By BRENDAN MEYERS

The 2023-2024 NBA season is underway and there are a couple new quirks and rule changes to go along with it. Most notably is the inaugural In-Season Tournament. Teams have been put into six groups of five teams and play in what is called “group stage”. The teams will play one game against each other and the winners of each group along with two wildcards will play in an eight team single elimination knockout stage. Each player on the winning team will receive $500,000.

The two other rule changes are game related. Flopping will now result in a technical foul. It will count as an unsportsmanlike technical which means that it will not count towards an ejection. Another key change is coaches will now receive an additional challenge if the first one is successful. Teams must have a remaining timeout to trigger the challenge.

Now looking at the first couple weeks of the season. The defending champion Denver Nuggets are off to the best start, going 8-1 in their first nine games. Center Nikola Jokic is arguably the best player in the NBA, and coach Michael Malone has his team favored to repeat as champions this year. 

The rest of the Western Conference is pretty wide open. The Dallas Mavericks are currently second in the West and have one of the best duos in the NBA with Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving.

A couple of teams who are not so hot are the Memphis Grizzlies and the San Antonio Spurs. The Grizzlies hold the NBA’s worst record starting off the year 1-7. They are just trying to survive this early part of the season until star Ja Morant comes back from his 25 game suspension. 

The San Antonio Spurs looked rejuvenated in their first few games with first overall pick of the 2023 NBA Draft Victor Wembanyama. But in their last two games against the Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks, they have lost by a combined 62 points. Getting killed by average NBA teams does not bode well for the rest of the year for Wembanyama and the Spurs.

In the Eastern Conference, the Philadelphia 76ers are currently at the top of the standings. They recently made a blockbuster trade sending star guard James Harden to the Los Angeles Clippers for role players Robert Covington and Marcus Morris, along with two first and second round picks in the future. Joel Embiid is now in full control of the 76ers, and guard Tyrese Maxey is really blossoming being Robin to Embiid’s Batman.

The Boston Celtics are also scorching hot to start the season. They might have the best starting five in the league adding guard Jrue Holiday and center Kristaps Porzingis in the offseason. Star Jaylen Brown was granted the biggest contract in NBA history this offseason as well.

The Washington Wizards have been a disappointment early this season. Starting off 2-6, the acquisition of Jordan Poole has not paid off so far this season. Mock drafts and analysts suspect this slump will continue throughout the rest of the year making the Wizards a likely team to be picking at the top of next year’s draft.

Even though the season is very young, there has been plenty of exciting games and storylines to look forward to. 

Featured Image: Joel Embiid