The LeBron James Lakers, the Jimmy Butler-Wolves saga and the 76ers X factor among the 10 biggest NBA stories to follow

I spoke to Joe Ingles of Jazz this summer, and he pointed Rodney Hood, who averaged 16 points per game in Utah and fell off the map in Cleveland, and Jae Crowder, who played some of his worst recent basketball in Cleveland. to relive in Utah. Playing under LeBron's terms, that is, not having the ball where you want it, or whenever you want it, all the time, affects each player differently. Then we'll see.

That said, the Lakers played fast and well in the pre-season. They have a team that can be very versatile at both ends, which is the goal of most range deployments in today's NBA. Their margin of error is not huge. Think of it like this: The LeBron Cavs won 50 games last season. LeBron had one of his best seasons and played in 82 games. Playing in the West is probably worth at least three losses. Is this Lakers team really better than the Cavs team last year? They do not have a number 2 as good as Kevin Love. They have more depth and athleticism and defensive versatility, but again, one could say that the depth of the West makes these factors difficult to grasp.

Somewhere around 50 wins, without major injuries, feels good.

You do not have to fall far below that to be really endangered in the West.

2. The Celtics' Quest for the East Throne

If you have interviewed 100 NBA members – players, coaches, administrators, journalists, whoever – at least 75% of them would say that the Celtics are the best team in the East and the big favorite of the final. I know I would do it. This team is so full of talent that in any world where the Warriors would not exist, they would be an absolute super team. No question. People expect that they are excellent, and this is not an expectation to which many of these Celtics have had business.

It's where Kyrie Irving comes in. Yes, he's the best player in the team, but he's also the most experienced player in terms of play under the weight of the championship exam. Even Gordon Hayward and Al Horford – both smart and experienced veterans who have both competed in many great matches – have never played in the types of games that the Celtics are planning to play by until the end of the season.

I was in Boston near the end of preseason and Kyrie spoke of his responsibility to lead this team in these new, perhaps more difficult circumstances. He remembered when he was an inexperienced gambler, when he relied solely on talent and that all that changed the day LeBron came back to Cleveland and one shot, he was awesome.

"To be around [Le]Bron, Mike Miller, James Jones and all the other veterans, it was something I needed, said Irving. I had to learn a lot about basketball. j & # 39; was [in my fourth year]I had just signed a $ 90 million contract. I was thirsty for everything and, for the most part, I had learned to ride and play. It was the first time I had to watch a movie, prepare for the playoffs and learn what it was like. [being] hunt.

"And that's a change we're going to see [in Boston]. We ask a lot of our players to be basketball geeks, not just basketball players who can play without losing anything or worry, "said Irving," We need to be much smarter, more diligent. , much more communicative, our efforts must exceed those of other teams … It takes a lot more thinking, a lot more movies and talking about what we want as a group, it will distinguish us. "

If all goes well for Boston, if Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown validate their success last season and even grow from there, if Gordon Hayward eventually returns to the player that he was before that terrible injury, then they avoided the trap of playing one. -on-one basketball with their innumerable individual talents, if they keep the mentality of a team that tries to prove itself rather than the one that has already done so, then it could be really great in Boston. It's a team that can win everything. Not the favorite, but capable.

3. Markelle Fultz the X factor

The Sixers will start the season with Fultz in training in place of JJ Redick. It's a big step in that the Sixers can sometimes have a hard time spacing with Ben Simmons on the ground. Now, if you have two non-shot threats, one of the best basketball teams (which Philly started last season) is a problem. You could also look at him as if Redick was strengthening the shot of a bench that lost Marco Belinelli and Ersan Ilyasova, who sometimes wore the Sixers during the playoffs with their shot.

Anyway, the Sixers have completed their childhood. They throw him out there and ask him to represent a team with outside aspirations for the conference. Two members of the league's first league said they thought Fultz was one of the biggest X factors in the league because you just did not know what you're going to get. If he's good and at least a capable shooter beyond 12 feet, he raises the ceiling of the Sixers considerably. It would be like looking for a great free agent. On the other hand, if Fultz is still a very limited player, Philly is basically the same team as last season with fewer shots. What internal improvement can Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid bring to Philly this much better than last season?

The good news is that Fultz looked pretty good this pre-season. He seemed relatively comfortable after dribbling the dribble at about 30 meters, and he even showed a three-point range, but still with very nice and fun shooting mechanisms. Even without a major improvement in his shot, he is a strong, athletic man who can add to Philly's already highly versatile defensive lineup and allow Simmons to operate a little more without a ball – if Fultz can at least create ravages by getting in the way.

