LeBron, DWade, Bosh, Mike Miller, Big Z and uhm, Carlos Arroyo will all be in Miami jerseys next season. I know that the first 3 names were enough to make my point, but the others were necessary (more on that later). Most people say though that the triumvirate of 1,6 and 3 will be enough to pull the Heat out of the East and straight to the Finals.
On the other beach-lined side of the country, Mamba, Pau, Ronron, Fish, Andrew (he needs a nickname quick) and Chlomar are still going to be Lakers. This time, with the help of former enemy Matt Barnes. With their experience and skill, not to mention Amare, Boozer and Josh Powell(?) all moving East, the Lakers seem favored to go back to The Finals.
So i guess it's obvious: Miami vs LA (of course the Lakers. Clippers? Haha. Funny) in the 2011 NBA Finals. Wade Lebron and Bosh vs Kobe Pau and Phil's legacy. Sounds great! Sounds exciting. Sounds likely? Not so fast.
This is a great game. The best part is that everyone starts out 0-0. Mathematically, everyone's got a shot at the title right? Right. But in all likelihood, it'll come down to a few teams. A few very good teams ready and very much able to beat LAL and MIA. So let's weigh all of them up and see who MIGHT make it to the Finals.
(But of course being that it's soooo early and that Free Agency still isn't done and trades will still be made and injures will happen, and draft picks will shine and disappoint, all this will probably be ridiculously wrong in a few months. But what the hey? At least we have something to go back to for a few laughs right?)
EAST
ATLANTA HAWKS
Ok. First things first. 124 million dollars. MILLION. That's how much Atlanta's going to pay Joe Johnson. JOE JOHNSON. He's a great fit there, a better-than-most player, but not worth all that moolah. But then again, the Hawks didn't have a choice. New coach, same guys, probably same result. 50+wins, second round of the playoffs. Oh, and hopefully, Josh Smith gets recognized as the All-Star he's been for a while now.
*Can they beat the Heat? Regular season? Yeah. Playoffs? Probably give them a scare. But nothing more.
BOSTON CELTICS
Biggest thing for the C's is Doc Rivers coming back to coach. No one in the world has more faith in this core than that dude. "My team has never been beaten when they're healthy." He's said that for years. He'll probably say it again this season. With the addition of Jermaine O'Neal, they're still going to be good IF HEALTHY. Lots of fragile bones here. And that young guy with great defense they pulled off the bench? Gone. Tony Allen is now a Grizzly. Might not seem like much, but his absence will be big in the playoffs or (gulp) Finals. (Side note: Lawrence Frank is now also on their coaching staff)
*Can they beat the Heat? Yes. IF HEALTHY
**BIG UPDATE: Yeah they got Shaq. Does that make them better? Hells yeah. Very very much better.
CHARLOTTE BOBCATS
Oh the Cats. Jack is their best player. And their team leader. Scary stuff. No more Raymond Felton or Tyson Chandler for them. Tyrus Thomas needs to have a breakout season and show more of that potential he had with the Bulls. Larry Brown is going to need a miracle to get back to the playoffs this year. But then again, that guy who owns them can maybe get in a jersey and play. Just a thought.
*Can they beat the Heat? Nope. Sorry.
CHICAGO BULLS
Speaking of that dude, here's his former team FINALLY being good again. And i mean really good. New coach Tom Thibodeau is going to turn this team into an even better defensive unit. Obviously, the addition of Boozer to the core of Derrick Rose, Luol Deng (who WILL be traded i bet my hair on it) and Joakim Noah is huge. I've always thought the Booze was a tad overrated, but in this team, he'll flourish. Korver, Brewer and CJ Miles round out an extremely solid, talented and young core.
*Can they beat the Heat? Yessir they can. If they have homecourt.
CLEVELAND CAVALIERS
Poor poor Cleveland. I pity this city the way i did Marikina after Ondoy. Man that was tough. A public break-up is always painful. But the bright side is...Mo-Will? Antawn Jamison? Zero draft picks? New coach? Ok fine, so things are tough in Cleveland. Hopefully Byron Scott can get inspired play from a core of Williams, Jamison, Varejao and JJ Hickson.
*Can they beat the Heat? They'll probably beat UP the Heat. With either baseball bats or burned LeBron jerseys. It'll be ugly. I'll record it. :D
DETROIT PISTONS
Joe Dumars used to be a god in Detroit. Champion guard, fearless leader, outstanding general manager. And then things started going wrong. There were signs. Allen Iverson for Chauncey Billups. Acquiring Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva. Getting stuck with salary cap trouble for years. And now, signing Ben Wallace to a two-year extension. This year's gonna be tough for Detroit. Look for unhappy Tayshaun Prince, Rip Hamilton and maybe even Gordon to ask for trades.
*Can they beat the Heat? Only in the PG spot. Stuckey/Bynum/Gordon > CarlosArroyo/MarioChalmers
**BIG UPDATE: Yeah they got T-Mac. Does that make them better? Not really. But it'll sell more tickets. Maybe. No, not really.
INDIANA PACERS
Nothing but the impending end of a bunch of their players' contracts to look forward to. Tough to get a free agent to go to Indiana next year though. Why? It's Indiana. Not a lot of kids grow up wishing to be a Pacer (What is that anyway?). I say, move the franchise to Vegas or better, Seattle and be the new rock n' roll team. New city, new name, and please, new jerseys. Nothing much to expect here this coming season. Sorry Reggie Miller.
