Welcome back, Zion

Plus our most important non-stars of the Southwest(-ish) Division.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

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Caza con Reclamo; Francisco Goya; 1775

Going Southwest … To Tennessee and Louisiana and Texas …

Minnesota in the Northwest Division? New Orleans and Memphis in the Southwest? Colonial-era ass geography. Here’s our second batch on most important non-stars in the league this season. We did the Northwest on Monday.

Memphis Grizzlies: Desmond Bane

Bane was an honorable mention on my list of potential first-time All-Stars before last season. He’s going to be a star of that list this season. He ripped off a hot start in 2022-23 as Memphis surged before injury struck, and with Ja Morant out 25 games the Grizzlies will need and expect lots of scoring and playmaking again. I’m really intrigued to see how Bane plays with and off of Marcus Smart, and whether Taylor Jenkins slides him up to small forward full-time to get Luke Kennard on the floor. I think Memphis should be considered co-favorites with Boston for best defense in the NBA going in.

In any case, Bane — who just inked a monster contract extension — is a helluva player who won’t be able to be counted as a “non-star” for long.

Dallas Mavericks: Josh Green

Green came around last season and began looking like a core piece of a new core for the Mavericks. He shot with more confidence and efficiency, he took tough defensive assignments, he played lots of minutes with 21 starts through a stressful, high-stakes regular season. And, uh, he’s only started in one of the Mavericks’ three preseason games.

Green is important because the Mavericks are not terrifically deep. Luka is a top-6 player, Kyrie Irving is capable of All-Star caliber performance, Grant Williams figures to fit in really well, Tim Hardaway Jr. can get buckets and take on some assignments, Jaden Hardy is a promising scorer, Dante Exum can defend. Maxi Kleber and Dwight Powell are Maxi Kleber and Dwight Powell. We’re running out of players already. The Mavericks need Josh Green to do stuff and be trusted by the coaching staff and stars.

If Green doesn’t pop this season, the Mavericks either need a less likely hero to explode or they need to find a way to trade for someone else. Maybe Hardy or one of the rookies overperforms expectations. Maybe a Luka-Kyrie offense is just so good little else can drag it down. I’m skeptical, and I think Green would go a long way toward building a proper winning roster here.

Houston Rockets: Alperen Sengun

The Rockets will obviously better this season with the coaching change and additions of Fred VanVleet and Dillon Brooks. There are degrees of improvement, though: winning 32 games would be a huge improvement for this team, but doesn’t get them near the play-in race. Whether Jalen Green pops in his third year will go a long way to deciding whether they can make a Kingsian leap in 2023-24.

However, I want to point out that the Rockets, after striking out on Brook Lopez this summer, have the following three centers on their roster:

• Alperen Sengun

• Jock Landale

• Boban Marjanovic

Boban soaks up the Rockets’ vibes roster spot. (Every team should get a 16th roster spot for a purely vibes person. They should dress every night, healthy or not, and be limited to like 69 total minutes per season. This could have helped the Heat keep Udonis Haslem around and still produce another amazing G League rising star.) Landale came in as the Lopez consolation prize and will obviously play.

Sengun started and performed well in the Rockets’ preseason opener, so that’s a good sign. What’s worth watching is how Sengun’s defense evolves under the Udoka regime, and whether Udoka has a short leash on his center when lapses inevitably happen on that end. We’ve long been waiting to see whether the Rockets would center their offense around the Turk given his playmaking gifts and creativity. But simply getting reliable performance out of Sengun and keeping him on the court could be enough to push this Rockets’ renaissance higher up the standings. This is a really important factor I’ll be watching through the start of the season.