GiannisAntetokounmpo

Preseason question: The next chapter (finally) begins—but will Giannis be open to turning the page on the play style that powered his prime years? After an arranged marriage with Damian Lillard flamed out, Milwaukee wrung one final season—well, 36 games—out of Antetokounmpo by making everything about him, giving him the ball as much as he wanted, and paying a steep price to land a stretch 5. But this reshuffled Heat team will need to get creative to bring out the best in the Giannis–Bam Adebayo partnership and compensate for an overall lack of offensive zest. Erik Spoelstra is the right guy for the job, not only because his open-minded approach once unlocked the Heatles’ small-ball units but also because he knows how to sell a star—it took only one preseason game for the veteran Miami coach to start comparing Giannis to Magic Johnson. But any new ideas for how to unlock this roster will need more buy-in from Antetokounmpo than he’s given since Jason Kidd started putting the ball in his hands at the onset of his career.