12 Storylines to Follow as the 2020-21 NBA Season Tips

Professional basketball is back, hopefully bringing you good cheer this holiday season.

Corny seasonal opening lines aside, while we know some of the game's best players preferred a later start date to the 2020-21 NBA season, precisely zero fans are complaining about the imminent return of meaningful games during the most wonderful time of the year.

Just as the conclusion of the 2019-20 season was unprecedented undertaking by the NBA, the 2020-21 season will be unlike any other in the Association's 75-year history. We're only getting a 72-game regular-season, fans will largely be forbidden from arenas for the foreseeable future, teams will embark on longer road trips than ever before, and we only know the schedule through the first week of March. That's how it has to go when we're still knee-deep in a pandemic. We should count our blessings the games will go on despite the crazy circumstances and the men and women associated with the NBA and its 30 teams deserve a special salute for putting their safety and well-being at risk for our entertainment.

As we gear up for the opening night on December 22, there are a number of storylines that stand out. Of course, there are thousands of them spread across the league, but we're keeping it macro here. So we highlighted 12 you should absolutely know before the Nets and Warriors get the season going next week. If you somehow slacked on all the wheelings and dealings around free agency, the NBA Draft, and aren't up to date on the juiciest trade rumors still floating around, this primer should have you covered.

The league did not waste time scheduling big matchups to tip off the season and for that, we should be thankful. The opening night TNT doubleheader featuring Warriors-Nets and Clippers-Lakers is excellent. We get Kevin Durant facing his former squad and the Lakers raising their championship banner in front of their building cohabitants. Wednesday brings three more high-level showdowns in Bucks-Celtics, Jazz-Blazers, and Mavericks-Suns. We all know Christmas is loaded with five awesome matchups (see below) and the good games continue into the weekend with Rockets-Blazers, Mavericks-Clippers, and Celtics-Pacers rounding out the NBA’s first week back. Rejoice, professional basketball has returned.

The NBA made sure the season started in time to have games on Christmas, one of the most important days on the NBA’s calendar, largely for financial reasons. The holiday has historically been a showcase for the league on national TV with its best teams and players almost always featured. As usual, the NBA did not disappoint:

Pelicans at Heat — 12 p.m. ET, ESPN

Warriors at Bucks — 2:30 p.m. ET, ABC

Nets at Celtics — 5 p.m. ET, ABC

Mavericks at Lakers — 8 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN

Clippers at Nuggets — 10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

We can debate what matchup is the best—Luka Doncic vs. LeBron James and the new-look Lakers gets my vote. But there are plenty of tasty treats throughout this slate, but perhaps the best is Boston-Brooklyn since Kyrie Irving gets to play in front of the Celtics faithful he once pledged allegiance to. Remember, the Nets point guard has yet to play a regular-season game at TD Garden since he bolted to Brooklyn, albeit it’ll be a little different without fans in the stands to welcome Irving back with holiday cheer.

Pelicans-Heat should be fun since we get to see Zion Williamson and company meet the defending Eastern Conference champs. It’s good to see Steph Curry back on Christmas with the Warriors facing off against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks. If you’re still awake for the late game, it’s not a bad nightcap. The Clippers and Nuggets should be top teams in the West again this season and, of course, pick back up after their epic (depending on your loyalties) Western Conference semifinals series that went seven games down in the bubble.

The rich got richer. That’s the cliché that’s been used one thousand times to describe the Lakers offseason, but, frankly, it fits perfectly. The defending champs locked up their dynamic duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis for the next three seasons with massive extensions and made significant upgrades to the supporting cast via trades and free agency. The Lakers are, without a doubt, the team to beat—not just in the West, but across the league. While we may not see them earn the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference because of load management issues (more on that below), once the postseason arrives we all know LeBron will raise his game a notch or three and beating the combo of AD and LeBron over seven games feels kinda improbable.

With the regular-season almost here, oddsmakers have the Lakers as significant favorites to repeat (roughly 2-1 odds)—Brooklyn’s currently the second choice at 5-1. Los Angeles opened as 4-1 favorites to repeat right after they raised the Larry O’Brien Trophy in October. But general manager Rob Pelinka’s masterful moves during free agency to add Dennis Schröder, Marc Gasol, and Montrezl Harrell caused gamblers to bet down the Lakers to those puny odds. It’s warranted. Betting against LeBron and AD, a fellow top 5 player in the game, feels foolhardy right now after what we saw them author in Year 1 of their superstar pairing this past season. The only thing stopping LA from back-to-back titles will be dumb luck or a rash of injuries.

Yeah, we already told you that, and nothing’s changed our minds after free agency. If Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are who we expect them to be, and the deep and talented roster around those two superstars pulls its weight, it’s kinda tough picking against the Nets in the Eastern Conference right now.

