NBA Favourites, underdogs and a big return
The first week of the 2020/21 NBA season has been already completed, with the teams letting us draw some early conclusions.
It has been a bizarre start to the campaign with underdogs such as the Orlando Magic and Atlanta Hawks hitting the ground running and favourites such as the Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets struggling to get a win.
The Los Angeles Clippers are considered to be amongst the favourites to win the NBA title this season, along with the Los angeles lakers and Milwaukee Bucks.
Yet, their recent thrashing at the hands of Dallas Mavericks has raised doubts about whether Paul George can lead the team when Kawhi Leonard is rested during regular season.
The NBA‘s rush to start off the season just a few weeks after the 2019/20 campaign had ended has led to many teams being disjoined and lacking freshness in this opening stretch of the season.
The Christmas Day games showed that many teams could be lacking proper pre-season preparation, with the favourites, most of whom played in the Orlando bubble, struggling both offensively and defensively.
Players such Marquese Chriss and Spencer Dinwiddie will miss the remainder of the season due to injuries, while stars such as LeBron James and Jimmy Butler are lacking rest after featuring in last season’s Finals.
Even without Klay Thompson, who has suffered another lengthy injury, the Golden State Warriors aspire to make the playoffs this season.
However, Stephen Curry has yet to kickstart the season, Draymond Green is sidelined and Andrew Wiggins has yet to adapt to his new team.
There are already doubts about how Marc Gasol will adapt to his new team, with coach Frank Vogel not playing the Spanish center in the final minutes of Lakers games so far.
Vogel could be trying to manage Gasol‘s playing time to have him in top form for the playoffs, but for the time being the
Spaniard does not have a key role in the team.
Kristaps Porzingis has yet to return to action and Luka Doncic seems to be struggling to lead the Dallas Mavericks on his own.
The second unit are not helping much at the moment, and the Mavericks are missing a third star to assist Doncic and Porzingis‘ efforts to make the team title contenders.
After recovering from his lengthy injury that sidelined him for more than 520 days, Kevin Durant has returned to action and has hit the ground running.
His only mission now is to lead the Brooklyn Nets all the way to the NBA title and grab his third ring.
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