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09/28 11:28 CDT At NBA Media Days, plenty of teams in the league find no shortage of reasons for optimism At NBA Media Days, plenty of teams in the league find no shortage of reasons for optimism By TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer After being on opposite sides of an NBA Finals that ended just 3 1/2 months ago, New York guard Jalen Brunson and San Antonio center Victor Wembanyama found themselves with the exact same mindsets on Monday. As proof, consider the descriptions offered about their summer vacations. "It was short," Wembanyama said. "The longest, shortest summer ever," Brunson said. Short offseasons are the goal for every team in the NBA --- because they want to play as long as possible, like the champion Knicks and runner-up Spurs did last season. And the journey toward potential title runs have now started in earnest around the league, with Media Days being held for most teams on Monday and practices for everybody happening on Tuesday. "Right now, the best team in the NBA is the New York Knicks," Miami forward Giannis Antetokounmpo said at Heat media day Monday, tipping his cap to the reigning champions. "And they have one of the best players, Jalen Brunson. ... But we're going to do our job. We've got to do our job, man. If we do our job and we win games, then we'll see." It's not an unheard-of approach, obviously, but it worked wonders for the Knicks last season when they ended a 53-year title drought for the franchise. "Not being satisfied, I think, is the biggest takeaway moving forward," Brunson said. "You still want to figure out how you can grow as a person and as a player." There is no shortage of teams in the league with confidence that they can contend, especially in this era of parity --- with eight different franchises having won titles in the past eight seasons. Among the key moves from recent months: Philadelphia loaded up by adding LeBron James and Jaylen Brown, Miami added Antetokounmpo and Klay Thompson, the Toronto Raptors brought back Kawhi Leonard, LaMelo Ball headed to Minnesota and DeMar DeRozan is set to pair up with Nikola Jokic in Denver. James --- the NBA's all-time leading scorer, entering Year 24 of his career --- was asked what he can do for the 76ers. "Whatever the team needs for me to do," James said, wearing his new 76ers uniform in public for the first time. "I think the luxury of my game is I can do everything. Literally, I can do everything." And while the Eastern Conference is loaded with depth, it's two Western Conference teams --- the Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder --- that are favorites to win the 2027 championship, according to most sportsbooks. Wembanyama said the Spurs grew from the pain that came with losing to the Knicks. "I've had a few sleepless nights; maybe not sleepless nights, but hard to find sleep sometimes or hard emotions. Haunting, sometimes," Wembanyama said. "But there's just a point where you accept that you have to go through it and you have to feel all of it." Some roster additions didn't even have to change addresses: Indiana, which lost Game 7 of the finals in 2025 to Oklahoma City, now has Tyrese Haliburton back after he missed all of last season with a torn Achilles, and that means the Pacers will also likely be among the many legit contenders in the East. "I am healthy. I am 100%. There will be no restrictions," Haliburton said. "That is not news. There is no source. I am the source. I'm good. I'm ready to go for the year." Leonard's return to the Raptors --- he led Toronto to the 2019 NBA title --- came after a year where the end of his tenure with the Los Angeles Clippers was overshadowed by a salary-cap-circumvention scandal that led to massive sanctions against his now-former team such as the forfeiture of five first-round picks, a $30 million fine and a one-year banishment of owner Steve Ballmer. "I think the best decision is to move forward and focus on my time being a Toronto Raptor," Leonard said. "I already was a distraction for the past 70 days and wasn't able to meet my teammates, do any of that minicamp stuff with them. Moving forward, I just want to talk about the Toronto Raptors. ... I just want to focus on basketball again." ___ See AP's full NBA coverage here

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