15 Major Storylines NBA Fans Have to Watch Heading into Training Camp

The NBA is in a bit of a lull for the next few weeks before training camp starts. With the Olympics ending, nearly every free agent not named Andray Blatche signed and Dwight Howard finally traded, the only thing left to look forward to is training camp, which remains a month or so away.

This year, training camp promises to be as exciting and newsworthy as ever with so many storylines crammed together coming into the season.

Dwight Howard has moved to Los Angeles, Andrew Bynum to Philadelphia, Andre Iguodala to Denver, and countless teams boast interesting rosters coming into training camp. There's a lot more going on than the usual handful of players hoping to make a squad and grab a guaranteed contract.

In addition to all that going on, there are the usual stories about rookies trying to upend veterans for starting spots, teams figuring out their rosters and a handful of international players working their way into contention for minutes early on.

With that, here's a look at 15 major storylines to watch heading into training camp.

Can Orlando Start Tanking in Training Camp?

The Orlando Magic got a poo-poo platter in return for Dwight Howard, that's for sure. There's no way you're rebuilding a team with Arron Afflalo, Moe Harkless, Nikola Vucevic, Al Harrington and some protected draft picks.

However, what Orlando did get was a hopefully terrible basketball team.

What's the use in that, you may ask? Well, the Magic have a shot at being the worst team in the NBA if everything goes right, meaning they've got a good shot at having the best chance at winning the draft lottery. 

Could they give minutes to the young fellows over vets? Could they end up trading away the best guys they have left? Will they fire Jacque Vaughn two days into the season and let Big Baby be the player-coach?

Anything is possible at this point, as long as it gives them a better chance at sniffing the top of the draft next summer.

Phoenix's Strange Lineup

The Phoenix Suns are a worse team this year than they were last year; there's no doubt about that. However, you could probably argue that this roster is more intriguing than last year's.

First off, we're going to learn from training camp whether or not Michael Beasley will finally be unleashed and allowed to take 25 shots a game. Stemming from that, are they going to take minutes away from perhaps their smartest player, Jared Dudley, to give more to Beasley and Wes Johnson?

We'll get our first look at Kendall Marshall and whether or not he's looking like a potential starter at some point in the future. Plus, we'll get our first glimpse of Goran Dragic back in a Suns uniform. Maybe he'll follow the course of the last point guard who left the Suns only to come back a few years later and send them to new heights.

Sacramento's Guard Situation

It's a good thing the Sacramento Kings signed Aaron Brooks, as they were dangerously close to having a normal number of guards.

As it stands right now, Sacramento boasts Isaiah Thomas, Brooks, Jimmer Fredette, Marcus Thornton, Tyreke Evans and Francisco Garcia as some kind of guard, although some of those guys are capable of playing other positions. If we want to add another we can throw John Salmons in the mix, as they play him at small forward, but he's woefully incompetent when he's not at the 2-spot.

For those of you keeping track at home, that's seven players to spread over two positions and 96 minutes. I say they just split it all up and give each of them 14 minutes apiece and let the other five guys on the roster fill out the other three spots.

Houston's Bizarre Position Battles

You need nearly all of your fingers and all of your toes to count off all the members of the Houston Rockets. They currently boast 19 players on their roster as far as ESPN has it calibrated, which is right as far as I can tell.

Among the most intriguing position battles, they have an interesting one between Jeremy Lamb and Kevin Martin, but that's likely to shake out on Martin's side.

However, Houston has somewhere around 849 bigs on that roster to give some playing time to. Terrence Jones, Royce White, Patrick Patterson, Marcus Morris, Jon Brockman, JaJuan Johnson, Omer Asik, Donatas Motiejunas, Sean Williams and Greg Smith are all looking for a shot to play next season.

Who knows how it's all going to work out, but they're going to have to cut some guys in order to get down to 15 roster spots.

How Do Andrei Kirilenko, Brandon Roy Look?

