The NBA season is fast approaching as opening night takes place Oct. 22 with the New York Knicks taking on the defending champion Boston Celtics and the Minnesota Timberwolves matching up with the Los Angeles Lakers. This preview will feature some teams who could be contending for the 2024-2025 NBA Championship and other league storylines.
The Boston Celtics come into this season with high expectations after winning their 18th NBA Championship in franchise history. This was led of course by the electric duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Brown was named Finals MVP while Tatum also led the charge for the C’s.
This year will bring the same realm of expectations for the team as the roster remains almost the same as last year. With their starting lineup featuring two-time All-Star Jrue Holiday, a very elite role player in Derrick White, Finals MVP Jaylen Brown, five-time All-Star Jayson Tatum and the versatility of Kristaps Porzingis, the Celtics definitely have the chance to repeat as NBA Champions.
Their depth also featuring the likes of Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, the veteran presence of Al Horford and the newly added Lonnie Walker who will also help the Celtics with their shooting and scoring outputs from night-to-night. Joe Mazzulla will look to elevate the Celtics to another level as they will look to capture their 19th NBA Championship.
Mentioning the NBA Champions above, they did face some challenges against the Dallas Mavericks. The Mavericks reached their first NBA Finals since the 2010-2011 season as the duo of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving showed off their offensive skillsets in a 4-1 series win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference Finals.
After that, the Mavericks did come up short but many fans viewed this as a positive season being the fifth seed in the playoffs and almost reaching the mountain top of the league. Other player who made key contributions to the playoff run included PJ Washington, Derrick Jones Jr, Daniel Gafford, and Second Team All-Rookie Dereck Lively. Gafford and Lively especially each played significant roles in containing the frontcourt duo of Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert.
The Mavericks made a splash in the off-season as Klay Thompson signed a three-year, $50 million deal in a sign and trade. Thompson, a 4x NBA Champion and 5x All-Star will certainly help the Mavericks with his shooting ability. There are some questions considering Thompson’s age and the wear and tear he is taking given the fact that he is 34 years old and has had two major injuries. Time will tell with Thompson though as the Mavericks team-wise look to carry on the same success as they did the year previous.
The Los Angeles Lakers…sigh…this is a tough one for me. LeBron being my favorite player and being a Lakers fan for the past few years, ups and downs has been the norm. LeBron has carved out his career rounding out in LA with a championship. With four NBA titles, four MVPS, the all-time scoring lead- er and people (including myself) calling him the GOAT, LeBron has certainly reached the Apex. Please excuse the ramble. Anthony Davis, LeBron’s running mate, has been effective on the court when healthy and when he is out, the team does struggle. This season, the Lakers have Austin Reaves, D’Angelo Russell and Rui Hachimura filling out the starting lineup. Gabe Vincent, Jarred Vanderbilt, Dalton Knecht and Chrisitan Wood will certainly play key roles in the lineup.
This part of the preview, though, is about storylines and headlines and the Lakers do well in this aspect. First, the hiring of JJ Redick as the Head Coach. While Redick has played in the league and has a good understanding of what the league entails, he has not had coaching experience at this level. Time will only tell to see how Redick adjusts and adapts to the NBA coaching-wise.
Moving on, MANY fans and critics of the league have made note of the fact that Bronny James was selected as the 55th pick of the NBA Draft to the Los Angeles Lakers. This has been a huge storyline with some people saying he has earned this opportunity while some citing nepotism for the pick. Bronny did have a decent summer league with multiple games in the double figures and flashes of being a good on-the-ball defender.
However, the last two pre-season games Bronny has not played up to his standard, and many fans have questioned whether or not he is NBA ready yet. I could go on about this further but we will find out if Bronny really belongs on the court once this season gets under way.