NBA season opening night, what can we expect?

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Opening night in the NBA is finally here. It's been a very interesting offseason with a lot of changes across the NBA, from Lebron James returning to Cleveland, to the return of Derrick Rose and Kobe Bryant, there will be a lot of excitement over the next few days. Tonight's three games will feature a lot of story lines to keep an eye on.
The San Antonio Spurs open up their tittle defense against the only team to really give them a scare in last year's playoffs in the Dallas Mavericks. The Spurs will once again lead the league in wins while holding their core players to less than 35 minutes a game. Not much to be said about the defending champions, they will steamroll through the regular season with little excitement for anybody but the most passionate pure basketball fan.
 The Mavericks took the Spurs to 7 games in last year's first round but return a very different team. On paper, this seems like a much better team from a year ago, they upgraded at the Center and Small Forward position in Parsons and Chandlers as well as bring in Jameer Nelson from Orlando. However, we are skeptical on if its really going to make a difference in the ultra competitive Western Conference. The Mavericks are hoping Chandler can return to his Defensive Player of the year playing after a subpar 2013-2014 injury plagued season. After playing only 31 games and averaging 8.7 PPG and 9.6 RPG he looks to bounce back in a major way. The Mavericks only need him to be that shot blocking presence that anchors the defense, anything he does on the offensive end is a bonus but we don't believe it will happen.
Chandler has never played a full season and the highlight of his career so far has been his contributions in that 2011 title team, and his defensive player of the award that was overshadowed by a horrendous performance in the second round agains the Pacer's Roy Hibbert a year ago. We are skeptical as if his addition to the team will really translate into meaningful jump in the standings.
At point Guard, the Mavericks certainly upgraded over Calderon, while Calderon is a steady floor general that will make good decisions and take good shots, he is not the offensive threat that Nelson is. In addition to that, the ball will spend most of the time in Ellis' and Nowitzki's hands, so Nelson will be the beneficiary of a lot open jump shots something he was good at in Orlando in the Howard Turkoglu days. Finally, the most intriguing story about the Mavericks is all about Parsons, he spent all summer talking about how he felt he was ready to be that third star in Houston, and now he will get the chance to back that talk up.
On the other hand, the game we are most intrigued about is the one with the least TV advertisement, the Orlando Magic vs the New Orleans Pelicans. Why? one name: Anthony Davis, after a wonderful summer with team USA it is clear that Davis is truly the NBA's next superstar, he is a stat stuffer who doesn't need touches (although he should be getting plenty of touches). His continued development makes the most sense, and he should benefit from a full season with Jrue Holiday running the point. Should they put it all together, we see the Pelicans as the dark house to maybe sneak in as the #8 seed in the Western Conference, Davis will be an All-Star and a first team All NBA player by season's end.
The final game of the night will be all about the return of Kobe Bryant, and what a better way to start the season than to go against what many consider the best shooting guard in the league right now in James Harden? Houston should easily win this game, but a lot of people will keep their eyes out on them after they missed out on Chris Bosh and let Parsons walk.

Top Power Forwards entering 2014-2015: #4 Anthony Davis

   

Image from USAtoday.com

      At #4 in our rankings is Anthony Davis of the New Orleans Pelicans. Davis coming in at #4 was up to heavy debate over his position. Is Davis a Power Forward or a Center? He spent a lot of last season at both positions, and his versatility at a time where there aren't many true centers in the league makes it even more tricky. Ultimately though, he is listed as a Power Forward and the Pelicans acquisition of center Omer Asik is a good indication that on opening night Davis will be starting as a Power Forward.
      Davis made huge leaps in his second year, after averaging 13.5 PPG, 8.2 RPG, and 1.8 BPG as a rookie, Davis increased his production to an impressive 20.8 PPG, 10 RPG, and 2.8 RPG and his first All Star game. Davis is a nightmare matchup on both sides of the ball, he's already one of the league's premier defenders leading the league in blocks this year, an amazing accomplishment for only his second year. Davis utilizes his length to make offensive players take contested shots. Davis is also a great weak side helper, often cleaning up for teammates' mistakes with timely blocks.
     Offensively, Davis is a coach's dreams, he runs the floor like no other big man in the league and gets easy fast break points by not assuming that a fast break layup is an automatic two points. Here is a perfect example of a full end to end display of Davis's skill set, he rotates on the pick and roll to stop the guard, then returns to contest a shot by Bass, and finally runs the floor. How many big men in the league can you think off the top of your head who could complete that sequence so beautifully? Davis does a lot of his damage in these fast break situation. Often times Davis is not the recipient of a pass but instead just grabbing offensive rebounds and running ahead of everybody else to get easy points, look at the following two plays.
Davis has a soft touch around the rim, he likes to post up and use a quick right handed floater that is impossible to block. In addition, in most pick and roll situations (as well as when he attacks the rim off a face-up situation) he likes to finish over the top of his defender with two handed layups, not something you see quite often around the association.
      Davis also developed a nice mid range jumpshot, he's good off the pick and pop and can hit it off the dribble, he also shoots free throws at a 79% clip which is pretty solid. Davis has a bright future, and we expect him to keep rising to eventually become the top Power Forward on this list. He still needs to develop a more solid back to the basket game, and he needs to pick up his weight. In addition to that, he needs to foul a little bit less(He averaged 3 fouls a game last season) and stay off the injury list, he only played 67 games last season after only playing 64 his rookie year. However, it is unquestionable that Davis is a stat stuffer and has a very bright future, that is why he's at #4 and we expect him higher than this next season.
Here is Anthony Davis' top 10 plays this season.