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Five years ago, the Stephen Curry led Golden State Warriors won a fourth title together over the Boston Celtics. Steve Kerr, Draymond Green, and Curry are all still in place, and yet these Warriors are perhaps as far off as they’ve ever been from their championship winning days. Father time is undefeated, and often times the end of an era can be a bit unceremonious. The Warriors are a dying dynasty at best, or in reality, a dynasty that’d been dead for a few seasons now. As they look to what’s next, can they give the Curry era an ending that it deserves?

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Golden State Warriors: Over/Under 36.5 regular season wins (-110/-115)

To win Pacific Division: +430

To win Western Conference: 35/1

To win NBA Finals: 75/1

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Last season: 37-45, lost in second play in game

Key additions: Yaxel Lendeborg (12th pick in Draft), Brandon Williams (Dallas)

Key losses: Jonathan Kuminga (Minnesota), Quentin Post (Memphis), Pat Spencer (Phoenix)

The Warriors have pretty clearly reached the place that no NBA franchise wants to be. They are stuck in the middle, with a clear ceiling and a floor that make you wonder exactly what the plan is here. Jimmy Butler is still working his way back from a knee injury he suffered last year, and Steph, Draymond and Al Horford aren’t getting younger. Beyond that, Kristaps Porzingis still has a mystery illness, apparently. 

When you look at the roster to try and find the next generation of guys who will try and get the Warriors back to making deep runs in the playoff, they’re banking on Yaxel Lendeborg being that guy. Of course, Lendeborg won a national title at Michigan with Dusty May, Morez Johnson Jr. and the rest of their group, so he knows how to be a part of winning basketball. I just wonder what the long term path is here. I get giving Curry all the tools he deserves to give it an earnest shot, but there is very little in the way of future assets to build around. In the immediate, the Warriors figure to be around the same as they were last year. But in the long term, there’s many reasons to be concerned about the long term viability of this franchise.

Prediction: unenthusiastically over 36.5 wins

In late September, the NBA announced its points of emphasis and areas of focus for officiating, which included videos with narrated examples of the league’s new “points of education.” A week later, NBA.com’s Jeff Zillgitt broke them down in prose. So, with NBA Opening Day on October 20—and the Bucks’ season officially starting on October 21—it’s time fans hit the books. Of course, that’s arduous. So here, condensed for your convenience, are the “Cliff Notes.”

Offensive off arm

The point of emphasis: The league is cracking down on offensive players using their off arm to push off and create space.

Why you should care: Defenders might finally be able to, you know, have some semblance of a chance to defend again. And with Taylor Jenkins prioritising a return to defensive aptitude—and Bucks fans wanting a return to the dawg days—this could work in their favour. Then again, as Zillgitt wrote, “There is some leeway, a fine line in which the player can use his off arm against the defender as the player with the ball uses his off arm to firm up or feel for the defender.”

Need more? Check out the NBA’s official video:

Two-handed screens

The point of emphasis: Screeners better do so legally—and that means without two hands.

Why you should care: Jericho Sims committed 28 offensive fouls last year, tied with Victor Wembanyama for the 10th most in the entire league. But Sims isn’t called for the same type of offensive fouls that Giannis was—he’s not barreling through opponents on his way to the cup. No, Sims’ come mostly from illegal screens. Don’t believe me? Just ask the Gyro Step podcast’s Rohan Katti:

F it Jericho Sims illegal screens from last season https://t.co/KdYgh3Gwve

— Rohan Katti (@RKattiJr) August 28, 2026

Get your nose in the books and your reps in the lab, Jumpman!

Flopping

The point of emphasis: Players called for flopping will receive a non-unsportsmanlike technical foul and the opposing team will be awarded a free throw. But for such a foul to actually be called, it has to meet the STEM criteria:

• Secondary
• Theatrical
• Exaggerated
• Movement

Head snaps do not. They are embellishments, drawing attention to something that is illegal, so they are permissible.

Why you should care: Call me defeatist, but you probably shouldn’t. How can a referee possibly process a call that has its own set of four criteria in an instant? This will likely go the way of past points of emphasis—called several times early in the season only to be forgotten by December.

Reckless closeouts

The point of emphasis: Don’t be reckless when closing out. Simples.

Why you should care: If the Bucks’ preseason is anything to go by, they’ll be hoisting up a lot of long-range bombs this season. With that, they’ll face an increased number of closeouts. And with that, they’ll (potentially) face an increased number of reckless closeouts. Notably, “the shooter can fall to the floor in a sitting motion if he feels he’s protecting himself on a closeout.” Moreover, doing so “is not considered a flop.” So, pull up a pew, fellas. Stay safe!

