2024 NBA training camp: Storylines, extensions, depth charts

It’s time to gear up for the 2024-25 NBA season with training camps beginning on Tuesday — exactly three weeks before opening night.

Before the Boston Celtics tip off the season by raising their 18th NBA championship banner against the New York Knicks on Oct. 22, there are storylines, transactions and decisions to monitor across the league over the next few weeks.

To get you ready, we break down all 30 teams and answer the top question for each as it prepares for the regular season.

We also include each team’s full depth chart going into training camp and explain how certain contracts — Exhibit 9, Exhibit 10 and two-way deals — will work.

Notes: Any players on a non-guaranteed contract will begin to incur a per-day cap hit if not waived by 5 p.m. ET. on Oct. 19. A player with an asterisk has an Exhibit 9 in his contract.

Jump to a team:

ATL | BOS | BKN | CHA | CHI | CLE
DAL | DEN | DET | GS | HOU | IND
LAC | LAL | MEM | MIA | MIL | MIN
NO | NY | OKC | ORL | PHI | PHX
POR | SAC | SA | TOR | UTAH | WSH

Guaranteed contracts: 15
Partial/Non: 0
Exhibit 10: 2
Two-way: 3

What to watch for: Who starts next to Trae Young?

While extension talks for forward Jalen Johnson are a priority off the court, there is an open competition for Young’s backcourt partner.

Atlanta made it a priority to split up the Young and Dejounte Murray backcourt this offseason, picking up two first-round picks from New Orleans and a package of players including Dyson Daniels, who started 16 games last season and gives Atlanta more of a defensive presence.

“[Daniels’] defensive versatility is something that really stands out,” Hawks general manager Landry Fields said in the offseason. “His shooting has gotten better. It is something that we think can get an uptick in him as time goes on with his development.”

Per Cleaning the Glass, Daniels ranked in the top 10% of all NBA players last season in steals and offensive rebounds.

The Hawks last season ranked 17th in 3-point percentage allowed and 27th in defensive efficiency.

The other option is for Atlanta to start Bogdan Bogdanovic, who started 33 games and finished fifth in voting for NBA Sixth Man of the Year last season.

The Hawks were plus-7.6 points per 100 possessions when Bogdanovic and Young shared the court last season.

Dates to watch:

• Oct. 21: The last day to extend the contracts of Johnson and Young.

• Oct. 31: The deadline to exercise the third-year team option of Kobe Bufkin and fourth-year team options of Daniels and David Roddy.

Boston Celtics

Guaranteed contracts: 14
Partial/Non: 0
Exhibit 10: 4
Two-way: 3

What to watch for: Starter minutes and a final roster spot for the champs

The Celtics are the favorites to win a second straight championship, but that does not mean there aren’t roadblocks in their way.

Kristaps Porzingis underwent surgery in late June to repair a torn retinaculum and dislocated posterior tibialis tendon in his left leg. He told ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne he is targeting a return to action in December.

Three starters — Jrue Holiday, Derrick White and Jayson Tatum — played deep into June with Boston and then into mid-August with Team USA at the Paris Olympics. It will be important to monitor each player’s workload.

The Celtics — carrying a projected $233 million payroll next season — also have to decide if carrying a 15th player on their roster is beneficial both financially and on the court.

“Right now, I’d say it’s unlikely,” Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens told The Boston Globe in August. “We’re still looking to sign a couple of Exhibit 10s, that their most likely path will be to play [with the G League team] in Maine. But we’ll see.”

The Celtics then proceeded to sign guard Lonnie Walker IV to a one-year, non-guaranteed contract.

Walker averaged 9.7 points last season with Brooklyn and gives Boston a veteran presence off the bench.

Dates to watch:

• Oct. 21: The last day to extend the contract of Jaden Springer.

Brooklyn Nets

Guaranteed contracts: 13
Partial/Non: 2
Exhibit 10: 3
Two-way: 2

What to watch for: Buy-in from the veterans after a summer of change

The Nets have embraced rebuilding.

They reacquired two future first-round picks from the Houston Rockets originally sent in the James Harden trade in 2021. The Nets also traded their best player, Mikal Bridges, to the New York Knicks for a package that includes five future first-rounders and a first-round pick swap.

While the focus remains on the development of Brooklyn’s eight players who are under age 23, first-year head coach Jordi Fernandez’s training camp goal is to establish a winning culture.

