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I believe the last time I heard literally the sentence "it's the worst kept secret in NBA that X wants to leave" on Bill Simmons podcast was Devin Booker in 2020, but maybe there were more.

Allegations lol. People say he joined one of the best teams ever, not that he killed a schoolbus of children.

In scoring, sure. That's just in the boxscore, not much to discuss. For the team's score, I wouldn't say he was a plus in his rookie season lol.

Warriors had a great winning record when Poole was replacing Curry in the starting lineup (and Wiggins was not playing in most if not all of those games too). And Poole was scoring most ppg.

Generally the standard is, a player scoring most ppg is called "the best player", and if the team also wins, then people go crazy about him. That's just a fact about what everyone here says.

So I think I would not be surprised if Poole can go only up - from, hm, a lot of people saying Wizards are the league's 30th team now.

I don't know how players can do, really a lot of stuff outside of what we can know, but some very swingy season are surely:

Bradley Beal - people mostly think that exchanging Chris Paul with Beal will catapult Suns onto some new level. It will be interesting what the results really are, and Beal individually will be commented the most as the new element and generally a guy that didn't play much winning basketball in many years, so for now it's just assumption at this point, based on his legendary ppg.

Ayton - some really think a lot of good of paying 33 million a year for Ayton, despite what everybody saw in the last playoff series. In Portland he will once again be priority, and if it doesn't bring something then I think no one will be admitting what they are saying about him now in a year.

Towns - he's been mostly good before 2022-23, but still Wolves cannot really show much for it, not like when Jimmy Butler came and immediately gave them their best time of the last 2 decades. Fans have been threatening that "with healthy KAT they'll be spooky". But he's gonna be a 28-year-old player that didn't even start his next max contract yet. This "healthy" season can move a lot for him in either direction.

Paul George, Kawhi Leonard - after this season, they have player options and can leave or secure a long-term extension. Lowkey, Clippers were still very good at full roster, so something really good can imaginably happen. If not, there'll be a lot of growing questions as the season goes on.

Lillard - a bit like Beal, he was traded for an actually important two-way player and is expected to bring the world. He actually had a great last season. But when 1st place is the expectation, the probability of disappointment is the highest. No longer can anyone say "Lillard just doesn't have a team, so what can he do....."

Ben Simmons - we all know what's up. Is he gonna be playing good basketball? That'd change a lot.

Ja Morant - I just feel like he's nothing now. People are already saying that Grizzlies are done for now, and Morant probably too. He is gonna come back, though, presumably. Was really good at basketball.

Jamal Murray - a god in 2023 playoffs. Either he plays up to his level regularly after the title or continues not to. Either way, opinion's gonna change.

The funniest part is not someone having opinion on something as vague as "best player", that can mean anything to anyone.

The funniest part by far is that they THEMSELVES were obsessed about how awful would it be to give it to Jokić lol. I know from experience how much shit you'd get for the whole season when you even mentioned that maybe, maybe Jokić might be kinda considered by someone to not be so bad.

It was unimaginable to even say this is possible in winter. Even presenting any point of view was massively downvoted, not rarely called racist. Like... Where are all these guys now? Now I keep reading for months that Embiid's MVP was "travesty" lol.

Nuggets already had "not enough depth" to win, and they did. If their bench can do that much better in playoffs than on an average day in the season in 2023, then their next bench can do it in 2024. I just don't know how likely it is.

I feel pretty strong about them. Unlike most champions recently, they still have some distance to grow. And as far as Bruce Brown was great in playoffs, he was not a unique player overall, and compared to other teams, it's not the biggest lost ever. It's important to have 5 guys that seem happy in their role and their contract, that is not common. Jokić has been historically amazing a few years ago, and then made wild progress every year - necessary in current times when others also do, but a sign that they can keep doing it.

Most of the serial winners started winning exactly at the age of 28, so this team really fits the profile.

It's still hard to bet on something that is decided by a few games in one specific moment of the whole year, so it's a coin toss for me at most. But yeah, over the next three years, I would bet on Nuggets winnnig one at least.

I basically just quoted the main draft websites lol.

Nbadraftroom: "a force on the defensive end, where he alters and blocks a lot of shots, showing good timing, quick elevation and good shot blocking instincts. His awareness on the defensive end is something that can’t be taught and Wiseman projects as a legit rim protector at the college and NBA levels. He also does a nice job of altering perimeter shots and has enough foot-speed to bother guards beyond the three point line"

Bleacher: "Curry, Thompson and Wiggins should handle the bulk of the scoring load while Green and Wiseman rebound and play tough defense"

Nbadraftjunkies: "unliimited potential on both ends (...) as rim protector"

Athletic: "Some think his defensive ability on the interior does bring that kind of upside [to be a star]"

Peachthreehoops: "Wiseman is on track to being a defensive force, with his wingspan, vertical athleticism and impressive quickness when compared to players his size. At present, he is best utilized in a “drop” pick-and-roll scheme, with Wiseman not flashing the kind of switchable deployment that teams may like to use on the perimeter. That is a mild concern but, at the same time, it is possible that Wiseman is the kind of dominant rim protector — a la Rudy Gobert, though no one should be compared to him — that can lead a team to mold the scheme to his talents."

Those are not selected, just copies the first comments Google turns up about him.

Tbf, in this case it's not even about the future, Jokić was just better as overall NBA player in his first game than Wiseman will ever be. People thought he'd go spend some time in Europe first, but he started playing 20 minutes a game immediately and Denver had an amazing score in the minutes he was on court even in his rookie season.

So it's not even future really, just playing in NBA - if Jokić was to never become better than in his rookie season, he'd still be drafted way way higher if people knew.

7 foot tall, 7-4 wingspan, runs fast, jumps high, can shoot midrange (potentially distance), allegedly great passer and a very scary defender with "amazing awareness" around the rim and good speed and timing overall.

His shortcomings were considered as "well, he is young, those will be fixed with experience".

The players will probably always try to win, also in Wizards and Pistons. But many teams have a general approach that the focus is more the future, they base on young players and won't sacrifice the future just for this season, which means they are conceding that the success in this season is not the priority.

Like Spurs, whom you not listed, just had one of the worse seasons in history and now they will focus on developing their star rookie, I feel very safe saying that they will not be contending and they will not have an All-NBA First Team player lol.

Wade was really good in 2006 imo. I feel like I don't really see it mentioned the way it was to see it. I know that you look at his boxscore... nothing record-breaking. But he had that perfect mix of savvy and energy, something that most players are either too old or too young to have both at the moment.

Miami "only" won 52 games - but their score with Wade on court was waaaay better than the total suggests, which really says a lot considering that he played almost every game, and for 38 minutes. Wade played most of his minutes that season without Shaq on court, but that wasn't a big issue - lack of Wade was just completely cutting what that team was capable of though.

Funnily, that season might have also been the individual peak for Kobe Bryant, although his teams won so much more years before and years after. I still think that individually, it was very impressive what he was doing on the offense, the stuff he was doing then, it was really something special; and that one, I think almost everyone in the NBA did notice, way than more enough.