Of the signings that came in the months leading up to the Olympics, Minnesota made two of the most intriguing.

First they nabbed Brandon Roy away from the jaws of retirement to see if the bone-on-bone scraping of his knees could get any louder. Then David Kahn had a sack thrown over his head and was spun around three times, taken onto a plane, dropped off in the middle of Siberia and thrown in a trunk and driven to Moscow in order to sign Andrei Kirilenko.

One is a shooting guard with no cartilage in his knees (literally), and the other is a thought to be declining small forward who either looks like zombie Ellen DeGeneres or a somehow more frightening Ivan Drago, with no in between.

It seems that both of these moves could either go boom or bust for the Timberwolves, but they both seem to have more boom potential than bust.

What Happens with Austin Rivers?

Austin Rivers spent his limited days at Duke under constant scrutiny with people telling him that he should be playing better while still averaging more than 15 points per game. Then he was knocked down notch after notch before the draft because of "personality" issues. Finally, debate languished to knock him down any further when he was called a "tweener" guard.

New Orleans drafted him with the No. 10 pick for a reason, it seems, and we'll finally get a hint at what that is once training camp starts.

Is it possible the Hornets decide to start him at the point? Could they possibly run an insanely small lineup at times with him at small forward? Or is it inevitable that he ends up being the team's sixth man for the next few seasons?

How Might the Toronto Raptors' Starting Five Shake Out?

The best possible situation for the Toronto Raptors would be that Jonas Valanciunas comes in and can start right away. With Valanciunas at the 5-spot, Andrea Bargnani can finally slide down to the power forward spot permanently and play a more natural position.

That's not the only lineup confusion that needs to be shored up. Could Terrence Ross come in and play small forward, or is he best suited as a shooting guard? The same question has always been asked of DeMar DeRozan. In addition, where does Landry Fields fit in the fray?

At present it seems that Fields would be best suited to start at the small forward spot, while DeRozan should stay in the guard spot that he's used to. Initially at least, that means Ross should be coming off the bench.

The only small question that should be answered rather easily is who starts at point guard. Kyle Lowry should take down Jose Calderon on day one.

Which Rookies Will Portland Start?

Portland is trotting five players into training camp who have never seen the NBA floor before, all of whom have different expectations coming in.

Meyers Leonard could come in and start at center right away (mostly because they don't have any true centers on that roster), but LaMarcus Aldridge could continue to bump up to that spot.

Damian Lillard will most likely already have the point guard spot locked up, what with Portland sporting Nolan Smith and Ronnie Price as the other guys competing for his spot.

Otherwise, Portland has Will Barton, Victor Claver (from the 2009 draft) and Joel Freeland (from the 2006 draft) coming into camp with no experience in the league. They won't end up with starter's spots, but they could win themselves some minutes in camp for certain.

Andrew Bynum's Fit in Philadelphia

Andrew Bynum will either have the time of his life in the middle in Philadelphia, or the team as a whole is going to struggle mightily.

What looks good for Bynum is that he's going to be expected to take on a huge scoring load, as Philly had trouble scoring from everywhere at times last season. That means more touches, more shots and more responsibility. Scared yet?

Bynum and responsibility aren't words that are mixed positively very often up to this point, but he could certainly turn things around. Training camp is just the first stop for this train. 

Which of the International Converts Make Splashes?

Of the international players who are coming over to play some NBA ball this season, quite a few are actually in positions to gain copious playing time as the season rolls along.

Mirza Teletovic, Donatas Motiejunas, Jonas Valanciunas, Alexey Shved, Andrei Kirilenko, Nando De Colo, Evan Fournier and Pablo Prigioni are just a handful of the guys coming over who played internationally last season and are likely to make the biggest splashes.

We'll see which ones can wriggle their way into high roster spots, which can scrape some minutes off the bottom of a squad and which will fill in as role players going forward.

