason.
3 Takeaways from Victor Webanyamaexpressnews.com Jordan Poole Incident marca.com
