NBA teams, assemble! The 2024-25 season is just weeks away and all eyes can now turn to Opening Night on October 22nd.
It’s been an eventful offseason that was capped off by a blockbuster trade this weekend with the New York Knicks acquiring Karl-Anthony Towns from the Minnesota Timberwolves. Towns is the latest All-Star attached to a new team, a group that also includes Klay Thompson, Paul George, and Chris Paul.
Oh, and LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers will have a familiar face as a new coach — as well as a new teammate in Bronny James.
Before the actual games begin, players and coaches from 28 teams gathered Monday for a media day before training camp. The other two teams – the Boston Celtics and the Denver Nuggets – held their media day activities last week before traveling to Abu Dhabi for a pair of preseason games.
In Denver, three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic (sporting a nice beard) talked about the Nuggets’ comeback after an early playoff exit last season. As for the Celtics, Jayson Tatum said he is focused on bringing another title to Boston after an eventful summer that included a historic $315 million extension and an Olympic gold medal.
Our NBA insiders were on the ground Monday with the top teams that are set to create a lot of buzz this season. Here’s what caught their attention from media day.
Mutombo’s legacy remembered in Philadelphia
CAMDEN, NJ — As the 76ers began their quest to win the franchise’s first championship in more than 40 years and reach the NBA Finals for the first time since 2001, news of Dikembe Mutombo’s death rippled through the practice facility of the team
It was one that hit home in Philadelphia. Mutombo was a mid-season addition to that team (2001) that, along with Allen Iverson, led Philadelphia to the Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers. For a team that has lost in the first or second round each of the past seven years, that’s a place the 76ers spend every day focusing on getting to.
Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mutombo has a prominent place in African basketball history, making him a role model and hero for 76ers center Joel Embiid, a native of Cameroon.
“It’s a sad day, especially for us Africans — and really the whole world — because, apart from what he did on the basketball court, I think he was even better off the court,” Embiid said Monday. “He’s one of the guys that I look up to, how much of an impact, not just on the court, but off the court. He’s done a lot of great things. He’s done a lot of great things for a lot of people. , so he’s been a role model for me. It’s a sad day.”
Last week, Embiid was on stage at the United Nations alongside Toronto Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri, talking about potential growth opportunities in Africa — something that no one embodied more than Mutombo.
76ers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey was pulled from the stage during his news conference with coach Nick Nurse and was told of Mutombo’s death by a team official.. When he returned, tears were in his eyes as he talked about what Mutombo meant. for him personally, after working with him in his first season in charge of the Houston Rockets in 2007.
“There’s not a lot of guys like him,” Morey said. “Just a great person. When I was a rookie GM in this league, my first chance in Houston, he was someone I went to all the time… His accomplishments on the court, we don’t need to talk about him too much. , just an amazing person, what he did off the court for Africa, Dikembe. — Tim Bontemps
With KAT in the house, Knicks are “unofficially” excited
GREENBURGH, NY — Knicks wing Josh Hart just decided to lean all the way into the elephant in the room after a while.
With Karl-Anthony Towns — the club’s new but still unofficial star — at the team’s practice facility Monday, Hart later talked about how the pending trade would shake up the Eastern Conference race.
“It’s definitely going to be tougher. A lot of teams have made big moves this offseason. It’s not going to be easy. It’s not going to be easy,” he said. “But we are extremely confident in what we have. Both officially and unofficially.”
When he finished speaking, Hart smiled and looked at the team’s public relations officer, as if to get permission to say what is almost certain at this point: Towns will be a Knick.
Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo, key members of the club from last season, will not be. Both realities are expected to shake up the club in a number of ways; especially on offense.
Almost everyone — from coach Tom Thibodeau to captain Jalen Brunson to Hart — alluded to the fact that New York will play a lot more five-out this season with a stretch as big as Cities. Brunson, coming off a season in which he went on an offensive attack after taking advantage of more space after the OG Anunoby trade-now figures to have even more room to break down opposing defenders. Thibodeau on Monday cited the team’s top-10 ranking in both offensive and defensive efficiency last season, saying he felt the club could be even better on both ends this season.
Hart and Brunson spent time talking about Randle and DiVincenzo, cycling between how integral they were to last season’s 50-win team, and how this is the hard, often ugly side of the business.
But with Towns, and the additional spacing he will provide for the team’s offense, the Knicks also clearly see the potential for a higher ceiling this season. — Chris Herring
Edwards, Gobert are preparing for a new era after the trade of “brother” KAT
MINNEAPOLIS — The Timberwolves’ media day got off to an awkward start when both head coach Chris Finch and team president Tim Connelly declined to comment on the Karl-Anthony Towns trade to the Knicks, even though hours earlier the former franchise anchor posted a photo. of himself in New York.
