The NBA is just around the corner. For most sports fans, basketball isn’t even in the back of their heads. Football has just started and everyone is 100% into that. Prime NBA news has ended ever since the Kawhi Leonard tradehappened between San Antonio and Toronto. The biggest story has been watching LeBron’s oldest son dominating the AAU circuit and LeBron going to all of the games. The recent news of Russell Westbrook and Devin Booker having surgery late in the summer has started the news for the upcoming season. Both of those injuries will have an impact on the beginning of the season for the Thunder and the Suns. But I’m more interested what to watch for the whole season. I wanna know what to watch for now instead of people hyping up some team to challenge the Warriors. Here are my five things to keep an eye for the whole season.

1. Anthony Davis has fired his agent.

I cannot stress how important this is. The average NBA fan does not understand the role an agent plays in the NBA. Let me begin by saying agents and their respective agencies have reputations and tendencies. These reputations and tendencies show us what teams they have worked with in the past, what kind of players they have worked with in the past, and what kind of deals these players have signed with those teams. For example, the LeBron to LA foundation was set to last summer when Kentavious Caldwell-Pope signed with the Lakers. Caldwell-Pope’s agent is Rich Paul who is the founder of Klutch Sports. Rich Paul is also the agent of LeBron James. Rich Paul was able to start a dialogue with the Lakers through Caldwell-Pope and their relationship began there which made the signing of LeBron James go smoothly. Don’t misunderstand with what I am trying to say. I am NOT saying the signing of Caldwell-Pope was the reason LeBron signed with the Lakers, but I do think this played a factor. The Lakers made Rich Paul feel comfortable which helped LeBron feel comfortable signing with them. If Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka rub Rich Paul the wrong way, then there is no way LeBron is a Laker today. Agents do play a role in where a player will end up.

Back to Anthony Davis, he has fired his agent Thad Foucher. Davis has been with Foucher his whole career. The one thing to note about this is AD hasn’t been able to explore the free market yet. His agent hasn’t had to really do much about meeting with other teams and helping AD decide where he will end up. The only thing we can get withcher is who his other clients are. Foucher does have another client who was in a similar situation that AD is in now. That player is Russell Westbrook. Russell Westbrook was up for the super max contract to stay in a small market and took the deal. That super max is worth 200 million plus with an average annual salary of 41 million. AD has qualified for that contract and the Pelicans would be crazy not to offer that contract to him. Obviously, the agent is most familiar with signing that super max contract and maybe he has already pushed Davis to do that. Davis firing Foucher should raise some flags in the Pelicans organization. Is Davis not even considering the Pelicans and is preparing for free agency starting now? Does Davis want to get someone who can advise him on both options he has? Or does Davis just want a new agent and was unsatisfied on who was working with in Foucher? All of these questions have to be running through the minds within the Pelicans organization.

The next, and maybe biggest, predictor of where AD goes is who he signs with. If he signs with Rich Paul and Klutch Sports, then I’d say there is a very likely chance that we will see AD in a larger market like we seee with other Klutch clients. In addition to the new agent, how the Pelicans perform this year should be another indicator of AD’s decision. If the Pelicans take a step back from last year it won’t look good for them after letting DeMarcus Cousins and Rajon Rondo walk. This will be all over theNBA for the next two years and I’m all for it.

2. Kyrie Irving is in the last year of his deal.

The rumors around this are starting to heat up. The quote from JR about the chances of Kyrie signing with the Knicks is high. Let me just say as a side note is why are we taking this seriously? If memory is serving me right, then I don’t remember hearing how buddy buddy Kyrie and JR were during Kyrie’s tenure in Cleveland. However, the rumors of Kyrie going to New York have always been a thing. Kyrie grew up in New Jersey and is considered a New York basketball player because of that. Also, Kyrie put the Knicks on his list of teams he gave to the Cavs of where he would like to be traded to. The Knicks should be able to offer a max contract to Kyrie. In addition to the max contract, the Knicks have star Kristaps Porzingis and the young talent of Kevin Knox to entice Kyrie to come there as well.

Obviously if the Celtics make it to the Finals, it will be very hard for Kyrie to leave them. The Celtics are a storied Franchise with immense amount of talent and one of the best coaches in the world. The Celtics traded for Kyrie, so I have to believe they really want him to come back. However, they will have to pay a hefty price for Kyrie to come back. Kyrie will be deserving of a large contract, but has had a lot of injuries in his career. After having to miss half of last year and not playing in the playoffs, the Celtics have to be cautious of offering that contract. Danny Ainge has never been known to offer bad contracts and get into situations that won’t benefit the team. Offering a max contract to Kyrie means that Kyrie will have to be healthy for that deal to pay off. That just might be a risk the Celtics are able to take.

