2019-2020 NBA Preview:

Central Division: The Milwaukee Bucks will again be the best team in the whole conference not just their division because they still have the reigning MVP in Giannis Antetokounmpo and they brought back key pieces in C Brook Lopez and F Khris Middleton. They also brought back PG George Hill to make their backcourt deep with PG Eric Bledsoe and two veteran signings in G Wesley Matthews and sharpshooter Kyle Korver.

It will also be year two with head coach Mike Budenholzer who won coach of the year to continue to get the best out of the reigning MVP and Middleton. The thing that will come back to haunt them is not paying to keep G Malcolm Brogdon who was the 8^th player in NBA history to achieve a 50-40-90 season and could handle the ball plus guard multiple positions, which is why they brought in veteran guards to fill the void. They will again be good enough to win the East but not enough to beat any team out West. The Indiana Pacers surprised everyone by finishing 5^th despite losing their all-star, their best player in G Victor Oladipo to a ruptured quad that ended his season and he will be back this year but they don’t know when. To provide insurance they got G Malcolm Brogdon to fill in for him and play alongside him later in this season plus guards Justin Holiday, TJ McConnell, Jeremy Lamb and F TJ Warren to start at PF.

The only way they have a season like last year is the continued development in C Myles Turner and C/F Domantas Sabonis if they play up to their level. They are the 2^nd & 3^rd most important players on their roster outside of Oladipo so they will need to keep this afloat till Oladipo comes back, because Turner could be an all-star center this year and the 2^nd best center in the East. They need to prove that they can be a top playoff team back to back years not just making it because the East is bad and they can sneak in one of the final spots. The Pistons have only made the playoffs twice in the last 10 years so it is hard to guarantee that they will make it as they snuck in last year as an 8^th seed. Every year you could say they have a great trio that should compete with others because of C Andre Drummond, PG Reggie Jackson and you can swap Greg Monroe for PF Blake Griffin but they never live up to that potential. The newest issue is the health of Jackson and Griffin but also the fit of two big men in today’s NBA game as well.

Drummond has the potential to be a top 5 center but doesn’t live up to his potential and Jackson hasn’t been the best at distributing to others so real all-star Griffin who comes in and causes it not to fit as well. Head coach Dwane Casey did his best to get the most out of his team but it’s going to be hard to make the playoffs again even if you added guards Derrick Rose, Joe Johnson and F Markieff Morris to your bench for firepower as there are at least five teams better than them who aren’t even the best three teams in the east. The Chicago Bulls will improve on last year based on the young talent they have by winning more games but not enough to make the playoffs because they have the wrong coach for a team with this kind of talent. They have young, athletic, versatile and good shooting team that run the floor but the coach that fit with this team was Fred Hoiberg who was fired mid-season for a defensive minded guy who has no experience at coaching anywhere. Jim Boylen wants to grind you out like another former Bulls head coach which doesn’t last long in places because players get tired of that. The core of G Zach Lavine, F Lauri Markkanen, G Kris Dunn, C Wendell Carter Jr and F Otto Porter Jr can win more games than they did last year but the question falls on the coach on how to get the most out of them and how to manage their minutes as some have battled injury concerns during their careers.

They added a few veteran pieces like F Thaddeus Young who is a tweener which doesn’t help them out upfront after losing C Robin Lopez in a free agency, and also sharp shooters in Tomas Satoransky and Luke Kornet. The issue is they have enough wing players especially because they drafted a PG in Coby White which could push Dunn and Levine to the wings in some matchups plus the wing players they have drafted the last few years. The Cavaliers will again be a last place team and bottom feeder in the East for a while as they finally signaled that it was time for a full rebuild session by hiring college coach John Beilein to help guide them through this tough time. They also drafted three players in the 1^st round like PG Darius Garland to build around PG Collin Sexton and F Cedi Osman but the issue is Garland and Sexton are both PGs based on their size so how will they coexist both being small and needing the ball in their hands?

