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The NBA tipped off with two games featuring the Philadelphia 76ers versus the Eastern conference champion Boston Celtics at 7:30 and the prime time game of the Los Angeles Lakers versus the NBA champion Golden State Warriors who will receive their rings and look to get back to their winning ways.

First let’s start off with the Celtics versus 76ers game and go through some of the key matchups to look for, for the 76ers some things that I am looking for are how will James Harden look in his first game after a disappointing postseason, will Tyrese Maxey take the next step and become the pivotal third scorer on this team? How will Joel Embiid play against Celtics defensive shut down Robert Williams lll. 

The Celtics are coming off an off-season filled with drama, including head coach Ime Udoka who got suspended for the season and the Jaylen Brown trade rumors. This Celtics team has a good chance to win the east this year and make it back to the finals but one of the key things to look for is how will Malcolm Brogdon fit into this Celtics roster?

For the Golden State Warriors they will receive the rings from last season and one thing to look for is how will the team respond after all the Draymond Green drama and how will the chemistry be affected going into this game? 

The Lakers are one of the more interesting teams this year as their ceiling is as high as winning the championship and as low as missing the playoffs completely. One of the biggest talking points of the off-season has been Lakers point guard Russell Westbrook who looks completely disconnected from the team and how will the Lakers utilize Westbrook in this game, The Lakers have a surplus of good point guards and Lakers head coach Darvin ham has to navigate how to utilize them.

First let’s start out with Warriors guard Jordan Poole, Poole and the Golden State Warriors have agreed to a four year extension worth $140 Million Dollars which averages out to $35 million a year. Poole has been a great developmental player for the Warriors in his three years with the team, the Warriors guard is going into his fourth year and will be making $4 million dollars before his extension kicks in the summer of 2023. 

    The Warriors have seen a steady increase in Poole’s averages over the last three years with Poole averaging 8.5 points on 33% shooting as a rookie, then averaged 12.0 points on 43% shooting in 2020-21 and increased his average again to 18.5 points on 45% shooting last season. With Poole being seen as the third splash brother and a key piece to this organization for the future there was no question Jordan was going to get this extension after playing a big part to help the Warriors in the Championship last season.

    Now for Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins he signed a smaller deal with the club which was a four year deal worth $109 million and Wiggins will now be tied to the Warriors for the next half decade for $143 million which averages out to just under $30 million a year which is a steal for a player of Wiggins stature and overall play on the court. 

Wiggins is now entering his third year with the Warriors after being traded for in the 2020 offseason for now Timberwolves guard D’Angelo Russell, at first most media and fans were outraged by the Warriors trade and how Wiggins was on a bad contract in Minnesota but after two strong seasons with the Warriors that narrative has quickly flipped as to know this new extension with the Warriors is now considered to be a team friendly contract and with Wiggins leaving over $10 million a year on the table it’s no secret Wiggins has really found himself a place to call home and he has said multiple times how much he values this organization.

The NBA released their yearly survey asking all 30 NBA general managers fifty questions including Most valuable player, defensive player of the year, coach of the year, who will come out of each conference…so on and so forth. Let’s go through some of the poll results and give me takes on whether I agree or disagree with the results from the survey. I will put the official survey at the bottom of the article if you’d like to look at all the survey results. 

    Which team will win the 2023 NBA Finals?

1. Milwaukee Bucks – 43% 

2. Golden State Warriors – 25%

3. LA Clippers – 21%

4. Boston Celtics – 11%

My thoughts: Milwaukee should be the overwhelming favorites to win the chip, I believe the Clippers are too high considering injury history to Kawhi and Paul George and whether or not they can stay healthy, Golden State and Boston I agree on where they rank.  

Who will win the 2022-23 Kia MVP?

1. Luka Doncic, Dallas – 48%

2. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee – 34%

3. Joel Embiid, Philadelphia – 14%

4. Stephen Curry, Golden State – 3%

My thoughts: I don’t think Luka Doncic should be the overwhelming favorite but he should be number one, I agree with numbers one and two on this list but I think Embiid and Curry should not be on here due to the fact they both can’t seem to stay healthy for 70 of the 82 games. 

