After 5 long months the much awaited and highly anticipated 2013-2014 NBA season is set to kickoff this Tuesday.
Last year’s season ended as LeBron James and the Miami Heat were able to pull off a back-to-back championship in a thrilling seven game series against the San Antonio Spurs.
The very next day, offseason rumors came swarming like a hive of angry bees.
No one knew what was gonna happen, but it did make for quite an interesting off season.
Some of the biggest and most impactful moves of the off season include;
• The Los Angeles Clippers were able to resign their superstar, Chris Paul, to a max contract.
• The Los Angeles Lakers were not able to resign their superstar, Dwight Howard, as he departed from LA and signed with the Houston Rockets.
• Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett of the Boston Celtics were packaged in a trade to the Brooklyn Nets.
• Andre Iguodala of the Denver Nuggets chose not to resign and instead signed a new contract with the Golden State Warriors.
• Former Celtics head coach Doc Rivers landed a new gig coaching for the Los Angeles Clippers.
• The New Orleans Pelicans, yes ‘Pelicans,’ traded lottery draft pick Nerlens Noel to the Philadelphia 76ers and point guard Greivis Vasquez to the Sacramento Kings and landed Jrue Holiday from the Sixers and Tyreke Evans from the Kings in return.
• The Detroit Pistons signed unrestricted free agent Josh Smith of the Atlanta Hawks and restricted free agent Brandon Jennings of the Milwaukee Bucks.
• The Utah Jazz lost both center Al Jefferson and power forward Paul Milsap, as Jefferson signed with the Charlotte Bobcats and Milsap signed with the Atlanta Hawks.
• Monta Ellis of the Milwaukee Bucks decided not to extend his contract and instead signed with the Dallas Mavericks.
• OJ Mayo of the Dallas Mavericks decided not to extend his contract with the Mavs and instead signed the Milwaukee Bucks.
• And perhaps the biggest story of the upcoming year, after sitting out a whole year to recover from an ACL tear, former MVP Derrick Rose is finally ready to return!
Another one of the biggest stories of the off season was the NBA draft. Nearly every professional mock draft released by ESPN, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report, and many others all had different projections and not a single one guessed that the Cleveland Cavaliers would end up selecting power forward Anthony Bennett from University of Nevada, Las Vegas with the first pick in the draft. Some mock drafts had Bennett falling as low as pick number seven!
So many moves were made this off season that experts and analysts all have different opinions and viewpoints of how this season will play out.
Amongst all of these unpredictable things that happened over the past few months, there is one thing all NBA fans can agree on; this season is gonna make for quite an interesting one.
Will anyone be able to dethrone King James? Can any team stop the Heat from 3peating? Will Derrick Rose return to his old former MVP play? Only time will tell.
The first match ups of the 2013-2014 NBA season are on Tuesday Oct. 28, with the schedule set up as the Chicago Bulls vs. the Miami Heat at 5:00 PM on TNT, the LA Clippers vs. the LA Lakers at 7:30 PM on TNT, and the Orlando Magic vs. the Indiana Pacers (this game will not be broadcasted).
