NBA Western Conference Preview

Ladies and gentlemen, your 2007-08 NBA Sleeper Team of the Year, The Memphis Grizzlies! Believe it or not, but this team all of a sudden has the potential to be a very good team. Remember they made their first playoff appearance two years ago thanks mostly in part to Pau Gasol. All of a sudden, this roster is really deep. Here's a quick run through...

C/PF: Pau Gasol, Darko Milicic, Stromile Swift, Andre Brown, Brian Cardinal, Hakim Warrick
SF/SG: Rudy Gay, Mike Miller, Tarence Kinsey, Juan Carlos Navarro, Casey Jacobsen
PG: Damon Stoudamire, Kyle Lowry, Mike Conley Jr.

Throw this roster on the court to play "Phoenix Suns" style basketball and I'll give you a potential 6-8 seed in the playoffs. This roster is very well put together for the first year of this uptempo offense with new head coach Marc Iavaroni they should be a ton of fun to watch. I've always wanted to see one of my favorite collegiate players of all-time in Hakim Warrick play the Boris Diaw role and my wish might have been granted.

The reason of the success of this team will come through the point guard play. The Grizz have a great trio right now with a proven veteran in Damon Stoudamire, a 2nd year guy in Kyle Lowry(although he only played in 10 games due to injury), and the #4 pick in the NBA draft and my favorite college player from last year in Mike Conley Jr. Life will be made easy for whatever point guard is on the court with an array of weapons. In the post, it's one of the most reliable and underrated players in the Association in Pau Gasol. If you want to drive and kick to a shooter, you have Mike Miller (or Casey Jacobsen if he gets PT). You have athleticism all over the court with Hakim Warrick, Stromile Swift and Rudy Gay leading the way.

What might be the biggest addition to the Memphis roster is Gasol's Spaniard buddy, Juan Carlos Navarro. "La Bombas" adds an explosive scorer to the Memphis arsenal that might have head too much athleticism last year and not enough players with real skill. With Navarro, came comfort for Pau Gasol, which will add keep the all-star in Memphis (almost traded to the Bulls during the season and off-season).

You can expect to see the Memphis Grizzlies in the playoffs this season as a 6-8 seed thanks to Coach Iavaroni, Pau Gasol, Juan Carlos Navarro, whatever point guard breaks out and yes, Darko Milicic.

Western Conference Contenders

The Cream of the Crop:
San Antonio Spurs-The best team in the Association. Not much has to be said about the Spurs. Tim Duncan leads the way with his right hand men Tony Parker-Longoria and Manu Ginobili. Watch Ime Udoka grow before our eyes into the next Bruce Bowen thanks to Bowen himself and the best coach in the Association (that includes Phil Jackson) in Greg Popovich. They might not leave the season as the one seed, but once no one will want to face this team come playoffs.

Dallas Mavericks-Can the Mavs get it together after their playoff meltdown against the Golden State Warriors? My guess is Dirk Nowitzki is going to come back better than ever and on a mission to show the league that the playoffs were a fluke. Returning the corp of their 67 win team with only a few additions, mainly second round rookies. If this team can play with a chip on their shoulder, they could return to the NBA Finals. If not, look for the Spurs or Suns to send the Mavs packing in the second round.

Phoenix Suns-I don't understand the moves that rookie general manager Steve Kerr made. When he traded Kurt Thomas I thought he must have a move up his sleeve to deal the only man on the roster who can remotely guard Tim Duncan. Turns out I was wrong. The Suns big man currently consist of Amare Stoudemire (great player, but can't slowdown Duncan), Boris Diaw, Sean Marks and Brian Skinner. Sure, Shawn Marion can guard some bigs, but without someone to guard Tim Duncan, can they really beat the Spurs? Can they stick around with a healthy Yao or Dirk? With the current state of this roster, you'll probably need a superhuman effort by Steve Nash to bring Phoenix the title. With that said, I wouldn't bet against an angry Suns team in the playoffs.

Denver Nuggets-This team all depends on how Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson have progressed as teammates. If they have learned to play together, you might have the highest scoring team in the league. A lot of experts are jumping on this team as potential Western Conference champions. With Melo, AI and Marcus Camby as their big three they also have J.R. Smith, Nene, Kenyon Martin (if hes healthy), Eduardo Najera, Chucky Atkins and Linas Kleiza helping them out. I see them as fifth best in the West behind the Spurs, Suns, Jazz and Mavericks, just ahead of the Rockets.

