15. Denver vs. Utah for the Nobody-Believes-in-Us Contender Title

​​The nine-month (and then some) sprint of an NBA season hasn’t begun yet, but we already have a good idea of where we’re headed. After a few weeks to chew on one of the wildest summers in recent history, here’s everything and everyone we expect to dominate the headlines in the 2019-20 season.

NBA长达九个月的赛程尚未开始，但我们基本已经清楚事情会向什么方向发展。经过几周时间仔细回顾这个近年来最狂野的夏天之一，这里我们将列举所有我们认为会占据新闻头条2019-2020赛季的人和事。

---

29. The Andre Iguodala Hostage Crisis 

29.伊戈达拉的“人质”危机

Jonathan Tjarks: The biggest casualty of the exodus out of Golden State is Andre Iguodala, the former NBA Finals MVP and longtime sixth man who wound up on a Memphis team at the beginning of a long rebuilding process. Iguodala is currently in a staring contest with Grizzlies management. He reportedly wants them to buy him out immediately so that he can play for a contender, but they want to hold on to him and flip him for future assets at some point before the trade deadline. There is zero chance that Iguodala will be in Memphis all season. The question is who blinks first.

Jonathan Tjarks: 金州勇士夏季离队热潮中最大的牺牲品是安德烈-伊戈达拉，前NBA总决赛最有价值球员和球队长时间的第六人,他对于被交易到孟菲斯灰熊这支尚处于漫长重建期初期阶段的球队感到十分焦虑。伊戈达拉目前正和灰熊展开激烈的谈判。据报道，伊戈达拉希望灰熊能够立即买断他，如此一来他就可以去往一支具有竞争力的球队打球，但是灰熊希望留住他，然后在交易截止日之前某个时候用他交易到资产。伊戈达拉一整个赛季都不可能为灰熊打球。问题的关键就在于谁先妥协。

Iguodala isn’t a charity case. Even at 35, he’s one of the better perimeter defenders in the NBA and one of the few players with the physical tools to match up with supersized wings like LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard. Every contender in the West needs a player like Iguodala, and teams like Houston, Utah, Denver, and Portland don’t have anyone like him on their rosters. He won’t be an important player in the regular season no matter where he winds up, but don’t be surprised if he makes a huge impact in some playoff series in May and June.

伊戈达拉不是一个用来做慈善的球员，哪怕他已经35岁了他依然是NBA联盟里一位优秀的外线防守者，且是少数拥有足以匹敌像勒布朗詹姆斯、科怀-伦纳德这样的超级锋线的身体条件的球员。每一支在西部角逐的球队都需要一位像伊戈达拉一样的球员。像休斯顿火箭、丹佛掘金、犹他爵士和波特兰开拓者这样的球队，在他们的轮换阵容里，没有任何像伊戈达拉一样的球员。不论他最终到哪一支球队他在常规赛中都不会发挥重要作用，但当他对五月六月的某轮季后赛产生重大影响时，你也不要过于惊讶。

28.教练的“挑战”

Danny Chau: In July, the NBA board of governors unanimously approved the addition of a coach’s challenge. The new rule will allow head coaches to contest a personal foul  called on their team, an out-of-bounds violation, or a goaltending/basket interference by calling a timeout and twirling their finger at a ref. While it’s been experimented with in the G League and summer league, it’s an unprecedented tool at the highest level of basketball. Now, the question is just how coaches will exercise their newfound power. Given the cost (a challenge can be made only after a timeout is called) and exclusivity (there’s only one challenge allowed per game, compared to the NFL’s challenge system, which can award up to three) logic suggests it really makes sense only in the most make-or-break situations. But that would limit its applicability: In the final two minutes of regulation and overtime, only fouls can be challenged. In an ideal world, the rule change would add an element of justice: Perhaps a major game will be decided by the veracity of a James Harden drawn foul. But what I’ll be looking for is the first coach to blow a challenge in the middle of the first quarter on a goaltending call.

Danny Chau: 今年7月，NBA管理层一致同意增加一项教练的“挑战”。这项新规定将允许主教练通过叫暂停并对裁判转动手指对球队的个人犯规、出界或干扰球进行挑战。虽然这项规定已经在发展联盟和夏季联赛中进行了试验，但在代表篮球最高水平的舞台上，这是一项前所未有的工具。现在，问题是教练们将如何运用他们新获得的权力。考虑到“挑战”的代价（“挑战”只能在呼叫暂停后进行）和独有性（每场比赛只允许一个“挑战”，相比之下，在NFL挑战体系中，球队一场比赛最多可获得三次挑战机会）从逻辑上来讲这表明它只有在生死攸关的时刻下才真正有意义。但这将限制其适用性：在常规时间的最后两分钟和加时赛中，只有犯规可以被“挑战”。在理想的情况下，这项规则的改变将增加一个使判罚公正的因素：也许一场重要的比赛将由詹姆斯-哈登的造犯规的真实性来决定。但我寻找的是第一位在第一节中段的一个进球中使用 “挑战”的教练。

John Gonzalez: The last time Carmelo Anthony played a professional basketball game was November 8 of last year—and yet he remains an omnipresent part of the greater NBA conversation. LeBron James spent much of last season dodging questions about when the Lakers might sign Melo. More recently, Dwyane Wade lobbied on behalf of his banana boat buddy. After Joe Johnson signed with the Detroit Pistons, Rachel Nichols reported she got texts from various NBA players that basically amounted to What about Melo, tho? Reformed Knicks fan and Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang implored his once-favorite team to get back in bed with Melo. Draymond Green insisted that, even at 35 and nearly a year removed from his last game, there are “a lot of players [Carmelo is] better than.” (Green delivered these remarks on a CNBC financial show while wearing a tuxedo jacket.) Even Ice Cube has Melo on his mind, saying the best path back to the NBA for Anthony leads directly through the Big 3. It appears the only person who isn’t keen on Melo these days is Jerry Colangelo—which, beggars and choosers, you know?

John Gonzalez：卡梅隆-安东尼上一次打职业篮球比赛已经是去年11月8日了，在关于NBA的话题讨论中，随处可见他的名字。勒布朗-詹姆斯上赛季都很多时间都在试图逃避关于湖人什么时候会考虑签下卡梅隆-安东尼之类的问题。近日，韦德代表他的香蕉船兄弟展开了游说。在乔-约翰逊与底特律活塞签约以后Rachel Nichols报道称她收到了来自很多NBA球员的短信，内容基本上都归结到，卡梅隆-安东尼怎么办呢？前尼克斯球迷，及民主党主席候选人安德鲁-杨恳切地希望他曾经喜欢的球队可以签回卡梅隆-安东尼。德雷蒙德-格林坚持称虽然安东尼已经三十五岁了，并且距离他上一次打球已经过去了接近一年，他依然比很多球员打得更好。（格林在一个CNBC财经节目中穿着燕尾服西装发表了这一观点）甚至说唱歌手Ice Cube也十分记挂安东尼的情况，他认为，安东尼返回NBA的最佳途径就是参加Big3联赛。看起来近来唯一不对安东尼感兴趣的人就是杰里-科朗格罗——那么安东尼到底是乞求获得打球机会的球员呢？还是有选择权的球员呢？

Until and unless Anthony signs with another team, there will be endless discourse about how much he has left and why he isn’t employed. And then if and when he does sign, there will be endless discourse about how much he has left and why he is employed. It is Shirtless Melo’s world now, and we all need to get used to it.

在安东尼和另一支球队签约之前，人们将无休止地讨论他还剩多少价值及他为什么还并未被球队签约。但是一旦他与球队签约，人们又将开始无休止地讨论他到底剩多少价值，且他为什么可以获得签约。这就是赤裸裸的真实的卡梅隆-安东尼的世界，我们必须习惯它。

26.奥拉迪波的健康状况

Haley O’Shaughnessy: The fate of Indiana’s season will rest in part on coaching: Can Myles Turner be pushed to make another jump? Can Bojan Bogdanovic be replaced? Will Malcolm Brogdon’s talents be maximized? (Then there’s the bench, which sparks too many questions to address here.) But more important than anything else, the Pacers need Oladipo to be healthy as soon as possible.

Haley O’Shaughnessy：印第安纳步行者的命运一部分取决于执教水平：迈尔斯-特纳能够被推动着再上一个台阶？博扬-波格丹诺维奇该由谁来替代？马尔科姆-布罗格登的天赋会被开发到最大化吗？（然后就涉及到替补席的问题，关于这个有太多需要注意并解决的问题。）但是比任何事情都重要的是，步行者需要奥拉迪波尽早康复。

There’s room for Indiana to take advantage of the Eastern Conference this season when he does return, as significant roster changes have left a power vacuum. While teams like the Celtics and Raptors adjust to the losses of Al Horford and Kawhi Leonard, Indiana has a chance to emerge.

