The NBA summer is dragging to its end as training camp is about a month away. There are a few other frivolous and non-frivolous issues to watch and debate.
There is less than one month until the beginning of the Orlando Magic season. In fact, media day is Sept. 25 and training camp opens the following day. Those three weeks are going to go by fast. And yet, it still feels like it is taking way too long.
These are the dog days of summer. We are trying to save up content to get us through these last weeks — player previews start next week! — but the dark days of late August are almost over.
Players should begin making their way back to Orlando for open gyms, workouts and general team bonding ahead of the season. There are already a few photos of players getting together for workouts in Orlando, and they also had a big group get together in Los Angeles a few weeks ago.
As easily seen, all the players are still off in the wind. They still get a few more weeks to themselves before 0-0 becomes real and the season becomes a reality.
Not that we are twiddling our thumbs. And not that the players are.
We are keeping a close eye on Eurobasket where Evan Fournier and Nikola Vucevic are representing their countries. France has medal aspirations, although they took a surprising defeat to Finland. And Montenegro merely wants to get out of group play and into the knockout round.
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Once they are done, then things will get really quiet before the rush for training camp and the 2018 season.
Of course, the NBA never sleeps. The Eastern Conference landscape changed dramatically this week when the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers completed their blockbuster trade involving Kyrie Irving and Isaiah Thomas. It was the culmination of a crazy summer that saw several All Stars moved. But it seems the balance of power in the Eastern Conference for several years was set in early September with this move.
Of course, we will have to wait and see about that. And we will have to wait and see about the beginning of the season too. There is only precious little time to go — and very little to write about until preseason prep begins to ramp up.
With that, I gathered the Orlando Magic Daily staff to answer a few questions about what has left this offseason and some of the frivolities left to handle this offseason.