Utah Jazz-Love this team. They're probably still a little young and not quite as good as the Big 3. However, this team is a very good one as displayed in the playoffs last year. Led by Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer, this is one of the more talented teams in the league. I think life will be easier on Williams this season as Ronnie Brewer should come into his own and rookie Morris Almond will help stretch the floor and fill a shooting role for the Jazz. There is a sticky situation with Andrei Kirilenko who is butting heads with head coach Jerry Sloan and Jazz management. A trade could be coming soon, but the Jazz won't trade him without good value in return.

The Pretender:
Houston Rockets-This team looks great on paper. With a roster that includes Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady, Luis Scola, Shane Battier, Steve Francis, Rafer Alston, Luther Head, Bonzi Wells, among others you would think I, like most people, would buy into the Houston hype for this season. Yao looked great last year up until his injury. For the first time in his career, he was dominating everyone. The emergence of Yao makes life easier on T-Mac and the others.

I don't know if it's just me, but this team is fatally flawed. Let's start off with the trio of point guards. I hate putting point in front of guard when describing your classic shoot first players in Mike James and Steve Francis (I don't see a difference in these players, except Francis is more athletic). I'm not big on playground legend Rafer "Skip to my Lou" Alston either. The second thing I dislike about this team is the fact that T-Mac and Yao, up until this point in their careers, have won nothing. In all fairness, if this team was in the East I would probably have them in the conference finals at least. In the West I'll take San Antonio, Dallas and Phoenix everyday of the week. They might even get ran off the court by uptempo teams like Memphis and Golden State. I'm not giving this team any chance of making it out of the second round of the playoffs.

The Sleepers:
Memphis Grizzlies-As stated above. Like the Bucks in my Eastern Conference preview, I don't think they have any real shot of winning it all and will have a hard time getting out the first, but there is no doubt in my mind that they won't be in the playoffs (pending an injury to Gasol).

New Orleans Hornets: This team was 3 games out the playoffs last season. They didn't have Chris Paul for 18 games and Peja Stojakovic for 69 games. This is the year that Chris Paul will get his respect, as a lot of critics have seemed to side with Deron Williams (a fantastic player in his own right) as the better of the two young point guards because of what Williams did last season in the playoffs. Here's the thing, the Jazz have more talent then the Hornets. Chris Paul is the better point guard.

A front court of David West and Tyson Chandler is one I really like. West is more of the banger and scorer that compliments Paul. Chandler is there to play some defense, simple as that. The signing of Morris Peterson was a great one as insurance for another Peja injury. The bench isn't very deep, but I do like rookie Julian Wright. If some of you remember, I picked Wright as one of my prospects that I wasn't high on when I was talking about potential draftees. However, Chris Paul is one of the guys who makes everyone around him better, a truly special player. Julian Wright and all of that athleticism will benefit greatly from running alongside Paul and will have a successful rookie campaign catching oops from Paul.


Season Predictions:
NBA Finals: San Antonio Spurs over the Boston Celtics in 6

MVP: LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers
Rookie of the Year: Kevin Durant, Seattle Sonics
Most Improved: Darko Milicic, Memphis Grizzlies
Sixth Man: Monta Ellis, Golden State Warriors
Coach of the Year: Greg Popovich, San Antonio Spurs .If the Celtics get the #1 seed in the East, Doc Rivers will probably get the award even though Pops is a superior coach compared to Rivers (which is an understatement). The reason that the Spurs will beat the Celtics in the NBA Finals, if it were to happen, would be the coaching difference. Pops, one of the best coaches there is and Doc Rivers, who is not in any discussion regarding good coaches.

Off Topic: Ohio State beat Penn State 37-17. The game was never even scary. The way that Brian Robiskie shredded one of the best corners in the nation, Justin King was a thing of pure beauty. Chris "Beanie" Wells had his way with the Penn State rush defense and Todd Boeckman did what he wanted to do with the Penn State secondary. Keep hating America, please keep on hating. Tell us we're going to lose to Wisconsin. Tell us that the Juice will be let loose on the Buckeye defense. Tell us this is the year that Henne and Hart finally get a victory against the vaunted Buckeyes. Please, just keep hating because we love it. I love Ohio State football.

NBA Preview - Eastern Conference

Well, I haven't written in this blog in quite some time and frankly, I'm overdue. The NBA starts next week and I'm pumped (one of the few that still love the NBA). Since most of this blog is about the NBA, you probably know my NBA allegiance to the all mighty LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavs aren't looking so hot headed into the season due to the Cavs major offseason move was trading David Wesley for Cedric Simmons. Simmons if anything is a project who won't contribute much this year. Probably the only way Cedric Simmons sees the floor is if Anderson Varejao doesn't re-sign. Sasha Pavlovic also is yet to re-sign and that doesn't leave me sad at all. Pavs does not pass the ball and takes some terrible shots. If he never plays a game for the Cavs again, I will probably forget he ever was a Cav.

