 That was how the cookie crumbles last season, with the Denver Nuggets winning their first ever NBA title. And 134 days later, the NBA is back and oh, how things have changed. With every new season comes its very own version of drama, excitement and expectations. It starts making super teams and generational young talents looking to carry the weight of their franchise. Add to that the newly introduced in-season tournament, and you have one of the most anticipated NBA seasons yet. Alright, so we know that it's shaping up to be exciting matches with a rematch of the Western Conference Finals, as reigning champions the Denver Nuggets take on the LeBron James and the LA Lakers. What about the new-look Phoenix Suns against the Golden State Warriors and their new point guard, Chris Paul? Well, here to preview the new season and all that comes with it, our NBA analyst, Alistair Albert. Good afternoon, Alistair. It's been a while, it's been some time. It's been a few weeks, but like I was just telling Ricardo just before we came in, I think life is starting to become normal again. The NBA is back. I feel good. I feel excited. I'm so proud to see how it all plays out this year. I'm happy to be back with you guys in your swanky new studio. Yeah, always a pleasure to chat NBA with you. So I'll start with fiction number one, Lakers versus the Nuggets. What are we expecting? You know, the Nuggets are defending champions Alistair and they'll want to come out with a bang. They definitely want to come out with a bang and what they need to kind of ward off and be very careful about is of course the championship hangover. Many people, you know, always look out to see how teams come out after they win a championship on ring night, a night full of emotions. You're getting your banners raised to the ceiling. You're getting these new rings that cost loads of money, you know, and there's a lot of stuff going on just production-wise and everything getting the team ready for this NBA season. So can they kind of get past everything? Can Nikola Jokic forget about Serbia and the horses? Can they get past losing Bruce Brown, who left the team, you know, during free agency and Jeff Green? You know, can they kind of keep this team together and go? But I actually like the Lakers in this one. I think the Lakers are out for revenge. You know, there was a lot of talk during the off-season and I think LeBron and Anthony Davis are ready for this game tonight. Yeah, that's the narrative going into this one. Revenge for the Lakers, a healthy AD, a well-rested LeBron. What type of excitement are we in for tonight? Loads of excitement. This is LeBron James, who himself, of course, has been on a couple of ring nights himself. He knows what to expect and, you know, we hear throughout all the seasons, you know, how intelligent and, you know, the high basketball IQ LeBron James has. He could call out plays from the other team. You know, he is very familiar with the Denver Nuggets now, having played them in the Western Conference Finals last season and, you know, he'll be ready to kind of take advantage of, you know, mismatches and try to show that in season 21 he still has the horses of a 23-year-old, you know, ready to kind of put it down. Anthony Davis, of course, he has a lot to make up for, you know, in a bit of a dismal performance in the Western Conference Finals last year and, you know, he has a little bit of making up to do with Nikola Jokic after, you know, a bit of a disappointing showing. So yeah, a lot of excitement. New team members on the Lakers, you know, they had a remarkable off-season and I think they will want to kind of put their stamp on the game as well. Ian, speaking about new team members, the second match for tonight will be the Sons vs. the Warriors and I think the storyline for this one, Alistair, is mouthwatering because we have Chris Paul's first regular season with the Golden State Warriors against his last team. What a perfect storyline. Perfect storyline. A team he led to the Finals, a team who hadn't gotten to the Finals in 20 years and 20 years or whatever it was, you know, and he is now back playing against them as a member of the Warriors, a team, you know, who was his arch nemesis over his career. So it's going to be really interesting to see how he kind of fits in with the mold, you know, with what they're doing in Golden State. Steve Kerr has said, you know, he really likes, you know, what he's seen so far in training camp and, you know, how he's been able to work really well with Steph Curry off the ball, on the ball, as they get familiar with each other. And, you know, I think there's, there's some potential and, you know, there's a few talks about whether or not he will come off the bench. He says, you know, he's still a starter, but we'll see what happens. He has to submit to the team in terms of trying to be a good team player. But yeah, you know, the storylines are right for excitement itself as well. And, you know, let's see if there's any bad blood or any any sort of, you know, one-upmanship that's going on there as well. Another big storyline. Kevin Durant's first game in the Chase Center since he left Golden State. So, you know, this is also going to be a big one as well. Yeah, he left in 2019. So I would love to see how he matches up against them as well. Do you think, Alistair, this is Chris Ball's best chance to win a ring? This is a question I actually thought about a couple of days ago before you guys contacted to come on tonight. And, you know, I thought to myself, is this really