4. The Jimmy Butler saga

The latest news is that Butler will play the opening night for the wolves against the Spurs, and the owner, Glen Taylor, assured Butler that the organization would continue to work diligently to meet its commercial demand. At the moment, the most intriguing question of the league is how will this situation be played out, where Butler will end up and what type of package the Wolves will receive in return without much weight.

A few things here: I've talked to a handful of GMs who have stated that this situation in which a star player requires an exchange while staying one year is one of the most difficult – if not. the the most difficult – situations to navigate in the league of today. You will hardly ever get what you would consider to be an equal value for a star player, but some teams did well. The Pacers did well, if not better, when they exchanged Paul George. The Spurs had an NBA player for Kawhi Leonard. If the Wolves could get, for example, Bam Adebayo and Josh Richardson for Butler, it would be a good move.

But, from Miami's point of view, how much does Butler do better than you with Richardson and Adebayo? Maybe you go from a team of 45 wins to a team of 48 wins? You are almost certainly still in the lower stratum of Eastern contenders, and now you will sign a maximum contract, or something close, for Butler, who will be 34 years old at the end of it. treat? At this point, players in the league have highlighted the hard work of some Tom Thibodeau players. Joakim Noah, Derrick Rose and Luol Deng. In the end, it's one thing to pay Butler a sum of money that might look bad at the end of the contract, but it's another thing to pay him all that money AND give up his two best young assets.

Whether it is Miami or another team, it seems very unlikely that Minnesota will maintain it all season. You can not lose a Butler player for nothing. Where will he go and what will the Wolves get in return? These are the questions. And until an agreement is reached, these issues will remain the only issues that really matter in Minnesota. After that, we will be able to talk about Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins and all the money they're earning, and how much that's a big slap for those two people to think that Minnesota is sunk without Butler.

5. Freak Show by Giannis

This gives the impression that Giannis will truly become one of the top five players in the league and an MVP leader in a team where there is real expectation of winning at a significant level. Bringing Mike Budenholzer to coach this Milwaukee team was a great decision. He will spy on the offensive and speed things up, and this track will become much more open for Giannis, who was the only player in the league to have recorded a triple-double in pre-season, and was one of the four players averaged minus 15 points, five assists and one pre-season flight. Seriously, man …

For a long time, Stephen Curry was this league player who could have made you believe that if you missed one of his games, even for a few minutes, you could miss something that would make you flay your eyes. Giannis feels like this guy now. This is a monster year for him, and again, the Bucks feel like they can compete for a place in the finals of the conference. They have talent. They have a lot of versatility. With Giannis seemingly ready to get into the best of the best category and the Coach Bud system in place, Milwaukee is dangerous. Apart from the top teams, they are among the most intriguing teams to watch this season.

6. The warriors have their boogie

This is one of the main scenes of the season in that the Warriors can claim to be the most talented team in NBA history, irrefutably, if the Cousins ​​regain their strength after the playoffs. The downside is that the Warriors are probably still the most talented team in history without Cousins, so in this way it does not really seem like a big deal. If he does not work, whether for reasons of fitness or health, it does not matter. He signed a one-year contract and earns less than $ 6 million. Quite simply, this is the biggest and most profitable bet imaginable in today's NBA.

Will warriors ever get to a point where they really need Boogie? Maybe All along this race, the only thing they have ever had is a big, really dominant man. The Celtics could end up being pretty good and big enough when they deploy Al Horford and Aron Baynes to make Cousins ​​a necessary option in a possible match for the final. The Rockets got the better of the Warriors last season until Chris Paul was injured, which means that if they did not regress, Golden State could have some ground to gain.

But let's be realistic: warriors are the favorites with or without cousins. This is interesting only from the point of view of the ridiculous quality with which it could potentially make them.

7. Luca Doncic versus Trae Young

After being traded one against the other on the night of the repechage, these two people, at one level, will be compared one to the other for the whole of their career. This year will not give us a definitive answer as to who wins the market, it's too early. But that will give us an idea. Hawks general manager Travis Schlenk told CBS Sports that, throughout the assessment process, the Hawks awarded Doncic and Young the same score, making Dallas the first choice for the first round. , to take part in the decisive start in 2019. That said, if Doncic keeps its promises, and Young not, this choice of 2019 will not be very comforting. If this happens in the other way, and Doncic, one way or another, is not great and Young is going away, Dallas will take it for a double goal, having also abandoned the additional choice.

That said, I do not see either team being very disappointed here. I think it's a win-win situation and in fact, Doncic and Young looked pretty pre-season. Discover Doncic – a 6'8 "striker with playmaker skills – get to work:

Young, for one, was one of four players averaging at least 15 points, five assists and one steal this preseason. The other four were Giannis, James Harden and John Wall. A lot of company. Oh, and he also pierced this 30-foot winner as if nothing had happened:

Personally, I think these two guys are going to be great, and I do not think we'll have to wait long for that to happen. The Hawks seem to be a very bad team this season, but Young is already on the edge of television. The Cavs could potentially be a good team, but Doncic is the draw. Watching how these guys develop during their first year, especially in comparison to each other, is one of the most exciting scenarios, in my opinion, that start in the season.

