Roundtable Preview With Stan Van Gundy! Plus, How Good Are the Lakers?

"I think they're going to be a really good regular season team... I just don't know what else to say."

On the eve of the NBA season, Zach Lowe convened two conversations that together capture the league's central tension: a roundtable with Stan Van Gundy on the league's most volatile teams and tactical trends, followed by a deep dive with Dan Woike on the Los Angeles Lakers. The through-line is uncertainty—about which teams are real, which trends will stick, and whether the Lakers' ceiling is high enough to matter.

The East's Great Unknown: Indiana and Toronto

Van Gundy's most confusing team in the Eastern Conference is Indiana. "This is a team that two years ago was in the Eastern Conference Finals and now will come back with essentially the same lineup," he said, "and yet when I compare them to the other teams, I don't know if I see them even in the top six." His skepticism centers on Tyrese Haliburton's Achilles injury and the question of whether the Pacers have "lost a little something"—the rhythm and confidence that defined their magical run. Lowe pushed back, noting that Indiana has looked excellent in preseason, with Haliburton healthy and Zubots developing chemistry with Pascal Siakam. "If they're healthy, I think they can make the finals again," Lowe said.