Lol! I am more excited about Lillard and Harden too. Most of the time I don't watch or watch the games in full during pre-seasons. But it is good that they are back and are once again traveling overseas for their international fans.

There's a lot of news about Lillard once again. The Toronto Raptors is once again branded as the best team to take the veteran superstar. This reminds me of when Kawhi Leonard wanted out of the San Antonio Spurs saying he wanted to be shipped to a team of his preference especially the Los Angeles Lakers where rumors of him and Lebron James talked of uniting. It would've been a huge disaster for the Raptors if they failed to win the NBA championships since Kawhi did left the next season. Lillard also has the right to extend or leave his team after the 2023-24 season. But I am still hoping the Miami Heat gets Lillard before the start of the regular season.

Too bad KD is in the Suns this season and Booker couldn't prove anything as long as KD is there except by going into the NBA championship this season. anyway, if they can go to the playoffs and win against the Denver Nuggets if ever they happen to be fighting to get to the next round, then that would be a huge improvement for them because we all know after that, it would be easy games unless they gonna go against the GSW once again but this time without CP3 and that's the best game we will ever see in the NBA playoffs this season.

Even if a team on the west manages to beat Denver this year, which could be done because most teams are not three peat type of teams and just win it once (look at bucks for example) but that doesn't mean that we are not going to end up with East teams just letting whoever is the new west team to win that easily. If Suns ends up going to finals this year, they would still have to play against the team from the east and they may end up losing that as well, so its never guaranteed. I am hoping that it would be good to see a bunch of teams trying to end up good, its not good to have bad parity and just good teams at the top, 1-2 good teams and rest sucks would be terrible.

With Bradley Beal on Suns, I think it's a pretty good match up against the Warriors. But I imagine warriors beating Suns on outside shooting if Curry plays like a point god then it is over for the Suns with their weak Center. just saying.

Suns against Nuggets is ridiculous, Jokic will eat Ayton alive. I'm still rooting for the Nuggets this year!

I agree with your take that Jokic would outplay Ayton. I disagree that Ayton is a weak center that would be exploited by the Warriors though. I actually think Ayton would end up being the deciding factor in that series, as I think the Warriors are missing a piece in the middle that can determine the outcome of the game. We’ll have to see how Ayton looks this year though. Last year showed some regression in his skills, but that may have been a coaching issue.

Yeah, no matter what he did it, he's paid and that's probably what he thought there that it's just like a showmatch and can't even go with the big men of other teams.

He struggled facing them honestly and he didn't just wanna go further on it. Well, can treat his stay there as a marketing purpose for the league.

They won't give their all in on the pre season games but at least we get to see the NBA is back in action again.

And if I'm not mistaken, it was supposedly the East that should dominate last season, with Giannis had a good run with the Bucks in the regular games. And also Boston Celtics, who has the formidable duo of Tatum and Brown and then former Celtic defensive specialist in Marcus Smart. And then the Sixers with Joel winning the MVP and James Harden at the helm.

But the Nuggets has total different mentally in the West. They take the lead, the Suns, Warriors and the Lakers falter with injuries and it seems the focus that time is Lebron breaking Kareem's record. So let's see if the East can bounce back again and win the NBA trophy for this season to even up.

I think this could be a good question! I was also hopeful that the East would win last season, but that didn't happen.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the Celtics play soon (even if it's preseason)
I have no doubt that Tatum, Brown and others will do everything they can to become champions

I feel like the Celtics had their chance and now the window is closing. With Smart gone a major piece of their team is missing. Plus a lot of their guys are getting older and while Tatum and Brown are still on top of their game, I don’t see them improving enough to make up for the rest of the team’s decay. They need another piece to get by the Bucks and Sixers.