NBA Tips

Ok, now is time, you can say goodbye to your mornings with some silly tv show, because starting from tomorrow until late June, every ounce of your morning lucidity will be used to open the NBA app and verify if Russell Westbrook managed to get a triple-double in 19 minutes, coach Pop get Rachel Nichols cry during the daily interview, and Steph Curry dropped his classic shot from the Oracle Arena parking lot.

Oh yes, after the moths of abstinence following the assumed victory (so they say) of the Golden State Warriors in the last NBA Finals, with subsequent bandwagoning of people who switched from hating Kevin Durant to thinking of him as the legitimate ruler of the Seven Kingdoms, the National Basketball Association is about to start again.

The new season will be long - when they asked who was in favor for a decrease of the Regular Season games, we rose our hands - seesawing, as the usual rest time for some superstars, will make several games less enjoyable, but for sure interesting, as the free agency moved many more balances and creating many more variables that one could think.

All good, all interesting, but of course the things we care the most are the style/swag of the league and all the stories that - besides the technical/tactical POV - will be given to us by the 1230 regular season games… Plus the playoffs. As we said, it’s going to be a long season. Nevertheless, here are some things that could make the waiting for the umpteenth, unavoidable Cavs-Warriors final a little more interesting.

Big Joel

After getting the highest salary/minutes played rate since Quaresma’s days at Inter FC, “The Process” - that this year, if he won’t play at his best, will be process(ed) - got some impressive stats in the pre-season with his 76ers. But the figures that we care about are these ones: 927K followers on Twitter and 1,2M followers on Instagram, social platforms where Embiid gives his best. The pre-season worked also as training for this, as he already got to start a social war with Hassan Whiteside. 

The Town v The Land

It’s true that “all good games must come to an end”, but if the game in question involves some of the best players in the world, there’s no reason to stop it right now. The super-clash between Team LeBron and Team Steph was elevated by new teammates that will make everything more interesting. On the Bay, almost nothing has changed, but the second year of the Curry-Thompson-Durant-Green quartet could make them as Guardiola’s 2009 Barcelona: unstoppable.

Some interesting changes happened in Ohio, with Irving departure (Cavs’ tipoff will be against his Celtics), the arrival of a furious Isaiah Thomas - that won’t be able to play until January - and the umpteenth attempt of rebirth by Derrick Rose. So, technical-tactical aspects aside, this new chapter of the soap opera will be interesting to follow also for the constant banters between the two teams. Who do you think will spark this clash this year? And why Draymond Green?

Nike x NBA

Speaking about aesthetic and style, the most obvious news has to be the new sponsorship deal with the league, which switched to Nike after all the years with adidas. The first changing by the Swoosh is already under our eyes, like the new system of uniforms for the franchises, and we will see many others in the next months. The new jerseys will also present for the first time the sponsor patch in the upper-left part of the front, ruining for the first time the purity of the NBA uniforms. Business is business.

All-Star Game

During summer, while the free agency was little by little unbalancing the league, some clever man in the offices on the 5th Avenue probably thought something like: “If we don’t change anything, on February LeBron will be on vacation in Malibù”. And as an All-Star Game without King James is not desirable (money, money, money), the new version considers of two captains - the two most voted athletes, we bet one will be from Ohio and one from California - that will be able to pick their teammates. Sharp words aside, finally we will see a possibility to revitalize a format that in the last years gave us almost nothing good.

Milos

Ever for people that, just like me, can’t be considered as Euroleague masters, the name of Milos Teodosic evoke angelic visions of behind-the-back passes, visionary assists made with a compass, and the iconic emotionless face expression of the Serbian player.  After making the Euroleague his b… beloved competition, during the pre-season Milos, gave to the American supporters the idea that they can fall in love with him. We’re sure that he will accomplish this goal, and in fact, we created a gif column on our Facebook page called #TeodosicThursday. Because Thursdays are a bad day and Milos can help improve them.

Ball Family

Before reading this, you have to know at least something about the Ball Family. If you don’t, you can catch up here. Very well, now we can all agree on the fact that the “L Gang” - Lonzo, LaVar, LaMelo, and LiAngelo - are the male, basketball version of the Kardashians, with thunderous statements, bickering with many people (even His Airness), a family brand and an indisputable talent for basketball. This very last point make us think that Lonzo, at his rookie year with the Lakers, will be able to free himself of his father’s media power, leaving us to enjoy the Lavar show.

NBA v Donald Trump

We close with a matter that has nothing funny at all. If you followed the continuous debate between the US President Donald Trump and the NFL, you will surely know that the matter touched also the NBA, even with the fall (at least for this year) of the usual visit of the reigning champions to the White House. Judgments and opinions have to be made with further and more complete reflexions, but we can say that this polemic will last longer than the thought and that - soon or later - the NBA will become a main character of the matter. We hope there won’t be worst consequences that the ones we already have.