Reacting To ESPN’s Weird Assortment of Questions About The 2022 Season

Finally, an ESPN article worth talking about. Most of my reactionary articles this offseason have come from Bleacher Report, but maybe ESPN is starting to make a comeback. This article was made a few days ago on ESPN+ and I found it to be really interesting.

Instead of your normal questions about the offseason, like who had the “best offseason,” or the “worst offseason,” ESPN had some different questions, including;

Team Turmoil

I think that explains things pretty well and I wanted to go over the questions in this article and give my takes.

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Team Turnaround: Watch for a Sudden Rise

This question is pretty self-explanatory. Which team in the NBA is going to improve the most from 2021 to 2022, win total-wise? There are a few teams that come to mind when we ask ourselves this question, so let’s see how the voting panned out;

1. Golden State Warriors: 39 points (30% first-place votes)
2. Miami Heat: 26 points (10% first-place votes)
3. Chicago Bulls: 21 points (20% first-place votes)
4. Boston Celtics: 17 points (10% first-place votes)
5. Los Angeles Lakers: 15 points (5% first-place votes)
6. Toronto Raptors: 14 points (5% first-place votes)
7. Minnesota T-Wolves: 12 points (10% first-place votes)
8. Indiana Pacers: 10 points (5% first-place votes)
9. Charlotte Hornets: 6 points (5% first-place votes)

So the Warriors won this poll and I kind of agree. Last year they won 39 games (54.2%) and they got better this offseason. Klay Thompson coming back is huge. James Wiseman should be more passable in his 2nd season. Rookies Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody are hoping to make an impact.

Signing veterans like Andre Iguodala, Otto Porter Jr, and Nemanja Bjelica also help sure up the bench unit around guys like Poole and JTA. I like the Warriors and I see them winning closer to 50 games this season.

Interestingly, the Heat are higher than the Bulls. The Bulls got more 1st place votes and I do think they will improve more. While the Heat got better, they aren’t that deep and they are older, so I’m not expecting them to take some sort of massive jump.

The Bulls got a lot better. They added Lonzo Ball, DeMar DeRozan, and Alex Caruso. Those 3 guys give them a lot more depth and offense. Last year the Bulls won just 31 games (43.1%). This year they can win more like 40-45 wins. I know the Heat are a lot better than the Bulls, but in the context of this question, the Bulls make a lot more sense.

Surprised teams like Indiana, Toronto, and Charlotte made this list. All of these teams got better but all of them are play-in teams in my opinion, so they can’t turn things around that much. The Eastern Conference’s top 6 teams are pretty much set in stone, so I don’t think either of these 3 teams is making it much further than the 7th seed in the East.

Kind of expected the Lakers to be higher on this list, given that they were the 7th seed last year. They should be a top-2 seed with all of their new additions. I think they’re the best team in the West by a pretty wide margin when healthy, so kind of surprised they only got 15 points on this poll.

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Team Turmoil: Where Drama Looms

Again, pretty self-explanatory. Where is there going to be drama in the NBA? We expect drama on good teams because of all the expectations. We expect drama on teams that have a superstar player. We expect drama when we suspect an All-Star caliber player is going to be traded soon.

Drama isn’t that hard to avoid in the NBA, but who has the most drama entering 2022?

1. Philadelphia 76ers: 61 points (55% first-place votes)
2. Los Angeles Lakers: 27 points (10% first-place votes)
3. Chicago Bulls: 17 points (10% first-place votes)
4. Los Angeles Clippers: 16 points (10% first-place votes)
5. New Orleans Pelicans: 15 points
6. Portland Trail Blazers: 14 points (10% first-place votes)
7. Minnesota T-Wolves: 9 points (5% first-place votes)

I really can’t tell you why 45% of people don’t think the 76ers have the most drama. It’s the 76ers by a lot, that’s the only acceptable answer for me. The Ben Simmons Saga looks like it will continue to drag on into the 2022 season, which is a bad thing for the 76ers.

Simmons’ lack of an outside shot and lack of motivation to improve has left himself as a player and the 76ers running in place. But the 76ers won’t trade him if it means they’ll dip in the standings. They want Damian Lillard, Bradley Beal, or bust.

But since that won’t happen, they’re likely not going to be a top-2 seed in the East again because of the circus that is about to ensue. The 76ers are the easy #1 answer to this question.

The Lakers is another good one. They have a lot of veterans and star power, so balancing that will be interesting. The Lakers will be put under the microscope like all Lebron James-led teams, so expect a lot of misleading headlines from Hollywood.

With the Bulls, it’s the same thing. Adding so many free agents means that everybody will have to adjust and there will be some friction.

Why are the Clippers here? Where’s the drama without Kawhi Leonard? They aren’t going to be contenders this season, so really, there is no spotlight on them this year.

The Pelicans have Zion Williamson and their internal clock to please him is ticking. The Damian Lillard trade situation might re-heat once again if the Blazers disappoint again in 2022 (likely).

How did the T-Wolves end up here? Where is the drama? Maybe because of shot distribution between Towns-Russell-Edwards-Beasley? The T-Wolves are more likely to miss the playoffs than make them, so I can’t imagine too much drama coming from them this season.

