The Slabu Exchange2024 NBA playoffs morphed into the NBA draft, which dove into free agency, which led into the 2024 Paris Olympics – and just like that, the end of one season and the offseason zoomed by and the 2024-25 NBA season is here.
The Boston Celtics are the defending champs, free agency – as usual – reshaped teams and possibly the standings, the U.S. men's team won gold with memorable performances in the semifinal and gold-medal games, and the Celtics start the season as favorites to repeat, which is something that hasn't happened in the NBA since the Golden State Warriors won consecutive titles in 2017 and 2018.
Here are key dates and information for the start of the 2024-25 NBA season.
Most teams have media day Sept. 30 with practice beginning the following day – except for the Celtics and Denver Nuggets, who are participating in the Abu Dhabi preseason games. The Celtics have media day Tuesday and begin practice Wednesday, and the Nuggets hold media day Thursday and start practice Friday.
Boston and Denver play two preseason games in Abu Dhabi – Oct. 4 (noon ET) and Oct. 6 (10 a.m. ET) at Etihad Arena.
The preseason games for teams not traveling outside of North America also begin on Oct. 4 with the Utah Jazz playing the New Zealand Breakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves playing the Los Angeles Lakers. Each team plays four or five preseason games.
The NBA regular season begins Oct. 22 with two games – the New York Knicks at Boston (7:30 p.m. ET, TNT) in what should be the start of a fantastic season series between two of the top teams in the Eastern Conference, and the Timberwolves at the Lakers (10 p.m. ET, TNT).
The remaining 26 teams open Oct. 23 and Oct. 24.
According to BetMGM, here are the favorites to win the the NBA title in 2024-25:
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