8. Kawhi, Raptors lying in the clipping

I said earlier that if you were interviewing 100 members of the NBA, at least 75% of them would say that the Celtics are clearly the best team in the East. This, for me, constitutes the Raptors in the cup, because they're going to be really good. Will they win 59 games as they did last season? Who knows. But that's the point. The Raptors have never had a hard time winning regular season games; they struggled to win playoff games, especially against LeBron James. LeBron is gone, and the Raptors are much better with Kawhi, assuming health and fitness, than they were with DeMar Derozan.

Toronto has the potential to be devastating in defense, with multiple alignments that can easily go from 1 to 4 and even 1 to 5 to the limit. They have two individual defenders in Kawhi and OG Anunoby who can legitimately face head-to-head with the league's top scorers, with minimal or no help, and make the most of the match. Leonard is a much better 3-point shooter than DeRozan, so the word gets out of the way and, quite downright, they'll make more shots to three – Danny Green also remains a threat.

In the end, Toronto is really good and could be great if enough is gathered. Once the excitement of the Kawhi trade has dissipated, it seems that we have a little forgotten, if this is possible even before the season begins. Reid Forgrave says Toronto will be in the final. He says they're going to play Jazz, which is a little crazy, but the prediction on the part of the Raptors is not crazy at all.

9. Potential regression of rockets

The biggest reason why the Rockets pushed the Warriors to seven games in the conference finals last season was their defense. They were long and hard and changed everything. As a result, the Warriors had to start contenting themselves with one-on-one property, mainly thanks to Kevin Durant, when their movement-based system stopped giving free kicks.

Now, Trevor Ariza is gone. Luc Mbah is a sheep. These are two more defenders. Turn them over for Carmelo Anthony, and the defense, obviously, is much worse. Some say that the addition of James Ennis could mitigate the loss of Ariza, and to some extent, this could be the case. But it's a stranger. Ariza has brought more than defense and an almost perfect offensive complement with respect to Houston's Houston-style race spacing with James Harden and Chris Paul.

At the end of the day, the Rockets will play many lines including Harden, Eric Gordon and Carmelo. These are three bad defenders. Golden State will feast on that, and Golden State is really the only team the Rockets are fighting against. Daryl Morey told me this summer of "judging [the Rockets’ roster] April 15, "which is the last day of the regular season, which means that it will likely seek to move to the trading deadline.If this happens, we can revisit this issue. Current state of affairs, there is a Houston is less able to defeat Golden State than last season.

10. Photo of the Western Conference playoffs

If we can all agree that the Lakers are going to make the playoffs this season, at least one playoff team from last year has to give up. Most people think that the Nuggets, who also missed the playoffs next season, will also do so this year. This means that two teams from last year are absent.

Who will it be?

You will hear many people talking about these four teams as candidates for abandonment: the Blazers, the Spurs, the Wolves (assuming that they end up trading butler and depending on what they're doing. will recover) and Pelicans. Man, it's a brutal conference when the Pelicans, who undoubtedly have one of the top three players in the world at Anthony Davis and another star at Jrue Holiday, are in danger of not even participating in the playoffs but it is life in the West right now.

I was in New Orleans for the training camp and Alvin Gentry told me that they felt that Davis and Holiday were the best two-way combo in the league. and that it was difficult to argue with him. There are some questions about how Julius Randle will line up next to Davis and Mirotic, but it could be a very nice, at least offensive, front line in some queues. I think pelicans come in, but the margin of error is very slim.

I also think that Portland comes in. I just believe in Damian Lillard, quite simply. Portland was among the top five defenses of last year simply because everyone was doing their job and playing roll-in rather conservatively, forcing the right types of shots. Terry Stotts told CBS Sports this summer that the Blazers were planning to expand this strategy by becoming more and more disruptive in defense, forcing the situation a bit harder by applying more ball pressure on their opponents. guards. If you have a top 10 defense and Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum have to compete, is not it?

That leaves us with Minnesota and San Antonio, which would be my choice for the two teams that are arguing. San Antonio just does not have that talent and has been decimated by injuries. I could be convinced that one or both teams find a way to get in, but they have the biggest climb.

Now, this means nothing of seeding. Utah could be No. 2. Houston could be No. 2. OKC could be the biggest threat to Golden State in the playoffs and he might not even rank among the top six with Andre Roberson's injury . The Lakers could eventually end up between # 8 and # 3. This thing is a pretty mess. And no one can wait to see how it goes.