Most importantly, we get the first chances to butcher names like Vyacheslav Kravtsov (who's on the Pistons) and Kostas Papanikolaou (who's on the Trail Blazers). Let's get ready for some Euro-ball.

Who Picks Up the Slack in Chicago?

We saw Derrick Rose injured quite a bit last season, and the Chicago Bulls picked up the slack for the most part. But are they going to be able to do that for the majority of a season moving forward?

Training camp is going to be the first chance for us to find out if Carlos Boozer comes back out of shape (which seems entirely possible given the circumstances and the dude involved), if Luol Deng needs surgery or not, if Rip Hamilton is too old and if the newcomers can outplay the guys who left the team.

Most importantly, we get to take our first look at Kirk Hinrich back in a Bulls uniform, what he's going to be able to do for the team and how much Marquis Teague is going to be able to help him out.

Harrison Barnes' Battle for the Starting Small Forward Spot

It sounds crazy, but the position battle that excites me the most this season involves the Golden State Warriors. That's impossible, right?

Not when it involves the old, yet still palatable Richard Jefferson, the woefully underrated Brandon Rush and the young hotshot Harrison Barnes.

Rush can split some time at the shooting guard spot, for sure, but he's best suited to play small forward, and he's done a great job of knocking down open shots and playing defense for a team that didn't see enough of it over the past year.

Jefferson can still run up and down the court, muscle some guys up and give you some veteran leadership, so he's never out of the question.

However, it's hard to imagine the Dubs keeping Harrison Barnes from the excited Warriors fans, who expect a playoff run for the first time in years.

Andre Iguodala's Feelings on Denver

It's going to continue to be the most overlooked prong of the four-way deal because it didn't involve the Lakers getting Dwight Howard, Orlando getting screwed or Philadelphia getting the second-best center in the league, but Andre Iguodala joining the Nuggets is downright dangerous.

The Nuggets are now legitimately two players deep at every position, and in some cases they're three players deep.

Nuggets fans, however, could be a bit turned off on Iggy after his comments that the trade was "no worse than a trade to Alaska." It seems that the free-agent-to-be isn't exactly sold on Denver.

A training camp might be enough to change his mind, however, especially after he gets a chuckle or two out of JaVale McGee.

New York's Point Guard Battle

We're talking about storylines, so how could we not talk about the New York Knick?

Of course, the Knicks have Carmelo Anthony coming out of the Olympics, and Amar'e Stoudemire coming off surgery—wait, you're telling me Amar'e has gone nearly four months without being in the hospital? Oh wait, he had eye surgery last month; that was a close one. Let's just say they've got Stoudemire between surgeries for the time being.

Basically the big story for New York that's going to be decided in training camp is who takes over the point guard spot?

It's pretty easy to predict that Raymond Felton should win the starting gig, but how much Raymond Felton is going to show up for camp? On top of that, how much is Jason Kidd going to be able to add to the equation, and what will 35-year-old rookie Pablo Prigioni bring to the table?

Any Dwight Howard and Lakers-Related News

It had to be the biggest training camp-related story, right? There's going to be a media tornado for every practice, every workout, every jog, every walk to the mailbox, every sandwich made and every nap taken as long as Dwight Howard's involved.

What's that? We're still not certain when Howard's coming back from surgery? Like that matters. Let's not forget Steve Nash coming to town, Kobe Bryant, the change to the Princeton Offense, Metta World Peace doing weird stuff, Kobe Bryant, stories about Pau Gasol's resurgence before it happens, Lakers fans proclaiming their team to be the best in basketball, Kobe Bryant, speculation about Dwight's return and Kobe Bryant.

This is Los Angeles, folks; storylines come out of thin air, even if they don't need to be talked about. No matter what happens with Howard, Los Angeles is going to be teeming with basketball reporters as soon as the first janitor flips on the lights in the gym.

If you are one of those twitterers, you can follow me @JDorsey33.