NBA Survival Guide: LeBron James, Steph Curry and 8 big questions to start the season

There are questions that need answers in every NBA season. Here are eight that pique my interest as 2024-25 tips off Tuesday night:

The Celtics are the defending champions, not the Nuggets like we anticipated going into last year. So, even with MVP Nikola Jokić, is Denver done winning?

It’s impossible to say “yes,” but the temptation is to say “yes.” There’s an MVP in the prime of his career, showing very little drop-off. Nikola Jokić, so long as he doesn’t get bored with the game or competition, stands to be the best player. And the bones of the team are still the squad that had a dominant run to the 2023 title. But the NBA’s punitive cap system could be the thing that prevents the one-time champions from doing it again.

Parity is what Adam Silver cherishes, having owners believe it’s a near certainty they can both make a profit and compete. What it takes away from, though, is the possibility of a team going on a dynastic run once it has reached full Voltron. The Celtics, while up for sale, have gone all-in with salaries and no mind to the tax — that’s not the case with the Nuggets.

(Dillon Minshall/Yahoo Sports Illustration)

It’s a fine line Silver has to walk, with all these new owners coming into the league, billionaires paying big money to own franchises that are no longer a vanity object in a portfolio. It’s a real investment owners expect a return on — and they also want to break up the Lakers-Celtics monopoly on championships.

Since 1984, the year the NBA playoffs expanded to four rounds and 16 teams, seven franchises have won 33 of the 40 NBA titles: the Lakers, Celtics, Bulls, Spurs, Warriors, Pistons and Heat. It’s Silver’s dream to have more regular-season games be somewhat meaningful as opposed to the titanic ones that occur just a few times a year. It’s an admirable goal, especially with the new media rights deal kicking in next season, with national TV games on every night.

So how does this affect the Nuggets, a team that just won their first title in 2023? They can’t retain key players on the margins — Bruce Brown and Jeff Green — on top of losing a key…

Source link : https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/nba-survival-guide-lebron-james-steph-curry-and-8-big-questions-to-start-the-season-152504923.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-10-22 15:25:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.