Reasons To Be Excited About The Season: Air, Smash, Cool
Dallas' bruiser ball, LaMelo Ball's reflection, and more
Continuing our run of reasons to be excited for the new season.
Here’s Part 1 and Part 2.
The Great Reflection Of LaMelo Ball
LaMelo Ball was the 10th-best player in offensive EPM in the 47 games he played last season.
He was 457th in defensive EPM.
His highlights are spectacular; there’s no denying it. But he has legitimately reached a point where it’s obnoxious how great his highlights are because there’s never anything substantive with it. I roll my eyes at every TikTok meme and NBA post of him unleashing some incredible pass or dribble move.
This has to be the time we actually see him. The Hornets don’t have to be good. They just have to look serious.
We need enough to actually evaluate if LaMelo is a great player who has no choice but to make bad decisions on the court because of his surrounding talent, or if he’s a player who hasn’t made his teammates better when he’s healthy because he doesn’t want to make the right decisions.
I’ve reached a place where I think LaMelo will wind up an incredible No.2 on a great team. For that to happen this year, Brandon Miller has to skyrocket. This is the last year for LaMelo’s chances of being The Guy. After this, the narrative has to shift to more realistic expectations for him.
DALLAS TRIES TO SMASH YOU
A not-terrible analogy for this Mavs team is a smash-mouth football team with a mobile QB. Think the Steelers with Roethlisberger or some of the old Broncos teams with Jake Plummer.
You play great defense. You run the ball, you wear them down, you roll out on play action for a few explosive plays.
I am notoriously out on this team. Rookies are almost never plus players in impact. They don’t know what they don’t know until they learn it. D’Angelo Russell is their only point guard. Their spacing is a real issue with this super-big thing they’re trying.
But I’m wrong often. This team is huge. Davis destroys smaller matchups, which is one reason among several why he so desperately wants to play power forward. If he plays center, odds are he’ll be playing someone stronger than him. When he plays someone weaker than him, he dunks and flexes and ruins them. He doesn’t need his jumper to kill smaller players.
There are some warning signs with Gafford’s defense, but let’s assume that was the mess of last season. Shut the paint off completely, dare teams to shoot.
This shouldn’t work. And yet, OKC gave up the most corner threes last season and the lowest percentage. When the Mavs’ defense was elite in 2024, that was the formula: dare good teams to make good shots and watch them fail while you kill the margins by dominating the glass and avoiding fouls.
Cooper Flagg is absolutely as great as he is purported to be. The moment for me was when he walked into Team USA select practice last year and rained hellfire on elite NBA guys. He’s legit. And he might be good enough, with a little smash mouth around him.
MIAMI’S BREATH OF FRESH AIR
I’m always excited for teams after the toxic element is ejected.
Situations like Jimmy Butler’s nonsense last year impact so many more people than get reported on. There’s this idea that the conflict is just Butler vs. Pat Riley and everything else lives in a vacuum.
Players talk about tuning out the noise because otherwise you’re making excuses. But players worry about getting moved in the star player’s deal or another trade, and that could mean uprooting family or being sent somewhere you won’t have minutes or opportunities.
Butler even took shots at Spo. Coaches and front office members worry about their jobs.
Butler ruined their season. You can support his right to do that in pursuit of more millions, but you have to accept that element.
Now the air is clear, and Miami can have a normal season.
Miami’s roster has problems. I don’t buy the Jovic hype, still. Jaquez’ season last year was baffling. Bam needs a bounceback. The Heat are going to pay Powell too much on his extension. `
But they’re going to get back to being the Heat. Finding guys who contribute no one expected. Playing great defense. Being obnoxious to play on a random Tuesday.
They just needed to breathe.
ATLANTA’S NEW CAR SMELL
The Hawks got so stale the last few years with the Trae-Capela-Hunter set. After they dealt Collins, there just wasn’t a lot interesting about them beyond Vit Crejčí, Dyson Daniels, and the emergence of Jalen Johnson before his injury last year.
