The NBA season is quickly approaching, starting at the end of October. This year’s chaotic free agency will definitely affect teams’ chances in winning the championship. This year will also feature very interesting rookies who could immediately impact their respective team’s push to the playoffs.

As a result of Ben Simmons’s absence for a substantial part of the NBA season, due to a broken foot, I think that Buddy Hield will win Rookie of the Year. Buddy Hield should receive a lot of time on the Pelicans and he appears to be fitting in the NBA comfortably. Hield performed well in the Summer League and is continuing to be effective during the NBA preseason. With his maturity at 22 years old, I feel that Hield will make a substantial contribution to the Pelicans and win the Rookie of the Year Award.

The team that I feel will see the biggest jump in their wins from last year is the Boston Celtics. Last year, the Celtics went 48-34, a solid record that got them into the playoffs. However, in the offseason, the Celtics were able to sign star center Al Horford. The Celtics have been missing a dominant center for years, and Al Horford solves the problem. Furthermore, the Celtics possessed the Nets 1st round draft pick and drafted Jalyn Brown as the third overall pick. Without losing any players to free agency and making several key additions to their roster, the Celtics should see a significant spike in a number of wins this season.

Now that the Golden State Warriors have added the future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant to their roster, the Warriors seem to be an obvious front-runner to win the championship. Last year, without Durant, the Warriors broke the NBA record for the most wins in a season with 73. Now with Kevin Durant, they have four all-stars on their team. This dream team, although a favorite to win the NBA Championship, will not start off strong in my opinion. When LeBron James joined Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on the Miami Heat, they started slowly losing numerous games. This was attributable to the fact before forming the Big Three, they each were their former team’s number one scorer. However, as the season progressed, the Big Three learned to distribute the ball to their teammates. I feel this will happen with the Warriors as well. The Warriors will start slow but will build chemistry among their stars as the season progresses. By the end of the season, the Warriors should be hoisting the NBA Championship Trophy. This NBA season looks to be very entertaining and it will be interesting to see who will ultimately be crowned champion.