On November 18th, the start of the NBA draft and free agency began. The teams are now able to pick upcoming stars and, if possible, assign superstars for the new year. The top three picks in the NBA draft are interesting and several key trades occurred this month.
The first pick of the NBA draft was Anthony Edwards. The Minnesota Timberwolves selected the talented guard to be able to compete in the 2020 season. Looking at the play-style of Edwards, you can compare him to Ja Morant.
With the second pick, the Golden State Warriors selected James Wiseman. Wiseman is a tall center, looking to shoot along with the splasher Steph Curry. Wiseman is able to shoot with a field goal percentage of 76.9, so the team can feed him threes.
The Charlotte Hornets picked the youngest Ball brother, Lamelo, with the third pick. Ball has the potential to be a great player, especially with the amount of minutes he’ll receive. He also will play alongside Gordon Hayward, who signed with the team after his time playing with the Boston Celtics.
Now the NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers have made some changes to their roster as well. They received Dennis Schroder, Montrezl Harrell, Wesley Matthews, and Marc Gasol. With all of these veteran players, the Lakers have a high chance to remain champions with this upcoming season.
Some other players to look out for are Serge Ibaka, Kelly Oubre, and Demarcus Cousins. Ibaka was signed to the Clippers where he will play once again with Kawhi Leonard. Oubre was traded to Golden State and Cousins signed with the Houston Rockets.
There are three more trades you should consider keeping your eye on this season. Chris Paul went to the Phoenix Suns for Oubre, which can potentially help the Suns return to the playoffs. Jrue Holiday was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks, who were lacking a shooter, but well, let’s just say that things got crazier for that team. Lastly, the Washington Wizards’ John Wall was traded to the Houston Rockets for Russell Westbrook. It looks like James Harden will be playing with John Wall and Demarcus Cousins, which boosts the overall competition in the league.
With all of these rotations in the league, the NBA 2020-2021 season appears to be very competitive. The teams are evenly distributed with all their stars. Now we wait and see what the upcoming season has to offer.