Which team made the best overall moves this offseason?

1. Cleveland Cavaliers – 41%

T-2. Minnesota Timberwolves – 17%

T-2. Philadelphia 76ers – 17%

T-2. Utah Jazz – 17%

My thoughts: This list is pretty close to perfect, I don’t think the Timberwolves should be this high on the list due to how much they gave up for Rudy Gobert but overall good list. 

Which one player acquisition will make the biggest impact?

1. Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland – 59%

2. Rudy Gobert, Minnesota – 31%

3. Jalen Brunson, New York – 7%

4. P.J. Tucker, Philadelphia – 3%

My thoughts: My only change with this would be Malcolm Brogdon should at least replace P.J Tucker as Brogdon will make a big impact for the Celtics with ball handling. 

Which team will be most improved in 2021-22?

1. LA Clippers – 41%

T-2. Cleveland Cavaliers – 17%

T-2. New Orleans Pelicans – 17%

4. Minnesota Timberwolves – 10%

My thoughts: I simply agree with the list 

Who will win the 2022-23 Rookie of the Year?

1. Paolo Banchero, Orlando – 79%

2. Keegan Murray, Sacramento – 17%

3. Jabari Smith, Houston – 3%

My thoughts: With Chet Holmgren out for the season it makes sense Paolo is the overwhelming favorite and from what we’ve seen from Keegan Murray in the summer league he should be number two. 

Who is the best defensive player in the NBA?

1. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee – 48%

2. Draymond Green, Golden State – 24%

3. Rudy Gobert, Minnesota – 10%

My thoughts: This list is perfect, Giannis is the overwhelming favorite as he should be and while Draymond’s defense doesn’t show up in the box score his presence is what makes Golden State as a team way better on the floor. 

Who is the best head coach in the NBA?

1. Erik Spoelstra, Miami – 52%

2. Steve Kerr, Golden State – 22%

T-3. Gregg Popovich, San Antonio – 7%

T-3. Monty Williams, Phoenix – 7%

5. Tyronn Lue, LA Clippers – 5%

    My thoughts: I agree with the list but I would change up where people rank, Erik Spoelstra is by far the best coach in the NBA but Tyronn Lue is way too low on this list, Lue should be top three or at least tied with Greg Popovich and Monty Williams. 

Official GM survey: https://www.nba.com/news/2022-23-gm-survey

Miami Heat star Tyler Herro has agreed to a massive four year $130 million dollar extension that will lock Herro into the Heat organization through the 2026-2027 season. Herro has been a young improving player since being drafted in the first round by the Heat in 2019, Herro has quickly become one of Miami’s biggest stars behind all stars Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo.

Herro is the reigning six man of the year averaging 20.7 points, 5 boards and 4 assists in just 32 minutes of action in the regular season. Herro has been steadily improving throughout his time in Miami and has quickly become a solid contributor to this team since entering the bubble during the 2020 season, Herro was a huge part of why the Miami Heat made it all the way to the NBA finals during the bubble in Orlando.

You may have heard of Tyler Herro off the court with some of the things he does while not playing basketball and some would say there are distractions but with Herro’s play getting better and better every year what can Heat fans say? Even though Tyler is a great young star in this league he still has some holes in his game that he needs to improve on like defense, Herro has proven to be a huge defensive liability while he’s on the floor and if Tyler can get to be a average defensive player he has a really high ceiling in this league.

The only other flaw in Herro’s game right now is his play in the playoffs, while in the regular season Herro has averaged 16.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.2 assists his stats dip in the playoffs across the board, including a horrendous run in the 2021 playoffs were Herro only averaged 9.3 points on 31% shooting.

With the NBA season (October 18) just around the corner, let’s look at some of the biggest headlines coming out of some of the teams media days and news stories surrounding those said teams. 

        Phoenix Suns center Deandre Ayton looks very unhappy in his first two days of media coverage, he’s not communicating with the reporters very much. Ayton and the Suns organization have had some tough times this offseason with the team trying to ship Ayton off in a potential Kevin Durant deal and all last season the team didn’t feel like Ayton was worth a max contract. Ayton said to reports when asked about how he feels being here he said “I’m here” and how he hasn’t talk to Suns head coach Monty Williams since the brutal fifty point loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the second round of the playoffs last year.

