2014-15 NBA Season Preview

Image via sportswol.com

We're basically one month away from the start of the NBA season.  Are you excited yet?  Well, we are.  For those of you who've been here before or listened to the podcast, you know that already, and let's face it, if you've visited before, you're excited as well.  For those of you who haven't, welcome.  We are Paul Mitchell and Chris St. Jean, high school pals from Rhode Island that can never get enough NBA basketball.  Here at The Pick N' Popcast we release a weekly podcast focused mainly on that week in the NBA.  Look for that towards the end of each week.  

We also try to write when we can.  Our most ambitious project to date was a 30-post 2014 Pick N' Popcast Mock Draft.  And now, we're building on that momentum.  Tomorrow we launch our 2014-15 NBA Preview.  Excited, right?  Here's what you can expect:

Over the next four weeks, leading up to the season, we will be posting daily.  In an effort to preview the season in a bit deeper and less predictable way, we broke each week into a theme that will include five profiles.  We also tried to use these themes and profiles to cover as many different teams in the league as possible.  The theme of the four weeks will be as follows:

     9/29 - 10/3:         Rookies
     10/6 - 10/10:       Shooting Guards
     10/13 - 10/17:     Big Men
     10/20 - 10/24:     Contenders

Here's a bit more information about each:

From Monday, September 29th to Friday, October 3rd, we'll be releasing a daily profile on a player entering their rookie season.  This won't necessarily be our top five Rookie of the Year candidates (though some might).  Instead, it'll simply be five rookies that we found interesting, whether it be their story, how they fit with their team, or both.  Again, it's not the five most interesting rookies, it's the five most interesting rookies to us.

To echo that last point, these aren't rankings either. Instead of providing a list of our Top 5's in any given category, we're trying to focus on important and interesting players/teams within each "genre", and in the case of our Week 2 slate, the overall depth and quality of the Shooting Guard position. You'll be surprised at a couple of names that didn't make our cut, but for the week of October 6th to the 10th we have a good mix of names both old and young, from lottery teams to serious playoff contenders.

From Monday, October 13th to Friday, October 17th, we'll be releasing a daily profile on a 'Big Man'.  We wanted to define 'big man' loosely, so that we could bring in some guys we were interested in, so look for maybe a surprise or two.  There will be more traditional big men as well though such as Chris' upcoming profile of Anthony Davis.

In our last week before the start of the 2014-15 season, October 20th to 24th, we'll conclude with a spotlight of Title-Contending Teams. These are the teams we're predicting to have a major impact on the season, from familiar names in the Western Conference to possibly new challengers in the new-look East. By the start of the season on Tuesday, October 28th, we'll hope to have covered a few different corners of the NBA universe and given you a different and expanded 2014-15 NBA Season Preview.

There would be no way for us to compile these extensive essays and to express our thoughts on these players and organizations without the work done by the comprehensive teams from Basketball Reference, the NBA.com Stats department, Pro Sports Transactions, NBA Wowy!, Draft Express, Sham Sports, NylonCalculus, and Shot Analytics. Their statistics databases, game logs, shot charts, etc. were invaluable resources in our writing process and helped us articulate our points through their impressive visuals. Also, the beat-writers and journalists who cover these players and teams, and provide us with intimate glimpses into the people of the NBA and the off-court aspects, are amazing references in our Googling efforts. We’ve tried to credit their work and the information they provide when necessary, but want to thank them for all that they’ve contributed to the NBA culture. The same to all the quality bloggers/writers/podcasters/media members who love the game and whose work we’ve consumed over the years. 

So that's that.  Starting Monday, September 29th, look for a post around lunch time each day (inaugural post? Jabari Parker).  Oh, I almost forgot the good news.  Starting this season you can not only find our work here at the blog but at a couple of other outlets.  I'm happy to say that Chris St. Jean will be contributing to the website Basketball Society this season. Look for some of his work there as well.  Not to be outdone, Paul Mitchell will be contributing to a site you may be familiar with as well.  Unfortunately, as of release, the details can't be made public, but keep an eye on his twitter, because he'll be making an announcement soon.  And with all of that out of the way, let's start our 2014-15 NBA Preview.