2020–21 NBA Preview: Part 1

The NBA season is set to open on December 22 if the Virus who shall not be named allows. That means in less than a month we will have real, honest to goodness NBA action that doesn’t feel like all the best players just showed up to summer league in Orlando.

So, I’m going to start now and count down from the bottom to the top of each conference. I’ll do my best to do one team from each conference every day for the next two weeks as time allows. Would love to hear your thoughts, arguments, jokes, gifs, memes, hysterical outbursts, etc.

East

15. New York Knickerbockers

This team is still a total mess. First, I should qualify this preview as being incomplete. I look at this roster and think, surely they are not done yet. The Knicks waived like half their team and some of the waived players have come back under different deals and some are just floating out there. Their starting 5 might be:

Dennis Smith Jr.
RJ Barrett
Obi Toppin
Julius Randle
Mitchell Robinson

Smith is a poor man’s Donovan Mitchel better suited to be a 2 because he is more of a scorer than a playmaker. Barrett was their prized draft pick last year and was ok, but not great. He probably takes a step forward but is also a very one dimensional player. Toppin was this year’s draft prize and while he was the best player in College Basketball last year he is a very late bloomer from a small school and plays no defense. None. Like, he’s allergic. Still he should help them right away on the offensive end. Julius Randle is an underrated, more athletic Zach Randolph toiling on a terrible team and Robinson is a nice enough piece but still really raw. Their bench is an odd collection of unproven youth, disappointing draft picks and free agents and guys way, way past their primes.

Meanwhile, they will be coached by Tom Thibadeau who is a defensive minded coach mostly known for overworking his stars and hating anyone who doesn’t want to die from exhaustion on the court. He has no proven track record for player development or getting young players to buy in and overperform. He is undeniably a good coach, but he seems really poorly matched for this squad and this city. For example, the two best prospects on their roster are Barrett and Toppin. Neither of them defend and Toppin doesn’t even try. Thibs is the kind of coach to bench them in response which could end up hindering their development. Won’t surprise me at all if he is one and done with this team and semi-retires from basketball to recover.

The East is still least, but the conference is better this year than it was last year assuming good health and that will only make life harder for the Knicks. They at least now have some potential talent, but they are miles away from seriously competing. Until they get a new owner that players actually trust and want to play for, I suspect that well established trend will only continue for years to come.

Sneaker Note: New York has contributed as much to sneaker culture as any place which makes it even more of a shame that it has been years since the Knicks had a meaningful shoe connection. The Puma Clydes worn by Walt Frazier are still a classic, but that goes back a half century. I never cared for the Adidas Ewings, but they are a thing for some. But, again, that’s going back a few years. There were the Starburys that cost like $25 or something and were more socioeconomic experiments than shoes and even that was a long time ago. The blue and orange is a great color combo on sneakers so hopefully it is only a matter of time until some player blows up and gets that hot shoe. But it won’t be this year.

15. OKC Thunder

This is close to where I had them last year to start the season. Man was I wrong! They blew up their team, (excuse me)…Dame Lillard blew up their team and caused them to jettison Westbrook and Paul George and leave them with scraps. I thought they would trade Chris Paul to a contender, (probably the Lakers because that’s how the world works), and then basically tank for a top pick. Instead, they kept Paul, he had a fantastic season reminding us all that he is a HOFer and far from done and went on an incredible run that saw them capture the 5th seed in the playoffs. They were well coached and played together.

Well, it turns out, I was just a year early with my prediction. Now they have fully blown everything up and may be the only team in the West that begins the season with zero playoff aspirations. After losing Chris Paul and Steven Adams, their starting lineup will probably be (if the season started today):

George Hill
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Diallo? Jackson? Bazely?
Ariza
Horford

Except that I doubt this will really happen. Seems like Hill, Horford and Ariza are all likely to be waived or traded at some point because they are vets that don’t have a spot in the rebuilding. That means the names you will likely see on there are foreign players you’ve never heard of while SGA takes a million shots. The Thunder now have all the draft picks for the next 5 years. They have tons and tons of picks. But those picks can’t play and they are short on quality talent to say the least.

The Thunder’s 3 international picks in the draft all look fairly good. Of the three Maledon was the best and they’ve already traded him too. So, I don’t really know who gets minutes on this team. Honestly, this year is mostly about scouting. Looking for young talent they can poach from other teams in exchange for their veterans and then looking at who is coming up the ranks in college and the G League and hoping and praying one of their future picks gets them Emoni Bates who, at 16 would start for them this year….no joke.
Honestly, I don’t know how this team gets to double digit wins. I like SGA and I like the all in rebuild and what better year to do it when there are no fans in the stands anyway? But they are going to be hard to watch. At least the Western Conference will have one easy out.

Sneaker note: OKC’s only bankable player is Shai and he stepped away from the norm and signed with Converse. Converse just recently got back into the basketball game after starting it all with Chuck Taylors way way way back in the day. And if you haven’t checked them out, I strongly recommend it. Their new lineup is pretty fresh. I haven’t played in them so I can’t give the full review, but they are cool looking and I love that Shai, a still underrated up and comer, is helping bring them back to the basketball world.
West