What to Look Forward to this NBA Season
The 2019-20 NBA season gets underway Tuesday, October 22, with a pair of games that have fans giddy with anticipation. One of the matchups, the Lakers and Clippers, highlights exactly what will make the new season memorable. Both teams feature a new super-duo made possible by last offseason’s free agency period.
Superstar Pairs
The league will feature three new superstar pairs that include the Lakers LeBron James and Anthony Davis and the Clippers Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. Leonard, last year’s NBA Finals MVP, may be the game’s best two-way player and now he has George, who averaged over 28 points a game last year, to complement him.
James, one of the greatest of all-time, teams up with the 6-10 Davis to form a duo that should guide the Lakers to a postseason berth for the first time in seven seasons. The Clippers’ and Lakers’ pairs are not the only one in the Western Conference.
Houston went out and got former MVP Russell Westbrook to pair with another former MVP and last year’s scoring champion James Harden. The Houston backcourt now has two of the most explosive scorers the NBA has to offer.
The New Golden State
Kevin Durant left the Warriors to join the Brooklyn Nets this past offseason. Klay Thompson tore an ACL in the very last NBA Finals game. Thompson is not expected to play at all during the 2019-20 season. The Warriors will still have two-time MVP Stephen Curry and All-Star Draymond Green. Golden State also acquired D’Angelo Russell in free agency. It will be a new look for the Warriors.
No Sleep ‘Til Brooklyn
Speaking of Brooklyn, not only did Durant join the Nets but so did Kyrie Irving. Durant tore an Achilles tendon during the postseason last year and there is no timetable for his return in 2019-20. Still, one has to like the Nets’ chances of returning to the postseason.
Wait for Zion
No. 1 overall draft pick Zion Williamson had a very good preseason finishing with a double-double against San Antonio. The only problem was that he did injure a knee in the game. He had surgery to repair a torn meniscus and will miss six to eight weeks. Williamson will miss somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 to 30 games and should return to the lineup before Christmas.