这一赛季的印第安纳步行者在奥拉迪波回来后，仍有机会利用东部的优势，因为各支球队阵容的重大变化造成了核心球权的空缺。当凯尔特人和猛龙这样的球队在面对流失霍福德和伦纳德这样的球员时，印第安纳步行者有机会在东部突围。

But it all depends on when Dipo can get on the court (he’s expected back in December or January). The Pacers held on to a playoff berth in 2018-19 after he suffered a season-ending quad tear in January. But it seems unlikely that they’ll maintain that level without him again.

但这一切都取决于奥拉迪波何时能上场（他预计会在12月或1月复出）。步行者队在2018-19赛季保住了季后赛席位，此前他在1月份遭遇了使他赛季报销的右膝肌腱撕裂。但如果没有奥拉迪波，步行者们似乎不太可能再次保持这样的水平。

Justin Verrier: The collective bargaining agreement holds a mutual opt-out clause after the 2022-23 season, which means we are, at most, four years away from even the possibility of another work stoppage. But this summer’s bonanza of player movement has created a clear divide between have and have-not franchises, one the NBA is still struggling to reckon with.

Justin Verrier:集体的劳资协议在2022-2023赛季后保留双向选择的退出选择条款，这意味着，最多，我们只有四年时间完全不用考虑停工的可能性。但是这个夏天，球员们通过转会产生的获利，在有无特权之间造成了巨大的差别，NBA在努力尝试解决这件事。

Tempers flared at a board of governors meeting in July, soon after the offseason fireworks had ended, over tampering and an unlevel free-agent playing field. Last week the board unanimously approved new rules that will dish out harsher penalties—a maximum fine of $10 million and loss of draft picks, among others—for violations. But the root issue remains unresolved: Stars are forcing their way to the big markets, and without NSA-level monitoring, teams in those big markets will continue to work the gray area to nudge them there.

七月，在今年休赛期的战火结束后，联盟管理层在大会上大为光火，他们认定这样的自由市场是极其失衡的不公正的。上一周，管理层一致通过一项新规，这项新规将会给予违反者更严厉的惩罚——至多罚款一千万美元并剥夺选秀权。但是根源性的问题尚未解决：球星们正在强行进入大球市，并且倘若没有国家安全局级别的监管，大球市的球队将会继续在规则的灰色地带运作以推动球星加入他们。

The NBA is also in a race against technology. The league is currently making $2.7 billion a year in national TV deals, but commissioner Adam Silver has been transparent about the looming challenge of reaching a viewership that is cutting the cable cord, if it ever had one to begin with. In five years, Silver said in March, the game will look “dramatically different.” The league is being proactive on this front, just as it has been with tampering. But these are the kinds of big existential questions that both sides of the bargaining table will have to think long and hard about four years from now, and are worth keeping a close eye on until then.

NBA正在和科技竞赛。联盟近几年每年从和国家电视台的交易中赚取27亿美元，但联盟委员亚当-萧华毫不避讳地说挽救不断下跌的电视收视率的确是一个迫在眉睫的挑战。萧华在三月的时候说：“最多五年，球赛就会变得完全不同。”联盟在这一方面的积极性与往常一致。但这些都是一些存在的很大的问题，双方都必须在接下来的时间花费很多时间认真思考，并且这些问题十分值得长期的关注。

24. The Team USA Celtics

24.“美国国家队”凯尔特人

Zach Kram: A better showing from Team USA at this month’s World Cup would have inspired swaggering optimism from Celtics fans. Who needs a star anyway? Team USA did, it turns out; so might the Celtics, after Kyrie Irving and Al Horford departed for Eastern Conference foes. Danny Ainge has finally exhausted all the future first-round picks he collected via 2013’s momentous Pierce-Garnett trade, and he might not have a championship core to show for all that work. Whether Kemba Walker can succeed playing on his first real contender, and whether Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Marcus Smart can take steps forward this season, will determine how Ainge approaches the next phase of his team-building project.

Zach Kram:如果美国队在本月的世界杯上表现得更出色的话，那么他们将在极大程度上激发凯尔特人球迷的乐观主义情绪。哪支球队必须拥有巨星不可？事实证明美国国家队做到了，所以很有可能凯尔特人也能做到，在凯里-欧文和霍福德离开，去到了东部的其他竞争对手的球队后。安吉终于耗尽了他在2013年通过皮尔斯和加内特的重大交易换来的一轮选秀权，并且他并不能拿出一个冠军来证实这些所有决定的正确性。肯巴-沃克是否能够在他的第一次真正的冠军争夺上取得成功，杰森-塔图姆，杰伦-布朗和斯玛特又能否在这个赛季取得一些进步，这些因素将会决定安吉如何进行他构建这支球队的下一步。

23. The Knicks’ Latest Screwup

23.尼克斯最近一次搞砸球队

Verrier: The Knicks traded their franchise player for cap space (and draft picks), yet failed to sign a single All-Star in free agency. They bottomed out to a franchise-low 17 wins, yet ended up with just the third overall pick in the draft. Along the way, owner James Dolan said a lot of shit—a lot of shit—that reaffirmed the widely held belief that his organization is toxic. What more could go wrong?

Several things, based on recent history. And the front office’s choices in the wake of Kevin Durant’s and Kyrie Irving’s decisions to join the other New York team suggests there may be more than usual.

  The Knicks are pivoting to a youth movement … and also not? Without a microwaved contender to show for all that suffering last season, one would assume that this will be another developmental season, with recent draftees like Mitchell Robinson, Kevin Knox, and this year’s no. 3 pick, RJ Barrett, receiving a hardy dose of playing time. But the Knicks also signed seven veterans—four of whom are best utilized at power forward. On the one hand, every new contract is team-friendly—all but Julius Randle’s can easily be wiped from the books by next summer. On the other hand, that means the veterans will already be playing for their next contract and wanting playing time to prove their worth. The Knicks have practically ensured infighting from the jump. Add in the New York media fishbowl and the usual dysfunction, and it will be a miracle if the team makes it out of training camp without some blowup.

Verrier:纽约尼克斯为了释放薪资空间交易了他们的招牌球员，但他们并未成功在自由市场签下任何一位的全明星球员。他们以队史最差的17胜战绩排在联盟的垫底位，但是最终也只获得了第三顺位的选秀权。在这一过程中球队老板詹姆斯-多兰说了很多的废话——非常多的废话，这些使人们更加相信他对球队的经营坏透了。还能发生更糟糕的事情吗？

  根据球队近几年的历史来看，还可以有很多事情。在凯文-杜兰特和凯里-欧文作出加入纽约另一支球队的决定后，尼克斯的管理层的选择预示着：会有更多糟糕的事情发生。

纽约尼克斯在努力转变为一支年轻的球队…也可能不是的？由于没有签约一位强有力的竞争者来证明上赛季球队经历的惨痛经历是值得的，人们不得不认为这一赛季的尼克斯处在另一个发展重建的阶段。他们近年来选中的新秀如:米切尔-罗宾逊, 凯文-诺克斯,和今年的三号种子RJ-巴雷特,将会获得很多的上场时间。但是尼克斯也签约了七名老将——他们其中的四位最擅长的位置是大前锋。一方面，这些新合同全都是对球队有利的——除了朱利叶斯-兰德尔以外的球员在明年夏天都可以被轻易的从球队大名单上抹去。另一方面，这意味着，这些老将已经开始为签约下一份合同而奋斗了，他们需要上场时间来证明自己的价值。尼克斯从一开始就为球队埋下了内讧的隐患。再加上纽约的像监狱一样的媒体们以及日常的动荡，如果球队能够在不引起任何风波的情况下，平稳的度过球队训练营阶段，那真是个奇迹。

22. A Barren Free-Agent Class

22.贫瘠的自由市场

Dan Devine: After the wildest transactional season in NBA history, replete with marquee superstars and contributors changing franchise fortunes at a dizzying pace, things could get slow next summer. Like, real slow.

The only megastar in the 2020 mix is Anthony Davis, who holds a player option for the 2020-21 season; after what it took to get him to L.A. in the first place, though, it seems awfully unlikely that he’ll go anywhere. Early extensions took Ben Simmons, Draymond Green, Caris LeVert, Jamal Murray, and Eric Gordonoff the board. Another devastating injury drops DeMarcus Cousins down the ranks. More extension-eligible members of the 2016 rookie class—Pascal Siakam, Brandon Ingram, Jaylen Brown, Buddy Hield, Domantas Sabonis, and Dejounte Murray—could reach new agreements with their incumbent clubs before the October 21 deadline. There will still be good players available, including solid veterans on the wrong side of 30 (like Kyle Lowry, Marc Gasol, and Danilo Gallinari) and rising talents who could be in line for bigger roles (like Fred VanVleet and World Cup star Bogdan Bogdanovic)—but nothing like the league shifters who were on offer this summer or who could hit the market in 2021.

That could send hopeful contenders desperate for a talent boost hunting for trades; stars on rebuilding teams like Washington’s Bradley Beal, Cleveland’s Kevin Love, and new Oklahoma City arrivals Gallinari and Chris Paul are potentially ripe for redirection. If the price tags for those players prove too onerous for would-be buyers, though, we could enter something of a break in the transaction action—a period defined less by who’s about to be on the move than how teams work with the ingredients they’ve already got.