Want more on these? Check out the NBA’s official video:

Wasting time before free throws

The point of emphasis: This one’s on the defensive team. They—players and coaches—need to stop time-wasting once a foul is called. Either challenge the call or don’t. Any filibustering will result in a delay of game violation.

Why you should care: For all the joy that NBA games bring, at times they drag on so much that it’s as if you’re back in the year 2000 listening to The Opposite of H20. This point of emphasis, then, might give you a few of those oh-so-precious minutes back. Paired with the absence of Giannis’ free throw routine, you might even find yourself looking for things to do!

And, just in case you truly are a sicko and want the tape, here it is:

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What do you think, Brew Hoopers? Has the NBA got its points of emphasis right? And if you were in charge, what rules would you like to see emphasised?

Last year’s Toronto Raptors were one of the most fun teams in the league, a whirling dervish on defence that could be absolutely devastating in transition. But, the team’s lack of shooting hamstrung its halfcourt offence, forcing athletic slashers like Scottie Barnes and RJ Barrett to operate in a phone booth, leading to some close losses at the end of fourth-quarter slogs. While swapping Brandon Ingram for Kawhi Leonard will undoubtedly give the offence a boost, the question remains: have the Raptors done enough to address their shooting deficiency?

Outside shooting is a force multiplier in today’s NBA. Not only can a hot shooter flip a scoreline in an instant, but the threat of a marksman with a quick trigger pulls defenders away from the paint, giving his teammates more room to attack the paint, especially important for teams like Toronto who are built around a young star who lives at the rim.

Leonard, the headline-grabbing new addition, knocked down 38.7% of his outside shots last year and was above 41% the three seasons before that. He’s an excellent three-point shooter, but he really makes his money in the midrange, where he’s one of the game’s premier iso scorers. In some ways, he’s a more physically strong and deadlier version of Brandon Ingram. His shooting skill will be a boon and he shot more threes (6.8 per game) than ever last season, but, for the Raptors, whether or not his teammates can space the floor for him is just as vital as whether or not he can space the floor for others, since he’ll have plenty of the ball at the end of the shot clock.

If we assume that the Raptors’ last preseason starting lineup (Leonard, Barrett, Barnes, Immanuel Quickley, and Jakob Poeltl) will be their regular season starting unit, only two of those players (Leonard and Quickley) shot above league average from three last year. Barrett has had a 40% season in his past, but has only shot 36% or better one other time in his seven seasons in the league and, like Leonard, he doesn’t toss them up at particularly high volume. Barnes is a career 30.1% shooter from beyond the arc and will be treated as a non-shooter in the playoffs, and Poeltl’s range barely extends beyond the basket. Quickley has a fast release and is unafraid to pull up from well beyond the arc, but he’s more streaky than automatic. He’ll probably need to up his three-point volume even more (he was at 6.8 attempts per game last year, the same as Kawhi) to really move the needle for a team that was just 26th in three-point attempts and 21st in percentage last season.

In fact, of the top eight Raptors in minutes per game last season, only Ingram (gone, but accounted for by Kawhi’s arrival), Quickley, and Sandro Mamukelashvili (also gone) shot better than league average from deep and only one other regular (Ja’Kobe Walter, at a sizzling 40.9% on 3.7 attempts per game) did so. Even if the Raptors opt to finish games with Collin Murray-Boyles at centre instead of Poeltl, CMB is still an unproven shooter who hit 34% last year on less than one try per night. Even a super small-ball lineup with Barnes at the five might not have particularly great spacing, unless Walter has a breakout season or Barrett finds consistency from deep. Jamison Battle can really shoot, but it’s not clear he’ll have a big enough role to make a significant impact and their best defensive guard, Jamal Shead, has only made 32.2% of his threes in the NBA.

This year’s Raptors team will still be plenty dangerous and they’ll be an absolutely miserable team to have to play against, whether in the regular season or the playoffs, but it may take another roster move, or a breakout shooting performance from CMB, Walter, or Shead, for them to have enough offence juice to take down the league’s elites in a playoff series.

Sorry.

It’s the start of the NBA season this week, meaning Phoenix Suns basketball is back. But the most talked-about topic in Suns basketball right now is the comments from someone who’s not on the team anymore, Kevin Durant, who had a back-and-forth with team owner Mat Ishbia on the framing of the former Finals MVP’s tenure with the team.

So despite the fact that Suns basketball is returning in two days, we’re gonna start with the back and forth between the team’s owner and the Houston Rockets superstar for questions we want your answers on.

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If not Kevin Durant, what should the Suns have done to improve the roster?

It’s February of 2023.

