As I sit here watching the highlights from last season's games, I can't help but feel that familiar excitement building up. The NBA preseason is just around the corner, and this year feels particularly special after everything we've witnessed in the offseason. Having followed basketball for over fifteen years, I've learned that preseason performances often reveal more about teams than many fans realize. It's not just about the final scores - it's about how teams handle pressure, manage turnovers, and build chemistry that will carry them through the grueling regular season.
I remember watching that incredible TNT versus Elasto Painters game last season where TNT barely scraped through in overtime. Honestly, they got lucky - seven turnovers in just the fourth quarter alone nearly cost them the entire game. Seeing a team blow a 90-76 lead with only eight minutes left in regulation should serve as a wake-up call for every franchise heading into this preseason. Teams need to understand that building discipline early matters tremendously. From my perspective, preseason is where you fix these fundamental issues before they become season-defining problems. The Tropang 5G's collapse wasn't just about missed shots - it was about mental fatigue and poor decision-making under pressure, something that preseason training camps are specifically designed to address.
What I'm particularly excited to watch this preseason is how new roster additions adapt to their systems and how coaches experiment with different lineups. Having covered multiple training camps throughout my career, I've noticed that the most successful teams use these exhibition games to test their depth charts and develop reliable bench units. The difference between championship contenders and mediocre teams often comes down to how they utilize these preparatory games. Personally, I believe coaches should be more willing to experiment with unconventional rotations during preseason - it's the perfect low-stakes environment to discover unexpected synergies between players.
The turnover issue we saw in that TNT game isn't just an isolated incident either. Last season, teams averaged around 14.2 turnovers per game during the preseason, which typically improved to about 13.1 once the regular season began. This improvement doesn't happen by accident - it comes from focused practice and strategic adjustments during these exhibition matches. What many casual fans don't realize is that preseason games serve as live laboratories where coaching staffs can identify systemic weaknesses and work on specific situational basketball. I've always argued that teams should treat preseason with more seriousness - not in terms of playing their stars heavy minutes, but in terms of implementing and refining their core systems.
As we approach this year's preseason, I'm keeping a close eye on how teams manage player workloads while still building competitive habits. The balance between resting established stars and developing team chemistry is delicate, and frankly, some franchises handle it much better than others. From my experience covering the league, the organizations that approach preseason with clear developmental goals rather than just treating it as a formality tend to start the regular season with better rhythm and cohesion. The memory of that TNT fourth-quarter collapse should remind every team that fundamentals matter from day one, and preseason is where you either build championship habits or embed costly tendencies that could haunt you later. This year, I'm particularly optimistic that we'll see teams learning from past mistakes and using these exhibition games more strategically than ever before.