Dan Devine:在经历了NBA历史上最疯狂的转会期后，充满了杰出的巨星们和球队管理层以眼花缭乱的速度进行资产的交换，在明年的夏天，事情会变得平缓很多。真正的慢下来。

2020转会期唯一的一位巨星就是安东尼-戴维斯，他对2020-2021年的合同持有球员选项。但在了解他一开始花费了多少代价才去到洛杉矶打球后，他离开这只球队的可能性看起来极极小。本-西蒙斯，德雷蒙德-格林，卡利斯-勒维尔,贾马尔-穆雷和埃里克-戈登由于提前续约而被从重点关注名单上剔除。又一次毁灭性的伤病，使考辛斯跌出了排行榜。很多有资格续约的2016届的新秀球员们如——帕斯卡尔-西亚卡姆，布莱登-英格拉姆, 杰伦-布朗,巴迪-希尔德，多曼塔斯-萨博尼斯和德章泰-穆雷——有概率会在10.21的截止日期前和他们现在所在的球达成续约。自由市场上仍会有很好的球员亟待签约，包括一些年过30的可靠的老将球员（譬如凯尔-洛瑞、马克-加索尔和达尼罗-加里纳利）还有一些可以承担起球队中更重要角色的新兴球员（譬如：弗雷德-范弗里特、本届世界杯的明星球员博格丹-博格达诺维奇）——但并没有今年自由市场中那些足以动摇联盟的球员，也没有谁能像2021年的自由市场里的球员一样，使整个自由市场产生震荡。

这可能会让那些有希望追逐冠军的球队极度渴望交易来一些有天赋的球员，处在重建球队的球星们如华盛顿奇才队的布拉德利-比尔, 克利夫兰骑士队的凯文-乐福和刚被交易到俄克拉荷马雷霆队的加里纳利和克里斯-保罗，都是潜在的具有成熟的转会条件。但是如果他们的标价对于想要交易得到他们的球队来说过高的话，我们可能会看到交易的破裂——这一段关系主要由球队如何协调配合他们现有的球员决定，而较少的决定于谁即将被交易。

21. Chris Paul Pretending Everything Is Fine

21.克里斯保罗假装一切都好

Kevin O’Connor: With Oklahoma City sitting on a pile of draft picks, you should expect a flurry of trade rumors involving their aging starters like Chris Paul, Steven Adams, and Danilo Gallinari. Finding a trade partner for Paul won’t be easy, though. Paul showed major signs of decline in Houston, scoring only 0.92 points per possession in the half court as he struggled to finish around the rim and failed to generate perimeter shots with proficiency. There is no scarier contract in all of basketball: He’s 34 years old and is owed $124 million over the next three seasons. For Paul to escape from Oklahoma City to a contender, it’s on him to prove he has plenty left in the tank.

Don’t rule it out. The Thunder are candidates to blow it up midseason, but they have plenty of talent for Paul to enhance with his playmaking. Over the past two seasons, Paul’s struggles largely came when he shared the floor with James Harden.

Paul’s numbers without Harden on the floor better resemble his career averages per 75 possessions. If he’s able to produce like that more consistently in Oklahoma City, there’s hope for him. Durability remains a concern, in addition to his age, contract, and degrading quickness. In a league with an open title race, perhaps Paul will prove to be worth the risk.

Kevin O’Connor：当俄克拉荷马坐拥数目庞大的选秀权，可以预想会产生很多流言：球队将交易克里斯-保罗、斯蒂文-亚当斯和加里纳利等年纪较大的首发球员。但找到克里斯-保罗的交易的伙伴并不是一件易事。保罗在休斯敦是已经显示出了明显的能力退化，每回合篮下持球进攻仅能得到0.92分且已经丧失具有职业水平的中距离投篮。在篮球界再找不到比他的更可怕的合同了：他34岁了，但在接下来三个赛季他应该得到1.24亿美元。为了离开俄克拉荷马城去一支更有竞争力的球队，保罗必须证明他的油箱里还有油。

不要完全否定这样的可能性，虽然雷霆可能在赛季中搞砸它，但他们的天赋可以通过保罗良好的组织能力来增强。在过去的两个赛季里，保罗表现的挣扎大部分发生在他与哈登共同在场的时候。当哈登不在场上的时候，保罗的得分更像是他的生涯平均每75个回合的数据。如果他在雷霆能够保持那样的得分能力，那么他还有希望。除开他的年龄、合同和不断下降的速度，他的耐用性也是一个令人担忧的因素。在这样一个对冠军的竞逐趋于开放的联盟里，保罗或许会证明他值得球队冒这样的风险。

Paolo Uggetti: Volatility makes for great entertainment, and Twitter, for better or worse, is the perfect canvas for Durant’s polarizing personality. We’ve already seen a preview of it this summer. While rehabbing a torn Achilles, KD is out here shoveling deep into the cesspool of Twitter replies to discuss basketball and argue about how you, sir, never picked up a basketball in your life. Imagine how he will be during the season, when there will be actual basketball to talk about.

Here’s the thing: I think I’m all for it. After his burner fiasco, Durant has leaned all the way in on this online persona by arguing with whoever, whenever. The results are a mixed bag. When it turns into Durant arguing with OKC fans who are mad at him for leaving, it becomes a bit eye-roll-inducing:

But when it turns into Durant fact-checking people online, or discussing his Wendy’s order, it’s delightful:I, for one, can’t wait for Durant to live-tweet games and become the NBA’s unofficial ombudsman.

Paolo Uggett：不确定性造就了良好的娱乐，而推特，无论如何都是凯文-杜兰特这样多样而分化的性格的完美画布。我们在今年夏天已经见过它的预演了。在对断裂的跟腱进行复健的同时，他深入参与到推特的“粪坑”里，和网友们讨论篮球问题，并争论，你，先生您，在你的生活中从未打过篮球。想象一下在下一个赛季当这里有真正的篮球比赛可以讨论时，他会怎么做。

事情是这样：我想我完全赞成。在他的伤病惨剧发生后，杜兰特通过在任何时间与任何人争论，逐渐变成这样一个网络角色。结果是很复杂的。当杜兰特和一位不满他离开的雷霆球迷争论时，事情变得使人忍不住翻白眼。但当他变成一个帮人们查证事实的人的时候，或讨论wendy’s点单攻略，这是令人开心的事情。比如我，等不及看杜兰特在推特上直播比赛，并成为NBA的非官方监察员。

Chris Ryan: So now we know. We can still have those super-illuminating arguments about guys from the ’70s playing 82 games a year, 40 minutes a night, flying coach while sitting on folding metal chairs, staying at Best Westerns, and playing eight games a week vs. the participation-trophy generation’s fascination with self-care, getting eight hours of sleep a night, resting up in hyperbaric chambers, and flying private. It’s a really fun conversation. But at the end of the day—or better put, at the end of the playoffs—we know it’s better if a team’s star player has put fewer meaningless miles on the odometer. Kawhi proved this. The trade-off for his historic, career-minting, league-changing playoff run was that the good people of Utah did not get to see him last November. Sorry, Salt Lakers. Putting aside what a special set of skills Kawhi has (he’s the best all-around player alive), and his special set of nagging injury issues (quads!), the question heading into the 2019-20 season is whether other teams and other stars will follow suit.

Chris Ryan：我们清楚。我们依然可以进行一些有启发性的争论。在70年代球员们打满82场常规赛，每场平均40分钟，坐在金属折椅上，与教练一同飞行。住在Best Western酒店里，每周打8场比赛。而作为对比的是现在这些强调重在参与的球星，他们重视自我保护，保证充足的八小时睡眠，在夸张的密室里修养，独自飞行。这是一个很有趣的话题，但是到头来——或者更好的说法是，在季后赛结束的时候——我们都清楚一个球队的招牌球星浪费越少的时间在无意义的飞行里程上越好。伦纳德证明了这个观点。作为他历史级别，锻造职业生涯，改变联盟的季后赛表现的代价就是在去年的十一月，犹他爵士的球迷并没有在赛场看见他。不好意思，盐湖城的球迷们！将伦纳德所拥有的球技放在一旁（他是现役最全面的球星），忘掉他一系列令人头疼的伤病问题，在2019-20赛季即将面临的问题是，会有球队和球星模仿他的做法吗？

How will the Clippers handle Leonard this season? Presumably a condition of his signing was that the Clippers went along with Leonard’s rest program. Will they apply the same strategy with Paul George, who will be recovering from shoulder surgery? Would the Clippers’ city rivals risk regular-season embarrassment to manage the minutes of Anthony Davis and LeBron James? Will James Harden sacrifice the MVP trophy for fresher legs in the postseason? Will Joel Embiid do the same in Philly? Giannis Antetokounmpo has never played fewer than 72 games in a campaign, but after a run to last season’s Eastern Conference finals and a jaunt to China for the FIBA World Cup this past summer, will Milwaukee ease him through the 2019-20 season to better its chances at lifting the Larry next June? Who plays how much and when will be one of the defining story lines during the next eight months. And if the majority of the league’s truly elite dial it back to around 60 games played, what does it mean for the future of the 82-game season?

