What a season it has been! An NSL is a gruelling, thrilling, perplexing, rewarding experience, depending on the day and the team. I felt it appropriate to take a wander back through recent history and review what were some of the more significant storylines of the season.


Powerhouses fall on hard times

Perennial 60-win teams, Charlotte and Detroit, had their win totals slashed in half in surprising seasons for both franchises. Injuries, inconsistent rotations and failed strategies were responsible for seeing two of the more bullet-proof teams in the NSL take a lot of hits. Very unexpected. Both, at the time of writing, have Play-In game hopes, albeit very slim for the Detroit Pistons. Is it the end of an era or just a bump in the road?

We bid farewell to long-time GMs

Wiz, we thank you for revolutionising our game; retire in peace (until we need help with the extractor). Your Oklahoma City Thunder are in a great place, thanks significant to your roster building. Spudspace and Banderson, long-time NLL and NSL GMs, also rode off into the sunset.


Boston flicks the switch

Long-time lottery chasers and loss-mongers, the Boston Celtics, finally crossed the threshold that the league has expected from them recently � the team is too good to be bad. Tatum and Garland couldn�t be held back any longer, and they have exploded in the NSL to become superstars and stars, respectively. The Celtics are set up to be competitive for a long, long time� but the first real test is coming up in a few weeks � playoffs.


Cavaliers, Shams prove everyone wrong

Pre-season power rankings had the Cavaliers in the low 20s. Most had the Cavs pick being mocked as a high lottery lock. Some ravaged the Cavaliers big moves, sharing the doom and gloom to whomever would listen.

How wrong they were.

The Cavaliers have been awesome all season, demonstrating synchronised chemistry, consistent effort and positive coaching and decision-making from the very beginning. Despite running into hardship, Shams has continued to steer the ship with aplomb, all the way to what looks to be a strong playoff run.

Position restrictions: engaged

Change is as good as Jrue Holiday, so they say, but some of us are just home bodies! The admin team put all their wisdom together and devised a way to bring some reason to the wild, wild NSL. The changes were significant yet responsible, and I think the changes have value-added to the NSL product.


Winning streaks

Portland, San Antonio, Washington, Memphis, at the least, have all put together winning steaks that spanned almost a month, or longer, with Washington and San Antonio pushing their streaks into the mid-20s. It takes a lot to win often let alone the majority of the time; it takes a supreme effort to position your team for such dominance over a span of weeks. It's no surprise, I suppose, when you consider these are four of the teams who possess the best records in the league. However, there�s something about streak-watching that gets the fans out of their seats.


Race for Wemby

There hasn�t been a prospect this alluring, this unique and this fapped over since arguably LeBron James. Wembenyama has made well-educated, professional men fall over themselves and work around the clock to make their teams terrible enough to just be within earshot of the conversation that is Wembenyama. With the flattened lottery odds, there�s no lock as to which team he ends up on. The Jazz and Lakers are in the box seat.


Evolution (*sigh, another update*) of 2k23

[and cheatblock-gate]

So frustrating and odd, I calculate that there have been 3-4 significant landscape shifts in the 2k23 game. Their baseline of gameplay reacts with our sliders to give us the NSL product. However, when the ground is shifting underneath us (the settings), the product has continued to change and evolve, mostly to the detriment of the ideal product (mirroring as close to NBA statistics as possible). Threes have continued to become even more elusive, and any guard or wing can�t make a layup or mid range shot if anyone is within a metre of them. Athletic bigs would survive a nuclear winter it would seem, as they are as dominant as they have ever been. Offensive IQ remains basic at best, especially when anyone gets on a fastbreak or gets an open inside shot. It�s all about riding the 2k-waves and trying to get back on your board as quickly as possible.

The Death of the Three-Pointer

Following on from the previous event, threes have been a poison chalice this season. The peak of the three pointer was in 2021-22, seeing any short, three-point happy guard being pretty much unstoppable. The pendulum has swung deeply the other way, this season, with Curry unable to consistently hit threes. Blasphemous!

A High Watermark for Parity

We have seen lots of competitive basketball this season. The worst teams in the league almost doubled their win outputs from previous seasons, and the lower play-in teams also increased their win totals. The tippety-top teams still won a huge numbers of games, but the NSL has never been better positioned for more teams to compete for wins.

So Many Injuries

This reflects modern-day NBA basketball; lots of extra precaution with injuries, quicker, more athletic players pushing themselves further (and in doing so, open themselves up to more risk), rest days, mental health issues and tanking, leaving players consistently missing games. Some teams barely even got their starters healthy at the same time.