B/R Staff's Hottest NBA Takes for 2023-24 Season

We're less than two weeks from the start of the 2023-24 NBA season. We made it. The offseason is essentially over. And with the large and rather dramatic exception of James Harden's situation, rosters around the league generally seem set.

So, what better time than now to survey the entire landscape of the NBA and its 30 teams for some takes?

Fun storylines, emerging individual talents, new star arrivals for various teams and more give us plenty of fodder for discussion, and Bleacher Report's NBA staff converted those into our hottest takes for this upcoming season.

Just one caveat, though. We're not throwing out random wildness for its own sake. We believe these takes could actually come true, and we explain why below.

Given the attention the Oklahoma City Thunder have received from the national media over the last few months, this take may not seem particularly spicy. But in the midst of the preseason, the Thunder are 17th in title odds and tied for eighth in odds to lead the West in regular-season wins.

Here's why they'll beat those odds.

First of all, the Thunder have a borderline top-10 individual player in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and he's leading what is one of the league's most playmaking-rich starting fives. He and Jalen Williams are both 6'6". SGA averaged 5.5 assists last season, and Williams averaged 4.3 over his last 25 games. Then, you add a 6'8" point guard with a career average of 6.3 assists in Josh Giddey, and it becomes pretty easy to imagine OKC attacking from all over the floor.

Behind those three, Chet Holmgren (who wowed in his preseason debut and fills the most glaring need from last year's team), Luguentz Dort's perimeter defense, a bunch of young wild cards off the bench and a sharp head coach in Mark Daigneault, the Thunder will fare better in the West's gauntlet than at least 11 other teams.

—Andy Bailey

The Houston Rockets made the biggest splash of any team in free agency this year, bringing in Fred VanVleet, Dillon Brooks, Jeff Green and Jock Landale to complement their young core. While they now have plenty of guards and wings set to battle for minutes, the runway is clear for third-year center Alperen Şengün to cement himself as a franchise cornerstone.

Şengün took a big step forward last season, averaging 14.8 points on 55.3 percent shooting, 9.0 rebounds and 3.9 assists in only 28.9 minutes per game. However, former head coach Stephen Silas drove some Rockets fans up a wall by not running the offense through him even more.

New head coach Ime Udoka doesn't sound like he's planning on making the same mistake.

"Anytime you have a big that can initiate offense, whether it's from the high post or off the block, you want to take advantage of his skill set," Udoka told Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle in mid-May. "The (Nikola) Jokić comments are there for a reason because he does some of the passing and has the vision and can score from different areas on the court. He's deadly in the pocket. You can hit him on the half roll, and he can make all the plays there. That just makes it easier for everyone else."

No one should expect Şengün to make the same impact as Jokić this season, but the similarities between the two are undeniable. Udoka plans to "move him all around the court" to take advantage of both his scoring ability in the post and his passing, per Feigen, and Şengün recently told reporters that he feels "more comfortable" this season under Udoka.

Based on how many different ways he can stuff the stat sheet, Şengün could be a screaming value to win Most Improved Player. He's currently +2500 (bet $100 to win $2,500) on FanDuel Sportsbook, but he has a clear runway to have a career year on a new-look Rockets team that could be better than expected.

—Bryan Toporek

The Hawks traded away John Collins this offseason and could use a third star who can play power forward and complement Trae Young and Dejounte Murray, cementing this team as one of the elites in the East. Adding a three-time All-Star who can shoot, rebound, pass and operate in the low post would give Atlanta a dangerous Big Three and help push for home-court advantage in the playoffs.

For Minnesota, this is a financially motivated move that also helps restock some assets lost in the Rudy Gobert trade.

A package of De'Andre Hunter, Bogdan Bogdanović, Kobe Bufkin and first-round picks in 2024 and 2028 should be enough to get a deal done, especially since it takes Towns' four-year, $223 million extension off the books for the Wolves. This adds a ton of length, playmaking and shooting around Anthony Edwards, Rudy Gobert, Mike Conley Jr., Jaden McDaniels, Naz Reid and company.