That leads me to my next point. Whoever decided not making a move with a team that clearly has holes, whether it be General Manager Danny Ferry or owner Gordon Gund will give this team a very small chance of repeating as Eastern Conference champions. We couldn't even make a nice offer to Ime Udoka to come play some defense for us? Luckily for him he'll learn from one of the best defensive stoppers in the league in Bruce Bowen. LeBron can't put this team on his back again if his best teammates are an aging and broken down Zydrunas Illgauskas and the ever-so-hard-to-cheer-for Larry Hughes. We'll be one of the best teams in the East, but unless the Cavs make a trade to actually get players that fit the way LeBron plays (I'm still bitter the Cavs went harder after Larry Hughes then a player who would fit LeBron in Mike Redd). I think the Cavs will win about 52 games and be a top 4 seed in the playoffs.

Moving on to the other teams...

Eastern Conference Contenders (Let it be known that I don't think any of the Eastern teams can actually win the NBA title).

The Cream of the Crop:
Boston Celtics-They added Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to play alongside Paul Pierce. Pretty good off-season. Looks great on paper, right? This team has some major flaws. Let's start it off with one of the most incompetent coaches in the league in Doc Rivers. How is Rajon Rondo going to progress? Let it be known that I am not big on Rondo as a starting point guard. Not the distributing point guard I love (think Chris Paul or Jason Kidd). Am I supposed to believe Kendrick Perkins is a good player? Can a bench consisting of Brian Scalabrine, Eddie House, Big Baby Davis and James Posey really win in the playoffs? Can the Big Ticket, Jesus Shuttlesworth and the Truth take a cast of nobodies to the finals? In the East, they certainly can. Can they win it? I doubt it.

Cleveland Cavaliers-Everything stated above. As long as LeBron's healthy they have a chance to win in the playoffs since he's superhuman and whatnot.

Chicago Bulls-I'm still not believing in this team. I'm sorry Bulls fan (which most of the people who read this are, like all 5 of you) this team isn't a championship caliber team yet. Luol Deng is a great player. I love the way Kirk Hinrich and Andres Nocioni play basketball. I think Joakim Noah is going to be great addition to the team. I think Ben Wallace was a terrible signing when you could've received similar, if not better production from the improving Tyson Chandler. I also think Ben Gordon is very, very overrated. Why is Gordon overrated? He's a one trick pony. He's got a jumper and that's about it. That's fine if you're 6'6" or taller. When you're 6'3" with sneakers on and don't have point guard skills this could become a problem. I'd be a big fan of Gordon if he was the 6th man again. Great 6th man in my opinion. He's just not a well rounded player and Bulls fan eat him up. You are NOT going to the NBA Finals with Ben Gordon. When Ben Gordon is who you look for in the clutch, you know something has gone wrong. Luckily for the Bulls, the East is so bad that they have a shot if all goes their way.

Detroit Pistons-The reliable squad. You know they'll at least make the second round. It's a given. A deep starting five and a good bench is the trademark of the 21st century Pistons. Although the Pistons are no longer improving as a team and probably on the downside of their Eastern Conference dominance, they still have one of the best corps, if not the best corp in the East. Rookie out of Eastern Washington, Rodney Stuckey, will miss the first six weeks of the season which will hurt the bench for a while since it will take Stuckey a while to get into the flow of the NBA game. I think Stuckey will be a great player for the Pistons.

The Pretender:
Miami Heat-I doubted this team last year and I'll continue to doubt. Shaq can still be a dominant force, but can he stay healthy? I don't and probably never will understand why the Heat willingly traded for Ricky Davis, a ballhog headcase and Mark Blount, an underachieving waste of space in the middle. I can't wait to see how the point guard trio of Jason Williams, Smush Parker and Chris Quinn do. That will be loads of fun to watch.

The Sleeper:
Milwaukee Bucks-People forget this team has talent because they were ravaged by injuries last year and were a miserable basketball team. If the starting five of Andrw Bogut, Charlie Villanueva, Bobby Simmons, Mike Redd and Mo Williams can stay healthy this will be a playoff team. The bench isn't very deep but with Dan Gadzuric and Charlie Bell, they have two proven role players off the bench. If Yi Jianlian can be effective in his guaranteed 20+ minutes a night, that bench could be very good with it only being three deep. I really like Ramon Sessions, but unsure if he can really contribute to an NBA team yet. Here's to the Bucks for getting a 6 or 7 seed in the playoffs.

Off Topic: Former pro wrestler and NCAA wrestling champion Brock Lesnar has signed with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He is a scary, scary man and is going to wipe up the mat with the heavyweights of the UFC. Can't wait for his first fight.