Raptors open Wednesday at home. Photo Credit: Toronto Raptors/X.
The National Basketball Association (NBA) regular season tips off Tuesday night on two fronts.
The early game (7:30 p.m. EST) sees the defending NBA Champion Boston Celtics home to the New York Knicks, while the Los Angeles Lakers welcome the Minnesota Timberwolves at 10:00 p.m.
The Toronto Raptors, Canada’s only NBA team, open their season Wednesday evening at home against the Cleveland Cavaliers in a 7:30 p.m. tipoff.
Let’s start on this side of the border, and Toronto President Masai Ujiri who made it abundantly clear on where he sees the Raptors this season.
“I would use the word rebuilding. That’s the right word. We have a clear path going forward,” explained Ujiri at last month’s team media day. “Young team. Growing team, I think everybody sees that loud and clear.”
Despite those words, Raptors forward Scottie Barnes is now a legit player in the league, and a threat at all times on the floor.
Canadian RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley, Jacob Poeltl and Gradey Dick are Toronto’s other projected starters.
One of the reasons Ujiri is calling the 2024-25 campaign a rebuild is due to the division the Raptors play in.
The Atlantic Division features the aforementioned Celtics and Knicks, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Brooklyn Nets.
Boston is favorite to win the East and repeat as NBA Champion after posting the best regular season record (64-18) and best playoff record (16-3) last season, but keep this in mind, no NBA champion has repeated since the Golden State Warriors in 2018.
To the Western Conference now, and it might be a nice feel-good story going into opening night but the chances of Bronny James (son of Lebron) contributing anything significant to the Lakers is very slim.
The Dallas Mavericks are the defending west champions, and anytime you have a Luka Doncic on your team you should be in most games.
The west features so many ‘potential’ front-runners. There’s the NBA Champions from two seasons ago – the Denver Nuggets and the all world, and defending league Most Valuable Player, Nikola Jokic.
Canadian guard Jamal Murray, fresh off signing a four-year $208-million contract extension, is also a member of the Nuggets.
There’s also the western conference runner-up from last season in the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Speaking of Canadians, we can’t forget about this season’s NBA executives pick to win MVP in the man they call SGA, Shai-Gilgeous Alexander – the star of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Gilgeous-Alexander, who was born in Toronto but grew up in Hamilton, knows he’s the face of the Thunder franchise and is embracing it.
“No knock on anybody that’s not a star player but growing up, you watch Kobe Bryant, cornerstone of the Lakers franchise; you watch LeBron James, cornerstone of Cleveland franchise; you watch Allen Iverson, cornerstone of Philly’s franchise,” said Gilgeous-Alexander. “Those are the guys budding in your face when you watch the game of basketball. The guys you go out and try to emulate and go out there and inspire to play the game. Indirectly, (Oklahoma City) has given me that opportunity to be that guy.”
The two aforementioned Canadians, Murray and Gilgeous-Alexander, will open the season against each other Thursday night when the Nuggets host the Thunder.
If Canada’s only NBA team won’t be there, let’s hope a Canadian player at least is, come next June when the NBA Finals tip off.
Rod Mawhood is a lifelong Niagara native who has had the pleasure of working in all three mediums – Radio, Print and TV – for over 20 years. His first announcing gig was with the then St. Catharines Stompers. Since then he’s worked in radio and TV in Toronto, and currently is the announcer for the Niagara IceDogs and Niagara River Lions.
Rod also covers the Buffalo Bills for FOX Sports and the Buffalo Sabres for NBC Sports.
