The NBA Season is here. Who will have a slam dunk season and who will get posterized?
Timothy Holcombe, Staff Writer
The NBA season is finally here and in full force.
A lot has happened up to this point. The Warriors have gotten off to a bad start and recent news has come out that makes their situation even more dyer. Who will make the leap to become lethal title contenders in the Eastern Conference now that Kawhi has taken his talents out west? Who is going to win the star-studded Western Conference now that the Warriors seem to not be contenders this year?
The news came out recently that Steph Curry has suffered a broken hand and will be out several months. Klay Thompson, the other star player for the Warriors, is going to miss this season as he recovers from a torn ACL. This team looks to not be in good shape at all.It is not unreasonable now to suggest that the Dubs may not even make the playoffs this season.
With all that being said the biggest question now is, who will take the torch in the west?
The obvious favorites are both in LA, with the Clippers and the Lakers. Lebron James gears up for round 2 with the Lakers alongside Anthony Davis, who was traded to LA for a total of 6 young Lakers. In the biggest deal of the summer, Kawhi Leonard moved to LA to become apart of the Clippers alongside Paul George, who was traded to the Clippers from OKC.
The Houston Rockets are no slouch either, with James Harden hoping to continue MVP-level play. Along with Harden, Houston acquired Russell Westbrook in a trade that sent Chris Paul to the Thunder. This is a much improved pairing for Harden and the Rockets, as it was obvious that Chris Paul did not get along and gel with the system in Houston that is built around Harden.
Westbrook previously played with Harden in OKC, and therefore, has prior chemistry with James. There is only one basketball allowed on the floor, however, so it will be interesting to see how they are able to spread the wealth in Houston. They are more than capable of upsetting someone in the playoffs and making a run but playing the Iso style of basketball has not really worked to win championships, so it will be interesting to see if the Rockets can make it work.
The Eastern Conference is very wide open with the favorites being three teams, the Milwaukee Bucks, Boston Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers. The Toronto Raptors do not factor in the equation any longer with the loss of star, Kawhi Leonard. As for who comes out of the East, one could probably flip a coin and have better odds of getting the right answer as opposed to approaching it from an analytic standpoint.
There is an exciting and wide open NBA season to be played, and without a clear favorite, this should make for one of the more entertaining seasons in recent memory.