Also they have four power-forwards in John Henson, Larry Nance Jr, Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson which means some will have to get minutes at center so they can co-exist. Look for them to trade Love or Thompson to a contending team plus one of their other guards in veterans Brandon Knight and Jordan Clarkson to amass more draft picks to help this full-scale rebuild in Cleveland. 

Atlantic Division: The 76ers will again be a top team in the East because of their core talent of C Joel Embiid and PG Ben Simmons plus they added to that core this offseason. They did lose Jimmy Butler to Miami but got back a capable two-way player in Josh Richardson, resigned Tobias Harris and brought in C Al Horford to play PF a position he should have been playing his whole career.

He has gained the ability to shoot from the perimeter plus he can guard multiple positions which will come in handy vs the Bucks’ Greek Freak. They also added guards Raul Neto, Trey Burke, resigned James Ennis III and front court players in Kyle O’Quinn and resigning Mike Scott to make up their bench. The bench, the other starting players in the lineup and the head coach will not determine if they make the finals, but it will be the continued growth of Simmons as a shooter who will not even attempt a three which he has to start doing, and Embiid staying healthy/staying in shape, plus how they can co-exist. Simmons needs the lane free to operate because he can’t shoot well but Embiid is so overpowering in the paint that he needs to play in the post to score because he shouldn’t be standing at the three point line. It should be finals or bust for this team or they might have to decide which player to keep if they can’t coexist in winning. The Celtics will again be a top seed in the East based on their talented core of G Jayson Tatum, G/F Jaylen Brown, F Gordon Hayward, and G Marcus Smart.

When you lose the kind of talent that Kyrie Irving brings it’s hard to overcome but they did a nice job by signing all-star guard Kemba Walker who is more willing to pass/be a leader/take a backseat to let others succeed plus they added C Enes Kanter to help the scoring load. The big loss was losing Al Horford to rival Philly and trading away a top defensive center in Aron Baynes. They will need to run some lineups with Hayward at PF until their unproven young players step up to provide minutes in the frontcourt and fill the defensive gap. It will all be on head coach Brad Stevens to manage his team’s lineups when their best players are guards/small forwards as to which players go where and when plus trying to get the most of his young unproven talent to keep the status as a good head coach who can manage lots of talent. The Nets will take a big step from creeping into the playoffs from last year with the potential of being a top four team in the East this year. They added two top players in PG Kyrie Irving & F Kevin Durant who will not play all year but Irving cannot just carry a team to the playoffs but thrive if he has talent around him. He joins the core of F Joe Harris (who was the three point champion), G Spencer Dinwiddie, C Jarrett Allen, and G Caris Levert.

They also added veterans in C DeAndre Jordan, forwards Wilson Chandler, Lance Thomas, and G Garrett Temple. The biggest challenge for a rising star at head coach in Kenny Atkinson will be to replicate the success of getting the most of out of his talent like last year but with the added wrinkle of adding a ball-dominant PG in Irving, who hasn’t gotten along with his teammates or coaches in previous stops. How Irving fits with the team will determine if they can get a top 4-seed or a lower seed. The Raptors are the defending champions but they lost F Kawhi Leonard and G Danny Green to free agency. They have enough talent with a mixed of young and old in C Marc Gasol, F/C Serge Ibaka, and PG Kyle Lowry to lead this team plus the reigning most improved player of the year in F Pascal Siakam and guards Fred VanVleet and Norman Powell.

The question is can a PF in Siakam lead this team in the wake of losing Leonard or will they bottom out and trade their main three veterans. They also don’t know who will actually start at SF which is why they brought in Stanley Johnson who failed in Detroit, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson who never lived up to his potential with the Nets/who was let go so they can clear cap space and resigned Pat McCaw a role player on those Warriors championship teams. This will really be the test to see how good of a coach Nick Nurse if he can keep this team afloat to be a playoff team by balancing his young and old talent plus the unproven players or if he fails to make the playoffs. It can go either way because they have the talent to be good enough in a weak East but also not be good enough because there are so many teams that are stacked around them for those final few spots. The Knicks will again be a worst team in the East/whole NBA but have some hope with their young talent because they drafted RJ Barrett with the 3^rd pick this year. They hope he can pair with last year’s 1^st round pick F Kevin Knox, emerging C Mitchell Robinson and PG Dennis Smith Jr who they got from Dallas last year for the Unicorn. They have the cap space to hope next year they get a good free agent because this year they used that money on four power forwards in Taj Gibson, Marcus Morris, Bobby Portis and Julius Randle.