快船在这个赛季会如何安排伦纳德的上场时间呢？很有可能伦纳德和快船签约的一个条件就是快船延续伦纳德的“修养模式”，他们会对正在治疗肩伤的保罗-乔治实行一样的策略吗？快船的同城对手湖人会冒着常规赛战绩尴尬的风险来安排安东尼-戴维斯和勒布朗-詹姆斯的比赛吗？詹姆斯-哈登是否会牺牲MVP奖杯来换取季后赛中更精力充沛的双腿？乔尔-恩比德在费城也这么做吗？阿德托昆博从未在一个赛季中出场少于72场比赛，但是在打入上个赛季的东部决赛和参加夏天的FIBA世界杯的中国行之后，密尔沃基雄鹿队会在2019-20赛季为他减负使他有更好的机会在明年六月举起奥布莱恩杯吗？在接下来的八个月里，谁打多长时间什么时候上场是一条重要的故事线。且倘若联盟大部分精英球员都只打60场左右的比赛，这对于一个有82场比赛的赛季来说意味着什么呢？

Gonzalez: Frank Vogel seems like a nice-enough man and a decent coach. But nice and decent don’t go all that far in the NBA, and certainly not within the Lakers, where messy family feuds and ugly public breakups are standard. It should be noted that while Vogel is the Lakers’ new head coach, he was not the organization’s first choice. Or even its second. Depending on which reports you believe, the first and second choices were, in some order, Ty Lue and Monty Williams. It looked like it was Lue’s job—until it wasn’t and he backed out for various reasons, not the least of which was wanting control over hiring his assistant coaches. And Williams passed in order to work for a franchise best known for farm animal pranks. So Vogel got the gig. Congrats? Maybe?

Gonzalez: 弗兰克-沃格尔看起来像是一个足够和善的人且是一个举止得体的教练。但是和善和得体在NBA并没有多大用处，且必定无法在湖人内部帮助他走得更远。这里队内的矛盾和丑陋的公开分手是常态。我们不得不重点提及，虽然沃格尔是湖人现任主教练，但他并非是球队的第一选择，甚至也不是第二位的。根据你所相信的报道，湖人的第一位第二位的选择是泰伦卢和蒙蒂-威廉姆斯。这份工作看起来是属于泰伦卢的——直到它最终并不是，他的退出是有多方面原因导致的，完全不是因为他想要拥有招募助理教练的权利。威廉姆斯退出是为了去为太阳队工作。因此沃格尔得到了这份工作。我们该恭喜他吗？也许吧？

It might even be fun while it lasts—he does have LeBron James and Anthony Davis, two of the best players on the planet—but it likely won’t last long. In addition to being the backup, backuphire, and dealing with James (who is notoriously fickle when it comes to his head coaches), Vogel also has Kidd looming over his shoulder. It was only five years ago when Kidd orchestrated a failed front-office coup while with the Brooklyn Nets—which led to his landing with the Milwaukee Bucks, where he wore out his welcome with a second ownership group and front office and was fired midway through the 2017-18 season. Kidd might not be a good coach, but he is excellent at drama.

但这一过程很可能不那么有趣——他是拥有了勒布朗-詹姆斯和安东尼-戴维斯，这个星球最好的球员之二——但这并不会持续太长时间，除开他是球队的替补选择以外，如何与詹姆斯打交道（众所周知，他对他的主教练十分变幻莫测），另外基德的阴影仍笼罩在他的肩上。五年前，基德在篮网发动了一次失败的政变，这导致他被送到了雄鹿队，在那里他遭到了管理层的冷遇，并在2017-18赛季中期的时候被球队裁掉。基德可能不是一个好的教练，但他很会制造一些戏剧性事件。

To review, what we have here is a vulnerable coach, an ambitious and disloyal assistant, and a dysfunctional franchise. This will be a blast. For us. Probably not for Vogel.

回顾一下，我们现在拥有的是一个脆弱的主教练，富有野心且并不忠诚的助理教练，这将构成一个功能紊乱的事业体。这将会产生爆炸。不是对我们而言，可能是对沃格尔而言。

O’Shaughnessy: This Miami stint will define Butler’s career. Butler was traded twice in the past two years, to Minnesota and then to Philadelphia, and now he’s finally with an organization of his choosing. Miami is a perfect match—Butler shares the Heat’s reputation for old-school intensity. He’s 30 and edging closer and closer to his last in-my-prime push. After years of jumping between being an All-Star-caliber player and a destructive locker-room presence, this season is Butler’s chance to prove he deserves to be in a higher tier of stars.

O’Shaughnessy：这一段在迈阿密打球的时间将会决定吉米巴特勒的职业生涯。过去两年里巴特勒被交易了两次，被交易至明尼苏达然后又到了费城，现在他终于加入了一支他自己选择的球队。迈阿密和他完美契合——巴特勒拥有类似热火的名声：对学院派打球方式的痴迷，他已经三十岁了越来越接近于他在他黄金职业生涯最后一次尝试，经历了几年在一位全明星级别的球员到更衣室气氛的破坏者的角色间反复转换，这一季巴特勒有机会证明他自己值得被视为更高一级别的球星。

The key to the Heat’s success could be how Butler handles another group of young players. Perhaps the likes of Justise Winslow and Bam Adebayo won’t find Butler’s fervent leadership style as off-putting as the young Wolves (and possibly the young Sixers) did because they’re used to playing under Pat Riley’s umbrella. Perhaps Butler has learned his lesson. Either way, this season has big “this is my time” energy for Butler.

热火成功的关键在于巴特勒会如何和另一帮年轻球员相处。有可能像贾斯蒂斯-温斯洛和巴姆-阿德巴约这样的球员并不会认为巴特勒的热诚的领导像年轻的森林狼队认为的那样令人厌恶，因为他们已经习惯了在帕特-莱利的保护下打球。可能巴特勒已经学到了他该学的东西。无论是这两种情况中的哪一种，这个赛季对巴特勒来说都有巨大的“这是我的表演时刻”一样的能量。

Gonzalez: Have you also waited patiently for more than two decades for the collapse of the Spurs empire? If so, you have come to the right place. In the past year alone, I wrote that the Spurs were done (spoiler: they weren’t), advocated for them to rebuild (narrator: they didn’t), and explained that it will be really difficult for them to make the playoffs for what would be an NBA-record 23rd consecutive season (jury is still out on this one, but given my always-wrong history with them, they’re probably a lock to make it).

Gonzalez:你是否也等待马刺王朝的崩解耐心等待了二十几年呢？如果是这样的话，你来对地方了。单是在去年一年我就写过：马刺完蛋了（破坏者：但是他们没有），我倡议他们重建（旁白：但是他们没有），我还解释道他们想打进季后赛是一件非常困难的事情，因为一旦他们成功那将是NBA的一项新纪录——连续23个赛季（这件事尚且没有定论，但是考虑到我在他们的历史上从来没答对过，他们可能注定要达成这件事）

But Gregg Popovich was a factor I was most certain would change sooner than later. This will be his 24th season—and he spent much of his 23rd season answering questions about how much longer he planned to coach. After all, he has five championships, and he’s third in NBA history on the all-time coaching wins list behind only Don Nelson and Lenny Wilkens. The man hasn’t had anything to prove for a very long time now. Not to mention that he’ll be 71 in January. This can’t go on forever, right? Except instead of relaxing and drinking wine this summer, he coached Team USA and traveled to Australia and China (and also drank wine). I saw him for a week while USA Basketball was training in Los Angeles, and he was as spicy as usual. For a guy we keep expecting to call it quits, he looked and sounded as energized as ever. We will no doubt talk a lot about whether this will be Pop’s final season. It’s unavoidable. But it’s also clear he hasn’t lost any of that trademark fire. The more I heard him speak this summer, the more it made me realize how much he still clearly loves the game—and how, in retrospect, I hope he’s not in any hurry to walk away from it.