“I can’t comment on anything that’s still going on,” Connelly said.
But Towns’ former teammates weren’t shy about their sadness and the impact the loss will have on the franchise, which will get Donte DiVincenzo, Julius Randle and a future first-round pick for the seven-footer who made more than 40% of his 3s. -point attempts in his nine-year career.
“It was a big surprise,” Rudy Gobert said. “It’s not something anyone expected a few days before training camp. I’m still processing it. [Towns] is someone I have a lot of respect for. We had two years together and I really appreciate the time we spent together. Since I got here, from the first day, he embraced me. He did everything he could to help me be the best version of myself, on and off the court.”
Gobert’s somber tone was a sentiment that hung over the team on Monday.
While Anthony Edwards has enjoyed the praise he’s received as he potentially enters his superstar phase — Connelly said the team believes he can become one of the greatest players in NBA history — he also said it it is a difficult moment without his “brother”.
“I feel like it’s kind of weird to talk about it because he just got traded,” Edwards said. “That’s my dog, man. It wasn’t like one or two situations. It was us both being one. We just played off each other. So, I mean, I’m happy to be [whoever] they want me to be now, but [Towns and I] were only together, so it’s hard.” — Myron Medcalf
Pop responds to the interest of France coach with Spurs
SAN ANTONIO — From the glaring size difference between Victor Wembanyama and veteran point guard Chris Paul to coach Gregg Popovich’s insistence on standing for his 14-minute rookie conference call, the Spurs media day featured plenty of notable sights.
First look 📸@wemby 🤝 @CP3 @VCMtweets | #sponsored pic.twitter.com/h7BunCiIVU
– San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) 30 September 2024
But one small nugget gained traction Monday because of San Antonio’s longtime appreciation of contributions from international players.
Former French men’s basketball coach Vincent Collet, who led the team to a silver medal this summer in the 2024 Paris Olympics, recently expressed interest in coaching in the NBA, especially for Popovich and the Spurs.
“He’s a good friend. He’s a great coach,” Popovich said. “And he’s like a lot of coaches in Europe. You don’t have to be American to coach in the NBA. It’s kind of an unintentional bias just like it used to be with players. ‘Those guys can’t play here. They won’t adapt culturally. They don’t play defense.’ Whatever it was. Then we all started bringing them in and realized it was bullshit.
“It’s the same with the coaches. There are a bunch of coaches out there that could do as good or a better job than we do. Coach Collet is definitely in that category.”
During Popovich’s tenure with the Spurs, the organization gained a reputation for bringing both international players and coaches to San Antonio. The team currently has at least three international staff members in assistant Matt Nielsen (Australia) and sports performance coaches Carlos Sosa Marin (Spain) and Guillaume Alquier (France).
“I haven’t thought about it,” Wembanyama said of the possibility of Collet joining the Spurs staff, “but it would be cool.” — Michael C. Wright
Pistons want to join Lions, Tigers as Detroit’s next playoff team
DETROIT — Pistons star Cade Cunningham, who just signed a five-year, $224 million extension this offseason, has personal goals this season.
He wants to become an All-Star and All-NBA player under new Pistons head coach JB Bickerstaff — and he’s motivated to witness the recent success of the NFL’s Detroit Lions and NBA’s Detroit Tigers.
The Tigers reached their first playoff since 2014 this weekend while the Lions, who are seen as Super Bowl contenders after reaching the NFC Championship Game last season, will host the Seattle Seahawks on Monday Night Football tonight.
“It’s a challenge we’re definitely willing to take on,” Cunningham said. “I was there at the game on Friday when the Tigers clinched like that watching that, I’m in the building watching how the stadium reacted to that. It gave me chills.
“So, that’s what we want to do for the Pistons fans, for the city, on the basketball side,” he said. “We want to bring that same excitement and that same joy to the Pistons. It’s a challenge we’re all excited to take on and I’ll be the head of that snake.”
The Pistons finished .500 or worse in eight consecutive seasons in addition to going 16 consecutive seasons without a playoff victory, the longest active drought in the NBA.
However, president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon is in favor of revitalizing the franchise. Langdon visited the Lions training camp over the summer where he spoke with Lions GM Brad Holmes and hopes to copy that same foundation while developing the identity of the current Pistons.
“He’s done some amazing things here that hopefully I can learn from,” Langdon said of Holmes. — Eric Woodyard
