50 reasons to be excited for the 2020-21 NBA season

With the 2020-21 NBA season set to tip-off soon, here are 50 reasons to be excited about the league’s return.

For many of us, there’s no need for a particular reason to be excited about the NBA’s return. We love the NBA and watching our favorite teams and players and that’s reason enough. But every year brings its own unique share of delights separate from the ones preceding and following it. The league is always evolving, promising players blossom into stars, and good teams become great ones. No season is like the last, and here are 50 reasons to be excited about this particular season tipping off Tuesday night.

1. Barring some terrible news, Zion Williamson is pretty much guaranteed to play more than 24 games this year. Hopefully, he won’t be on a minutes restriction either, meaning that fans will be able to get to see the potentially dominant Williamson at full strength. In his limited appearances last season, he was often brilliant and always a blast to watch; he should be even better this year.

2. After an ignominious end to their season, the Clippers have a lot to prove. Will they be able to establish a semblance of chemistry and get their house in order? Is Tyronn Lue the man to take them to the next level? Can they make the Conference Finals for the first time in team history?

3. The Sixers have shooters now!

4. There is nothing keeping Shai Gilgeous-Alexander from scoring 30 points per game. Well, apart from the fact that defenses won’t really have to pay attention to anyone on the Thunder beside him.

5. Speaking of the Thunder, there’s a nonzero chance a team is going to convince themselves that Al Horford is the answer at the trade deadline.

6. After playing just one game together last season, D’Angelo Russell and Karl Anthony-Towns will be spending their first full season as teammates this year. Can they make the Timberwolves a playoff team? Probably not. Will they be very fun to watch? Almost certainly.

7. The annual tradition of fans talking about how Andrew Wiggins is finally putting it together after he makes more than half his shots in two consecutive games.

8. In Orlando, the NBA was able to get operating games without fans down to a science, which made the experience of watching them on television not feel as strange as one might have expected before the season resumed. However, this season, the game ops and television crews in different cities are bound to take vastly different approaches to broadcasting crowd-less games and there is a high potential for unintentional humor.

9. We’ll get to see Stephen Curry play in a game that matters for the first time in over a year.

10. Watching Giannis get to the rim for a dunk from mid-court after somehow taking just one dribble.

11. NBA coaches are no longer mandated to wear sports jackets on the sideline so we’re bound to get some great, or at least memorable, looks this year. Personally, I’m pulling for Nick Nurse to wear a leather jacket.

12. While it’s unfortunate that we won’t have Stan Van Gundy in the booth this season, having him back on the sidelines may be even better. He didn’t yell at anyone to form a [redacted] wall while broadcasting a game, after all.

13. We haven’t seen Kevin Durant play basketball in over a year and a half. While it’s unclear how much the Achilles injury he suffered in the 2019 Finals will affect him, being able to watch one of the greatest scorers in NBA history get buckets again will be delightful.

14. It’s also been a very long time since John Wall played in an NBA game after his own Achilles injury. When healthy, he was one of the most dynamic guards in the league. Hopefully, moments of that previous dynamism remain.

15. Before the season shut down, Russell Westbrook was playing some of the best basketball of his career. He was shooting fewer 3s and driving to the hoop more, finally working to eliminate his greatest weakness while accentuating his strengths. He did not look great in the Bubble due to injury and recovering from COVID-19, but hopefully, he can carry the tremendous play he had at the start of 2020 into the new season.

16. While the John Wall and Russell Westbrook trade was not particularly inspiring for either side, the Wall/Harden and Westbrook/Beal pairings may be more natural than the ones each was a member of before and may lead to more fun and freedom for all parties involved.

17. Finding out what Detroit plans to do with the bevy of bigs they acquired this offseason.

18. This rookie class did not have any major standouts, no consensus number one pick, so it will be intriguing to see which of these young players emerges from the pack to stand out in their first year in the NBA.

19. Watching Derrick Jones Jr. try to dunk over every player in the league.

20. DeMarcus Cousins and John Wall are teammates at last!

21. After a very promising rookie season, Luka Doncic transformed into one of the league’s best players, running a historically great offense and earning a first-team All-NBA nod in the process. While it’s basically impossible for him to make a similar leap this season, it will be interesting to find what minor ways he is able to improve his game this season and how much further he can push the Mavericks this season. Considering he’s only 21 years old, it feels safe to assume that his best years are ahead of him.