I don’t know why they did this or how you can play them all at once/in a game but that is the enigma that is the New York Knick because it does hide the low-key signings of PG Elfrid Payton to be a backup and veteran guard Wayne Ellington who is good 3-point shooter so you can never figure them out.

Southeast Division: The Heat will make the playoffs this year after missing it last year because of the acquisition of G Jimmy Butler and the subtraction of C Hassan Whiteside who was being paid a lot but didn’t really get along with the program in Miami. Butler’s attitude towards hard work and defense will rub off on players like forwards Justise Winslow, Derrick Jones Jr and G Dion Waiters plus the last two years 1^st round picks in C Bam Adebayo and G Tyler Herro.

The improvements of those players will help PG Goran Dragic not have to carry this team alone because of Butler being there but the others stepping up plus C/F Kelly Olynyk doesn’t have to be the only one to play defense. Head coach Erik Spoelstra always get the most out of his players but with the addition of a two-way all-star that just makes his job easier and in the a weak East they can finish at least 6^th place. The Magic snuck into the playoffs last year based on the improvements of F Aaron Gordon and C Nikola Vucevic making the all-star team plus head coach Steve Clifford getting the most out of his weak backcourt.

They have the same issue again by having too many big men to play and Gordon still has to play SF in some lineups because they still have C Mo Bama and Jonathan Isaac. They are still weak at PG by having Michael Carter Williams and DJ Augustin with Evan Fournier playing there some as well. That’s the biggest reason they traded for G Markelle Fultz was to have a semblance of a starting talent at PG but of course he wasn’t healthy physically or mentally last season. They hope he can get on the court to push the veteran guards to the bench or the wing position because that will determine if they sneak in again or not because other teams improved. The Wizards will not make the playoffs again with or without G Bradley Beal their best player/healthiest/best asset so they should look to trade him. They don’t want to be paying two players that don’t seem to fit or get along that also account for most of the payroll with PG John Wall a question to return this season or next with all that money being paid to him.

They are relying on Ish Smith and Isaiah Thomas to play PG and it’s a net positive that they traded away C Dwight Howard but are relying on Ian Mahinmi, Thomas Bryant and Davis Bertans whom they got from San Antonio to get minutes in the front court. You cannot blame head coach Scott Brooks for this mess but there should be a full-scale rebuild here besides from trading Beal, by trading other veterans. The Hornets will not sniff the playoffs for a very long time because they didn’t resign all-star PG Kemba Walker or trade him for assets at the deadline as he was the only reason they would make the playoffs. Instead they paid PG Terry Rozier who was a backup in Boston and didn’t do much this offseason to improve the team because they are still paying forwards Marvin Williams, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, G Nicolas Batum and C Bismack Biyombo, who are all overpaid role-players. The only sign of hope is the continued development of F Miles Bridges, G Malik Monk an undersized SG who hasn’t played a lot but will this year, and 1^st round pick F PJ Washington.

Outside of that they need to have a fire sale of their veterans or they are going to be bad and with no cap space for a while. The Hawks are on the road to improvement with the runner up for rookie of the year in PG Trae Young, F John Collins and their two 1^st round picks of G DeAndre Hunter and F Cam Reddish. They did bring in more of a veteran presence outside of the ageless wonder G Vince Carter by getting guards Evan Turner, and Allen Crabbe, forwards Chandler Parsons and Jabari Parker to help mentor this very young team, but the only important goal is the improvement of their young core because it’s an uphill battle even in the East for this team to even think playoffs for another few years.