Mat Ishbia buys the team, and the team still has their draft picks, Mikal Bridges, Jae Crowder, and Cam Johnson. INSTEAD of trading for Kevin Durant, which Ishbia has deemed a mistake since the decision, what should the team have done with the assets at their disposal to improve the roster as the Suns were struggling and coming off a disappointing playoff performance that saw them embarrassed on their home court in Game 7 of the Western Conference Semifinals against the Dallas Mavericks?

You be the GM.

The opening night starting center will be?

Both Khaman Maluach and Oso Ighodaro started at least two of the team’s five games this preseason, with Maluach starting at center in the final three games, with the last one being alongside the team’s four other presumed starters, Jalen Green, Devin Booker, Dillon Brooks, and Miles Bridges.

While Ighodaro didn’t play in the team’s final two games, he should be ready for the start of the season, so let’s not factor in health. If you’re the coaching staff making the decision between the two, who are you picking and why?

What are your Suns predictions for the season?

The start of the regular season calls for prediction time, and in a Western Conference that’s lost LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, and Anthony Davis since the start of last season, there’s been a lot of turnaround over the past 12 months when the Suns began the 2025-26 campaign. Last year, the Suns surprised many when they won 45 games and made the playoffs after losing Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal in the previous offseason. This year, they’re not gonna take as many by storm, as reflected by their win total projections by the sportsbooks and prediction markets.

What are your predictions for the 2026-2027 Suns season?

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On the Suns’ Plate This Week

The regular season is here!

Phoenix has two games this week. On Wednesday at 7 pm AZ time, they’ll play the new-look Portland Trailblazers for their first game of the season. Then on Saturday at 7 pm AZ time, the Suns will host the Golden State Warriors in their regular-season home opener in a rematch of the 8/9 play-in game from a season ago.

We are back!

It might be harder to predict the NBA right now than it has been at any point in league history. The last eight years have produced eight different champions, and no team has even made back-to-back NBA Finals appearances over that time. The second-apron is breaking up contenders early, and an added emphasis on pace-and-space is leading more injuries that make it so much harder to sustain success year-over-over.

The NBA season rarely plays out how we think it’s going to. The New York Knicks weren’t exactly a popular preseason pick to win it all last year, and absolutely no one saw the San Antonio Spurs morphing from a 44-win team to the Western Conference champions. The Indiana Pacers made a darkhorse NBA Finals run in 2025, the Dallas Mavericks did the same in 2024, and Miami Heat got all the way there as an 8-seed in 2023. You might think we can already fast-forward to a Thunder-Spurs rematch in the Western Conference Finals this year, but there tends to be a lot more chaos in this era of the league than ever before.

With the 2026-27 season here, let’s make our picks for the 2027 NBA Finals and every major award. For more NBA preview coverage, check my list of breakout player candidates, preseason standouts, and preseason rookie rankings.

The Raptors win the Eastern Conference

I think it’s fair to frame the East as the Knicks vs. the field. I respect the Knicks, but I’d still take the field in that equation, just because it’s so hard to put together consecutive Finals runs in this era. I was choosing between the Raptors and Celtics for my East pick, and I’m going with Toronto for a few reasons. You usually need a top-5 player to make a Finals run, and Kawhi Leonard looked like that type of player last year. I’m well aware of his constant injury issues late in the season, but hey, Toronto did a good job pacing his body last time he was there in 2019, and I think they can do it again. Scottie Barnes is going to have a monster year as Leonard’s sidekick, and when the two share the floor with sophomore Collin Murray-Boyles, it’s going to be impossible to score on Toronto. Ja’Kobe Walter and Jamal Shead are very good role players for this team, and I think Allen Graves can be a contributor off the bench as a rookie, too. Toronto games won’t be pretty, but Kawhi gives them the halfcourt scoring they lacked a year ago, and the rest of the squad should be ready to win a rock fight every night out.

The Spurs win the Western Conference

The Spurs won 62 games and were the only team in the league to place in the top-3 of both offensive and defensive efficiency last year. The scary thing is I think they will be even better this year. Obviously, it all starts with Victor Wembanyama, who is in the rare position of already being the best player in the world while still having so much room left to improve. Wemby’s defense is multiple levels above any other player on the planet, and I expect we’ll see a more well-rounded offensive game from him this year. Dylan Harper’s sophomore leap is coming, and he’s going to be one of the best guards in the Western Conference before you know it. I’m fascinated to see how San Antonio handles the dynamic between Harper and De’Aaron Fox, but Fox should be better than he was in last year’s playoffs on a bum ankle, and his bloated salary is a problem for another day. Even if I’m not the biggest Stephen Castle guy (cut down the turnovers, man!), San Antonio still has some other great role players, led by Julian Champagnie and Devin Vassell. I think Tobias Harris’ scoring can help out in the halfcourt in a pinch, and I liked their draft haul, too. If any team can sustain consecutive title runs in this era, it’s the Spurs.

