NBA Preseason 22-23 Part 1: Chet, Wembanyama and other key players.

 

The 2023 NBA preseason is well underway and already we've seen some interesting matchups and performances.

Starting off, we saw a pair of showcase games between the Timberwolves and the Mavs in Abu Dhabi. For the Timberwolves, there were promising signs that KAT might carry over his form and offensive dominance from the World Cup. Furthermore, although it was a small sample size and only pre-season the Wolves seem to have improved on chemistry from last year which could push them into a more competitive position in the east this season. As for the Mavericks pre-season so far, one ward comes to mind. concerning.  although Luka still looks like Luka we haven't seen much of Kyrie yet, the problems they had last year, notably rim defense and rebounding, still seem to be big issues. Despite the drafting of Derrick Lively III he only managed to get field goals and 9 combined rebounds in the 30 minutes he played so far. Although he is still a rookie Jaden Hardy seems like a promising 6th man. so Dallas fans have that to be excited about. 

The next key moment I'd like to talk about this preseason so far is KP's 17-point game for his new team, the Boston Celtics. This is important for Boston as it shows they now have an elite 3rd option scorer who can create on all 3 levels and stretch the floor (he is the OG unicorn after all)

Furthermore, KP also proved his defensive strength on the interior which will give Boston a lot of confidence going into the regular season, especially with the nature of his point (a variety of buckets on all 3 levels even including an ankle breaker for the highlight real, as seen in the photo above). I also like to give props to Maxey who put up 24 points on good efficiency and who I believe could make an all-star jump this season

Monday night also gave us a long-anticipated Chet v Wembanyama matchup. both played approximately 15 minutes and put up very good numbers with Wemby bagging himself 20 points with some strong finishes at the rin, Chet got himself 21 points with extremely tough buckets. Both also showed their generational rim defense. Therefore instead of choosing one over the other, I think it fair to say this will be an exciting matchup for years to come and the future is bright in Oklahoma and San Antonio

I'm going to end the article with a list of notable scoring performances: Pritchard (26, 21), Quickly (21), Thomas (26(, Hachimura (19),  Bagley III (25),  Kuminga (24).