The trade also helps keep Minnesota from reaching the second tax apron, something that could become a possibility when Towns' extension kicks in and McDaniels gets a new deal as well.

Towns will be a Hawk before the Feb. 8 deadline.

—Greg Swartz

After a dreadful 5-20 start to the 2022-23 season, the Orlando Magic went 29-28 over their last 57 games. And this season, they're bringing back almost the entirety of the young core that figured things out in the middle of a campaign.

Based on nothing more than natural development for players who are mostly in their early to mid-20s, it's safe to assume some improvement over last season's 13th-place finish in the East.

But how do we justify leapfrogging at least four teams to get to eighth? That has more to do with rising stars than anything else (though there are plenty of other things to like about this roster).

After averaging an even 20.0 points and winning Rookie of the Year, Paolo Banchero enters his second season as one of the game's more intriguing potential point forwards. He's more than a scorer, and his ability to create for and find others takes some burden off the team's guards and makes the attack less predictable.

And even if Banchero breaks out (even further) and improves as an outside shooter, there's a decent chance he won't be Orlando's best player in 2023-24. Fresh off winning a gold medal at the FIBA World Cup, Franz Wagner checks a lot of the same boxes Banchero does while already being a more reliable three-point threat.

These two are big (Wagner and Banchero are 6'9" and 6'10", respectively), versatile and developing threats who are surrounded by plenty more young talent. Their collective leap is coming earlier than expected.

—Andy Bailey

The Pacers haven't actually snared a top-six seed in the East in a minute—the 2019-20 campaign, to be exact—but they surely looked the part when healthy last season.

When they had Tyrese Haliburton, arguably the Association's best connector, and Myles Turner, an elite defensive anchor, on the floor together, they won 54.2 percent of their games and posted a plus-2.1 net rating. That winning percentage would've been seventh-best in the conference (just shy of the sixth-seeded Brooklyn Nets' 54.9), while the efficiency rank would've slotted 10th overall and sixth in the East.

So, they've shown they can play at this level already, and that's before accounting for all of the vast possibilities for internal growth. Not to mention the dramatic impact they could get out of Bruce Brown, who spent last season as the invaluable Swiss Army knife of the champion Denver Nuggets.

This roster is almost exclusively populated by players still ascending toward their primes. That includes the 23-year-old Haliburton, who was an All-Star last season and maybe Team USA's best player this summer. Throw in Bennedict Mathurin, Obi Toppin, Andrew Nembhard, Jarace Walker, Jordan Nwora, Ben Sheppard, Jalen Smith, Isaiah Jackson and Aaron Nesmith, and the number of Pacers who could exceed expectations is staggering.

The East might be heavy at the top, but its middle class is loaded with question marks. Indiana should sense an opening to a postseason path that sidesteps the play-in tournament, and if it does, it'll be pedal-to-the-floor time in the Circle City.

—Zach Buckley

Piggybacking off the Indiana Pacers as a top-six team in the East prediction, All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton will get a significant portion of the credit with an All-NBA nod. He may not catch guards like Steph Curry, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Dončić and Damian Lillard—but he has a real chance to overtake De'Aaron Fox, Donovan Mitchell and other contenders like Devin Booker, Ja Morant, Jalen Brunson, Jrue Holiday and James Harden.

Booker may have a great year in Phoenix with the Suns, but he's on a team with high-scoring stars in Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal. If the Pacers make that playoff push and the Sacramento Kings backslide, Haliburton catches Fox for All-NBA third team. For the Pacers, it's a blessing and a curse—as they'd love to have one of the top 15 players in the league, but that would also raise his extension to 30 percent of next year's salary cap instead of 25 percent (a jump to a projected $42.6 million from $35.5 million).

—Eric Pincus

When James Harden requested a trade to the Los Angeles Clippers in late June, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that he'd eventually get his wish. That's just how superstar trade requests go in today's NBA, right?

The resolution to the Damian Lillard trade saga begs to differ. Lillard did nearly everything in his power to force his way to the Miami Heat, but the Portland Trail Blazers eventually sent him to the Milwaukee Bucks instead.

