Turbo-charged team building

This year, superstars won’t have long to bond with new teammates

BY DAVID THORPE

We all know what it’s like to be new. First day at a new school, or at a new job. The feelings are a little off, things happen clunkily. There’s not a lot of, shall we say, flow.

After the NBA’s wildest-ever summer of free agency, half the league’s stars are new somewhere. Which makes this season delightfully unpredictable for us fans.

Less so, for players, especially this year. They simply won’t have long to find their way. Not if they expect to contend. This year so many are in the mix. A slow start from the Clippers, say, or the Lakers or Rockets could mean a violent tumble in the standings. 

And, newly, that could be fatal to title chances. A funny thing has happened in the world’s best basketball league: as much as the nature of home court advantage has been evolved with the 3-pointer (and maybe dating apps) in last year’s playoffs home court advantage meant almost everything. I believe it’s a trend that will continue this year, simply because we are due to have a tre…