The NBA season is within sight, as media day will be held Monday for most teams. Those traveling overseas for preseason tilts held theirs on Friday, but Monday the rest of the league meets with reporters, holds press conferences, and has their promo photos taken.
It's a time of the year where we hear players talk about being in the "best shape of my career," and coaches say "we have high expectations" and "this could be our year." Media day is most fascinating (and often hilarious) in retrospect at season's end, but there's also a wonderful naïveté to the whole affair. Here are the six most interesting situations across the league as you check out what players and coaches are saying about the season to come.
1. Welcome to Golden State's New Circus
It is impossible within the confines of reality to have more storylines coming into a camp. The first team to win 73 games behind the first unanimous MVP lost in the Finals after being up 3-1, then turned around and added arguably the second-best player in the league in a free agency coup that both shook their stable chemistry to the core and may have made them an unstoppable super-team.
The questions abound. Bay Area media won't be grilling Durant about all the times he indicated he'd stay in Oklahoma City or his relationships with those players, of course, or about joining the team that beat him and that he showed open disdain for just four months ago. Maybe that story's over, maybe it's not really pertinent. There are certainly reasons to avoid those subjects. But Durant will start to feel the excitement of joining the Warriors on Monday, with talk of what they can accomplish.
The rest of the Warriors will have to deal with questions about what losing the Finals in that brutal manner, about adjusting to the addition of Durant, and what the teams' goals are this season. After all, the question of whether this team can surpass 74 wins is going to be ever-present unless they somehow lose two in the first two weeks or something.
National writers have up and moved out to camp out for Warriors training camp. There will likely be documentaries. It's going to be a madhouse. The Warriors are used to the circus, but this is a whole different big top. Get ready for all Warriors, almost all the time.
2. The First Camp After
There's going to be an uneasy silence in places across the league. Tim Duncan may be in the building but not on the floor as a Spurs player. Kobe Bryant won't be with the Lakers. Dwyane Wade's locker is gone in Miami. Kevin Garnett won't be barking incessantly in Minneapolis. Al Horford no longer man's the defense for the Hawks. The Rockets may be grateful Dwight Howard moved on, but his departure is still disconcerting for a guy who was considered a pillar of the team's championship dreams.
Oklahoma City had their media day Friday, and it mostly came and went without mention of Kevin Durant, save a few spare questions. And the players maintain that Westbrook is their leader. But Durant was there first, he was the franchise's first icon. His being gone will resonate through camp. As the players get ready to go on, there will be more questions about Durant's decision.
The big lesson from the offseason is that nothing is forever. Everyone moves on eventually, and there are serious questions to be asked about how these teams will try and compensate for those departures.
3. Everything Knicks
The Knicks had a pre-media day press conference with President Phil Jackson, GM Steve Mills, and coach Jeff Hornacek last week in advance of Monday's session. Jackson attempted to shut down any questions about the Derrick Rose sexual assault trial, but that's likely not going to stop the New York media from pressing the former Bulls star about the situation and how it could impact his season. His teammates, too, will field questions about it.
There are other big questions, though. Kristaps Porzingis is a known quantity now -- a star. He's going to have questions about expectations for this season and how he can go forward. For Carmelo Anthony, it's old hat, but the same questions about winning a championship, if he wants to stay in New York, what winning the gold medal this summer, and where his career is going are standard.
And of course, Joakim Noah's going to speak. Noah and Anthony are also very likely to be asked and speak on the recent protests of the national anthem over racial tensions surrounding ongoing police shootings.
Plus Brandon Jennings is in the house, and he always has something to say. Really, there are more questions to be asked of Jackson. Is this his last year with the Knicks, with a reported opt out in his deal after this season? Are the Knicks going to run primarily triangle, or something more complex?
This is a bizarre, and fascinating Knicks season about to begin. There's a lot to absorb.
4. The Celtics Step Into The Spotlight
It's all great when you're that plucky team looking to surprise, when you're going to shock the world. And to a degree, the Celtics did that last year, landing 47 wins and the fifth seed, though they eventually bowed out to the Hawks in short order (after injuries to Avery Bradley and Kelly Olynyk). But when you're in that position, it's all fun. Expectations change that.
And those expectations have arrived. With Al Hoford in tow, with All-Star Isaiah Thomas, with the unstoppable Brad Stevens hype train, with the idea that the Raptors can't match or succeed beyond their franchise record for wins last year, with Atlanta falling off with the departure of Horford (and Teague), and with no other established great team outside of Cleveland, the Celtics are thought to be the "it" team when it comes to the Cavaliers' chief rival. They already have the history with LeBron James, and have the historical clout to warrant conversation.
Those are the real questions the Celtics will face Monday, how they adapt to expectations now that the rebuilding project isn't complete per say, but at least transitioning to serious competition. Jae Crowder is going to meet the challenge head on with quotes about what they'll accomplish and Thomas will bring his own swagger to the podium.
There are also questions about minutes. Now that the Celtics have to win games, there's going to be a thinning of the minutes, most likely. The backcourt is jammed with guards who will be scrapping and clawing for minutes and shots. The frontcourt has Horford, and then a wide array of options to fill in beside him which all bring different strengths and weaknesses. Can the Celtics keep everyone happy while the tensions increase?
5. The Washington Awk-Wizards
Well, they swung out in free agency, outside of landing Ian Mahinmi who plays the same position as Marcin Gortat. Bradley Beal and John Wall openly say they "dislike" one another on the court. They've locked up their cap space so they can't extend Wall (right now) despite his frustration at what he's paid compared to other point guards (mostly due to cap inflation), and neither wing -- Kelly Oubre or Otto Porter -- has established themselves.
Other than that, things are great.
Scott Brooks comes in having to some degree put the fires out, and he's not an authoritarian guy, even if he received undue criticism given the success he had in OKC. And GM Ernie Grunfeld, who has done a really good job in building a team if not leveraging assets over the past few seasons, has been there an incredible 13 years.
The Wizards will likely come out firing, as John Wall recently did on social media. They'll look to reassign the narratives and get things back under wraps. But there are outspoken, honest guys in that locker room (to their credit) and they'll answer plainly on touchy subjects. How it all shakes out will be pretty interesting.
6. Chicago's Bizarre Parade
Another big city team with a gamut of questions rifling about.
Monday will be the first time we see Dwyane Wade in a Bulls uniform, so that'll be weird. There will be questions about all the changes, with Joakim Noah, Derrick Rose, and Pau Gasol all gone. Rajon Rondo is in the house, and that brings with it a host of taciturn responses. Maybe most interesting will be how Jimmy Butler approaches this season, as the unquestioned star of the team and after clashing with Fred Hoiberg last year.
It's hard to pin what exactly the Bulls should be this year on them, like Pin-The-Tail-On-The-Donkey on a Gravitron. How the players and coaches talk about what they expect will be worth reading.