*Can they beat the Heat? Maybe if Reggie came back with Chris Mullin, Mark Jackson, the Davis's and Rik Smits. Hahaha. Solid laughtrip.:)
MIAMI HEAT
Okidoki. Here we go. The big 3. Big question is: Can they play together? If Bosh accepts that the only shots he'll get are off the boards and LeBron allows Wade to be the Alpha Male, then yeah. Bigger question: Who do they play with? Udonis, Mike Miller, Big Z, Chalmers and Arroyo are okay. But with a young coach and a ton of expectations, they'd be better off with more sure shots (figuratively and literally) off the bench. Tough seeing them as a defensive-minded team too. But then again LeBron and DWade are two of the top 3 players in the league. They might just pull it off.
*Can they beat the pressure? It'll take a loooot to get to the Finals when you have the biggest bull's eye since Dennis Rodman's hair on your back. But if anyone's skilled enough to do it, it's them.
MILWAUKEE BUCKS
If you didn't last year, then you better now. FEAR THE DEER. Brandon Jennings is an All-Star to be, especially now that he's been given room in that PG spot after they let go of Ridnour and Charlie Bell. Andrew Bogut is great. John Salmons is too. So is Michael Redd (if he accepts finally that he's a shooter, not a franchise player). The addition of Corey Maggette will spark their offense for sure and give them yet another potent scorer who can shoot over you or beat you off the dribble.
*Can they beat the Heat? It'll be a fun series to watch. They'll scare them, but will most likely come up short.
NEW JERSEY NETS
Here's a team that wished for overnight sucess, missed out, but are still in an okay place. No huge splash in free agency, but a solid draft pick in Derrick Favors, a promising core of Devin Harris, Robin Lopez and Courtney Lee, plus some help with Jordan Farmar and Travis Outlaw. But the star of the show is owner Mikhail Prokhorov. They're in a nice spot salary-wise, and he's got a lot of money anyways. Avery Johnson as a head coach is fantastic. Look for them to be better now and great in a few years, maybe just in time for that move to Brooklyn.
*Can they beat the Heat? They couldn't do it in free agency, they won't be able to do it on the court either.
NEW YORK KNICKS
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of. That's certainly the case for Amare Stoudemire and his 100 Million Dollar contract.Fact is, NY settled for Amare after it became clear none of the Big(ger) 3 would wear Blue and Orange. However, they've improvised quite well, signing Raymond Felton, Anthony Randolph and the best bench cheerer in the league, Ronny Turiaf. Tough to judge the Knicks before the start of the 2011 season. If Carmelo/CP3 joins them, fantastic. If not, then they'll slowly see Amare might have not been worth all that cash.
*Can they beat the Heat? If Felton starts playing like Nash and hitting Amare's sweet spot, then maybe...no. Not even.
ORLANDO MAGIC
Great team. Fantastic to watch. Unless they're playing Boston. Dwight Howard, Jameer Nelson, JJ Reddick. Those are the 3 most dependable/important guys on this team. Vince Carter is good, but obviously, not good enough when it matters. Pietrus, Bass, Gortat make up one of the best benches in the league though. Orlando has a lot of trade pieces, and a lot of options. Will they give it another go? Or are Vince's big game nerves too much to stand? Interesting to see what they do. Always difficult being 2nd or 3rd best. You dont know how to beat the top gun. Do you risk it or pray you've improved (or the other team gets injured)?
*Can they beat the Heat? Trade or no trade, yes. JJ Reddick's gonna have a career year and threaten VC for that starting role. Whichever of them comes off the bench will torch Miami's 2nd unit.
PHILADELPHIA 76ERS
Doug Collins is known as a miracle man. Well he'll need to work his magic on this one. Andre Igoudala is a yearly disappointment for Philly fans. Now he has some help from rookie Evan Turner, comebackers Jrue Holiday, Thaddeus Young and Lou Williams and newcomer Andres Nocioni. However, the loss of Sam Dalembert might be a little too much to bear as the Sixers are starting to look very guard-heavy.
*Can they beat the Heat? Not even if they still had Dalembert. Or Iverson for that matter.
TORONTO RAPTORS
It ain't looking to good up north. When Chris Bosh is your alpha and omega, it ain't grand. But to lose him? Yikes. Sending Hedo Turkoglu to Phoenix is addition by subtraction though as he was someone every Canadian hated. Barbosa is an okay addition together with Linas Kleiza. Ed Davis is a rookie that will be forced to fast-track his improvement if this team wants to compete at all. All in all, they're safe to book flights to early vacation spots as soon as now to get a discount. No playoffs this year Canada.
*Can they beat the Heat? They'll try their darndest just to piss Bosh off. But they'll still probably save the spite for Vince Carter. That won't ever die.
WASHINGTON WIZARDS
Thank goodness they won the lottery. John Wall has all the makings of being an NBA star (except for that ugly-looking jumpshot). Andray Blatche can quite possibly be an outstanding power forward. Apart from that? Well they now have Yi Jianlian, the ongoing chinese experiment and Kirk Hinrich. Plus Josh Howard. It all depends though on what they do with Agent Zero. Gil's gotta go for Wall to fully blossom. But with a contract like that? It'll be a challenge. But there's talk of VC for Gil. Ya never know.
*Can they beat the Heat? The Bobcats beat the Lakers every year so again, ya never know. But most likely, ya know it's a no.
Okay, that's it for now. I'll have the WEST previews up soon and we can dice up the teams there to see if they can beat the favored Lakers. Till then, always remember to thank God for this game we all love. In the name of Saint James Naismith, Amen.
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