3. The Cleveland Cavaliers post-LeBron.

The last time LeBron left, the Cavs suffered through multiple years of turmoil and playing for the lottery. They got the number 1 pick three times while LeBron was in Miami. And I would be doing the Cavs a disservice I didn’t mention picking Anthony Bennett as one of those number one picks. But that was then. The Cavs won’t be that bad again right? There is no way they can be that bad with the talent they have on their team in addition to playing in the dismal East. The likes of Kevin Love, George Hill, and Collin Sexton should be the players that receive a lot of minutes on this team. Role players JR Smith, Tristan Thompson, Kyle Korver, Jordan Clarkson, Rodney Hood, and Cedi Osman give this team some depth and a variety of players to work with. Ty Lue will now have the opportunity to prove to the world whether he can coach or not after the departure of LeBron James. This team has a lot to prove and should be interesting to watch throughout the year.

4. Trae Young vs. Luka Doncic

The draft day trade between the Hawks and Mavericks with Luka Doncic for Trae Young will always come about when talking about these players in the near future. The Hawks surprised a lot of people by trading Doncic for Young. Luka is a very young player who already has all of these accolades from playing in Europe and was supposed to be a safe top 3 pick. The Hawks rolled the dice by trading down and taking Trae Young instead. A lot of hype surrounded Young following his freshman year at Oklahoma even given comparisons to NBA greats like Steph Curry and Steve Nash. On the other hand, many NBA analyst say there is a lot of bust potential surrounding Young. One thing is for sure, Young will not see success in his first year when it comes to the team wins and losses. The Hawks will be one of the worst teams this year and will be a top 3 pick in the draft again probably. Young will be given a very long leash and will have nights where he looks great and will have nights where he looks terrible. This year will be about development and growth for Young.

For the Mavericks, they are hoping they have landed their next franchise player in Luka Doncic. With the departure of legend Dirk Nowitzki coming soon, the Mavericks need a guy to take his place. They are hoping Luka can fill that role. Luka is in a lot better situation than Young. Luka will have Harrison Barnes, DeAndre Jordan, and Dennis Smith. Doncic will have a lot of hype to live up to this year as he will be expected to step into the role right away. It should be interesting to see how the latest European star adapts to the NBA game.

5. The Washington Wizards

The Wizards made a couple of moves this summer. They traded away their starting center Marcin Gortat for Austin Rivers. Then they signed Dwight Howard. From a talent standpoint, these moves makes sense. Austin Rivers is more than capable of being a backup combo guard and Dwight Howard is still a talented NBA center. The problem this team had wasn’t their amount of talent. They had serious issues in their locker room. A lot of people said that this team almost fought one another. This conflict was mainly between John Wall and Marcin Gortat. Seeing that the Wizards have invested into John Wall, Gortat was the one who had to go. The problem is they brought in two players that have had teammate issues in the past. Austin Rivers has never been a favorite among teammates. Maybe that has more to do with his last name rather than his ability, but nonetheless it hasn’t been great. And Dwight Howard is known for his problems. It is so known that the Warriors’ players voted against the team pursuing Dwight Howard because they didn’t want him to come in and mess up what they have. Howard has run himself out of multiple cities because he just isn’t liked by anyone. Something about him turns off everyone around him and it is a bit impressive.

The Wizards tried to fix their problems by seemingly adding fuel to the fire. It’s almost as if their front office looked around at one another and said “It can’t get any worse, right?’ Well it can. The players could actually throw punches at one another and break out into an all out locker room brawl. And I am all here for it. And the sad thing is, a full out team fight wouldn’t be the worst thing that has happened inside the team’s locker room in the past 15 years.GILBERT ARENAS HAD GUNS INSIDE THE LOCKER ROOM AND THREATENED TO SHOOT ONE OF HIS OWN TEAMMATES. Maybe that’s why the Wizards aren’t worried about punches being thrown. They have dealt with guns so fighting is probably nothing to them.

The NBA season will be here before you know it and it should be exciting. The best time of the year is when we have both football and basketball going. There are plenty of other things to watch this year like the mix of players the Lakers have with LeBron, just how good can the Warriors get with the addition of DeMarcus Cousins, and can the Rockets return to being a contender after falling short last year. No matter what, basketball is almost here and I can’t wait.