In the meantime, James has a championship to try to defend for the fourth time in his career. He managed to achieve a repeat once in his previous three tries, winning the title with the Miami Heat in 2013 after breaking through for the first championship of his career in 2012.NBA Face Masks NBA Face Covers

Last season — while embedded in ill-fitting lineups that featured the likes of Sekou Doumbouya, Bruce Brown, Thon Maker, John Henson and Brandon Knight — Wood ranked 13th in points per direct touch (93rd percentile among those who recorded at least 2,000 touches, according to Second Spectrum) and finished fifth in effective field-goal percentage among players who took at least 500 shots. On contested attempts (minimum 400 shots), his effective field-goal percentage was in the 92nd percentile.

They also needed to address the fact that they were the lowest-scoring team in the league, averaging just 102.9 points per game. Despite all of these weaknesses the Hornets still managed to finish ninth in the East last season. Let’s now grade these picks."Minnesota Timberwolves Face Masks

"Physically, right now I'm sore as hell," James said. "We're [in] Day 2 of training camp. That's been my whole career pretty much, except probably like Year 1 or Year 2, when I was 18 or 19. I'm super sore, but nothing [major]. I don't have anything that's stopping me from being on the floor, doing 5-on-5, doing 4-on-4, doing any drills, things of that nature. So [I'm] good in that sense.

And the Rockets considered it good business to do what Harden wanted to keep a historically elite player happy. But when Harden tried to rush the Rockets to trade him in recent weeks despite the lack of an offer that they considered fair value, it wasn't the annual ultimatum for improvement. It was something more.Los Angeles Clippers Face Masks

An advocacy group took out a full-page advertisement in Sunday's New York Times, calling on the NBA and 30 of its owners to force Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores to sell his team because of his ownership of a prison telecom company.

The deadline for signing rookie contract extensions for the 2017 draft class is Monday night, the eve of the start to the regular season.New York Knicks Face Masks