NBA Finals 2027 prediction: Spurs over Raptors in 6

Kawhi vs. the Spurs for a championship would be absolute cinema. Get me an alternate feed with Uncle Dennis’ color commentary! Toronto’s defense will be nasty, but Wemby is a problem without a solution. I have Wemby getting his first chip at 23 years old.

NBA MVP 2027 pick: Victor Wembanyama

Boring answer, I know. Luka Doncic was my backup choice. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in 2025 is the only NBA MVP to win the championship in the last decade, so it won’t be easy, but it feels like Wemby is destined to pull off a few of these double-dips in his career. Might as well start now.

NBA Defensive Player of the Year: Victor Wembanyama

It’s a lock if he plays 65 games. If he doesn’t, I’d go with OKC’s Chet Holmgren, who is fantastic when he plays anyone but Wembanyama.

NBA Rookie of the Year 2027 pick: Cameron Boozer, F, Memphis Grizzlies

It’s a straight up crime that Boozer wasn’t the No. 1 overall pick, because he was very clearly the best prospect in the draft. Boozer is literally the youngest player in the NBA this season with a July 2007 birthday, but I fully expect him to be Memphis’ best player from the jump. Pick a play type, any play type, and Boozer is already excellent at it. He can body people in the pick-and-roll as the handler or screener, he can nail three-pointers off the dribble or the catch, he can drive, he can clean the offensive glass for putbacks, he can crush the offensive glass like a traditional big man, and he’s an expert decision-maker with the ball in his hands. No rookie has made All-NBA since Tim Duncan in 1998, but I think Boozer can challenge for a spot this year.

NBA Coach of the Year prediction: Joe Mazzulla, Boston Celtics

The Celtics are my pick to earn the No. 1 seed in the East this year, and if Mazzulla pulls that off after the Jaylen Brown trade, he’s going to get hailed as a genius. Mazzulla optimizes every possession for success in a way no other coach can match. His teams have a clear identity of launching threes, hitting the offensive glass with aggression (hello, Mitchell Robinson), and challenging every shot at the rim. It brings me no joy to predict greatness for the Celtics, but I really think it’s going to happen this season.

NBA Sixth Man of the Year pick: Ajay Mitchell, G, Oklahoma City Thunder

Mitchell was one of last season’s breakout players, but it felt like he never got the recognition he deserved because injuries limited him to 57 games (taking away award consideration) and put him on the sidelines for OKC’s most important playoff games. The former UC Santa Barbara product can provide everything teams want from a secondary ball handler with airtight driving ability, improved outside shooting, and a knack for finding teammates without turning the ball over. SGA can’t do everything for the Thunder, and Mitchell will be there to pick to the scraps as the Thunder put together another dominant season.

NBA Most Improved Player 2027 pick: Scoot Henderson, G, Portland Trail Blazers

Henderson looks fantastic in preseason for the Blazers team that is no longer counting on him to be a savior with Damian Lillard and Ja Morant entrenched in the starting backcourt. I think it’s only a matter of time before Scoot breaks up that pairing, because his feisty on-ball defense, improved three-point stroke, and extra gear going to the basket makes him the most well-rounded guard in Portland’s backcourt. He’s slated to be a restricted free agent after this season, and he should have plenty of suitors if he finally starts living up to his former draft hype in his fourth season.

NBA Clutch Player of the Year 2027 pick: Jalen Brunson, G, New York Knicks

The NBA will be bending over backwards to give him this award if he hits a few clutch shots this year as a make-up call from last season. Brunson is the most terrifying clutch demon in the league, the Knicks are going to be awesome again, and he should win this award going away.

All-NBA Team 2027 picks and predictions

First-Team:

• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Thunder
• Luka Doncic, Lakers
• Giannis Antetokounmpo, Heat
• Nikola Jokic, Nuggets
• Victor Wembanyama, Spurs

Second-Team:

• Jalen Brunson, Knicks
• Anthony Edwards, Timberwolves
• Jayson Tatum, Celtics
• Tyrese Haliburton, Pacers
• Donovan Mitchell, Cavs

Third-Team:

• Scottie Barnes, Raptors
• LaMelo Ball, Timberwolves
• Cade Cunningham, Pistons
• Alperen Sengun, Rockets
• Franz Wagner, Magic

NBA regular season conference predictions

• Eastern Conference predictions
• Western Conference predictions
• Over-under win total picks

Leave your NBA predictions below

It’s going to be a great season.