但我最确定的因素是，波波维奇的执教是早晚有一天会改变的一个因素。这将是他执教的第二十四年，他用了前二十三年来回答——他计划执教多长时间。毕竟他已经拥有五个总冠军，并且他在NBA历史上执教胜场排行榜上排在第三位，仅次于唐-尼尔森和兰尼-威尔肯斯，他在很长时间内都再也不需要证明什么了。更不用说他一月就将满71岁了。他不可能永远执教，对吧？除了休闲和喝酒以外，这个夏天，他执教了美国国家队去到了澳大利亚和中国（同样也在那些地方喝酒）。当美国国家队在洛杉矶训练的时候，我在某一周见到了他，他像以往一样尖锐。作为一个我们一直认为应该退休的人，他看起来听起来与曾经任何时候一样充满能量。毫无疑问，我们谈论了这是否会是波波执教的最后一个赛季。这不可避免。但很明显，他还并未丧失他的个人特征。这个夏天，我听他讲话听的越多，就越意识到他到底有多热爱这项运动——以及回忆起来，我多么希望他不要着急离开。

Kram: L.A., Houston, and the other L.A. team can have their Big Twos and their massive makeovers from the offseason. Denver and Utah are betting instead that a more methodical transactional approach will vault their more cohesive rosters to the top of the Western hierarchy. The Nuggets were the West’s no. 2 seed last season, in their first playoff campaign in six years, while the Jazz rode yet another late-season surge to 50 wins. Both teams disappointed relative to expectations in the playoffs, but they responded by adding more around the edges than through stars: The only new Nugget of note is Jerami Grant, while Utah signed rotation players like Bojan Bogdanovic and Ed Davis and traded for Mike Conley to help Donovan Mitchell man the backcourt. With the anticipated internal improvements from their young cores and incredible depth, both rosters look more secure than their flashier competitors. But can either Denver or Utah’s ceilings reach as high?

Kram：洛杉矶、休斯顿、以及洛杉矶的另一支球队都拥有自己的两巨头，和在休赛期产生的巨大改观。丹佛和犹他都赌除了前述的方式以外，更具有条理的休赛期交易会使他们的阵容具有更好的凝聚力和团队配合，从而登顶西部联赛。掘金是去年西部的二号种子，他们六年来第一次进入季后赛，而犹他爵士在赛季末狂飙至了50胜。但两支球队都辜负了对于他们在季后赛的预期。但和球队预期比较起来，两支球队均对季后赛的表现表示比较失望。但他们以通过补充一些边缘球员而非直接引入球星来进行回应：掘金引入的唯一值得关注的新援是：杰拉米-格兰特， 而爵士签下了轮换球员如：博扬-博格达诺维奇和埃德-戴维斯并且交易得到了麦克-康利来帮助多诺万-米切尔配备更好的后场。他们年轻的核心和阵容的深度让人对它们内部化学反应的提升有所期待，他们两支球队的阵容看起来比那些阵容华丽的竞争对手更保险。但他们中会有一支球队的天花板能达到那么高吗？

Uggetti: Last season, the Lakers became an even bigger spectacle with LeBron James in town. The final results weren’t what the team had in mind (remember when Magic Johnson resigned on the final night of the season without telling anyone? Good times), but there was never a dull moment.

Uggetti:上一个赛季，在拥有勒布朗-詹姆斯后，洛杉矶湖人成为了一支极富观赏性的球队。虽然最终的结局并不如球队预想的一般，（还记得在赛季结束前的最后一天，魔术师-约翰逊在没有告诉任何人的情况下就辞职了吗？美好时光啊。）但上一整个赛季从来都不寡淡单调。

Now LeBron has company. Not only did the Lakers land a second star in Anthony Davis, but two other All-Stars will be across the hallway at Staples Center in Clippers gear: Kawhi Leonard, fresh off a title run, and Paul George. Altogether, the foursome will turn L.A. into a spaghetti junction of story lines. Los Angeles has always been a Lakers town, and the Lakers always dominate the news. But with so much star power within the city limits, Los Angeles will moonlight as the NBA’s mecca this season.

现在勒布朗-詹姆斯拥有了他的帮手。不只有湖人拥有了第二位球星安东尼-戴维斯，另外两名全明星就站在斯台普斯中心的走廊对面，穿着快船的球衣：刚刚结束一段冠军里程的科怀-伦纳德，以及保罗-乔治。总之，这四个人会将洛杉矶变成如同立交桥一般的故事线。洛杉矶一直是湖人的城市，湖人往往主导这里的新闻。但伴随着如此多的球星的吸引力汇集在这座城市里，洛杉矶将会兼有NBA的麦加的地位。

Tjarks: We are still trying to figure out exactly how good the 2015 draft class is as it heads into its fifth season in the league. Four players from that draft wound up getting max contracts—Karl-Anthony Towns, Devin Booker, Kristaps Porzingis, and D’Angelo Russell—and there’s no consensus on any of them. Booker and Towns are two of the best scorers in the NBA, but there are still questions about their defense and ability to lead a team. While both should put up massive individual numbers this season, no one will care unless they can carry Minnesota and Phoenix into the playoff race.

Tjarks：当这一批2015年的新秀步入在联盟打球的第五年时，我们仍想要弄明白他们这群人到底有多优秀。他们当中有四位已经拿到了顶薪——卡尔-安东尼-唐斯，德文-布克，克里斯塔普斯-波尔津吉斯和丹吉洛-拉塞尔——且他们身上并未背负什么丑闻。布克和唐斯是联盟里的顶级得分手，但人们仍在质疑他们的防守能力和带队能力。虽然他们两人都可以在本赛季刷新个人的数据，但是没有人会关心这个，除非他们将明尼苏达森林狼队或菲尼克斯太阳队带入季后赛。

Porzingis, who is now on his second NBA team, and Russell, who is on his third, are in better situations to succeed. Porzingis is now playing next to Luka Doncic in Dallas, and if he can stay healthy—which is no guarantee for a player who hasn’t played in a game in 20 months—he could form one of the best one-two punches in the league. Russell is the third wheel in Golden State behind Steph Curry and Draymond Green, which will allow him to contribute to an elite team for the first time in his career, even if it comes at the expense of his individual numbers.

波尔津吉斯，现在已经在他效力的第二支球队了，拉塞尔，在他效力的第三支球队了，他们有更好的成功的机会。波尔津吉斯现在正和卢卡-东契奇一起在达拉斯独行侠队打球，倘若他能够保持健康——这对于一个20个月来没有打过一场比赛的球员来说是不能保障的——他可以建立联盟里最好的二人组。拉塞尔是金州勇士的第三个驱动轮，仅次于斯蒂芬-库里和德雷蒙德-格林。这是他的职业生涯中首次为一支精英球队效力，虽然他可能会需要因此牺牲个人数据。

The group is still quite young. Porzingis is 24. KAT and Russell are 23. Booker is 22—younger than Suns first-round pick Cam Johnson. There is still so much of their careers left to be written. This season could be a chance for them to vault to the forefront of the league.

这群人仍然十分年轻。波尔津吉斯只有24岁，唐斯和拉塞尔才23岁，而布克仅有22岁——甚至比今年太阳的一轮秀卡梅伦-约翰逊还要年轻。他们的职业生涯还有很多的故事有待书写，这个赛季将是他们一跃成为联盟重量级人物的好机会。

Chau: We are entering LeBron’s twilight era, and while it may last another half-decade, the league will eventually need to find a new global icon with enough star power to inspire the next generation of fans. All signs point to Giannis Antetokounmpo, which would be groundbreaking on several fronts, but none as glaring as this: Giannis could be the first international player since Hakeem Olajuwon in 1994 (when Michael Jordan was technically retired) to be considered the best player in the world.

Chau：我们进入了勒布朗的职业生涯的黄昏时代，虽然它可能还会持续下一个五年，但最终，联盟必须找到一个新的有足够影响力、能够激励下一代球迷的标志性人物。所有的信号都指向扬尼斯-阿德托昆博，这在很多方面是一种创新，但没有什么比这一点更引人注目：这是自1994年奥拉朱旺以后（当时迈克尔-乔丹严格来说退役了）首位被认为是当今世界最好球员的国际球星。

There are other names who have the talent to be marked with such a grand distinction, but few who have the kind of larger-than-life gravitas necessary to live up to being the face. Steph Curry is the most influential player of this generation, but lacks the individualistic ethos necessary. Kevin Durant, for all his on-court genius, is hurt, and perhaps not the kind of personality suited to the mantle; that goes double for Kawhi, who could not care less.

另外一些球星也有被冠以这样伟大的荣誉称号的天赋，但只有极少数拥有夸张的吸引力来成为“门面”。斯蒂芬-库里是这个年代影响力最大的球员，但他缺少一些个人英雄主义的气质。凯文-杜兰特，凭借他绝顶的天赋（也有可能性），但是他受伤了，并且可能他的性格并不适合这样一个头衔。对于伦纳德来说就更是如此了，他毫不在乎。

Antetokounmpo doesn’t turn 25 until December, and has seen near-exponential growth since entering the league in 2013. He will be squarely in his prime when LeBron exits stage left. He checks just about every box. Giannis himself has expressed his doubts: Could the face of the NBA ever actually be non-American? But the league and its fans are ready.

阿德托昆博要到12月才25岁，并且从2013年加入联盟到今天进步速度飞快。当勒布朗离开篮球舞台的时候他在正值巅峰，扬尼斯他自己提出了他的疑问：“NBA门面”可以不是美国人吗？但事实上联盟和球迷都准备好了。

O’Connor: Bradley Beal could be the season’s defining player. A trade would shake up the championship picture, as it could possibly create a new contender. Imagine Beal running pick-and-rolls with Nikola Jokic, or sharing a backcourt with Kyrie Irving in Brooklyn or Kemba Walker in Boston. What if Dallas attempts to accelerate its rebuild by adding Beal to its star duo of Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis? Beal can fit anywhere: He’s a deadeye shooter who plays off others and has the pick-and-roll finesse to generate baskets for himself or his teammates. Beal is already a top-25 player and he just turned 26; his best years are ahead of him. The Wizards could get a haul for Beal, and his new team could position itself to win a title.

