The Bulls won’t be good this year. But in Matas Buzelis, Caleb Wilson, and Leonard Miller (above) they have a number of young players with potential. STEVE RUSSELL/TORONTO STAR/GETTY IMAGES

As Tyrese Haliburton walked off the court in New Orleans, fresh off a masterful fourth quarter where he orchestrated a 37-point fourth quarter scoring surge that pushed his Pacers team past the host Pelicans, he was grabbed by Indy’s TV sideline reporter Jeremiah Johnson to discuss the win. More than 16 months after his last NBA game, when he tore his Achilles in the NBA Finals, Haliburton couldn’t get more than a few words out before the tears started and he choked up.

There’s something special about this time of year.

I hired a new coach recently, a basketball lifer and national champion AAU coach who has coached in college. Now he’s invested, deep into this path trying to do everything we can to help amazing players perform even better. On a call before the games Wednesday night “is it normal to be this excited to watch game one of an NBA season for so many players?”

It is for me, for 24 years now.

There is something special about opening games, a crackle in players voices, maybe current is a better word. They “feel” it in their bones. Promise. Potential. Drama. Hard nights, freezing temperatures, multiple days of not ever seeing the sun. Pain, heartbreak, and losses too. For some, so many losses.

In some ways, the part of the season that they just played barely matters at all. Over a decade ago I lost a dear friend, Andy Pollack, to an insidious disease. He was a brilliant TV producer, who used to have a “Rule of One.” Andy, a former pro baseball player, felt like when projecting players, it was a mistake to read too much into any one thing—one play, one quarter, one inning, one game, one month, or even one season. Brilliant and simple. Without doubt, what we saw this week won’t be what we see later. Some things will change drastically, some subtly.

The better teams will see problems and resolve them, the other teams will get stuck without solutions. Here’s what caught my eye from the Bulls, Lakers, Sixers, Celtics, Thunder, Spurs, Pelicans, Wolves, Pacers, Bucks, and Mavericks:

After a terrible first game, the Bulls showed more fight in Milwaukee. Henry will remember that I’ve been a fan of Leonard Miller for a long time. He has all the potential in the world, but would benefit from a lot of royal jelly and some discipline. He was terrific in their first win of the season. I love Caleb Wilson’s upside as well. They are not going to win many games this year (30 might be a goal) but they’ve got high-potential young players and the process of building a very good team is underway.

Walker Kessler may break the all-time field goal percentage record. He hit all 12 shots Wednesday night, six off lobs (one pass hit the rim first and he got the rebound and dunked). Luka is the best lob passer in the league. Austin Reaves is a solid passer. Both get downhill often. Kessler also cut through the awful Warriors defense a couple of times and hung around the dunk spot for a few more buckets. He’s outstanding in his role and an excellent fit to play with Luka on both ends.

The starters played way too much—every one over 33 minutes.