Pacific Division: The Clippers were a surprise playoff team and gave the Warriors trouble in round one with their scrappy and good defensive team that team only gets better in both those categories because they got forwards Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.

They now have two of the best two-way players in the NBA so they now have leaders on offense which this team was lacking but also players who can take over a game by themselves and lead them through tough playoff battles. They also were able to keep that core of PG Patrick Beverley, 3x 6^th man of the year winner G Lou Williams and 6^th man runner up F Montrezl Harrell. They also added three veteran power forwards in Patrick Patterson, JaMychal Green and Moe Harkless to prove depth upfront to help their young C Ivica Zubac. They don’t have a dominating C or PF but have a good source of backcourt players so George or Leonard will see lots of minutes at PF. They have the right head coach in Doc Rivers to handle hall of fame talent but also again get the most out of their role players so they are not scrapping for a playoff spot but a top seed with a chance to win the championship in this era of having two top 10 talent players on one roster. The Lakers will make the playoffs after missing 5 straight years because they traded for C Anthony Davis to pair with an aging F LeBron James plus they realized the built the wrong roster around James.

They added shooters and veterans who know that their roles are in G/F Danny Green (fresh off another championship), G Avery Bradley, F Jared Dudley, brought back G Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, PG Rajon Rondo and C JaVale McGee. The theme is three point shooters who can guard but also veterans who know their roles. The biggest concern is the center position because Davis does not like playing there but he is basically 7ft tall who has been good at rebounding/shoot blocking and defending at the rim plus is a beast down low despite the fact he shoot 3’s. That is why they signed DeMarcus Cousins to play C because they already played together. He is more of an old-school back the basket PF who does his work down low but he tore his ACL ending his season. So they brought in C Dwight Howard again to get some minutes at C with McGee but that could go very wrong which is why Davis is going to have to accept that he has to start at C with F Kyle Kuzma at PF. It will be the battle of Los Angeles for the division and the conference ultimately deciding the championship. The Warriors will be a playoff team because they still have PG Steph Curry, F Draymond Green, SG Klay Thompson will be back in enough time for the playoffs and they got G D’Angelo Russell to help with the load of scoring/handling the ball.

They also made some quiet moves to shore up their frontcourt by resigning their own big man Kevin Looney, snagging Willie Cauley-Stein from the Kings and Marquese Chriss who was only drafted a few years ago but is talented enough for a team not to give him a full chance. People are counting this team out because Kevin Durant left but they still have the same smart front office, same head coach in Steve Kerr and the same trio that led them to a championship before Durant came. They will definitely be competing for a top seed(home court advantage). The only question will be their bench and where they will get the scoring from/leadership off the bench after they traded away F Andre Iguodala and released G Shaun Livingston. Will that be solved from F Alfonzo McKinnie or the veteran guards they brought in Glenn Robinson III and Alec Burks or when Klay comes back will Russell go the bench? Plus who starts at SF and  where does bench scoring come from? The Kings were one of the surprise teams finishing 9^th in a loaded west but that only got their head coach fired which doesn’t make much sense but that means the front office led by Vlade Divac was not that impressed with the improvement as they hired Luke Walton who was fired from the Lakers after having a losing record. They still have a promising young core led by PG De'Aaron Fox, C Marvin Bagley III, G Bogdan Bogdanovic and SF Buddy Hield. After trading for a veteran in SF Harrison Barnes for their stretch run last year they resigned him and also added another veteran SF in Trevor Ariza, G Corey Joseph and C DeWayne Dedmon to provide more veteran leadership for this very young team.

Their biggest issue will not be how will Walton handle this roster with many wing players to manage their minutes, or where they play, it is they have no real PF. They let Stein and Kosta Koufos go which means Bagley is cleared to play C but will they play Barnes or Ariza at PF or will they give Nemanja Bjelica first crack at PF with 5 other unproven guys on this roster behind him? Even if they solve PF and their wing players’ roles they are in the group with 4 other teams who are not horrible but not good enough to make the playoffs in a deep west. The Suns will again be the worst team in the west/worst team in the NBA because every other team is better but it doesn’t mean they don’t have talent.

