The Nuggets and Jazz will largely look the same, while the Blazers addressed their depth issues, Minnesota looks for a third star, and the Thunder begin their aggressive rebuild. Read more »
Basketball Analysis
20-21 NBA Season Preview: Northwest Division
Thirty Futures: New York Knicks
R.J. Barrett has the kind of broad, amorphous ability that you can project your desires onto. He is the idea of home ownership, the haze-engulfed outline of a better self. Read more »
Thirty Futures: Oklahoma City Thunder
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will get a chance to explore the limits of what he can do as a number one option, which will be fun, until the losses begin to pile up and the malaise sets in. Read more »
Kyrie Irving Is Not Wrong For Wanting Out Of The Media Gaze
It's easier to write Kyrie Irving off as immature, crazy, or stupid than actually consider the veracity and validity of what he says. Read more »
Thirty Futures: Toronto Raptors
The Raptors, with everything else more or less fixed, will be as extraordinary as Pascal Siakam is. Read more »
20-21 NBA Season Preview: Southeast Division
While the Heat hope to return to The Finals, the Wizards, Hawks, Hornets and Magic are in the crowded morass of teams from 7-12 hoping for a spot in the play-in tournament. Read more »
Thirty Futures: Cleveland Cavaliers
When a player demands not to suffer from circumstances he helped create, he's not exactly correct, in any moral sense, but professional sports is not about morals. It's big business, legalized and marginally more civil mafia activity. Read more »
Thirty Futures: Los Angeles Clippers
After you wash out of the playoffs in mortifying fashion, it's best to go away for a while. Let the media train its squirrel-brained fascination on a different subject. Paul George has done the opposite. Read more »
20-21 NBA Season Preview: Pacific Division
While the Lakers are trying to repeat and the Clippers are trying to figure out what wrong, the Suns and Kings are seeking their first playoff berths in ages, and the Warriors want to stave off another gap year. Read more »
Luka, Zion And Chasing The Blogger's High
You can't call what Luka and Zion make basketball fans feel "nostalgia" because a lot of them aren't old enough to have felt anything like it before. They have a complete mastery of not knowing what's going to happen next. Read more »
Thirty Futures: Minnesota Timberwolves
Karl-Anthony Towns has a lot in common with Chris Webber at the same age. He's a less interesting cultural figure, he shares his mid-career mould-breaking offensive ability, a mercurial personality, and a creeping fraudulence. Read more »
Thirty Futures: Orlando Magic
If you were worried Markelle Fultz might be out of the league soon, you could put that fear away. It took him nearly the entirety of his rookie contract, but he has proven that he can hang. Read more »
Thirty Futures: Washington Wizards
John Wall won his quiet civil war with Bradley Beal in one respect: he is the proper heir to Gilbert Arenas, the marquee Wizards star of his era, beloved in D.C. Read more »
What's Better Than Championships? Joakim Noah
In Joakim Noah, those of us in Chicago watching the game for a kind of insurgent anti-Goliath defiance found our ultimate hero. Read more »
Thirty Futures: Portland Trail Blazers
Any basketball league that doesn't have room for Jusuf Nurkic is headed in the wrong direction. He's built his career on massiveness but also a mind as agile as any guard in the league. Read more »
Thirty Futures: Boston Celtics
Kemba Walker is 30, and small guards tend to age in dog years. This is partially because they get knocked around more violently than guys the size of Kawhi Leonard, but also because they need all their athleticism in order to survive. Read more »
Thirty Futures: Denver Nuggets
Jamal Murray himself often looks like he's guessing at what kind of night he's going to have. Intention and outcome doesn't line up perfectly for anybody, but with him the variance pitches past the axes of the chart. Read more »
Thirty Futures: Indiana Pacers
It's been a tumultuous couple of years for Victor Oladipo, who burned out almost as quickly as he rose to prominence. Read more »
The Small Market Energy Of Free Agency Panic
Despite historical evidence to the contrary, some argue this strain of superstar liberation is novel and it's here to obliterate the league. Read more »
Thirty Futures: Charlotte Hornets
Gordon Hayward is moving to Charlotte to stack ends, buy property, and play relatively pressure-free ball. That is getting older, for a lot of people. You give up a little bit, and realize it feels okay. Read more »
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