BY MICHAEL FRANCO

With the NBA season just around the corner we see teams starting to prepare and play their preseason games. Preseason kicked off on September 30, 2019 between the Houston Rockets and Shanghai Sharks on NBA TV. Later that week on Friday three teams play their preseason games, you have the Houston Rockets vs LA Clippers, Indiana Pacers vs Sacramento Kings, and the Brooklyn Nets vs Franca; each game being shown on NBA TV. The first two games of the regular season starts on October 22, 2019 between the New Orleans Pelicans vs Toronto Raptors and the LA Lakers vs LA Clippers. 

     A big storyline  this season is the Los Angeles Lakers and how they will fare this season since they moved Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart and three first-round picks in a trade with the New Orleans Pelicans for Anthony Davis. The Lakers now feature LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kyle Kuzma, and Rajon Rondo as their main stars. With the likes of Davis and James they could be a really dominate team and some people think that they will beat the Golden State Warriors to go to the NBA Finals. 

     We also see the Brooklyn Nets being a big story this year too because they have Kevin Durant who came from the Golden State Warriors and Kyrie Irving who came from the Boston Celtics. However Durant figures to be out for most of the season after he tore his Achilles tendon in game five of the NBA Finals last year. He may be ready to play by this Christmas but that’s up to him to decide. Another big story for this NBA season is the LA Clippers who acquired Kawhi Lenard and Paul George; George played on the Thunder last season while Kawhi played with the NBA Finals champions Toronto Raptors. We also have Russell Westbrook going to the Houston Rockets after playing with the Thunder for his whole career. Jimmy Butler will head to the Miami Heat after playing in Philadelphia last season and Chris Paul is now a member of the OKC Thunder.

My predictions for this NBA season are that the Golden State Warriors will go to the Finals for the sixth time in a row and will face the Milwaukee Bucks. But now we just have to wait till October 22, 2019 to see what is in store for us this NBA season.