2024-25 NBA season preview

Pacific Division

LOS ANGELES LAKERS

Last season, last season? Last season was the Taurean Prince Season, remember? Rallied for 47 wins, out in the opening round in five games, topped by a crumbling Nuggets club.
Coach: J.J. Redick.

C: Anthony Davis — absolutely answered the bell last season but unfortunately his time in the corner is over, another round is due, Doc Louis is still patting on his shoulders and we’ve hit ‘SELECT’ all we can but we can’t sit smiling on this stool forever, eventually we will have to hit ‘START.’

Although you can leave the game on overnight to save the spot, just turn the TV off and do something to obscure the light on the Nintendo so your parents don’t notice. Also, they’re gonna notice.

Davis may have the league’s largest workload again, and he’s ruined our tastes by putting up such a superb (25 points, a dozen boards, two blocks in 35 minutes per game) and consistent 76-game campaign in 2023-24. We’re all ready for him to miss 25 games again and he knows it, how will he avoid it?
PF: Rui Hachimura — 54/42/74, 13.6 points, turned the ball over 46 times in 68 games (27 minutes an outing), turns 26 midseason.
SF: LeBron James — love the fact that the best basketball player of the century led the NBA in minutes per game thrice, points per game in 2008, assists per game in 2020, and that’s it. Barry Bonds’ Baseball-Reference page is mostly bolded, LeBron James’ Basketball-Reference page looks like Kevin Willis’ if you don’t have your contact lenses in.