his best chance? He actually was in the finals a couple of years ago with the Phoenix Suns. You know, that was considered his best chance. And now he's on a team that is, you know, always a contender. Someone who you always kind of think of, who can kind of get their teams to the finals. And I actually think this is probably their best chance with a condition that I'm hoping that the Warriors can probably make some sort of addition to their team in the center position. I think they're very lacking and deficient in that position. They had an offseason training with Dwight Howard that didn't go well. He wasn't selected to kind of join the team. But if they could add another big man to kind of spare Kevin Looney, I think they're probably the ones who I would actually consider the favorites to come out to the West based on, you know, what they could do. Yeah, Alistair, the NBA title, of course, the big one to win. But I'm quite excited as well about this new in season tournament. What can you tell us about this tournament and your own feeling about this addition to the NBA season? Well, it was a great addition. You know, this is something that has been spoken about for quite a few years from Adam Silver, you know, this is as well his opportunity to stamp his his name on and create a legacy for himself, creating an in season tournament very similar to what we see in the football leagues across Europe and elsewhere. And, you know, it's given the NBA players a chance to kind of, you know, reach for something else. It's not just about, you know, just the Larry O'Brien trophy. This trophy is yet to be named. I think it's just going to be called the NBA Cup. But as you see on the graphic here, all 30 teams will take part in this tournament with the games within the 82 game season. There are no additional games. I think they said probably just one for the two teams who will probably be in the finals. But, you know, it's going to be really interesting to see how teams get up for this and players get up for this. This, of course, was kind of put in to try to ward off against load management, gives the team something, some other incentive to try to play and to be on the court for. So let's see how this all works out. It's really going to be interesting to see how the whole structure of it works out. You know, how excited the guys and the players will be to play in it. And yes, it's really exciting. You know, it's another great addition to the NBA calendar that I think is going to do wonders for the league. Yes, you can see there it will start on the 3rd of November and culminate on the 9th of December. And I heard you just know, Alistair, but I want to get a little bit more from you as to specifically how you feel about it. I heard you speak about the players and so on. But I want to know specifically if this is something as a basketball fan that you like. Well, yeah, I do. I do. It's more basketball, it's more something else to cheer for. So for me, as a basketball fanatic, I love it. I think it's really good to kind of see what's going to happen. The purist in me, of course, kind of thinks, you know, this is just going to distract a lot from the the history of the game. It's something else you have to worry about. You know, it's, you know, this doesn't really matter. It's not the NBA title. We spoke about, you know, who's who are world champs in this off season. And, you know, everyone kind of talks about the NBA championship being the end all and be all for the NBA. So, yeah, it's a bit weird to have this in season tournament now. But for fans of the game, fanatics, not casual fans, guys who enjoy basketball, I want to see more competition. I love it. I think, you know, it's going to be, you know, see the guys just play a lot more with a lot more excitement, especially after all the talk of load management, the rules, rule changes that have been made to kind of go against that and everything. I love it. I think it's going to be really good for the league. And it's probably the best thing they could do to try to get players to play more. So, yeah. How do you think it will impact how teams approach the entirety of the season? Yeah, this is going to be interesting. And like I said, you know, we speak about the load management. Of course, the league has now instituted rules to try to prevent and penalise teams and players who don't play in games in back to backs and all that sort of stuff. And I think, you know, this now kind of talks about, you know, coaches and their strategies, how they kind of decide, you know, who plays on a nightly basis and, you know, you know, who's going to play? Literally, it's going to be just that. And I think, you know, it's going to be, you know, really important, you know, when we want to play Steph Curry on a back to back, when he, you know, is going for the title, potential title of this, this new in season tournament, when we could probably think about wrestling, wrestling for the rest of the season. You know, it's these sorts of decisions and strategical, you know, conversations that coaching staffs now need to have. So it will impact, you know, I think coaches now have to learn on the fly how to manage their players' minutes and playing time and whether they play, how they schedule their games across the 82th game season to decide whether or not, you know, what's important. Is it the long run, the whole 82 game season or this in-game tournament? So it's going to affect a lot of strategy, I think, in terms of lineups and who plays. All right, Alistair. Well, I know