The real reason is their front office have had four general managers since Bryan Colangelo left after just hiring James Jones this year while they haven’t been able to draft well/put that talent together or have stability at HC, outside of Alvin Gentry’s medium run as they’ve also had 7 head coaches since Mike D’Antoni left them after hiring Monty Williams this year. They have an all-star caliber SG in Devin Booker, last year’s 1^st overall pick in C Deandre Ayton, last year’s 10^th overall pick F Mikal Bridges, and drafted two players in the 1^st round this year like F Cameron Johnson for a young core. They filled the hole at PG and PF by signing Ricky Rubio to be the best facilitator since Steve Nash and got Dario Saric to space the floor for Booker and Ayton since he is a good stretch four. The odd thing they did was giving up a 1^st round pick next year to get someone late in round 1 this year and picked up C Aron Baynes when they have Ayton but had other needs. They did bring back F Kelly Oubre Jr to lead the bench but brought in F Frank Kaminsky who is a stretch four who hasn’t gotten the playing time he should have gotten in Charlotte but with Saric he will again not get enough minutes and the young guys this roster should be getting those minutes anyway. 

Northwest Division: The Nuggets shocked many with their top seed/playoff run that ended in a game 7 loss in the 2^nd round but they will again be a top seed because of how deep their team is. They still have a top center in Nikola Jokic, former all-star PF Paul Millsap and the continued growth of PG Jamal Murray who only can get better after the improved season he had last season.

They also still have a deep team with Will Barton, Gary Harris and Malik Beasley at SG, plus they get last year’s 1^st round pick SF Michael Porter Jr who was one of college’s best scorers/3 point shooters back from injury after he missed the whole season to add to this deep team. They also added veterans F Jerami Grant and centers Tyler Zeller, 2^nd pick Bol Bol son of Manute to help out Mason Plumlee up front off the bench. With head coach Mike Malone who could have won coach of the year last year they have hope he can figure out the rotation for a team so deep to help them get a top seed this year because he did it so well last year. The Trailblazers finished with a top 4 seed and played the Warriors in the conference finals after beating Denver in 7 games because of their dynamic backcourt duo of PG Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum. That will again be their strength but questions still remain in the front court after not getting any production from their forwards and lost their 3^rd best player C Jusuf Nurkic to an injury during the 2^nd half of the season, who will not join the team till probably the 2^nd half of this season.

They hope by getting SF Kent Bazemore they can finally solidify that position because he’s one of the most underrated player in the league as a two-way player a 3&D player to just do his job on his team. They did get a mix of new players to fill out the rest of the front court in C/F Pau Gasol, F Anthony Tolliver, C Hassan Whiteside to fill in till Nurkic comes back and failed Magic 1^st round pick F Mario Hezonja who they hope can be a 3pt shooter off the bench to help G Rodney Hood with bench scoring who they resigned. Whiteside has never lived up to his potential or played consistently the best case scenario is the change of scenery does him well to fill in till Nurkic comes back and he becomes a backup but playing alongside Gasol should also help him mature plus Gasol is better suited at PF anyways. Their backcourt strength will keep them as a playoff team but in this deep west their ceiling is a 5^th seed at most because of the questions is in the front court. The Jazz will compete for a top seed in the loaded west like last year because they still have G Donovan Mitchell who in year 3 will get better and C Rudy Gobert the reigning defensive player of the year leading this team but also because they improved at PG. They got PG Mike Conley one of the most underrated two-way/most consistent players in the NBA who is always a top 10 PG.

