With baseball playoffs and the early part of the football season stealing most of the national headlines, the NBA preseason has managed to slip under the radar for most sports fans. Then again, with the professional basketball season stretching all the way from October to June, it’s almost impossible to keep tabs on when the season isn’t in session.

Before the Carmelos, LeBrons and Dwayne Wades take the court in a few days for regular season play, sports fans and columnists around the nation are arguing about which 2006 draft pick is going to become the next young superstar, and which draft picks will go the way of former overall number one, Michael Olowokandi.

Every draft conversation starts with the top pick, and this year’s chosen one is Italian Andrea Bargnani, drafted by the Toronto Raptors. In one preseason game against the Wizards, Bargnani managed to score 8 points and grab 4 rebounds in 13 minutes of play. However, he also racked up five fouls.

So here’s the deal. Raptors’ fans are holding their breath, hoping that Bargnani will be the next coming of Dirk Nowitzki, while naysayers are sure that the 6-foot-10 Italian will more closely resemble a Nikoloz Tskitishvili. The truth? He’ll start his career off with a little bit of Nikoloz but with a few years under his belt, we’ll see more and more Dirk.

Coming into the league, Bargnani is listed at a generous 225 pounds. As an NBA power forward, Bargnani is going to quickly learn that he’ll have to trade his Chicken Parmesan in for T-bone steaks. Etan Thomas and Brendan Haywood exposed Bargnani’s physical weaknesses in his first appearance by consistently taking it to the rookie and forcing him to the bench in foul trouble.

That said, Bargnani showed a great shooting stroke that truly was reminiscent of Dirk. And, in a year where the Italians won the World Cup, I’ll be hard pressed to bet against an Italian. Bargnani, as long as you hit the gym and bulk up, all I can say for the upcoming NBA season is, “Viva Italia.”

Skipping over the other international additions to the league, we come to Brandon Roy, a Pac-10 talent who, in my humble opinion, will be the next LeBron. Roy, a four-year player from Washington, will be spending his rookie season in Portland, not far from the masses of fans he left behind at the UW.

As a Stanford basketball fan, I had the unfortunate opportunity to watch Roy in college, as he tore through defenses with an uncanny combination of speed, athleticism and basketball IQ. Roy is penciled in as the Trail Blazers’ starting shooting guard, and after his four years of tough Pac-10 competition, he should emerge as this year’s Rookie of the Year.

No rookie discussion can be complete without a mention of Adam Morrison. I’ll be honest: I’ve never been a fan. To me, Morrison has always been one of those players who has drawn less attention for his basketball than the other happenings in his life. But with the opening of the NBA season, Morrison has an opportunity for a new start with little mention of playing Halo 2 against JJ Redick, crying at the end of a basketball game or questions about whether his retro moustache means he belongs on DVDs alongside Ron Jeremy rather than on the court with Ron Artest.

In one preseason game, Morrison silenced doubters like me who said he couldn’t score at the NBA level with bigger, quicker defenders. Morrison picked up just where he left off at Gonzaga, pouring in 19 points in 24 minutes of play. A few more performances like that, along with a shave, will bring me over to the Morrison bandwagon.

So while the baseball playoffs heat up and the NFL standings start to take shape, keep an eye out on the NBA. For years now, the NBA has been hunting for the next megastar to replace Michael Jordan, and while this year’s draft may not have the heir to The Air, it might just have a few Scottie Pippens.

Antardeb Guharay is a junior. Email him at aguharay@stanford.edu