22. Besieged by injuries, Blake Griffin only played 18 games last season. However, in 2018-19, he played 75 games and put together his best season in many years, having adjusted his game to make up for the loss of athleticism that age and injuries had caused. If Griffin can stay healthy, he could again be one of the more exciting players in the NBA as well as a player contenders try to bring in to bolster their title chances. It’s a long shot, but seeing that happen would certainly be more inspiring than watching him waste another full season on a Detroit squad not going anywhere.

23. Getting to see Trae Young pull up from, like, 35 feet and just draining absolutely absurd 3s on a regular basis.

24. Another year of Damian Lillard transforming a variety of minor slights into fuel for a great season.

25. There’s going to be a handful of times this season when a team will be playing the Knicks and a player will get what appears to be an open catch-and-shoot opportunity when Mitchell Robinson comes out of nowhere to block the shot and it’s going to be awesome every time it happens.

26. In Orlando, Jamal Murray looked not just like a good sidekick to Nikola Jokic, but one of the best players in the NBA in his own right. Will he be able to continue the high level of play he displayed in the Bubble or was it an outlier — a standard he can hit occasionally, but not consistently? Either way, how his development progresses is perhaps what will determine whether the Nuggets become true title contenders or remain a potential spoiler. (You can also copy and paste everything written here, replacing ‘Jamal Murray’ with ‘Donovan Mitchell’ and ‘Nuggets’ with ‘Jazz,’ and it would remain applicable).

27. The Phoenix Suns ended the season on an inspiring hot streak, going 8-0 in the Bubble even as they missed out on making the postseason for the first time in a decade. Now, having acquired Chris Paul, who has not missed the playoffs since 2010 (coincidentally, the last time the Suns made it in), Phoenix appears set to have their most successful season in many years. Paul’s presence should accelerate and amplify the development of their young players Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton, and Mikal Bridges as well.

28. Much about LaMelo Ball is a question mark. Will he be able to score and develop a consistent jump shot? Just how high is his ceiling? And more worryingly, how low is his floor? Regardless, he will singlehandedly make the Hornets fun to watch this season, nightly tossing passes to teammates that will make you want to rewind the game and see just how he pulled it off.

29. Markelle Fultz looked generally solid, if rarely remarkable in his first full season as a healthy NBA player. He was consistently able to get to the rim and create his own shot and now, with D.J. Augustin in Milwaukee, the point guard position is all his. Hopefully this year he can take further steps forward and come a bit closer to fulfilling his potential.

30. Jayson Tatum apparently grew two inches this offseason. Maybe he’ll do something cool with that extra height besides just be one of the best young players in the NBA. Who knows?

31. After a breakout season in Detroit, Christian Wood signed with the Rockets this offseason where he projects to be a consistent starter for the first time in his career. It will be great to watch Wood in a larger role, as well as to see others who did not masochistically watch the Pistons last year discover what a delight he is.

32. Getting to see P.J. Tucker hold his own defensively against men much taller than him night after night.

33. The Lakers signed Marc Gasol last month and seeing the passes that he and LeBron — perhaps the two best frontcourt passers in the NBA right now — come up with are bound to be both delightful and awe-inspiring.

34. Kyle Lowry darting to take ill-advised charges.

35. The Chicago Bulls have some intriguing young players but Jim Boylen’s militaristic regime did little to highlight them or help them in their development. Now, with Billy Donovan in charge, it should be much easier to ascertain just what exactly the Bulls have in players like Zach LaVine, Coby White, Lauri Markkanen, Patrick Williams, and Wendell Carter Jr. Even if none of them breaks out, the Bulls will certainly be more fun to watch this year without Boylen’s aggrieved middle manager aura hanging over the team at all times.

36. Rudy Gobert is bound to rack up a lot of screen assists if that’s something you’re into.

37. When he coached the Clippers, Doc Rivers found a lot of creative and effective ways to unleash Blake Griffin despite his not being much of a shooter at the time. With this in mind, I’m very curious to see how Rivers utilizes Ben Simmons this season, a player with a well-known fatal flaw whose offensive development has been incremental since his rookie season. Simmons is already an All-NBA player, one of the most versatile defenders in the league, and someone whose court vision is truly transcendent. The question is not whether or not he can be a great player — he already is in many ways — but of how to find ways to help him take further steps, and how to do it in a way that pushes the team as a whole forward. The moves the front office has made and the hiring of Rivers has me optimistic that may happen.

38. Watching the Sacramento Kings is not likely to be a particularly inspiring experience, but getting to see De’Aaron Fox go from end to end on a fastbreak is a perennial treat that I cannot wait to experience time and time again in the coming months.

