NBA Season Preview

By: Isaac Choi '24

Photo from espn.com

The 2023-2024 NBA season has finally started! Every basketball fan across the world has been waiting for months for this very moment. This season is one of the most hyped up in years, with unexpected trades and incoming rookies who are hoping to establish themselves as future faces of the NBA.

One of the biggest parts of NBA culture is fans and analysts making predictions for the championship and individual end-of-season awards. On “The Athletic”, analysts Zach Harper and Shams Charania made their season predictions. For the “Most Value Player” award, Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum is predicted to win. He would be the first American-born player to win the award since 2017. For the "Most Improved Player” award, they made a very controversial prediction. They picked Ben Simmons to win, which people would question since he hasn’t performed up to expectations for the last 2 years.

For the “Rookie of the Year” award, Victor Wembanyama and Scoot Henderson are the most popular options for winning the award, who will win. With Wembanyama going 1st overall in the draft and Henderson going 3rd, it’ll be very interesting to see how both perform in the loaded Western Conference. Zach Harper also made his predictions on which two teams would meet in the NBA Finals come June. Harper predicts that the Milwaukee Bucks will win the East and the Denver Nuggets will repeat as Western Conference champs. However, the most important prediction is about who will win the coveted Larry O’Brien trophy.

Almost every team in the league has made big changes and built a new team. Because of these changes, championship predictions have been more diverse than ever before. The top teams that fans and analysts alike think will win it all are the Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks, Denver Nuggets, and the Boston Celtics. All of these premier competitors in the league added great new players, both through the draft and free agency. In the end, Harper and Shams both predicted the Denver Nuggets to repeat as NBA Champions by defeating the Milwaukee Bucks in 7 games. Fans across the league and the world hope that this season proves to be the spectacle that it is building up to be.