NBA 2024-25 season preview: start date, favourites, players, how to watch

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With the 2024-25 National Basketball Association (NBA) play accelerated approaching, the NBA’s 30 teams are making last preparations up of what promises to beryllium 1 of the astir competitory seasons ever.

Here is each you request to cognize astir the upcoming season:

When does the 2024-25 NBA play start?

The caller NBA play opens connected Tuesday, October 22 with the New York Knicks visiting the defending champions the Boston Celtics, starting astatine 23:30 GMT (6.30pm section time) astatine TD Garden Arena successful Boston.

What is the format?

In the regular season, the 30 teams play 82 games implicit a play of 7 months.
At the extremity of the season, the apical six teams from the Eastern and Western Conferences volition automatically suffice for the postseason.
The next-best teams – ranked 7-10 from some conferences – volition participate into a play-in tourney to unafraid the remaining seventh and eighth postseason positions successful each conference.

Who are the favourites to triumph the title?

In the Eastern Conference, the NBA champion Boston Celtics are the statement prime by bookmakers and league executives to again triumph the conference, and are besides the favourite squad to repetition arsenic champions. The New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers are considered by galore hoops commentators to beryllium the biggest threats to Boston successful the east.
In the Western Conference, the Oklahoma City Thunder person the shortest likelihood to triumph the conference. Close down them are respective beardown rubric contenders: The Denver Nuggets, past season’s NBA runner-up Dallas Mavericks, the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Phoenix Suns.

Boston Celtics subordinate holds NBA Championship trophy.

What are the cardinal dates connected the 2024-25 NBA schedule?

October 22, 2024: NBA regular play starts
November 2, 2024: NBA Mexico City Game 2024 (Miami Heat vs Washington Wizards)
November 12, 2024: Emirates NBA Cup (the in-season tournament) starts
December 17, 2024: Emirates NBA Cup Championship
January 23 & 25, 2025: NBA Paris Games (San Antonio Spurs vs Indiana Pacers)
February 6, 2025: NBA commercialized deadline
February 14-16, 2025: NBA All-Star Game (held successful San Francisco, California)
April 13, 2025: NBA regular play ends
April 15-18: NBA Play-In Tournament
April 19: NBA Playoffs begin
June: NBA Finals (exact dates TBD)

#1. LeBron and Bronny James: The archetypal father-son duo to play unneurotic connected an NBA team

LeBron and Bronny James connected court.

The countdown is connected for erstwhile the NBA’s starring scorer of each time, LeBron James, becomes the archetypal subordinate to stock the tribunal with his son.

LeBron’s team, the Los Angeles Lakers, play their opening lucifer of the regular play connected Tuesday, October 22 against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Will this beryllium the time erstwhile father-son past is made, oregon volition it resistance connected good into the season?

#2. The contention for the MVP: SGA vs Luka

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic.

The oddsmakers are predicting that Oklahoma City Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (SGA) and Dallas Mavericks prima Luka Doncic volition beryllium the 2 main contenders for the NBA regular-season astir invaluable subordinate (MVP) award.

Last season, some players enactment up outrageously awesome numbers: SGA averaged 30.1 points, 6.2 assists and 5.5 rebounds successful 75 games; and Doncic averaged 33.9 points, 9.8 assists and 9.2 rebounds successful 70 games.

Adding to the enticing MVP contention betwixt this pair, the 2 superstars play successful the aforesaid league and their teams person an emerging rivalry aft they went six games successful a feisty, Western Conference, second-round match-up past play with Doncic’s squad prevailing.

#3. NBA teams tanking for the Cooper Flagg draft

Flagg mightiness beryllium the astir hyped tiny guardant rookie imaginable since Lebron James was drafted mode backmost successful 2003.

Flagg, 17, is not adjacent successful the NBA yet and has precocious committed to play for US assemblage powerhouse Duke University for the 2024-25 season.

But with the 2.06m (six-foot, nine-inch) autochthonal of Newport, Maine considered the statement fig 1 enactment successful adjacent year’s draft, respective NBA teams are expected to vessel – a communal signifier whereby already-struggling teams are incentivised to suffer much – to summation their likelihood of landing the 2025 fig 1 draught pick.

With Flagg a imaginable franchise-saving prima connected the horizon, the 2024-25 NBA play could beryllium defined arsenic overmuch by the contention to the bottommost of the standings, arsenic it is to the top.

Which cardinal players moved teams successful the offseason?

#1. Paul George to the Philadelphia 76ers

Philadelphia players airs for photograph during media day.

Long considered an archetypal tiny guardant successful today’s NBA – tall, large shooter, and possessing beardown passing and antiaircraft skills – George signed arsenic a escaped cause with the 76ers successful the disconnected play aft spending the past 5 seasons with the Los Angeles Clippers.

Nicknamed “PG-13”, George is simply a nine-time NBA All-Star and six-time subordinate of the All-NBA Team, arsenic good arsenic a four-time subordinate of the NBA All-Defensive Team.

The 34-year-old’s accomplishment successful Philadelphia completes possibly the NBA’s astir lethal “Big Three” operation entering the 2024-25 season, with George joining forces with erstwhile NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) Joel Embiid and the league’s astir improved subordinate from past season, defender Tyrese Maxey.

#2. Karl Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks

The 2.11m (6-foot, 11-inch) forward-centre was traded from the Minnesota Timberwolves to the New York Knicks, wherever helium volition nexus up with mercurial constituent defender Jaylen Brunson arsenic 1 of the league’s astir lethal 1-2 combinations.

Towns, a four-time NBA All-Star, is 1 of 10 players successful NBA past to person averaged astatine slightest 22 points and 10 rebounds per crippled implicit their vocation (minimum of 500 full games).

The 28-year-old’s accomplishment astatine the celebrated Knicks franchise elevates them to 1 of the NBA rubric favourites for 2024-25.

The Knicks are hoping Towns’s accomplishment astatine Madison Square Garden volition present their long-suffering fans a archetypal NBA rubric since 1973.

Where did the 30 teams decorativeness past season?

NBA Standings 2023-24 (Eastern Conference) and win-loss record:

Boston Celtics 64-18
New York Knicks 50-32
Milwaukee Bucks 49-33
Cleveland Cavaliers 48-34
Orlando Magic 47-35
Indiana Pacers 47-35
Philadelphia 76ers 47-35
Miami Heat 46-36
Chicago Bulls 39-43
Atlanta Hawks 36-46
Brooklyn Nets 32-50
Toronto Raptors 25-57
Charlotte Hornets 21-61
Washington Wizards 15-67
Detroit Pistons 14-68

NBA Standings 2023-24 (Western Conference) and win-loss record:

Oklahoma City Thunder 57-25
Denver Nuggets 57-25
Minnesota Timberwolves 56-26
Los Angeles Clippers 51-31
Dallas Mavericks 50-32
Phoenix Suns 49-33
New Orleans Pelicans 49-33
Los Angeles Lakers 47-35
Sacramento Kings 46-36
Golden State Warriors 46-36
Houston Rockets 41-41
Utah Jazz 31-51
Memphis Grizzlies 27-55
San Antonio Spurs 22-60
Portland Trail Blazers 21-61

How to ticker the 2024-25 NBA season?

The NBA League Pass continues to connection out-of-market games, unrecorded entree to NBA TV, and on-demand replays of each game. Please consult section TV guides for cable/satellite services successful your region.

You tin travel the enactment connected Al Jazeera’s dedicated basketball page with each the quality and features, arsenic good arsenic lawsuit build-up and unrecorded substance commentary connected selected NBA matches during the 2024-25 season.

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