The NBA season is just around the corner, beginning on Tuesday, October 21. With the new season comes a whole wave of young players, free agent moves, and new rules.
The runner-up NBA champs, the Indiana Pacers, are going to look different this year with the loss of their center, Myles Turner, who went to the Bucks this offseason on a four-year, 107 million dollar contract. With the loss of Myles Turner, the Pacers filled the gap at the center position, trading for Jay Huff from the Grizzlies in exchange for a second-round pick and a pick swap. Unfortunately, the Pacers also lost Tyreese Haliburton to an Achilles tear in Game Seven of the 2025 NBA finals, which is going to put him out for all of the 2025-26 season.
The Houston Rockets had a loud offseason, trading for future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant is a two-time champion, two-time final MVP, 2013-14 regular-season MVP, 15-time all-star, four-time NBA scoring title, and 2007-08 Rookie of the Year. They acquired Kevin Durant by sending Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks, their 2025 first-round pick, and five second-round picks to the Phoenix Suns.
The offseason also saw Damian Lillard’s return to Portland on a three-year, 42 million dollar contract. Portland traded Anfernee Simons to the Celtics as a player-for-player trade, with Portland receiving Jrue Holiday, but the trade was not always planned like this. The trade originally consisted of Anfernee Simons going to the Celtics and two second-round picks for Jrue Holiday. Some sports fans question the fairness of this trade, as Simons is almost a decade younger than Holiday and had a better season last season. Simons averaged 19 points a game, while Holiday only averaged 11 points a game.
The draft had some big names in it, but none bigger than Cooper Flagg of Duke University. Flagg had a monstrous one-season college run, leading his team in scoring and rebounds and winning Freshman of the Year. At Duke, Cooper Flagg averaged 19 points, seven rebounds, and four assists a game. He topped it all off by being drafted at the number one overall by the Dallas Mavericks.
The new rule in the NBA this season is the “Heave Rule.” The premise of it is that at the last three seconds of the first three quarters, if you shoot the ball from 36 feet or farther and you miss it, the shot will not count towards your field goal percentage as a player, but will count as a team shot attempt.
Fans have various predictions about this season’s NBA champion.
“I got the Mavs [Mavericks] because the team overall, with the addition of Cooper Flagg, with the way it’s looking right now, they have the potential chance to be contenders,” ERHS sophomore Jalonne Morris said.
Sophomore Andrew Zamorra, on the other hand, has a different opinion.
“I think it’s going to be the Nuggets because the greatest player of all time, Nikola Jokic,” Zamorra said.