Pretty solid list, although I’m surprised that the 76ers didn’t get more like 80-90% of the first-place votes in this poll.

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How Many More Titles For The Lakers With Lebron?

Lebron James is entering his 19th season in the league and is trying to get his 5th championship. The Lakers won Lebron his 4th ring in 2020, but with him getting older, can arguably the greatest player ever get one more ring?

Zero: 15%

One: 85%

I kind of agree with this one. Lebron doesn’t have that many years left, so winning one is a pretty big task as it is, especially given how good some of the other contenders in the NBA are. The Lakers are the best team in the West, but the Bucks and Nets are just so good over in the East.

I could see him winning one but I don’t know if he’d be the best player on that team. He would need a lot more from Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook, plus maybe from fortunate injuries to the Nets and even the Bucks, two teams who could give the Lakers a really hard time

I could very easily see Lebron winning title #5, but again, there is a good chance that doesn’t happen either.

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How Many Titles For The Nets With KD, Kyrie, and Harden?

KD and Kyrie Irving have won championships elsewhere, but the 3 of them didn’t win the title last year and the targets on their backs only get bigger by the year.

KD is signed with the Nets through the 2025-26 season. Harden and Irving both have player options for the 2022-23 seasons and are both under contract this season.

Zero: 5%

One: 70%

Two: 25%

The way I see it, there are three mindsets here. One is that the Nets don’t win this year for one reason or another and Big 3 disbands. I don’t see that happening for a lot of reasons, but that would be the only way in my mind that this trio doesn’t win a title.

But these 3 are incredibly dominant and it’s not like they don’t know how to play with each other, they do. They just need to stay healthy and I’d take them over any other team in the NBA, any day of the week.

The 2nd mindset is that the Nets re-sign Irving and Harden for the rest of their primes but are only able to win one ring. Winning a ring is hard and winning multiple rings with this much talent is even harder, but winning one is an accomplishment nonetheless.

Mindset #3 is the aggressive one. Irving, Harden, and KD are still playing at an elite level and they all sign long-term deals to stay together in the twilight of their peaks. They remain healthy and the help around them is good enough to win multiple rings.

To be honest, I kind of see mindset #3 playing in my head the most. They would have won the title last year if not for injuries and they seem to enjoy each other’s company. KD already signed long-term and I have to assume that Irving and Harden follow soon thereafter.

I just think that if they stay healthy and the help around them is good enough, they’re going to beat everybody else. They’re better than the Bucks, we saw that when they were healthy last year, and the Lakers are a mystery. At their best, they could put up a fight, but I just don’t see Russell Westbrook being the answer for them.

I know saying that the Nets winning multiple titles isn’t some sort of hot-take, but it is hard to predict that a team or a core of just 3 players can win multiple titles and dominant the rest of the league. But if the Nets stay healthy, I just don’t see anybody beating them. So to the 25% who picked 2 rings, I agree with you.

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What Team Is Ben Simmons On When The 2021-22 Season Starts?

This is a pretty interesting question. With one month left before the regular season starts, will the 76ers even trade Ben Simmons? That is a question in of itself, but if he does get traded, where is he going? Another pretty question, so I think this question is a few questions wrapped up into one question.

The answers to that question are;

1. Philadelphia 76ers: 45%
2. Portland Trail Blazers: 15%
3. Sacramento Kings: 15%
4. Minnesota T-Wolves: 10%
5. Chicago Bulls: 5%
6. Orlando Magic 5%
7. New Orleans Pelicans 5%

So about half of the people in this poll assume that Ben Simmons won’t be traded. I would have expected that to be more around 60% given the situation, granted, we still don’t know what’s going to happen. But I find it more interesting that there are so many trade destinations for Ben Simmons.

I love that my Blazers are tied for the 2nd best odds. Simmons would make us so much better and trading CJ is the answer if we want to get better. However, I do know that this trade won’t happen because our front office is beyond passive. But I can still dream.

The Kings are interesting, but I don’t think the 76ers would do a deal for them if it didn’t involve De’Aaron Fox or Tyrese Haliburton. The Kings have rightfully backed off, although a package involving Hield, Bagley, and 2021 lottery pick Davion Mitchell is a good package. I doubt the 76ers do this trade because they’re not getting a superstar back in return, but that is a good return package for Ben Simmons.

The T-Wolves are also interesting but they’d have to give up D’Angelo Russell and I don’t know if they want to do that, given how little he and KAT have played together as a duo.

The Bulls? They have never been in the Ben Simmons sweepstakes and they’re pretty content on going all-in with the new core they’ve assembled. What would they even give up that the 76ers would take back? While the Bulls desperately need wing depth/defense, I highly doubt Simmons is going to the Windy City.

I doubt the Magic are giving up their newly assembled core for a flawed player. I doubt the Pelicans are trading away Zion or Brandon Ingram.

If Simmons does get traded, teams like the Blazers, Pacers, Kings, T-Wolves, and Raptors are the perfect destinations for what Simmons brings to the table. But in all likelihood, Ben Simmons will be playing for the Philadelphia 76ers in 2022.

(Cry 76ers fans)

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What Are Your Thoughts About These Questions? Leave A Comment Down Below!

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