Lauri Markkanen possesses a combination of size and skill level that immediately places him in the conversation of which guys have potential to eventually end up becoming the number one overall pick. Read more »

From teams waiting for one break to be contenders to young players coming into their own to new faces in new places, there are all sorts of reasons to watch all 30 teams this season. Read more »

The Warriors will be beautiful. They'll run others off the court with sheer force of talent. You won't be able to hate the Warriors, or your hate will be grim and resigned and insufficient. Read more »

How Tom Thibodeau will use Karl-Anthony Towns on offense, finding a backcourt partner for Russell Westbrook, Evan Turner's fit with Portland, Quin Snyder's false ation offense and whether one of Denver's young guards will emerge as a foundational piece. Read more »

J.R. Smith is 31 years old. He's a not a screw-up or a clown or a locker room cancer or a jerk or a fraud or a lunatic or a dolt. He's a man with regrets, and he's better today than he has ever been before: a world champion with a contract that's going to put his grandkids through college. Read more »

On Al Horford's impact on an already good Boston defense, how the Knicks can move away from the Triangle, whether the Nets should keep Brook Lopez, how Toronto will replace Bismack Biyombo and Brett Brown's Spurs-style offense with Philadelphia. Read more »

The Raptors are not going to win a title with this squad, but in our lives we have to accept when absolute success is beyond us and resolve to have fun regardless. They're making the best of the league they're living in. Read more »

The Wolves' rise from an intriguing young collective into one with teeth will be unsteady and hard and painful. Tom Thibodeau is apt to appreciate this, he has always been more obsessed with the grind of his craft than its capacity for glory. Read more »

Peak Tony Parker had added to the characteristic slipperiness of his game an unanticipated degree of intelligence and polish. For maybe six months or a year around 2013, Parker was the best point guard in the league. Read more »

The Wizards are discouraging through some fault of their own, but they're also discouraging because they're emblematic of a broader, irksome problem, which is that the East only ever seems to have one, maybe two, title contenders. Read more »

Bringing out the best in Julius Randle, Marquese Chriss' dark horse ROY case, Golden State's young depth, Sacramento's improved ball movement and the Clippers' giant hole at small forward. Read more »

There's no perfect way out of this, but it is a poignant conundrum: what does a player do when given the choice between acceptance and self-expression? More to the point, will Dion Waiters stay burnishing his myth, or is it time he joined reality? Read more »

The Lakers don't need to immediately find out what Brandon Ingram is best at. They need to be taking notes of all the things he's good at. That requires patience and maybe even experimenting with him at center. Read more »

This is going to be a brutal 82-game slog into anti-heroicity. As a character study, it's intriguing. We're pretty sure we've accepted Russell Westbrook's flaws. He's going to test that acceptance, continually, for six months, until we break or he does. Read more »

This season isn’t a make-or-break year. But Jabari Parker's growth is critical for a growing team that needs him to do more than roam off the ball, stand in the corner and attack in transition. With the ball in his hands, he'll have to make plays for others, read help defenders and knock down a higher percentage of his outside shots. Read more »

The Bulls have enough talent not to be awful this year but they could have been something more promising than this. They got out from under Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah only to replace them with two more past-it vets. They're new-look, but in a dispiriting way. Read more »

If Damian Lillard's off-court persona is practiced and word-perfectly inoffensive, his game is its shadowy inverse: flashy, improvisational, angry. He creates chaos then surfs along the top of it. Read more »

James Harden will be in a position to easily score or assist on essentially every possession he's in the game, for a team that threatens to increase the number of possessions per game to previously unseen numbers. Read more »

There are teams that give you nothing. Or, that is not fair: there are teams that leave no impression upon you. Right now, the Nuggets are one of those teams. Read more »

How Bismack Biyombo may fit with Nikola Vucevic, big roles for Dwight Howard and Dennis Schroder, whether Erik Spoelstra can bring out the best in Goran Dragic, gauging Scott Brooks' coaching chops and the narrative of the Hornets. Read more »