Don't be surprised if the Philadelphia 76ers follow suit by sending Harden to a team that isn't the Clippers.

Sam Amick and Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that the Sixers "have valued" Terance Mann and multiple first-round picks in any deal, but ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski said the Clippers aren't inclined to increase their offer since they're the only team bidding for Harden. The Heat seemingly took that same approach with Lillard, and look how that worked out for them.

After striking out on both Lillard and Jrue Holiday, perhaps the Heat will eventually inquire about Harden. Teams that fall short of expectations early in the season could also pursue a Harden trade as a way to get back on track.

The New Orleans Pelicans lurk as a potential dark horse for Harden. If they're willing to part ways with CJ McCollum and draft compensation, Harden could be the connective tissue that they're missing between Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram.

—Bryan Toporek

The clock is ticking on Joel Embiid's opportunity to lead a championship run, and he might (should?) have serious questions about the Sixers' ability to follow his lead.

Sure, he's the reigning MVP, but he's also a 7'0", 280-pound, 29-year-old center with a terrifying trail of injury issues behind him. He won't remain at this elite level forever.

Perhaps his basketball mortality is what made him wonder aloud about winning a title "in Philly or anywhere else" this summer. He might already know—or at least think—a scenery change is needed to put a championship ring on his finger.

Philly has already blown through Embiid's former co-stars Jimmy Butler and Ben Simmons, and its current second-in-command, James Harden, has vowed to never suit up for lead executive Daryl Morey again. Just like that, Embiid might be becoming the personification of the dog from the "This Is Fine" meme.

While other East elites like the Milwaukee Bucks (Damian Lillard) and Boston Celtics (Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porziņģis) made impact additions this offseason, the biggest story in Philly is the (presumably) looming subtraction of Harden. And no matter what Daryl Morey thinks, this version of Harden isn't bringing back a star or the assets needed to acquire one.

This season hasn't even tipped yet, and it's already looking like a potential disaster for the Sixers. Embiid, who will only get so many more cracks at the crown, could easily get fed up by the situation and follow in the footsteps of Simmons and Harden by demanding a trade out of town.

—Zach Buckley

We should finally begin to see the end of the Warriors dynasty this season, a product of an aging roster and the reluctance to play the young core real minutes or include them in trades for win-now help.

Chris Paul is 38. Stephen Curry is 35. Klay Thompson and Draymond Green will both turn 34 during the regular season. Add on six Finals trips for this core and 149 total playoff games over 15 postseason trips for Paul and there is a ton of tread on these tires.

As we saw last year, this team showed no effort on the road and was a disaster on defense at times. Klay Thompson guarding power forwards in small lineups with a backcourt of Paul and Curry is going to get killed defensively as well.

Golden State stumbled to the No. 6 seed last year, with teams that finished below it (Los Angeles Lakers, Oklahoma City Thunder, New Orleans Pelicans, Dallas Mavericks, Minnesota Timberwolves) only getting better.

The Warriors are going to end up in the play-in tournament this season and could very well drop out of the playoffs altogether from there.

—Greg Swartz

While Victor Wembanyama is joining the NBA with more hype, put down the Oklahoma City Thunder's Chet Holmgren for Rookie of the Year.

Like Blake Griffin before him, Holmgren missed his initial rookie season with an injury but is still eligible for what will be his second rookie year (whether it's fair or not that he can win the award after getting a full NBA calendar of coaching, mentoring and experience is another story). Griffin had a knee injury in 2009-10 and was a force right out of the gate in 2010-11. Look for Holmgren to follow a similar path after losing the 2022-23 campaign to a foot injury.

Holmgren is a very different player than Griffin. He won't be as explosive, but he'll make a stronger impact on the defensive end of the court. Similarly, Wembanyama will be an exceptional player in the NBA, but it may take him slightly longer to find himself in the league and adjust to the heavy schedule. Holmgren has that experience, and his team has a better shot at making the playoffs than the San Antonio Spurs.

—Eric Pincus