you sent in your title contenders list. So let's have a look at it now. Yep. All right. So you think that the Lakers and the Nuggets will be the Western Conference contenders for the championship. And for the East, you're saying the box and the Celtics. Give us a bit of explanation for these picks. Yeah, I think it's one of these things. You kind of see some regular and constant faces, you know, in these selections right here. But I think with what we've seen in the off-season, especially on the East, with some of the landscape changes that we've seen, Drew Holiday moving from Milwaukee and going to the Celtics. The Celtics also acquiring Chris Taps-Pozinguis. The Bucks, of course, getting, you know, Damian Lillard into their lineup now who replaces Drew Holiday as well. I think, you know, that storyline alone is going to kind of create a lot of fireworks and sparks throughout the season. And I think their teams on paper are probably just above and beyond the rest of the teams in that conference. So I think, you know, that's what is going to be in the East. On the Western side, we have the Lakers and the Nuggets. I think the Nuggets are, you know, you have to respect them as champions. There is some level of continuity there with, you know, Michael Porter Jr., Jamal Murray, Nicola Joakic and all these guys who now have championship experience and want to prove that it was not a fluke. You know, these guys are probably going to come out and play really hard this season as well. And the Lakers, before the Damian Lillard and the Celtics and the Bucks trades, I had the Lakers as winning the off-season in terms of the acquisitions that they made during the off-season to kind be ready for for for their title run this year. It was an excellent, you know, set of acquisitions done by Rob Palinka. And, you know, I think it puts them in a really good position, you know, with a lot of depth to kind of help the Lakers kind of go through. But of course, health is the main thing. We have major stories here with Anthony Davis missing quite a lot of games. Anna Braun James was now approaching 39 years old, who's starting to miss games a lot more now. So can these guys remain healthy? And I think if they can, they will be the ones who will represent the West potentially going against a Nuggets team who are who are really looking to try to show that it's not a fluke and they deserve to be champions. Yeah, when asked about the players to watch, this is what Alistair served up. Let's see. All right, Damian Lillard. You had Jordan Poole, Victor Wambaniama, Lebron James and Drew Holiday. I saw a lot of good stuff from Wambaniama in the pre-season. Let's talk about him a bit. Yeah, Victor Wambaniama, he's been, you know, phenomenal, you know, apart from his first game in the pre-season where he kind of looked a bit shaky, looked a little bit out of sorts, missed most of his three points. I think he made one, probably subject to correction, but he didn't make multiple last for sure. And, you know, he didn't really kind of show as much as people thought that they were that he that he would. But, you know, as the pre-season progressed and even in that same first game, you saw quite a lot of flashes of his defensive capabilities, his offensive moves, his fluidity with the ball and someone who's ready to make other players around him better as well. You know, he's a sponge. Graham Kropovich says, you know, he's not it about the fluffy stuff and wanting to, you know, just be a great teammate in everything. He wants to win a championship as soon as possible. And, you know, we just seen there this this highlight of him blocking Andrew Wiggins taking a three point shot with a guy who's tried to up that ball really high to prevent, you know, being blocked and he still blocked it. And it's amazing, you're going to be really interested to see how he plays in the NBA against NBA talent. And yes, it's going to be really good to see what he does. Which team wins the overall NBA title this season? Oh, tough question. But I think I'm leaning towards the Celtics. The Celtics right now, I think, you know, you know, they have what it takes when we look at what happened with Milwaukee and them acquiring Drew Holiday coming from the New Orleans, New Orleans Pelicans. He was the one who put the Milwaukee Bucks over the hump. You know, they had, you know, Yannis Anticompo, who was playing out of his mind, doing as much as he can. And he just couldn't get past, you know, the Celtics and LeBron and all the other teams that he's played against over his career. Drew Holiday came into that team and solidified them from the point guard position in terms of playmaking and defense. And we saw, of course, in the finals when they played against the Suns, how instrumental Drew Holiday was in clamping down on Devon Booker and Chris Paul. He now going to the Celtics, I think he does exactly the same thing. I think, you know, they're already a great defensive team. And Drew Holiday just brings that tenacity and offensive capability alongside Christophe Sprezingis added to that team. I don't think they're going to miss Marcus Smart very much, you know, with Drew Holiday. So I think the Celtics probably are the ones to beat if they all stay healthy as usual. Right. Well, the party begins tonight. And Alisa will be connecting with you from time to time. I want to thank you so much for stopping by on the Sports Mac soon. See you soon. No problem. See you guys soon. Alisa Albert, our NBA analyst. Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back.