O’Connor：布拉德利-比尔可能会成为这赛季的决定性球员。一笔可以动摇冠军蓝图的交易，因为这笔交易可能会造就一个新的冠军争夺者。想象一下比尔和约基奇一起打挡拆，或和凯里-欧文在布鲁克林或是和肯巴-沃克在波士顿组成后场组合。倘若达拉斯通过将比尔加入东契奇和波尔津吉斯的双子星组合来加快他们的重建步伐？比尔适合任何一支球队：他是一名神射手，且可以为他人做掩护，他会很好的挡拆策略来为自己或队友创造投篮机会。比尔是NBA前25的球员，且他刚刚26岁。奇才可能会通过交易比尔得到大量资产，而比尔的新东家将处在足以向冠军发起冲击的地位。

Ryan: Nothing puts contemporary basketball minds on peyote faster than Ben Simmons’s jump-shooting. We just lose our shit. There is no reliable narrator, everyone has an agenda, and everyone is seeing kaleidoscopic shapes and colors. I don’t even know where I stand anymore, I just know we’re gonna be talking about it a lot this season.

Ryan：没有什么比本-西蒙斯的投篮更能令现代篮球的思维感到迷惑了。我们简直迷失了自我。没有可靠的叙述者，每个人都有各自的日程表，每个人都在寻找千变万化的形状颜色。我甚至不知道我自己在哪儿，我只知道这个赛季我们依然会多次讨论这个问题。

The Sixers are contenders and considered by Vegas to be in a two-team race at the top of the Eastern Conference. They re-signed Tobias Harris, inked Al Horford, brought in Josh Richardson, and lost much of their perimeter depth during the past 12 months, waving goodbye to Robert Covington, Dario Saric, Landry Shamet, JJ Redick, and T.J. McConnell. Simmons will be this team’s floor general and point guard. And in 2019, we expect point guards to shoot from outside. Now, you could point to other apositional players like Giannis or LeBron and note their slow progress toward above-Mendoza-line perimeter shooting. But even in their nascent years James and Antetokounmpo usually got it up at least 100 times a season from deep. This isn’t about bricks. Ben Simmons doesn’t even have a trowel.

76人是冠军的有力竞争者且被拉斯维加斯认为是会打入东部决赛的球队。他们和托拜厄斯-哈里斯续约，签下了霍福德，引入了约什-理查德森，并且在过去的十二个月里他们的外线阵容深度逐渐流失，他们送走了罗伯特-考文顿, 达里奥-沙里奇,兰德里-沙梅特, JJ -雷迪克和T.J.-麦康奈尔。西蒙斯将成为球队的建队基石和控卫。在2019，我们希望控球后卫拥有外线投射能力。现在，你可以指着一些其他不同位置的球员，比如扬尼斯和勒布朗说，他们也正在将自己的外线投射能力慢慢提到“门多萨线以上”（注：门多萨线是来自于美国棒球界的说法，用来描述不职业的击球数的下限）。但哪怕是在他们刚进入联盟的时候詹姆斯和阿德托昆博也至少每赛季投100次三分球。这不是关于打铁的事情，西蒙斯甚至不出手。

Last season, Simmons took six 3s and made zero. After losing to the Raptors in the Eastern Conference semis, he admitted he needed to add a perimeter threat to his game. Since then we’ve had some Tobias Harris–backed propaganda about an emerging outside J and some trainer footage of Simmons looking like Dale Ellis in an L.A. pickup game. Philly loves a debate, and Simmons’s willingness to shoot—forget his ability to—will be the hottest topic heading into the season. There are no obvious distractions going into the season—no Markelle Fultz mystery, no Jimmy Butler rental There’s nowhere to hide.

上个赛季，西蒙斯总共出手六次三分球，但一个都没有投中。在东部半决赛输给猛龙以后，他承认他需要在自己的比赛中增加一些外线的威胁性。从那以后我们看到一些托拜厄斯-哈里斯支持的西蒙斯开始具有三分球的宣传，他在洛杉矶的一场临时组织的比赛中表现的好像戴尔-埃利斯的训练视频。费城热爱话题，而西蒙斯的投射欲望——忽略他的真实投射能力——将会成为下赛季最火爆的话题。下赛季再也没有其他可以转移注意力的事件了，没有富尔茨的谜团，没有巴特勒的合约。这件事无处可藏。

Devine: The reigning Most Valuable Player is a 6-foot-11, 242-pound interrobang who runs a five-out offense while doubling as the sport’s most panic-inducing help defender. The guy who finished fourth in MVP voting is a 7-foot genius who goes about a deuce and a half, and can be the most dominant offensive force on any floor despite lacking the lift to clear a sheet of loose leaf. Seventh place: listed at 7-foot and 250, likely larger than that, yet somehow possessing enough face-up flourish and rim-protecting menace to seem—at peak health—like someone scaled Hakeem up by 150 percent.

Devine：现任的MVP球员是个6尺11高，242磅的惊叹号（让人吃惊的家伙），他能在跑出高质量的5-out motion战术的同时担任这项运动最让人恐慌的协防手。MVP票数榜第四的球员是个七尺的天才有明显的优点与缺点，可能会成为进攻端最具影响力的球员，尽管他无法办到清空一切。       处在第七位的球员有七尺高250磅，很有可能比这个数据更健壮一些，但他通过足够的面框能力    和护框能力—且他完全健康—就像是谁将奥拉朱旺放大个1.5倍。

Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic, and Joel Embiid, all 25 and under, are the focal points and beating hearts of teams that Las Vegas thinks will most likely win 50-plus games. They’re the faces of a changing NBA, and they’ve got company. Anthony Davis broke the big-man mold before we even knew what the mold was, and now he’s rolling with the winners in Hollywood. Kristaps Porzingis, the first skyscraper gifted the moniker “unicorn,” will make his return from ACL surgery flanked by a better playmaking partner than he ever had in New York. Karl-Anthony Towns might be the most gifted of them all, and he enters the new season with a new chance to prove it.

扬尼斯-阿德托昆博，尼古拉-约基奇和乔尔-恩比德，都在25岁或以下，他们是那些拉斯维加斯认为胜场数会超过五十场比赛的球队的核心和焦点。他们是代表NBA正在转变的面孔，且他们都有自己的帮手。在我们知道大体型的运动员的模版是什么之前，安东尼-戴维斯打碎了它，而他现在是好莱坞里的赢家（注：引自勒布朗詹姆斯球鞋上所写RWTW）。波尔津吉斯，一位长得如同摩天大楼一般的独角兽，将要在一位比他在纽约时拥有的任何队友都更会组织的球员的帮助下，从ACL伤病中康复并返回球场。唐斯可能是他们当中最具天赋的一个，在新赛季他很有可能会证明这一点。

What matters most in the NBA is finding ways to control and weaponize space. Giants with the skills to create on offense and the size to vaporize opponents on the other end are the sorts of building blocks that allow organizations to imagine unexplored galaxies, to dream in new colors. As the dominant wings of the aughts move into the latter stages of their careers, these bright young behemoths have the hance to point the league in a new direction. The future is here. It’s fucking gigantic.

NBA最重要的就是要找到办法控制拉开空间并利用它。有良好的进攻能力，同时也能够凭借体格将对手限制在另一侧的巨人们，是联盟构建起另一种未曾探索过的色彩全新的“星系”的砖瓦。当本世纪初的小前锋进入他们职业生涯的后半段，这些体格巨大的新兴球员们能够将联盟引领向一个新的方向。未来就在这里，而且十分广阔。

Uggetti: An entire arena in Las Vegas vibrated with excitement while watching Zion perform pregame dunks. Now imagine what will happen during a live NBA game, while playing at Alvin Gentry’s pace and surrounded by a bunch of athletic phenoms and savvy veterans.

Uggetti：拉斯维加斯的整个体育场都为看到锡安在赛前的扣篮而震动。现在，想象一下在一场NBA的现场比赛中会发生什么，在金特里的执教下打球，身边围绕着一群现象级的运动员，以及有经验的老将。

The basketball world was first introduced to Zion on YouTube; the dunks he threw down at Spartanburg Day School quickly became the stuff of legend. Now, instead of having to fire up a grainy stream from a high school gym, we will get to see Zion leap out of arenas in high definition on the biggest stage possible. It will do everybody some good to remember that Zion is just a rookie; his best basketball is still somewhere off in the distance, so expectations should be limited. But for now, we’ll have more than enough highlights to fuel the hype train.