But that doesn’t mean it’s a slam dunk. The Celtics should be just as formidable as last season’s squad that took the Heat to six games in the Eastern Conference finals. The Bucks restocked for a run at an NBA Finals appearance. The defending conference champs, the Heat, will be dangerous. If Philly really just needed a new voice running the show and some additional shooting to put it over the top, then the 76ers will absolutely be in the mix.

Stephen A. Smith notoriously loves a good afternoon soap opera—his favorite is General Hospital—but nothing on a fictional TV show will come close to the real-life drama Houston produces this season. James Harden is disgruntled and reportedly wants the Rockets to ship him to a contender. The Rockets would prefer not to do that for a litany of reasons, including the fact it’s damn near impossible for them to get a fair return on their franchise player who just happens to be arguably a top 5 player. Who blinks first?

After taking his time to report to training camp, Harden’s seemingly going to suit up to start the season and just deal with his circumstances. For now. Reportedly, he is still adamant about wanting out and the question is do we see him stick and stay with the Rockets for the entire season? Or does he create such a toxic environment that Houston gives in and gets him out of town before the trade deadline?

The Rockets’ championship window has definitely closed and the 31-year-old Harden, entering his ninth season as the man in Houston, wants to chase a title elsewhere, supposedly in Brooklyn or Milwaukee or Philadelphia or Miami. Harden landing in any of those destinations would be juicy, to say the least. Tune in daily for your dose of high stakes superstar drama you never knew you needed.

Experts generally panned the 2020 class of rookies taken in November’s draft as less talented than next year’s. But there are plenty of first-year players who will have significant roles on their respective squads and it appears the race for Rookie of the Year is wide open.

For starters, the LaMelo Ball experiment in Charlotte will be the most fascinating to watch since he enters with more brand recognition and hype than just about any other rookie. Oddsmakers have installed Ball as the favorite to win ROY, placing expectations bigger than a bottle of Hornets owner Michael Jordan’s Cincoro tequila on the 19-year-old point guard’s shoulders because we’ve heard about Ball’s superior scoring skills compared to brother Lonzo for years and he’s seemingly going to get a chance to show that with the Hornets. Can the third pick in the draft indeed be a big baller?

Will James Wiseman, the second selection by the Warriors, become an impact player on both ends like Golden State needs?

Does Anthony Edwards show glimpses of why the Timberwolves made him the No. 1 pick in the draft?

Do rookies like Tyrese Haliburton in Sacramento, Isaac Okoro in Cleveland, and Obi Toppin in New York put up impressive numbers for their respective teams? We all know another rookie or two will emerge as an impact player in Detroit or Atlanta or Boston or some other locale we're blanking on right now.

We’ve seen plenty of back-to-back MVP winners in the NBA this century. In fact, there have been six such instances (LeBron twice) since 2000. Generally voters—aka the media—who pick the Most Valuable Player get tired of voting for the same guy season after season. Think I’m joking? We haven’t seen a player earn MVP honors three straight seasons since Larry Bird did it back in the mid-80s.

That’s why Mavs sensation Luka Doncic is the favorite by oddsmakers to win MVP. It takes an ultra-rare talent to be the MVP frontrunner to start the season when it’s only your third year in the league, but clearly Doncic is different than most 21-year-olds. Sure, he might not have shown up to training camp in peak physical condition. After a recent preseason game in Milwaukee, Doncic admitted, “It’s true I’m not in my best shape.” But that’s going to be the case for a lot of players around the league and nobody else possesses the overall talents Doncic does at the point guard position. If Doncic averages near a triple-double, like he did last season, and the Mavericks are comfortably a playoff team, expect Luka to dethrone Giannis Antetokounmpo as MVP.

Speaking of Antentokounmpo, who else was happy to see Giannis sign that supermax extension with the Bucks? Thanks to that, the Bucks will be contenders as long as the Greek Freak calls Milwaukee his home and that should be the case through at least the summer of 2025 (unless Antentokounmpo pulls a Harden and demands a trade).

All that means we don’t have to deal with an excessive amount of Antetokounmpo free agent drama and hyperbole during the regular-season and postseason when you know we'd be bombarded by the same storylines ad nauseam on every national TV game the Bucks play—which will be a lot since they’re yet again one of the top teams in the league.

Listen, there are arguments to be made that it’s more fun to have superstars in major markets and there were going to be plenty of options for Antentokounmpo to consider next summer like Dallas, New York, Miami, and a few other select squads. But I like the fact that Giannis showed loyalty to the city he’s thriving in and the organization that gave him his first chance in the United States.

Plus, it’s good, in my opinion, that a small market squad like Milwaukee will have a wide window of contention thanks to Antentokounmpo’s commitment. It gives hope to so many other fan bases that aren’t in major markets. Teams like New Orleans or Oklahoma City will always struggle to retain superstar talent because Los Angeles, New York, and Miami are much sexier cities for the young, rich, and famous. We all get why guys usually don’t stick around Minnesota or Indiana for long. But if you’re asking me, the cycle of All-Stars leaving smaller market teams to form super squads elsewhere gets old real quick and it's cool to have franchises that aren't traditional NBA powers have an extended run of relevancy.

