The NBA Season is Back…and We Don’t Know Anything, and That’s Okay!
The 77 th NBA season began on October 18, with the Golden State Warriors receiving their championship rings for defeating the Boston Celtics in six games in the NBA Finals. A new season brings new hope, the possibility of possibility springing forth optimism across the Association. Well, except for San Antonio Spurs legendary coach Gregg Popovich. But that’s Pop for you.
Anyway, at the beginning of the year is where the groundwork is laid for things like predictions and early bets for seeding, win totals, award winners and champions. It also breeds the overreactions that will shift as the season unfolds. This leads me to the very simple but very obviously overlooked idea we know: None of us know anything about what’s going to happen.
Well, that’s not entirely true. But it is true in the grand scheme of the NBA. And not only us not knowing much of how things will play out something we know, but it is also what we want as fans. I’m old enough to remember when it was lamented that Warriors and LeBron’s Cavs were going to meet in the Finals—something that was so rare in sports—but we grew to expect it. But basketball, like sports—like life—is about the journey, even more than the destination. But the best journeys involve not knowing what we’ll meet along the way as well as what lies at the end of them. And as much as I am imploring you to understand the beauty in the curiosity of not knowing what’s ahead, there are things in this NBA season that we already know. Here are a few.
There will be surprises. There will be disappointments
Just last season, most of the basketball realm expected the Los Angeles Lakes and the Brooklyn Nets to contend for the championship. Neither team won a playoff game, with the Nets being swept by the Milwaukee Bucks and the Lakers finishing outside of the play-in game. On the positive side, the Cleveland Cavaliers wee as high as third in the Eastern Conference before injuries hindered their season; and the Memphis Grizzlies finished with the second-best record in the West. Players like DeMar DeRozan and Devin Booker were surprise MVP candidates for a while, while players lie Julius Randle had subpar seasons after being All-Stars in 2021. Point is, we know there will be surprised, but we do not know what all those surprises will ultimately be. The other end of that spectrum is knowing the same two teams will be in the Finals, thus cheapening the overall season for those who don’t appreciate the journey.
Players Will Be Traded
Speculation has already begun on which players will be traded during the year. WE already know this will happen, as there are multiple trades every year. As teams settle into where they’ll be contenders or sellers, names will be brought up to position teams for the playoffs or for the Draft. Last year, the James Harden-Ben Simmons swap headlined the transactions before the deadline. WE may have an idea of who is likely to be dealt. But with the season a week old, we do not know the state of enough teams to determine who is on the block. That remains to be seen. Check back in after Christmas.
Teams Will Be Tanking for Victor Wembanyama
This brings me to my next point. There are at least a few teams that have already decided that they will be placing themselves in a position to have the best chance to land th most ping pong balls to secure the number one pick in next year’s NBA Draft. Now, tanking is not a philosophy players and coaches subscribe to. Winning and being productive on winning teams add to job security. Being on a losing team means one’s stay in the NB is unsafe, especially if that player or coach hasn’t established themselves in the Association. Nonetheless, even as this affects the livelihood of the people on these teams, front offices have put those teams in a position to have a product on the floor that will hopefully win the least games this year. Tickets are still the same price. Concessions are no cheaper. That does not matter as much as it does the hope of landing such a generational player. For the team that gets Wembanyama, they succeeded in failing upwards. For the teams that don’t, well, trust the process, I suppose. But then again maybe one of those teams surprise and do better than their roster suggests. I mean, the Utah Jazz have starter 2-0 with both wins coming against playoff teams from last year.
One of my favorite quotations, even before the show Ted Lasso used it, is from Walt Whitman. “Be curious. Never judgmental.” While making predictions and educated guesses on how the season will go doesn’t necessarily make one judgmental or incapable of finding fun in watching, the curiosity is what draws us in and makes us appreciative of what we’re witnessing unfold. The beauty of sports, especially basketball, is that greatness is in front of us and we don’t fully know all the ways it will manifest. Sore, we know that if healthy, our superstars will be their highly productive selves on a consistent basis. But in the wonder of what could happen, we allow possibility to lead us instead of judgment. If the destination was all that mattered, there would be no season recaps or regular season awards. Honor the entirety of what’s to come with the wonder of not knowing everything that’s to come.