        The biggest story this offseason was Kevin Durant’s trade request from the Brooklyn Nets, Kevin and the Nets organization had a whole back and forth this offseason about trading the superstar from the Nets and now that KD and the Nets are “back together” reporters have been asking Durant how he feels about it and Kevin said “I don’t feel like I’ve gotta prove anything to Net fans after 3 years. I’m committed to moving forward with this team. If you’ve got doubts, that’s on you.” 

Brooklyn Nets other superstar Kyrie Irving was also asked about the Nets offseason and Kyrie’s comments were “It was a clusterfuck.” Which is probably what most fans would have said about the Nets drama this offseason, Kyrie did try to force his way out of Brooklyn much like KD did but neither of them got their wish and both look very happy to be back with true organization and to be playing aside one another.

Second year head coach Ime Udoka has been suspended by the Boston Celtics for the 2022-2023 season for “multiple policy violations”. The second year head coach will not be on the team for the foreseeable future as he violated multiple policy violations after months and months of ongoing investigations within the organization, the law firm that was doing this investigation found Udoka violated many cultural issues and sexual misconducts. 

    Udoka was a phenomenal head coach in his rookie year last season, making the NBA finals three months ago and taking the Celtics to the finals for the first time since 2010. Udoka and the C’s looked bad in the first half of the season before catching fire after the all star break and upsetting multiple teams in the playoffs like sweeping the Brooklyn Nets, beating the former NBA champions in the Milwaukee Bucks in seven games and the Miami Heat in the conference finals in seven games as well.

    Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck said on Friday “We go to great lengths … to run the organization with the central core value of respect and freedom in the workplace from harassment or any unwelcome attention,” Grousbeck said at a news conference. “This feels very much, to me, like one of a kind. That’s my personal belief. But I’ll have to verify that.” Obviously this is not good news for the Celtics and their fans as this could get worse over time and cause issues down the road but the Celtics did the right thing by suspending Udoka for the entire season, some see the Celtics moving on from Ime completely and going with another head coach. 

        Celtics former head coach and now VP of basketball operations Brad Stevens made a statement on Friday about the situation and said “We have a lot of talented women in our organization. I thought yesterday was really hard on them,” Stevens said. “Nobody can control Twitter speculation, rampant [expletive], but I do think that we as an organization have a responsibility to make sure we’re there to support them now. Because a lot of people were dragged unfairly into that.”

The Celtics organization said assistant head coach Joe Mazzulla will be the interim head coach for this upcoming season, Mazzulla has been around the league for many years for over a decade and is still a very young coach who could potentially be Boston’s future head coach if Udoka and the Celtics decide to part ways.

According to Chris Haynes of yahoo sports. The Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James met with the Lakers front office to discuss the future of the organization and what the expectations are for next season. LeBron is going into the final year of his contract with the club and is available to sign a two year max extension with the team if he so chooses too, but LeBron has time on his side as the he has up until June 30th of 2023 to sign the extension if he wants to but LeBron has made it very clear on his show HBO “The Shop” that he wants to play with his song Bronny James when he’s of age to play in the NBA in 2024. 

        James and the Lakers had some disputes in the last year about who is putting the blame on for trading for star point guard Russell Westbrook and the team’s failure to make the postseason last year. Both sides (LeBron and the front office) have put the blame on one another but many speculate it was LeBron and Lakers star Anthony Davis that pushed to get Westbrook to the Lakers last offseason.

The Lakers and LeBron met on Tuesday this last week to discuss the future and expectations for the club next season and both sides did agree that the Lakers offense should run through forward Anthony Davis. The Lakers also gave new head coach Darvin Ham full control over the roster on what he wants to do with each individual player and most specifically Russell Westbrook. The Lakers have been in numerous rumors about trying to trade Westbrook for a couple packages which include Nets star Kyrie Irving and Pacers players like Buddy Hield and Myles Turner.