The Denver crowd roared as Stan Kroenke, Denver Nuggets Owner, lifted the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy in Denver for the first time ever. Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets defeated the Miami Heat in five games and became National Basketball Association (NBA) Champions. The 2022-2023 NBA season was filled with spectacular performances from players and teams; while the 2023-2024 season brings new team additions and new rules of play.
Trades
This 2023-2024 NBA season, many players have joined new teams. For example, the NBA world is shocked that Damian (Dame) Lillard is leaving the Portland Trail Blazers to join the Milwaukee Bucks to play alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo. Damian Lillard was on the Trail Blazers for 11 seasons. He has made seven All-Star appearances and seven All-NBA teams, which is for the best players in the league at the end of a season. Many basketball fans thought Dame would stay on the Trail Blazers as he was a loyal member. Adrian Cervantes (‘26) , basketball player and NBA fan, thought the same. He said, “I never thought he would leave after spending so much time talking about how everyone else was running from the grind and that he was the one true star player who didn’t leave a team.”
With the Bucks acquiring Lillard, they are the favorites to win it all this season. Lukas Sieffert (‘27), basketball player and NBA fan, also found the trade surprising. He said, “I knew he was going to go somewhere, but I didn’t expect it to be Milwaukee… Milwaukee is probably the best place, I can’t think of anywhere better.” However, Mr. Nick Levine, coach of the Varsity Boys Basketball team, commented, “I’m not sure if I was surprised by the Dame Lillard trade but it is an interesting one.”
Along with the Milwaukee Bucks, the Boston Celtics are also one of the favorites to win another championship, even though they traded one of their key members, Marcus Smart. But, from the Marcus Smart trade, the Boston Celtics acquired Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday. Porzingis and Holiday will now be playing alongside 25-year old Jayson Tatum and 26-year old Jaylen Brown, who reached the finals in the 2021 to 2022 NBA season, but lost to the Golden State Warriors in six games.
The Golden State Warriors, who had a poor season despite having most of their key players, also made changes to their roster. They traded out Jordan Poole, Patrick Baldwin Jr, Ryan Rollins, and draft picks, which are picks for teams to use to draft players to their team, for Chris Paul (CP3). Even though some may say Chris Paul is too old at thirty-eight-years old, he is a twelve time All-Star and has one finals appearance. Adding on to what Coach Levine said on the Damian Lillard trade, he added, “It will also be fun to see how CP3 does with the Warriors.” Chris Paul will join Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green as a Warrior. Paul and Curry are two of the four active guards with at least 20,000 career points, and now they are playing together.
As for the Phoenix Suns, who traded Chris Paul away, they also had made adjustments with getting Bradley Beal. Bradley Beal will now play with two time champion, Kevin Durant, and Devin Booker.
Draft Picks
This year, the Spurs got the number one draft pick, which they used to draft 7 ‘5 Victor Wembanyama. This is the third year that the Spurs got a number one draft pick, and the other two times they drafted two NBA Hall of Famers: Tim Duncan and David Robinson. So, fans are very excited to see if Victor Wembanyama will live up to his hype.
New Rules
This season, Adam Silver, who is the NBA commissioner, added new rules. A few examples are now flopping, an intentional fall to draw a foul, will result in a technical foul, coaches will get another challenge, a video replay of a call if a coach disagrees, if the first one is successful, only one star player is allowed to rest for a game, and there is also the new Season Tournament.
Coach Levine commented on the new rules on limiting how many star players can rest in a game and said, “The NBA is clearly trying to make sure their superstar players are not sitting out too many games… It’ll be interesting to see who wins this power struggle.” Adrian liked this new rule and said, “it will make all the games a lot more fun… they [fans] won’t feel ripped off when they get there and their favorite players are not in.”
In response to the new challenge rule, Coach Levine said, “I would like to see replay used a little less to keep the flow of the game going. So I don’t want more challenges being added, because it makes the game so choppy.” Adrian had a similar response and said, “The challenge rule will slow down the game, but it’s better so coaches don’t hold their challenge and never use it when it could have won them the game.”
Additionally, Coach Levine agreed that the flopping rule was a good addition, and said, “anything that can get rid of flopping I am for. No one should get rewarded for trying to trick the referee.” Lukas stated, “I think it’s a good rule, but I think it’s going to be a hard rule to enforce.”
The In-Season Tournament has many fans hyped. This year, it starts on November 3, 2023. “I am intrigued by this new tournament,” said Coach Levine. “I think it will bring some excitement to the early portion of the season.” While Lukas said, “I don’t dislike it, but I don’t think it will be the best thing ever because there isn’t much of an incentive to play” as the teams compete only for a cash prize and a trophy. Adrian thought the In-Season Tournament would be a great chance for teams that aren’t the top in the league as fans can cheer them on more. Additionally, better teams in the league could play their younger players who might want to get more playing time.
The in-season tournament will split all thirty NBA teams into six groups of five. Each team will play all four other teams in their group, and the group with the best standings will move on to the knockout stage. Eight teams will make it to the knockout stage with six teams with the best standings from each group, and one team from each conference with the best record. These eight teams will compete for a cash prize and the In-Season Tournament Trophy. Games played in this tournament (except the Championship) will count towards the regular-season standings.
This season, fans from all over the world are anxious to know what this season will hold. Coach Levine believes the Los Angeles Clippers will win it all if they stay healthy. Lukas thinks that the Lakers will win another ring since they got new additions to their team. While Adrian wants the Golden State Warriors to win. Will Nuggets repeat again? Will Lebron James get his fifth ring? Will Chris Paul finally win a championship? Or will an underdog rise? Who knows?