We were prepared to get ultra-hyped for the return of the Splash Brothers after last year’s lost season. Then Klay Thompson ruptured his Achilles right before the NBA Draft and any expectations the Warriors had of making some noise in the Western Conference were 86ed.

If you don’t think Thompson’s injury derailed Golden State’s ability to hang with the class of the conference—Lakers, Clippers, and maybe the Blazers and Nuggets—deep into the playoffs, have you been paying attention? Of course, Golden State will be better than last year’s decimated squad that won a measly 15 games and weren’t invited down to the bubble. But it was deflating to learn Thompson would miss a second straight campaign with another devastating injury just as the Warriors were back to being whole and gearing up to be a pretty good team again. No, they weren’t going to be the Warriors of the KD in the Bay days, but you could make a case Golden State’s championship window was open as long as a healthy Curry, Thompson, and Draymond Green were together (plus a few key additional pieces).

Without Thompson’s services, it’s tough to see Golden State’s’ ceiling as anything higher than the first-round. Curry’s a living legend, but there’s only so much he can do. Kelly Oubre’s a nice addition, but he doesn’t make up for Thompson’s absence. You never know what you’re getting with Andrew Wiggins and to expect a ton out of Wiseman probably isn’t fair. We’ll have to wait until the 2021-22 season for the real Warriors to return.

The NBA is always looking for ways to make its games more meaningful and attractive, especially since the league is dealing with a TV ratings decline. So in light of the experiment of a play-in game this past summer down in the bubble that added extra drama, the Association is revamping its ways and giving fans (at least) four play-in games that's kind of a mini-round of postseason basketball. Here’s how it will go down:

The 7th and 8th place teams in each conference will each have two chances to win one game and earn a spot in the postseason. The 9th and 10th place teams have to take two straight games for a playoff berth.

If you’re a traditionalist and can’t stand change, you’re going to hate this new wrinkle. If you’re all about drama and don’t care how it’s manufactured, you’ll love it. Listen, there’s two sides to every coin—one could make the argument this devalues the regular-season because you’re allowing greater access to a playoff berth. The flip side is that this will keep more teams relevant longer and create more consequential matchups when fans would otherwise tune out. Maybe that helps with the ratings issue, maybe it doesn’t. Who knows? We’ll say this: the play-in game scenario sounds great for the Western Conference. We could do without it in the East.

What’s the O/U on games LeBron plays this season? 60? How about Kawhi Leonard? 57? Whatever you want to set the numbers at, the condensed 72-game schedule means guys like James, Leonard, KD, AD, Curry, and more with various injury histories (or in LeBron’s case, advanced age) will take a lot of nights off.

The NBA expects it so they installed rules that state teams cannot rest healthy players for road games or national TV games barring “unusual circumstances.” First-time offenders will be penalized $100,000. But we all know teams skirt the rules because it’s in their best interest—screw the fans in order to keep the players fresh for the postseason—and if you think LeBron, who will turn 36 before the calendar flips to 2021, isn’t going to be wearing street clothes on the bench at least a dozen times or more this season you aren’t paying attention.

James and the Lakers will prioritize his healthy for the playoffs over regular-season success—as they should. Same goes with Leonard who will surely sit a number of games thanks to his forever balky knee. The Nets will protect KD coming back from his Achilles injury and limit his wear and tear so he can be primed for a deep run through the Eastern Conference playoffs. You think Joel Embiid is playing anywhere near 65 games? The list of serious load management candidates goes on and on and on…

It’s going to be a chore checking who is in or out of the lineup on a nightly basis. But it’s a necessary evil during an unprecedented season when travel will be arduous and there will be more back-to-backs scheduled than previous seasons.

The bubble was an overwhelming success with no player, coach, staff member, or NBA personnel testing positive for COVID-19 down in Orlando. But the NBA is taking its chances and rolling the dice during the 2020-21 regular-season having teams play in their markets and travel around the country hoping the virus doesn’t drastically affect the schedule or what coaches and players are healthy and available on a nightly basis.

It's hard to imagine teams and the games themselves won’t be impacted by positive tests since basketball will not be played in an insulated environment. It already caused the Raptors to temporarily call Tampa home rather than Toronto because Canada doesn’t want cross-border travel. At the end of November, the league outlined a bunch of protocols in response to the virus and most notably:

The NBA actually put out a 134-page dossier outlining as many scenarios as they could foresee pertaining to the virus. While a complete shutdown, like last March, seemingly should be avoided, as we’ve seen with college football and basketball and the NFL, COVID has submarined too many players and games to count. The NBA’s going to be rocked by notable players missing a couple of weeks worth of games so be prepared and that, obviously, could have an impact on playoff races. The teams that are the smartest, or the luckiest when it comes to the virus, will have the most regular-season success.