Golden State Warriors

Golden State Warriors return after a tough last season, where all 3 main players of the team: S. Curry, K. Thompson, and D. Green were recovering from injuries. Unfortunately, K. Thompson will also have to miss this season due to an injury sustained during the offseason. Nevertheless, Golden State Warriors selected a promising center, J. Wiseman, with the 2nd pick in the draft, who should help solve one of the main problems of previous seasons – the lack of strength under the basket. Moreover, considering the players he will be competing and training with, Wiseman's adaptation to the league and improvement should be quite rapid, so he could provide tangible benefits to the team already this season.

Golden State Warriors' offseason work looks solid: A. Wiggins was retained, and contracts were signed with K. Bazemore and K. Oubre Jr., who, although not the top stars of this team, are both solid supporting players with defensive skills and good shooting from both two-point and three-point zones. It is also worth mentioning that this will be A. Wiggins' second season with the Golden State Warriors, and usually, it is in the second season that players who joined the team reveal their brightest colors. Essentially, Wiggins fits this team perfectly, as he can extend the offense by shooting from afar, as well as break through and finish attacks. His tandem with S. Curry should be very interesting to watch this year.

Even with K. Thompson out before the season starts, Golden State Warriors are still considered a strong team, predicted to finish 5th-6th in the strong Western Conference. The most important thing is that the team avoids injuries this season because, based on the roster they have assembled and how comfortable S. Curry looked on the court in preseason games, it seems that this team has great potential to surprise and even rise higher than the bookmakers predict before the season.

Brooklyn Nets

Brooklyn Nets shook the NBA last season with the offseason additions of K. Durant and K. Irving. Even without these players, the Brooklyn Nets were a playoff-level team in the Eastern Conference, where many players stood out. Looking at the Nets' roster, it can be confidently stated that based on today's team composition, they have 2 players in each position who could be starting five players in most other NBA teams:

Guards: K. Irving, S. Dinwiddie, C. Levert, T. Johnson, L. Shamet;

Forwards: K. Durant, J. Harris, T. Prince, J. Green, R. Kurucs;

Centers: D. Jordan, J. Allen.

Although there are ongoing talks about the possible addition of J. Harden to the team in exchange for C. Levert, S. Dinwiddie, and J. Allen, there is no official information yet, and we will have to wait for confirmation. Nevertheless, “on paper,” this Brooklyn Nets roster looks more than impressive, but everyone understands that names alone do not win championships.

Both K. Durant and K. Irving are individually among the best players in the league, and there is no doubt about that. However, the characters of these players pose problems, and it is unclear how they will look together throughout the season. K. Irving had issues with teammates in the Boston Celtics, where team members complained about his attitude towards the game and unprofessionalism. If this Brooklyn Nets team focuses solely on the game and aims for a common goal – winning the championship, its potential is enormous, and it might even succeed this year. Otherwise, if things go as many experts predict – the Irving and Durant bubble will burst, and the team will face internal conflicts, fans might be disappointed.

Prediction

Currently, the odds for the first NBA season match are 3.2 for Golden State Warriors and 1.35 for Brooklyn Nets' victory. The match will take place in the Brooklyn Nets arena, but since it will be without spectators, the home team will not have a significant advantage. In the offseason matches, K. Durant returned to the court after a 1.5-year break and looked quite good, but in official games, he will probably still need to adjust, and the first match may not be as high-quality as expected. Golden State Warriors have assembled a competitive roster, so in the first season match, they can definitely compete for victory with the Nets team, which, although has great potential, currently has more questions than answers.