Culture Corner

Firstly, I’d like to start off with an apology for being vacant for so long. At the start of this year I was away travelling in South East Asia, without my laptop, so I was unable to write for all of you. When I got back, I struggled to get back into the swing of things with Culture Corner – but now I’m back and ready to deliver you the best sports news, starting with the teams I am most excited for going into the 2025/26 NBA season.

Houston Rockets – HOT

You saw the cover image…how can we not speak about this blockbuster trade first? Kevin Durant has left teammates Bradley Beal and Devin Booker, taking his talents to Texas to join the Houston Rockets. Coming off a huge season where the Rockets claimed the 2nd seed in the Western Conference, they decided to trade for the ‘slim reaper’, ultimately giving up Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks in a historic 7-team deal (the largest trade in NBA history). Houston had a defensive rating of 110.8 last season, ranking them 4th across the entire NBA, arguably their biggest strength, with an offensive rating of 115.3, landing them in the 13th spot for ORTG. Bringing in KD should definitely boost their offence which was lacking compared to their defence, however the question needs to be asked how losing Dillon Brooks will affect them defensively. KD is not a bad defender by any regard, however I would consider Dillon Brooks as an elite defender; defence is probably the biggest part of his game. Either way, I think this is an excellent trade for the Rockets, not to mention getting rid of Jalen Green was needed. Green would shoot Houston out of the game time after time when down in the final quarter of the game, shooting a horribly inefficient 40% from the field and 28.7% from three across his career. Green was trying to be ‘that guy’ for the Rockets, but now they have a new man – and who doesn’t want a 2x Championship Winner, 2x Finals MVP, 1x Regular Season MVP, 15x All-Star, and 4x Olympic Gold Medalist? Damn…KD is really that guy. Plus, just listen to this starting 5 – Fred Vanfleet, Amen Thompson, Kevin Durant, Jabari Smith Jr., Alperen Sengun. The West should be TERRIFIED.

Boston Celtics – NOT

Wow…where do I start. The 2024 NBA Champions currently look…disappointing. The Celtics were going to suffer from the dreaded ‘second apron’ luxury tax due to the salaries they were paying their players, which was going to result in almost half a billion dollars in tax. Yikes. Unfortunately, this meant having to trade high salary players including Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis – a huge part of the 2024 championship. Not to mention, Jayson Tatum is coming off the biggest injury of his career being an achilles tear; every players’ worst nightmare. This will most likely keep Tatum out for the whole of the upcoming season, leaving Jaylen Brown to lead the team, although, it feels as though there’s always been a discourse about who is better out of the two anyway. This usually comes down to mentality, with people claiming that Tatum doesn’t have what it takes to lead his team to multiple championships, which I don’t think is a valid point to argue who the better player is in the first place – but who am I to judge? I’m just a guy from the UK who’s never had the privilege of watching an NBA game live in the flesh. Ultimately, I think losing two MASSIVE players in Holiday and Porzingis is going to leave the Celtics struggling next season. Or maybe they’ll just chuck up a bunch of threes like last season and get lucky…

Dallas Mavericks – HOT

It physically pains me to say that I am hot on this team coming into next season after the outrageous trade of Luka Doncic last season by that fool of a GM, Nico Harrison, only to luck out on the first pick of the draft and land a ‘generational prospect’ (I know that word gets thrown around too much but, hey, if other people are using it then so will I) in Cooper Flagg. Conspiracy theories aside, the Mavericks look SCARY. You’re telling me that their starting five could potentially be Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, Cooper Flagg, Derick Lively, and Klay Thompson (assuming that Kyrie gets healthy)?!?!? If I were playing in the West I’d be quaking in my boots. However, we all know that ‘superteams’ have little success – could we call this one? Potentially. Trading for big players usually isn’t the way to championships nowadays, as seen with most recent NBA champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder, who are known for drafting and developing talent in house, fitting pieces around a superstar that just…work. Saying that, you can’t take away the fact that on paper this team sounds insanely good, but as always, we will have to wait and see if we will be disappointed. For me? Right now? Hot.

Indiana Pacers – NOT

I feel bad for Pacers fans…I really do. You pushed the champions to 7 games in the finals, almost defeating a historic team in one of the biggest ‘what ifs’ in recent years. ‘What if Haliburton never tore his achilles?’. Unfortunately, we’ll never know. Side note what is up with all of the achilles tears last season? No one was hot on the Pacers going into last season, and I don’t think they will be this season either. Let’s break it down. Indiana have officially traded away Myles Turner and lost Haliburton for the entire season, as confirmed by their front office. Myles Turner was arguably their 3rd best player (behind Haliburton and Siakam) and will be a big loss for the team, but the biggest loss is definitely Haliburton. The Pacers starting point guard is now assumed to be T. J. McConnell who is just…not it. Yes, he gave some good performances last year coming off the bench, and was a big part of them staying in the playoffs. BUT, when you think about the Pacers, you think clutch comebacks and late game daggers, all thanks to who? The ‘most overrated player’ (voted by his peers), Tyrese Haliburton. Now, I think we can all say that he clearly proved himself last season, not only to his peers but also to the entire NBA fanbase, but has the rest of the team? I don’t think so. Without Haliburton, the Pacers will almost certainly struggle, which is a shame considering their insane underdog story last season.

These were just some of my hot or not takes going into the 2025/26 season (which I cannot wait to start by the way), but who knows, maybe I’ll eat my words.