Three NBA Groups Poised to Shock the League This Season

In need of a key harm – the lack of Fred VanVleet is a killer for the Rockets – and limitless hypothesis – no, Jayson Tatum isn’t “super-human,” as one nationwide broadcaster urged the opposite evening – it takes Caitlin Clark-type imaginative and prescient to glean a lot of something from the NBA preseason.

Fortuitously, with these new binoculars, I can see the court docket with the most effective of them.

And what I’ve seen this preseason – in small doses, thoughts you – is three groups who’re going to shock lots of people this 12 months.

That’s not essentially excellent news for mainstream basketball followers, who’ve come to despise two of those franchises lately and who assume the third staff resides in Maine.

Let’s study …

Boston Celtics

It took the new-look membership all of about 11 minutes to reply one of many largest questions of the preseason: Will the Celtics be demoralized by the absence of Tatum?

When Jaylen Brown commanded the basketball – beforehand unallowed with Tatum on the ground – and poured in 15 factors in a 33-22 season-opening flurry, the reply was clear: Are you joking? These guys will probably be impressed by it.

Particularly Brown, who has lived uncomfortably in Tatum’s enormous shadow for the final eight seasons.

Brown clearly loved his first expertise with the shackles off. He was the driving pressure in a pass-happy, quick-striking Celtics assault that can – for some time anyway – exchange the dribble-dominated Tatum snooze-fest.

It’s already clear the Celtics will probably be extra of a staff this season. Certain, one with out Jrue Vacation, Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis, however in addition they have retained a high-scoring complement to Brown in Derrick White and an actual level guard in Payton Pritchard. And get this: They really will station massive males close to the ring and make use of a difference-making defensive stopper now that Jordan Walsh will get a shot.

Boston is tabbed to be barely a .500 staff this season, however that’s clearly the projection of somebody caught up within the Tatum headlines and considering he may return by Thanksgiving.

The longer he’s out, the extra possible a 50-win season turns into.

Golden State Warriors

When the Warriors took the court docket for the primary time this month, it was in opposition to a Lakers staff that had LeBron James and Luka Doncic on the sidelines. Impressed by merely seeing “Lakers” on the jersey, Golden State responded with an early 24-15 message.

You see, whereas the Warriors had been being ridiculed for his or her dealing with of the Jonathan Kuminga debacle and the Lakers had been being applauded for not forcing Dodger Canine upon Doncic, Golden State quietly went out and made one of many low season’s largest additions in Horford, a glue piece within the Celtics’ latest success.

In San Francisco, he’ll be a part of Draymond Inexperienced and Jimmy Butler III to provide the Warriors – get this – among the finest front-court defenses within the NBA. Absolutely, James and Doncic observed from their front-row seats.

The discuss within the West this low season has centered on the Thunder’s chance of repeating, the Nuggets’ improved depth that places Nikola Jokic again within the championship hunt, the addition of Kevin Durant to the ready-for-prime-time Rockets and, after all, the subtraction of Doncic on the scale.

Dallas has a difference-making rookie, San Antonio is able to unleash arguably the most effective participant within the league, the Clippers have Kawhi Leonard (or do they?) … and let’s not overlook concerning the Timberwolves.

So the place do the Stephen Curry-led Warriors fall? With Butler able to deal with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Horford and Inexperienced ready to double-team Jokic, suffice it to say: The objective in Oklahoma Metropolis and Denver this season needs to be to keep away from the Warriors within the Western semifinals.

As a result of the Warriors, a Curry harm away from the Western Last 4 with a lesser staff a 12 months in the past, are going to be there.

Portland Path Blazers

A humorous factor occurred when the Path Blazers debuted final week … 4 Chauncey Billups clones had been launched with the beginning lineup. Such is the athleticism of Vacation, Shaedon Sharpe, Toumani Camara and Jerami Grant, all who clearly have achieved their homework on the type of play that made their coach a five-time All-Star who rode protection to his Corridor of Fame enshrinement.

Whereas no person observed, the Path Blazers had been one of many NBA’s most improved groups final season, going from 21 to 36 wins in Billups’ fourth season on the helm.

Throw in Scoot Henderson, now mentored by Damian Lillard, and Deni Avdija and you’ve got the makings of 48 minutes of the most effective perimeter protection within the NBA. And behind that, few groups provide larger rim-protecting obstacles than Donovan Clingan and Yang Hansen.

Regulate Sharpe, who the Path Blazers shrewdly retained within the Vacation commerce (dealing Anfernee Simons as an alternative). Having improved from 9.9 factors per recreation to fifteen.9 after which 18.5 in his three seasons, he’s the NBA’s subsequent 20-point guard and a probable first-time All-Star.

Sadly, this Portland is in Oregon, not Maine, the place the Path Blazers would qualify to be a top-six staff within the East. Even within the West, the place they had been twelfth final season, it might be no shock in the event that they handed the Suns and Kings and acquired a play-in reward this April.