This year’s team feels legitimately fresh, though. Young is still there, slinging absurd passes on target and hitting clutch shots. Johnson should take a huge step forward. Risacher could be just about anything at this point, even if it might not be much.
Porzingis, when healthy, is a cheat code to floor spacing and rim protection. He is the fastest line between adding size while keeping spacing.
NAW is terrific at taking the path you thought you were going and suddenly making it an entirely different one. He’ll knock down big shots, and they’ll win his minutes pretty often.
There are sneaky league pass guys as well, Krejčí, Mouhamed Gueye, Caleb Houstan, and Keaton Wallace.
The Hawks aren’t a skip-over team anymore. Whatever they are this year, it will be different.
JOE MAZZULLA’S TERRIBLE GENIUS
If you’re someone who thinks the NBA plays too little defense and shoots too many threes, Joe Mazzulla is here to torture you.
With the breakup of last year’s team, I had thought maybe Mazzulla would have to try and invent something new, especially with the loss of two different stretch fives. Instead, all signs point to Mazz going even further into his Necronomicon and shooting more threes.
The Celtics have said they want to be the fastest team in the league. Jaylen Brown has said he feels like he runs a track team.
Simons knows the best way for him to get paid is to put them up. The key differential here is that the Celtics typically looked for good shots before. They could work the ISO out of pick-and-roll offense with Tatum and Brown, drive and kick, and create catch-and-shoot threes.
Boston led all teams this preseason in pull-up threes. The restrictions are off. Mazz is truly going to try and win these games with no defense and Math.
It’s not soulful and it’s not beautiful. But there’s a great history in this league of teams trying to bend the game with their identity rather than their talent. This is going to be one of those teams.
THE PACERS WITH NO REGARD
Indiana has nothing to lose now. Haliburton is gone for the year. Turner is gone, period. They have no center with real NBA experience. It’s supposed to be a gap year.
But this is Rick Carlisle. With Siakam, Nembhard, Nesmith, and Benedict Mathurin in a contract year. All gas. No brakes.
It might be a frustrating, exacting, annoying year, but they will do everything to make it the same for their opponents.
I don’t think people realize how good Siakam is, now. He’s a complete player and their leading scorer at the same time. Siakam will not be significantly worse without Haliburton even with all the attention on him.
Nembhard only averaged 10 points per game last season. He always is underwhelming in the regular season and then watching him transcend the mortal plane when the playoffs begin.
Mathurin has really honestly been less disruptive than I’d expect for a Rookie of the Year candidate who melted into the background the last two seasons.
I love teams in this position where they’re good but have a reason they can’t be great. They’ll battle against the urge to give up all year. They might lose that fight but it’ll be fun to watch them rage at the fates.
NEW YORK’S MINUTE
Most highly anticipated Knick season since… 2012?
It’s fun when the Knicks are expected to be good. Often for hilarious reasons.
Mike Brown has the Knicks trying these crazy ideas about “sharing the ball” and “taking threes.” If he figures out how to get the most out of them, they are a dervish.
Jalen Brunson is a Class-A certified Motherfucker. OG Anunoby is just a mutant. Mikal Bridges is good, sometimes. And KAT continues to prove he can be a big-game, playoff player. The bench is better. The coaching is better, if only a little.
The best version of this team will just truck regular season teams, throwing them out of the way like Cloverfield.
AMEN THOMPSON, THE COOLER
I don’t know a basketball fan who doesn’t like Amen Thompson. He’s a velociraptor on defense. He flashes so much athleticism, strength, smarts, playmaking. He’s got to figure out his jumper, but there are just very few more exciting players in the league.
The Rockets will be good but there are a number of flaws you can find. But night to night, there may not be a player you are more excited to see check into a game than Amen. He just makes stuff happen and it all feels like super powers.
More tomorrow as we go rapid-fire.