锡安第一次接触篮球世界是通过油管。他在Spartanburg Day学校完成的一记扣篮，很快的就成了学校里的传奇事件。现在我们以较高的清晰度看到锡安从球馆出来到站在篮球界最高的舞台上，而不是以较差的画质看他在高中的球馆里打球。记住锡安只是个新秀对每个人都有好处；他的巅峰仍在远方，所以目前的期望应该是有限的。但目前，我们仍将有足够多的亮点来夺人眼球。

Kram: When two high picks are traded for each other on or near draft night, the outcome is typically lopsided: Jayson Tatum over Markelle Fultz, Kevin Love over O.J. Mayo, LaMarcus Aldridge over Tyrus Thomas, Deron Williams over Martell Webster, and so on. Through one season, though, both the Hawks and Mavericks are thrilled by the result of their 2018 swap, which sent Doncic to Dallas and Young plus a future first—ultimately Cam Reddish, 2019’s no. 10 overall pick—to Atlanta.

Kram：当两个高顺位秀在选秀夜或临近几天被球队互换，结果多半是不平衡的，如：杰森-塔图姆和福尔茨，凯文-乐福和O.J. -梅奥，阿尔德里奇和泰鲁斯-托马斯，德隆-威廉姆斯和马特尔-韦伯斯特，但在整个赛季过程中，老鹰和独行侠都对他们在2018年达成的笔交易感到振奋，这笔交易将卢卡送到达拉斯，而特雷扬和一个首轮签——最终是卡姆-雷迪什，2019年的十号秀——被送去老鹰。

In Atlanta, Young’s rookie season was a tale of two halves; after a slumpy start to his NBA career, he was superior in every statistical category in the second half—he shot better, passed better, and overall played better as Atlanta blossomed into a League Pass favorite.

在亚特兰大，杨的新秀赛季是两段不同的故事，在他稍显笨拙地开启他的NBA征程之后，他在第二阶段处于数据上的全面领先地位——他有更好的投射，更好的传球，并且总体上都打得更好，以至于亚特兰大的比赛直播变成了球迷们最喜欢看的之一。

All Doncic did, meanwhile, was post the fifth 20-5-5 season for a rookie in NBA history—joining Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Tyreke Evans—en route to receiving 98 out of 100 first-place Rookie of the Year votes. (Young got the other two.)

而卢卡-东契奇，是第五位在新秀赛季达成20+5+5数据的球员——和奥斯卡-罗宾逊、迈克尔-乔丹、勒布朗-詹姆斯、泰瑞斯-埃文斯一同——他最终在最佳新秀投票时得到了100票中的98票。（特雷扬得到了余下两票）

For all of Young’s offensive firepower, it’s hard not to think, at least for the moment, that Dallas has emerged as the deal’s victor. Young remains a defensive question mark—ESPN’s advanced RPM stat rated him the worst defender in the leaguelast season—while Doncic, at just 20 years old, looks like a future MVP candidate, with an all-around game optimally built for the modern NBA. In Year 2, we will learn whether Young might close the gap, given his hard charge to end his rookie season and Atlanta’s exciting young lineup. And we will learn, most of all, whether Doncic might go the route of Evans, who peaked as a rookie, or whether he’s more apt to follow NBA legends Robertson, Jordan, and James.

从杨的进攻火力来看，我们很难不认为，至少现阶段，达拉斯是这桩交易的获胜方。杨的防守能力仍受到极大的质疑——ESPN的高阶数据RPM将他列为上赛季联盟最差的防守球员——而东契奇在仅仅20岁的时候就已经像是一位MVP候选人了，他拥有为现代NBA量身打造的全面技术。在他职业生涯的第二年，我们就能看到，特雷-杨是否能够缩小差距，考虑到他在新秀赛季末表现出来的强大统治力，和亚特兰大令人兴奋的年轻阵容。并且最重要的是我们也会知道契奇是否会走上埃文斯的道路，新秀年就是他职业生涯的巅峰状态了，还是会倾向于跟随联盟的传奇人物如：罗宾逊、乔丹、詹姆斯。

Tjarks: It’s still hard to believe James Harden and Russell Westbrook are on the same team again. Two of the most ball-dominant stars and biggest personalities in the league are now sharing one ball. No one knows exactly how it will work. Harden and Westbrook will both get time to dominate the ball when the other is on the bench, but how the Rockets mesh their games together when they share the floor will be one of the most fascinating stories of the season.

Tjarks:我们仍难以相信哈登和威斯布鲁克又在同一支球队了。两位最需要球权的球员，且极具个性的球星将分享同一个球了。没有人确切的知道这样的组合效果如何。当哈登和威斯布鲁克的其中一个坐在板凳席上时，他们中的另一个都会得到支配球权的机会，但火箭如何在两个人同时在场时将他们妥善地配合起来，将会是这赛季最精彩的故事之一。

Harden and Russ are saying all the right things for now, and their long-standing personal relationship that goes back to their days as high school players in Los Angeles should make getting along and cutting each other slack easier than it was for Harden and Chris Paul. But how will things work in the fourth quarter of a second-round playoff game against the Lakers or the Clippers at Staples Center? Like everyone else in the NBA, I can’t wait to find out.

哈登和威斯布鲁克现在所说的都是对的，他们作为高中运动员一起在洛杉矶打球时就建立起来的私人关系，使得他们两的相处，给对方互留情面来的比哈登和保罗更容易。但是当季后赛二轮在斯台普斯中心面对快船或湖人时，第四节比赛会发生些什么呢？像联盟里的其他人一样，我迫不及待想知道答案了。

O’Connor: Kevin Durant is gone. Klay Thompson is out. Yet Curry remains, and as a result, we could witness his most explosive season ever. Over the past three regular seasons and playoffs, Curry has posted straight-up silly stats when Durant and Thompson weren’t on the floor: Curry averaged 38.4 points on 27.4 shots per 75 possessions without either of them. It comes on a sample of only 1,214 minutes because the Warriors were blessed with good health until this past postseason, but those are Harden-esque volume numbers (36.6 points and 24.8 shots per 75 for Harden). For context, Curry averaged 31.8 points on 22.8 shots per 75 possessions with at least one of KD or Klay on the floor. D’Angelo Russell will take some of the shots that previously went to Thompson, but the Warriors will likely need to empower Curry more than ever due to their dearth of other options.

O’Connor：杜兰特不在勇士队了，克莱因伤缺席。但是库里还在球场上，因此，我们有可能会看到他爆发最猛烈的一个赛季。在过去三年的常规赛和季后赛里，当杜兰特和汤普森不在场时，库里展现出了可怖的数据：在他们都不在场上时，库里每75次回合27.4次出手平均得到38.4分。这个样本只有1214分钟，因为勇士球员在今年季后赛以前都有较好的健康状况，但这是一个哈登风格的数据（哈登在每75回合平均出手22.8次得到31.8分）对比而言，当克莱和杜兰特至少有一个人在场时，库里每75回合平均出手22.8次得到31.8分。拉塞尔在这一赛季将会承担部分以前属于汤普森的投篮。但是金州勇士很有可能会给库里极大的自主权，因为他们没有其他选择了。

Curry is already a top-25ish player ever. The stage is set for Curry to rise further up the ranks in league history. If he wins another MVP, he’ll become only the ninth player in NBA history to win at least three—a list that includes Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan. Soon, Steph Curry’s name may be spoken in the same breath with the game’s legends.

库里已经是历史前25的巨星了，让他提升自己在NBA史上地位的舞台已经搭建好。如果他再次获得MVP，他将成为联盟里第九个获得三座MVP 奖杯的球员。这一名单上包括-——魔术师-约翰逊、拉里-伯德、迈克尔-乔丹。不久以后，可能库里的名字就能够和联盟里的传奇人物相提并论了。

Devine: I don’t think it’s “hate” to suggest that LeBron James might be slowing down. He’s played more than 56,000 career regular and postseason minutes, which is more than all but five players in NBA history. He suffered the first major wear-and-tear injury of his career last season. He’s going into Year 17, will turn 35 in December, and has been favoring stepback 3s and intermittent defense more and more the past couple of seasons. I think it’s reasonable to conclude that it’s at least possible that the King’s arrow might not be pointing skyward anymore. With apologies to our future president, though, it doesn’t matter what I think. It matters what James thinks, what that makes him feel, and what he does about it.

