And instead of waiting for roughly 4 months to go from the Finals to Opening Night, we has about 6 weeks to go through Draft Night, free agency, training camp and now, the pre-season games.
With Opening Day about one and a half weeks away, here are some underrated storylines you might want to keep an eye out for.
STORYLINE #1 The Campazzo Compendium
The addition of Argentinean point wizard Facundo Campazzo will go a long way towards the Nuggets' championship aspirations. Campazzo, or Facu as he is fondly called in Europe, is a more physical version of Milos Teodosic, a South American Rajon Rondo with a better offensive game. While the Nuggets still need Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic to take another step forward, Campazzo gives them that extra offensive punch that could explote the benches of other teams, even the Lakers.
STORYLINE #2 Addition by Subtraction
The Celtics' loss of Gordon Hayward and the 76ers loss of Al Horford may end up helping their former squads by a lot. Horford made a mistake signing with Philadelphia (who knows how far Boston would have gone if he stayed there) and probably heaved a sign of relief when he was shipped to OKC. Hayward's departure, on the other hand, was a bit of a surprise given his history with Coach Brad Stevens and how he turned down a fast-rising Jazz team to join Boston but his departure (and Kyrie Irving's from the previous year) means this is now Jayson Tatum's team, for better or for worse.
STORYLINE #3 How Bad Will OKC Be?
They've got no-longer-in-their-primes Al Horford, George Hill, and Trevor Ariza. They've got promising youngsters Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Darius Bazley. They've got the league's lowest payroll and a ton of picks. None of those things will win them games. While I don't think they will be historically bad, I think they will be really bad.
And with that, I eagerly await the start of the NBA.