So with his leadership it will help Mitchell grow but also help Gobert get the ball more plus he can hit a clutch shot when/take over a game when needed. The move I don’t understand was trading away PF Derek Favors who had been one of the most consistent players almost averaging a double-double most games and it also was intimidating have him at 6’10 with Gobert as a 7fter covering the paint to deter players from entering it. They want to be like more teams playing with one big man I get it but this team has no real power forwards outside of Ed Davis who they got and he is a role player/backup. They did get F Jeff Green and F Bojan Bogdanovic to provide some scoring but they are more of stretch four than a real PF, but they will certainly help F Joe Ingles with the scoring in the front court. A lineup of Conley, Mitchell, Ingles, Bogdanovic and Gobert can be scary but they have lots of competition including two teams in their own division to get a top 5 seed. The Timberwolves will be on those five teams in the west who are in the “middle” as they aren’t good enough to make the playoffs but also not bad enough to tank. Their starting lineup of C Karl-Anthony Towns, G Andrew Wiggins, F Robert Covington, newly acquired PF Jordan Bell who doesn’t have to play center finally and PG Jeff Teague is solid but solid is not good enough in the deep west but in the east that would be a playoff team because of how talented Towns is.

The main issue with this team is the consistency of Towns and the fact that Wiggins has not lived up to his #1 overall potential because of his talent. They also still have one of the best backup centers in the NBA in Gorgui Dieng and added nice role players in F Noah Vonleh and PG Shabazz Napier but those two are also players like Wiggins who have not lived up their potential so again nice overall core 8 players but this team has lots of building they need to do. That all starts with a new head coach in Ryan Saunders son of the late Flip Saunders who was the interim last year becoming the youngest head coach in history to guide this team in hopes of a better future,but that all hinges on  Towns and Wiggins if either of them are a part of the future going further. The Thunder have traded away over the years forwards Jeff Green, Serge Ibaka, Paul George, guards Russell Westbrook, James Harden and SF Kevin Durant left in free agency so look at the talent that has left these doors this would signal a full scale rebuild with Westbrook and George being the latest ones to leave. But this one of those 5 teams stuck in the “middle” not good enough to make the playoffs but not bad enough to tank. They still have a top center in Steven Adams, C Nerlens Noel, PG Dennis Schroder, and their own great defensive G Andre Roberson, and acquired in those trades of future hall of famer in PG Chris Paul, F Danilo Gallinari, and signed F/C Mike Muscala.

They also got five 1^st round picks, the rights to swap two other 1^st round picks plus G Shai Gilgeous-Alexander a 1^st round pick in 2018 from the Clippers. They are trying to rebuild by having all those draft picks, Gilgeous-Alexander plus the young players they already have in guards Hamidou Diallo, Terrance Ferguson and F Abdel Nader. They have all of those veterans too which equals a solid team to make the playoffs in the east but not in the loaded west. If they truly want to rebuild they need to trade at least Paul and Adams but maybe others as well. 

Southwest Division: The Rockets instead of blowing up the whole thing after again missing out on the finals again they decided to reboot their team by shipping out PG Chris Paul for PG Russell Westbrook. The biggest question will be how can two ball dominate players work together in G James Harden and Westbrook, but also because of how good Harden was as PG a few seasons ago as their combined successes come from controlling the game/the ball.

The hope is Harden can play off the ball more because he is a much better shooter/3pt shooter which is weakness of Westbrook but can provide in other facets of the game like rebounding. They did also shore up the front court by resigning PF Nene, brought back F Ryan Anderson who they traded before the start of last season, for both to provide scoring at PF and C Tyson Chandler to backup C Clint Capela. They also resigned G Austin Rivers and F Gerald Green to keep consistency and scoring off the bench to keep helping out G Eric Gordon plus signed F Thabo Sefolosha to help guard wing players so F PJ Tucker doesn’t have to do it all by himself. They have a good shot at being a top see because of how deep and talented they are but it could all blow up in their face if their duo does not get along. Spurs fans don’t you worry your team will continue to have the consecutive playoff appearances streak with 23 this season but that is all you should celebrate about because the 8^th seed is their ceiling in a loaded west. They still are the best coached team in the league because of head coach Gregg Popovich who always get the most out of his players and develops players into good roles players that no one has heard of.

