The Most Exciting NBA Season EVER

As free agency signings have started and all the big trades are happening, the NBA’s collective bargain agreement – you know, the reason they almost cancelled last season – is looking like more and more of a joke. Designed in part to allow small-market teams a shot at a superstar and a  legitimate chance at the title, this year is looking to be the most unbalanced in terms of superstar-laden teams I can remember. That being said, I’ve never been more excited for an NBA season.

If all pans out well (and a lot of this is still in progress) the big teams will look something like this:

The Nets: Deron Williams, Dwight Howard, Joe Johnson, Gerald Wallace

The Knicks: Amar’e Stoudemaire, Carmelo Anthony, Tyson Chandler

The Celtics: Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett (and some good young talent)

The Heat: LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh

The Lakers: Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum

The Thunder: Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden

The Spurs: Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and a really good supporting cast & coach

The Clippers: Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, Chanucy Billups (?) – Ok, maybe not these guys. But I can hope.

Then it drops off. Aside from Kevin Love and Dirk Nowitzki, I can’t think of a superstar off the top of my head that isn’t on that above list. This list is only 8/30 teams. There is a clear disparity here, and this year has only served to consolidate it. Just last year, Nash, D-will, Dwight, and Johnson were all on separate teams.

I’m not worried about what this is going to do to the league, either. Where the superstars have exited, they have left behind a lot of draft picks. Draft picks that will turn into exciting young teams. This is why I’m really excited about this year’s NBA season. I think all of those teams up there (ok, not the Clippers) have a reasonable shot at the title (the Grizzlies aren’t bad either). To get to watch them duke it out in the playoffs will be incredible. 

Then there’s a bunch of teams who are young and full of developing talent and should be exciting to watch:

The Hornets: Anthony Davis, Austin Rivers, Darius Miller

The Wizards: John Wall, Bradley Beal (Jan Vesely…?)

The Timberwolves: Kevin Love, Ricky Rubio, Derrick Williams

The Cavaliers: Kyrie Irving, Dion Waiters, Tristan Thompson

The Rockets: Jeremy Lamb, Royce White, Terrence Jones

I can’t emphasize how much I’m looking forward to watching these young guys play. It’s also nice to have watched the NBA for a few years now and see a ton of familiar faces that I watched play in college show up. I think these are young and exciting teams bursting with potential, and we’re starting to see the pieces put into place for the next big teams, when a lot of the veterans start thinking about retirement.

Going into this, I really thought that this year was going to be the year of the NBA blow-up. I thought the Lakers, Celtics and maybe even Heat were going to push the button and blast their players all over the place for draft picks and rebuilding pieces (The Magic, –if they trade Dwight- Rockets and Hawks did just that). But it seems like every GM independently decided to give it one more go (or in the Celtics case, one more one more one more go), and grabbed up some strong, proven players that can win now.

A lot of these teams are unstable – I can feel them starting to break apart already – and these GMs will still need to rebuild in the future, but for now watching the NBA is going to be a helluva lot of fun.