“It’s going to take time, it’s going to take direction and structure,” Fernandez said at his introductory news conference on April 24.

The structure starts with getting buy-in from the four veterans (Dennis Schroder, Ben Simmons, Dorian Finney-Smith and Bojan Bogdanovic) who are in the last years of their contracts and returning starter Cameron Johnson.

Schroder, Finney-Smith and Johnson all started for Brooklyn last season while Simmons played 15 games.

Dates to watch:

• Oct. 21: The last day to extend the contracts of Cam Thomas, Ziaire Williams and Day’Ron Sharpe.

• Oct. 22: The contract of Keon Johnson increases from $250K to $700K. The contract of Jalen Wilson increases from $75K to $325K.

• Oct. 31: The deadline to exercise the third-year team options of Noah Clowney and Dariq Whitehead.

Guaranteed contracts: 13
Partial/Non: 1
Exhibit 10: 4
Two-way: 2

What to watch for: A new team identity and the availability of LaMelo Ball

The Hornets made sweeping changes last season, first hiring Jeff Peterson to oversee basketball operations and then Charles Lee as their next coach.

Lee brings a championship pedigree from his time as an assistant coach in Milwaukee and Boston, but that alone is not enough to turn around a franchise that finished 28th in offense and 29th in defense.

Creating an identity for a roster that returns Ball, Brandon Miller, Miles Bridges and Mark Williams is the first priority for Lee.

“The biggest thing it’s going to come down to, I think, is how competitive are we going to be? That’s a mental competitiveness, a physical competitiveness and then also the component of how much are we going to do for one another,” Lee said this offseason.

How the Hornets improve is dependent on Ball’s availability, because when he’s healthy, he’s one of the league’s top guards.

Entering Year 1 of a $204 million extension that he signed in 2023, Ball played in 22 games last season and has missed a total of 144 since entering the NBA in 2020.

Despite the absences, Ball is one of five players to average at least 20 points and 7 assists in the past three seasons.

Dates to watch:

• Oct. 21: The last day to extend the contract of Tre Mann.

• Oct. 31: The deadline to exercise the third-year team options of Miller and Nick Smith Jr. and the fourth-year team option of Mark Williams.

Chicago Bulls

Partial/Non: 1
Exhibit 10: 4
Two-way: 2

What to watch for: Will Josh Giddey, Lonzo Ball and Zach LaVine play together?

There is no shortage of storylines in Chicago, but it starts with how the Bulls build an offense to best complement new guard Giddey.

Acquired from Oklahoma City for All-NBA defender Alex Caruso, Giddey is at his best with the ball in his hands. In his first two seasons with the Thunder, Giddey averaged 6.4 and 6.2 assists per game. Last season, that average dipped to 4.8.

Coby White started at point guard last season and had a career year. He had a usage rate of 22.7% (his highest since his rookie season) and averaged career highs in points (19.1), assists (5.1) and rebounds (4.5).

The Bulls’ backcourt will get more crowded if Ball, who was cleared to play 5-on-5 in August, returns.

The former starter, who has undergone three separate knee procedures, has not played an NBA game since Jan. 14, 2022.

LaVine, who underwent right foot surgery in early February, was subject to trade rumors before his season-ending injury. He has three years and $138 million left on his contract.

Speaking on 670 The Score before the start of training camp, Bulls executive vice president Arturas Karnisovas said that LaVine “is finally healthy” and “looks great.”

Dates to watch:

• Oct. 21: Last day to extend the contracts of Giddey and Chris Duarte.

• Oct. 22: The protection for Onuralp Bitim increases from $0 to $350K.

Guaranteed contracts: 11
Partial/Non: 3
Exhibit 10: 4
Two-way: 3

What to watch for: Taking advantage of a stable roster

New coach Kenny Atkinson takes over a Cleveland roster that, unlike his first stop in Brooklyn for a team in the beginning stages of a rebuild, is built for a postseason run. Cleveland won 49 games last season and reached the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2017. The team returns 13 players and will rely on its continuity and its defense.

The Cavaliers ranked seventh in defensive efficiency and fifth in field goal percentage allowed at the rim in 2023-24.

Atkinson’s top challenges will be whether the Cleveland Cavaliers does not have an Exhibit 9. Thompson was not eligible because Cleveland at the time of the signing had fewer than 14 players (not including two-way) under contract. If Thompson suffers a season-ending injury, the Cavaliers are then responsible for his full salary.

Exhibit 10