This NBA season has all the ingredients to be spectacular, coming off an offseason of ridiculous player movement that saw a multitude of superstars jumping ship and moving to other teams. Anthony Davis was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, Kawhi Leonard signed with the Clippers, and most importantly Jerami Grant was traded to the Denver Nuggets. Anyway, let’s jump into it. I’m going to tell you some good, bad, and petty things to look out for this coming NBA season.
Good
This season has an incredible class of rookies. Zion Williamson, Michael Porter Jr., Ja Morant, and of course 7 foot 2 inch phenom Bol Bol. While there may be a lot of hoop-lah and jibber jabber about Zion being the next LeBron or Michael Porter Jr. being the next Kevin Durant, we all know Bol Bol is going to be the best player in the class. He can shoot the three, protect the rim—because he’s 7’2”—and drive to the hole. He’s had his problems with injuries, as most goliaths do, but if he can stay healthy, then he has the potential to be special. I am very interested to see how the Nuggets use him with Nikola Jokic. He can compliment Jokic by protecting the rim, and since he can shoot the three, he can help spread the floor in the Nuggets offense.
Bad
If you watch a single Hornets game this year, you must be crazy. Their big offseason move was signing Terry Rozier. The former Celtics point guard had a good post-season two years ago, but was absolutely terrible last year. Michael Jordan and the Hornets are hoping that Rozier can recapture that 2017-18 form that led him to play a prominent role in a Kyrie-less Celtics offense. However, this is very unlikely. They are banking on his struggles last season being based on the chemistry issues that the Celtics had—shout out Kyrie. But I doubt it. Rozier is a shoot first point guard who only becomes efficient after 30 shots. Think about Rozier as a Walmart-brand Allen Iverson, who is terrible at everything AI did and has a thousand percent less swagger. Hey, at least the Hornets have Miles Bridges.
Petty
With every “Petty” section, the crowned prince of pettiness, Joel Embiid, is usually involved. However, he was quiet this offseason. I’m sure most 76ers fans are hoping he was in the gym all offseason, as his fitness was really what kept them from winning a title last year, but I digress. Kevin Durant, aka snake, aka King Slither, aka the Slim Reaper, was really active on Twitter all offseason. He signed with the Brooklyn Nets instead of the New York Knicks, which was a surprise to everyone, and the consistently tortured Knicks fans took exception to his decision. KD, who is never shy to fire off some ridiculous tweets, shot right back at them. He spent an entire week just demolishing angry Knicks fans on Twitter.