Each offseason Tim Bontemps polls a set of NBA coaches, scouts and executives on quite a lot of subjects. This time he collected 18 entries, so the outcomes are removed from common, however they do give an excellent cross-section of the league vibes. (Facet observe: I ponder if anybody is monitoring how correct this stuff are after the tip of the season.)
Half 1 | Half 2
I discover these polls to be attention-grabbing throughout the board, however I admit to having a Boston Celtics bias, so let’s deal with the outcomes associated to the NBA Champs.
Who had the NBA’s greatest offseason?
Most voters went with the 76ers or the Knicks, however the Celtics really bought 2 votes on this class. Boston did re-sign or lengthen nearly all their free brokers and extension eligible gamers (some on discount offers). Positive they locked in an enormous tax invoice, however that’s value of getting the very best roster within the league.
The Sixers actually grabbed the highlight by nabbing the very best free agent of the offseason. Given Paul George’s age and harm historical past, it will likely be attention-grabbing to see how lengthy it takes for that contract to look extra like a legal responsibility than an asset. Nonetheless, they’ve a brief window to compete with Joel Embiid and so they bought him the very best teammate he’s ever performed with.
The Knicks made their very own headlines by opening a NYC Villanova Alumni Affiliation chapter of their stadium. In fact the price of these strikes was dropping standout middle Isaiah Hartenstein to the Thunder (extra on them quickly).
Who’s the NBA’s greatest participant proper now?Who would be the NBA’s greatest participant in 5 years?Who would be the 2024-25 NBA MVP?
I’m grouping these all collectively as a result of they’re all form of alternative ways of asking the identical basic query. Neither Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown obtained any votes for the primary two classes however Tatum did get 2 MVP votes.
Jokic bought far and away essentially the most votes for greatest participant with 15. Victor Wembanyama bought 12 of the votes for greatest participant in 5 years. Each are very logical decisions and no one else bought any greater than 2 votes. It might be very exhausting to make a case for Tatum being higher than Jokic proper now and all indicators level to Wemby taking on the league sooner reasonably than later. So I don’t put an excessive amount of inventory into Tatum not exhibiting up in both listing.
The MVP race may very well be attention-grabbing. SGA bought 7 votes, Doncic bought 5, then 3 gamers tied with 2 every (Tatum, Anthony Edwards, and Jokic). Facet observe: No Giannis???
From Bontemps:
Tatum picked up votes on the power of Boston’s title and the expectation he’ll proceed to be the very best participant on the league’s greatest crew, whereas these choosing Jokic are voting for a historic MVP run. A fourth award in 5 seasons would transfer him into a particularly unique group — solely LeBron James and Invoice Russell have executed it.
Tatum has executed every little thing he can to earn the respect of voters and followers, together with doing the one main factor they mentioned he couldn’t by profitable the NBA title. No one can take that away from him and he deserves each victory lap he takes. Nonetheless, it looks as if there’s nonetheless extra he has to show to the league earlier than he’ll be thought of Most Useful.
This most likely deserves its personal column, however it’s attention-grabbing that Tatum can’t appear to “win” right here. He’s confirmed earlier than that he can put up enormous stats for a contending crew; however he bought knocked for not profitable all of it. Then he does the precise factor by sacrificing stats to place his crew excessive to win the title; then he will get knocked for not being dominant each evening.
I can see a path to Tatum profitable MVP. The Celtics have already got the shine of being the defending champs. They’ll be with out Porzingis for an excellent portion of the season, so maybe Jayson will likely be leaned on extra closely. He additionally carries a heavy playmaking load when groups are forcing the ball out of his fingers. If he can simply hit a better share of his 3 pointers, he may bump up his scoring whereas sustaining all the opposite good issues he does on the court docket (rebounding, defending, making the precise subsequent play, and so forth.).
Then once more, voters are fickle people and who is aware of what narrative they’ll gravitate to this coming season?
Which crew will win every convention in 2024-25?
The Celtics bought 13 of the 18 votes. No one else bought greater than 2. Nearly everybody appears to know that Boston is the very best crew within the East. I’m simply going to imagine that the 5 different voters are haters or biased towards the Celtics.
Who will win the 2024-25 NBA title?
The Celtics bought 8 votes, beating out the Thunder that bought 7 (no one else bought a couple of). I do know that the Nuggets misplaced a key performer and Jamal Murray doesn’t look fairly proper not too long ago, however I’m a bit shocked at how rapidly they’ve been written off. Additionally, I do know that the Mavericks represented the West within the Finals, however that appeared a bit flukey to me personally.
I can actually see the logic behind the Thunder. They tied for essentially the most wins within the West final yr and so they added key items in Caruso and Hartenstein. Plus their youthful gamers are a yr older with playoff expertise underneath their belts. They’ve a deep, hungry, proficient crew that performs with poise. I may actually see them popping out of the West and giving the Celtics a run for his or her cash.
Nonetheless, …Celtics in 6.