Their duo is G DeMar Derozan and PF LaMarcus Aldridge who could not lead a team on their own very far let alone together plus their strengths are mid-range game which is not the game we play in the current NBA. They resigned SF Rudy Gay, traded for SF DeMarre Carroll, signed PF Trey Lyles and still have guards Marco Belinelli and Patty Mills which adds up to another nice core of veterans but nothing amazing in this conference. It will be about the young talent of guards Derek White, Dejounte Murray and Lonnie Walker IV plus C Jakob Poeltl that will really separate them from 8^th seed or 9^th seed. The Mavericks hope with the duo of forwards Luka Doncic the reigning rookie of the year and Kristaps Porzingis who will return from his injury at some point this year will lead them to consecutive playoff appearances but first we need to see if the “Unicorn” is healthy enough. In a loaded west they are one of the five teams who are in the “middle” not bad enough to tank but good enough to make the playoffs this year.

They finally got the center they always wanted when Tyson Chandler left so many years ago in C DeAndre Jordan but traded him away to get the “Unicorn” plus their starting PG who was their 1^st round pick two years ago in Dennis Smith Jr, so going forward who will be their PG and C? Signing C Boban Marjanovic was nice but he will be in a rotation of power forwards with Dwight Powell and Maxi Kleber because the ‘Unicorn” is going to play PF. Doncic is a point-forward which is why they could trade away Smith Jr., so they either need a scoring guard at PG or a good defender to guard the top PGs in the league. The combination of Courtney Lee, JJ Barea, Tim Hardaway Jr and brought back Seth Curry who played there two seasons ago is a nice one but the issue is nice can get you in the playoffs in the east but it is not good enough in the loaded West. The center position and who plays the guards plus the health of Porzingis will be what hold them back going forward as this year will be at least be a season of improvement record wise. The Pelicans finally traded away C Anthony Davis after the drama last season where he wasn’t traded at the deadline which signals the beginning of the rebuild plus they had the 1^st pick in the draft which they used on F Zion Williamson.

They got PG Lonzo Ball, SG Josh Hart, and F Brandon Ingram from the Lakers, signed SG JJ Reddick, and traded for PF Derrick Favors plus retained big man Jahlil Okafor. There are lots of the questions for head coach Alvin Gentry with all of this talent like if he is going to star former all-star PG Jrue Holiday at PG with Reddick which would put Ball on the bench or start ball with Holiday. Another question will be which forward position Zion starts at because he is not tall enough to be a PF but not a good enough shooter to be a SF which will impact where Ingram plays. That also impacts if you start Favors at PF with their other 1^st round pick Jaxson Hayes at center or if you go small with Favors at center. With all of this young and seasoned talent they have a chance to be win more games but will fall into the “middle” with four other teams that are not bad enough to tank but not good enough to make the playoffs in a loaded west. The Grizzlies will be towards the bottom of this loaded conference for a while but they are going in the right direction with this rebuild with the trades of C Marc Gasol at the deadline last season and trading PG Mike Conley this offseason. They drafted PG Ja Morant with the 2nd pick this year and C Jaren Jackson Jr with the 4^th pick last year to build a solid young duo going forward. They also hired a new coach who is one of the youngest in Taylor Jenkins who has cut his teeth being an assistant for six years after having their previous coach for one and half seasons hoping he guide this young team in the right direction going forward.

They did resign C Jonas Valanciunas, and brought in C Miles Plumlee to provide depth upfront but the question will be with Gasol gone will Jackson play C or PF because those two are also centers. They also took flyers on young players like guards Tyus Jones, Grayson Allen and F Josh Jackson in hopes they can fill out the rest of this roster going forward in the future like they did with SF Kyle Anderson last year. The issue is SF Andre Iguodala who they got in a trade does not want to be there/they don’t need him if they aren’t going anywhere so look for him, forwards Jae Crowder and Solomon Hill to also not stick around for the full season to continue to get draft picks or young players in return which is what they have been doing to continue this rebuild.