Devine：我不认为推测勒布朗-詹姆斯可能会逐渐退化是令人反感的。他在职业生涯中已经打了超过56，000分钟的常规赛和季后赛了，这在NBA历史上仅仅次于五名球员

上赛季，他遭遇了职业生涯首次严重的伤病。他即将步入他篮球生涯的第17个年头，在今年的12月他即将35岁了，并且他在过去几个赛季越来越喜欢后撤步三分和间歇性的防守。我认为我们可以合理地得出至少小皇帝的箭已经不再瞄准天空了。但是对于我们未来的“总统”感到抱歉的是，我怎么想并不重要，关键的是詹姆斯的想法，他的感受，以及他为此所做的事情。

Coming off his first playoff-free spring since 2005, LeBron enters this season with morecompetition for the title of best player in the world than he’s had in years. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kevin Durant, and Kawhi Leonard have all assumed the mantle for a moment or two since last we saw LeBron lace ’em up, and I’m going to guess he hasn’t much cared for their rise to the top of the food chain inviting the perception that he’s fallen from his perch as the sport’s apex predator:

自2005年第一个无缘季后赛的春天以来，勒布朗在这个赛季面临是，对于“世界最佳球员”这一名号的竞争比往些年都更激烈。自从我们上次看到勒布朗后扬尼斯-阿德托昆博，凯文-杜兰特，和科怀-伦纳德都一度被冠以这一头衔。我猜测勒布朗并不那么关心这些球员逐渐上升到食物链的顶端，由此产生了他从“顶级掠食者”这一位置跌落的观点。

Even at age 34, nobody questions LeBron’s capacity to control high-leverage games and command championship moments on a level few in the history of the sport have reached. The issue, though, is sustainability. Davis’s presence opens the door to L.A. lightening—some might even say “managing”—James’s load throughout the season. But even with AD, a Lakers roster light on shot creation and bankable scoring will need LeBron at his best—on both ends, consistently—to fight through a brutally crowded West. It’s a lot to ask of a man with so many miles on his odometer, but LeBron’s not any man, and he should be fresher and more motivated than he’s been in ages.

尽管他已经34岁了，依旧没人会怀疑勒布朗对比赛的强大影响力，和争夺冠军的能力，这样的水平在体育史上也鲜有人能够达到。问题是，可持续性。戴维斯的加盟为洛杉矶湖人减轻詹姆斯整个赛季的负担打开了大门——有些人甚至会说是“管理”。但是哪怕拥有安东尼-戴维斯，由于湖人的阵容中缺少投手和可靠的得分手，球队依然需要詹姆斯处于他的最好状态——在进攻防守两端，并且持续地——以此来从西部残酷的厮杀中突围。对于一个在他的里程表上已经走了很远的人来说，这个要求实在太过，但勒布朗-詹姆斯不是普通人，他可能会比以往感到更新鲜，更兴奋。

Chau: To follow the NBA’s drawn-out 82-game regular season is to eventually fall into a distorted view of the league; the Larry O’Brien Trophy may be the ultimate prize, but the rhythms of the regular season have a way of obscuring the means of attaining it. Kawhi may spend the rest of his Hall of Fame career managing the number of games he plays; he may never play more than 60 games in a regular season ever again. Come March, players like Giannis, AD, or Steph may all have more convincing résumés, but after last season, we now know just what Kawhi is capable of when he takes his limiters off. Kawhi, with Durant likely to miss out on much of next season, now occupies a space similar to LeBron James over much of the past decade. It doesn’t matter who lands the actual MVP award; the real answer to the best player in basketball question is him until proved otherwise. Kawhi is the shadow belt-holder. It doesn’t matter who wins the regular season; no one can stake a stronger claim until they usurp the defending champ.

Chau:伴随着NBA冗长的有82场常规赛，最终会对整个联赛产生一种歪曲的观点。奥布莱恩杯是最伟大的最终极的奖杯，但是整个常规赛的节奏，某种程度上模糊了获得它的过程。伦纳德或许需要花费他剩下的足以载入名人堂的职业生涯管控他打球的场次数目，他可能再也不会在常规赛打60场比赛以上。     到了三月份， 像扬尼斯、戴维斯、库里的地位都更能使人信服，但是上赛季之后，我们现在知道了当科怀脱下他的限制时他能做些什么。再加上杜兰特可能会错过下赛季的大部分比赛，现在科怀已经占据了一个类似于过去十年的詹姆斯那样的地位。谁获得MVP奖杯并不重要，在被证明是其他人之前，关于“谁是这个星球上最好的球员这一问题的回答”只能是他。伦纳德是一个 “全世界最好的球员”腰带的持有者。谁赢的常规赛的胜利并不重要，没有人能够获得一个更好的证明，直到他们也“篡夺”了卫冕冠军。

O’Shaughnessy: Who needs a Big Three to win, anyway? After multiple teams failed to win big with three stars—the Sixers with Butler, the Pelicans with DeMarcus Cousins, and the Wizards with Otto Porter—the Big Two is back, and they’ve never been bigger. The most powerful teams this season feature two major stars: the Clippers have Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, the Lakers have LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the Rockets have James Harden and Russell Westbrook, and the Nets have Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. (Eventually, anyway. Durant could miss the entire season after rupturing his Achilles in the Finals.)

O’Shaughnessy:无论如何，哪支球队会需要三巨头才能赢球呢？在很多球队试图通过汇集三位球星来夺冠的尝试失败后——76人在巴特勒加入以后，鹈鹕在考辛斯加入以后，华盛顿奇才在波特加入以后——两巨头的时代又到来了，并且这些两巨头们前所未有的强大。本赛季最强大的两支球队都以组建两巨头为显著特征：快船拥有科怀-伦纳德和保罗-乔治，湖人有勒布朗-詹姆斯和安东尼-戴维斯，火箭有詹姆斯-哈登和拉塞尔-威斯布鲁克，篮网有凯里-欧文和凯文-杜兰特。（最终无论如何，由于杜兰特在总决赛遭遇跟腱断裂的伤病，他将缺席整个下赛季。）

There are still a few Big Threes out there. Philadelphia will try again, this time with 33-year-old Al Horford next to Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. Perhaps Boston counts, if three of its four major names—Jayson Tatum, Kemba Walker, Jaylen Brown, and Gordon Hayward—can stay consistent. But with most of the trios dissolving into duos, most contenders will also depend on depth. Each of the four superstars between the Lakers and the Clippers is at risk for injury; Leonard, George, James, and Davis were the faces of “load management” last season. The difference between the two teams is that the Clippers are more prepared to hang on when their Big Two need to rest. A top-heavy roster—especially one with two elite players, not three—is a dangerous thing to rely on.

联盟里依然有一些拥有三巨头的球队。费城76人将再次尝试以这样的阵容向冠军发起冲击，这一次他们拥有33岁的霍福德来与本-西蒙斯和乔尔-恩比德搭档。有可能波士顿也算是，如果这四个主要的名字——杰森-塔图姆，肯巴-沃克，杰伦-布朗和戈登-海沃德——能一直保留在球队名单上。但当大多数的三巨头都解体成为两巨头后，大多数的冠军竞逐者们都依靠自身阵容的深度。快船和湖人的四位巨星都有伤病风险：伦纳德、乔治、詹姆斯、戴维斯都是上赛季需要负荷管理的球员。区别在于，当球星需要轮休的时候，快船对于球队的前进准备地更加充分。一个头重脚轻的阵容——尤其是当以两个而非三个巨星领衔的时候——是很难依靠得住的。

1．近年来最精彩的争夺冠军的竞逐

Verrier: NBA fans love a dynasty. Yet as popular as the Warriors dynasty was, and as thrilling as their Basketball Nirvana offense could be, it was hard not to feel a bit of burnout after five years in a flat circle. In the end, there are only so many ways a Steph can shimmy.

But with Kevin Durant relocating his glowering to Brooklyn, and with some of the league’s best players scattering to new locations this summer like Dragon Balls, the title chase suddenly feels wide open.

  Unlike in recent years, when the season felt like a slow march to an inevitable rematch, at least eight teams enter the season with a real shot at the NBA title: the 76ers, Bucks, Clippers, Jazz, Lakers, Nuggets, Rockets, and yes, the Warriors. If we’re talking about teams that could make it to the NBA Finals, you can throw in the Trail Blazers, and maybe even the Celtics. That’s a third of the league! And each one has something new to figure out about itself or some fatal flaw to work out over the course of 82 games.

  Welcome back, parity. We missed you.

Verrier：NBA球迷们喜欢篮球王朝。但是尽管勇士王朝十分受欢迎，且他们重塑篮球这项运动的进攻十分华丽，在经历了五年这样平淡的循环后，我们很难不感受到倦怠。最后只剩下，库里摇晃庆祝的方式可真多。

  但当杜兰特将他的光芒照耀到布鲁克林，以及联盟里其他的顶级球星在今年夏天像龙珠一样分散到不同的新城市，争夺冠军这件事突然就变得开放了。

  不像近几年的每个赛季都像是缓慢的走向一个必然发生的对以往比赛结果的重复，这赛季至少有八支球队具备争冠的实力，76人，雄鹿，快船，爵士，湖人，掘金，火箭，以及，对没错，勇士。如果我们谈论能够打入总决赛的球队，你可以在这个名单中加入开拓者，也许甚至还有凯尔特人。这整整占了联盟球队数量的三分之一，并且每一支球队都有自身需要重新去发掘的，或者都必须在82场常规赛过程中弥补的致命缺陷。

  欢迎回来，平等的竞争，我们很想念你。

---

原文标题 ： The 29 People and Things That Will Define the NBA in 2019-20

原文作者 ： The Ringer Staff

芝士译者 :   SocalledStephanie & 上海阿耶莎

芝士审核 ： Collen & MJ

---

未经允许禁止转载以及任何侵权行为​​​​​​​