39. Barring a truly massive leap, Marvin Bagley III is unfortunately always going to be remembered as the guy the Kings drafted instead of Luka Doncic. But that obscures that he had a perfectly fine rookie season, averaging 14 and 7 before having to miss the bulk of last year due to injuries. After playing just 13 games in his second season, Bagley should be back and ready to contribute and I’m hopeful that he can do enough to become known more for his play than for who he was drafted in front of.

40. With Kawhi Leonard in Los Angeles, OG Anunoby once again became the Raptors’ starting small forward and he performed quite ably, looking like one of the best 3&D wings in the NBA. Anunoby has improved each of his three years in the league and there’s no reason to expect that trend to stop this season. In fact, it’s starting to look like the Raptors had a readymade replacement for Kawhi all along.

41. DeMar DeRozan came to San Antonio with a reputation as an inefficient scorer with an unreliable deep ball. That reputation has persisted, even as he’s become markedly more efficient while barely taking three’s at all. Instead, he’s become more of a driver and slasher than ever before while also becoming more of an initiator and playmaker as well. Last year, he had arguably his best season yet, averaging 22 points per game on 53 percent shooting in addition to 5 rebounds and 5 assists nightly. With DeRozan having turned 31 in August, it’s perhaps unwise to expect him to grow too much from here on out, but even if he merely repeats last year’s performance, I will enjoy watching that.

42. With Giannis signing a supermax deal to stay with the Bucks for the next several seasons, we are all granted a temporary respite from hearing speculation about whether or not he will be leaving Milwaukee next summer. I’m very relieved.

43. At least twelve teams in the Western Conference appear intent on making the postseason this year. Of course, simple math dictates that several of those teams will be disappointed and I expect that the fight for the last few playoff spots in the Western Conference will be both intense and captivating.

44. While the East may not be as deep as the West from top to bottom, they still have several legitimate title contenders. Every game between these teams is going to be must-watch TV, with the perfect mix of built-in drama and beautiful basketball.

45. The Memphis Grizzlies were one of the most fun teams to watch last year with Ja Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Brandon Clarke providing no shortage of joy and excitement. This year promises to bring more of the same as they hone their abilities and better learn how to play together. They may not be a great team this year, but the Grizzlies have one of the brightest futures in the league and they’re sure to be quite delightful in the interim.

46. Even though Klay Thompson is going to be out for the season with another season-ending injury, I’m still excited to see a Warriors team lead by Stephen Curry and Draymond Green again. It’s hard to see how they have a path to actual contention without Thompson, but they are sure to surprise a lot of people who seem to have forgotten how great they were even before Durant arrived. Of course, you don’t even have to go back that far. Just think of the 2019 Western Conference Finals when the KD-less Warriors swept the Blazers as Curry averaged 36 points, 8 rebounds, and 7 assists per game while making nearly 7 3’s a game as well. Yes, it’s a different team, and, yes, Steph and Draymond are several years old, but there will be bursts of occasional magic coming from the Bay this season and I cannot wait to witness them.

47. If Victor Oladipo can return to All-Star form after two seasons largely lost to injury, the Pacers could be a surprise team in the Eastern Conference. But even if that doesn’t happen, with Myles Turner, Domantas Sabonis, T.J. Warren, and Malcolm Brogdon, Indiana is bound to be a consistently good team, if not an especially thrilling one, that no one will be eager to face in the postseason.

48. While the Bucks gave up a good amount to get him, Jrue Holiday is a big improvement over Eric Bledsoe and should be able to make the Bucks a more versatile team on both ends of the court. The question is not whether his addition will improve the team, but if it will be enough to make up for Mike Budenholzer’s obstinate refusal to make adjustments in the postseason.

49. With the possible exception of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, no NBA player has ever outrun Father Time as well as LeBron James has. In his 17th season, he won his fourth title and was named to the All-NBA first team for the 13th time. While an eventual comedown is inevitable, it does not appear to be imminent. Nevertheless, every chance to watch him should be cherished, for while the end may not be exactly near, our chances to see one of the greatest players in NBA history near their peak are dwindling.

50. The Lakers didn’t exactly coast to a title last season, but they did not experience a ton of resistance either, which makes them appearing to get even better this offseason a bit worrisome for everyone who is not a Lakers fan. What teams will rise to the challenge of preventing the Lakers from waltzing to a repeat title? There is no shortage of good teams in the NBA this year, but who will be able to take that next step from good to great?