Looking at
the 2011-12 NBA season Part 1
by rick olivares
Will the Miami Heat win it all
this year?
Lost in all the pre-season hullaballoo
with the lockout and the CP3 trade that never was to the Lakers but to the
Clippers, are the Miami Heat who must be happy not to have all that attention
directed their way.
Unfortunately, they are not the type
of team to glide in under the radar. The addition of Shane Battier and Eddy
Curry only add to the expectations. The contract extension fro Erik Spoelstra
as head coach means that he will not be operating under a lame duck status and
that gives him a strong foundation to stand on. Yet for all the Heat’s new
weaponry, they will advance only as far as their Big Three can take them. This
team is driven like no other since the ’95 Chicago Bulls. They’ve got a chip on
their shoulder the size of the Empire State Building and that will fuel them.
Yet as always, their fate will depend on LeBron James to show what he is made
of not just in the clutch but when it matters.
Can Dallas repeat?
Let’s see… they lost Tyson Chandler, DeShawn
Stevenson, JJ Barea, Caron Butler, and Peja Stojakovic. That’s a lot on defense
and offense. Although they did bring in Lamar Odom, Vince Carter, and Delonte
West.
I have always liked Odom. I thought
that he contributed pretty well in his early years with the LA Clippers (where
he was made team captain in his second year with the squad) and Miami. And no
surprise with what he gave the Lakers.
Odom showed that he can play with
superstars and emerging players. In Clipperland, they had a young squad
bursting with potential (they more than doubled their wins from Odom’s first to
second year) with Corey Maggette, Darius Miles, Jeff McInnis, and Keyon
Dooling. In Miami, there was Dwyane Wade in his rookie year, Rafer Alston,
Caron and Rasual Butler, Brian Grant, Udonis Haslem, and Eddie Jones. And we
all know who had for teammates in Los Angeles.
So I expect Odom to play well with
Dirk Nowitski, Jason Terry, Jason Kidd, Vince Carter, and Shawn Marion. Now how
the heck does one get his shots with all them needing the ball to be effective?
They pulled it off last year and I think that it will not be a problem. After
all, when you do get older, the ring is the thing.
The concern for Dallas is their interior
defense. Can Brendan Haywood and Ian Mahinmi be those clogs in the middle? If
they lockdown that middle, these Mavs can will repeat. They missed out on Sam
Dalembert who went from Sacramento to Houston. If there’s a doughnut hole in
the middle, look for them to make a mid-season trade as they try to land either
Dwight Howard or Andrei Kirilenko, or even Ben Wallace.
Can the Oklahoma Thunder take the
next step?
The young Thunder topped the Northwest
Division of the Western Conference 55-27 to raise their first banner. They
defeated the Denver Nuggets 4-1 in their playoff opener then played a thrilling
semifinals by outlasting the Memphis Grizzlies in seven before falling to
eventual champion Dallas 4-1 in the Conference Finals.
It’s so easy to say that this team is
on the rise. But they have been so in the three years since they relocated to
Oklahoma from Seattle. In their first year (Kevin Durant’s sophomore season),
they finished 5th in the Northwest 23-59. The climbed to 50-32 and 4th
in their division the following year before their incredible 2010-11 NBA
season.
For a team saddled with the label of
“potential”, that’s dangerous. They have to make either the Western Finals
again or the NBA Finals. Anything less means they could regress.
The NBA landscape is littered with the
corpses of teams that were similarly labeled.
There’s the Cleveland Cavaliers of the
late 1980s-to early 1990s. The Cavs behind players Brad Daugherty, Mark Price,
Larry Nance, Ron Harper, and John Williams made the playoffs for eight straight
years winning 50-plus matches three times. But once there, the Bulls clobbered
them in ’88, ’89, as well as from ’92-94.
The mid-1990s Los Angeles Lakers are
another of those young squads that made a lot of noise but ended their seasons
with a whimper. Once the Magic Johnson era ended for good in 1994 (after
deciding not to come back coaching), the team with Nick Van Exel, Eddie Jones,
Cedric Ceballos, Kobe Bryant, and Shaquille O’Neal tantalized fans with what
could be a dynasty in the making. It would take the arrival of former Chicago
head coach Phil Jackson in 1999 for the team to realize it potential. But by
then, they had a different look with only O’Neal and Bryant left from those
high-flying teams of the 90s.
The Thunder have a good core with the
NBA’s top scorer in Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Serge Ibaka,
Thabo Sefolosha, Nick Collison, and Kendrick Perkins. They were fifth in
scoring last year. They’re backed by a good organization. They’re young,
hungry, and loaded with talent. Plus, they have learned something that those
90s Cavs and Lakers team did not learn – to play D. But they have to improve
their standing as they were ranked 16th in a 30-team league.
Do they have enough to get past
Dallas? I’m saying no. Maybe they can add Michael Redd to take that shooting
guard slot (they have Sefolosha and Harden playing tag team there) that will
ease up the pressure from Durant and open up the lane for Perkins and Ibaka.
The Thunder are gaining experience.
What they need is veteran leadership and help. Redd is a solid operator who
doesn’t come with any baggage.
So how’s the post-Yao Ming Houston
Rockets team going to fare?
No Yao. No Pau Gasol. No chance.
Oh, Houston also lost Shane Battier
who was tough upfront.
However, I like Luis Scola and his
work ethic. But look at their center-by-committee: Hasheem Thabeet, Sam
Dalembert, and Jordan Hill at center. Thabeet – he had a good career with UConn
but has had a difficult time in the pros. He was ignominiously sent down by the
Memphis Grizzlies to the D-League in his rookie year. And last season he only
played two matches with the Rockets. Hopefully, he will learn from new head
coach Kevin McHale. Dalembert hopefully will help despite never seeming to
catch on with his teams. If McHale can get him to produce like he did with the
Philadelphia 76ers from 2006-2008 then he’ll be a huge addition for the
Rockets.
For sure, points from their five-spot
will help. Houston can score behind Kevin Martin, Scola, Kyle Lowry, and Aaron
Brooks. In fact, they were third in team points scored with 105. 9. The problem
was last year, they surrendered 103.7 and were ranked 22nd on D. So
the question remains – can they make defensive stops?
The Southwest Division of the Western
Conference is going to be tough. There are the defending NBA champions Dallas,
ever-dangerous San Antonio, and up-and-coming Memphis. They could catch the
last seat of the playoff bus but it’s not going to be easy.
NBA Facts:
Eight of the NBA’s Top 10 scoring
teams are from the Western Conference: Denver, Houston, Phoenix, Oklahoma, San
Antonio, Golden State, Los Angeles Lakers, and Minnesota. The only Eastern
squads on that list are New York and Miami.
On defense, it’s the reverse. The
Eastern teams fared better. The top four were (in order) Boston, Chicago,
Milwaukee and Orlando. The other East squads included Miami and Atlanta. The
top Western defensive teams were New Orleans, Portland, the Los Angeles Lakers,
and Dallas.
Rick Adelman is now with his fifth NBA
team as head coach. He’s coached Portland (where he once starred), Golden
State, Sacramento, and Houston. Now he begins his stint with Minnesota. In his
24 years of coaching, he’s only missed the playoffs twice and those two years
were with the Warriors that was languishing in their post-Run TMC (although
they still had Tim Hardaway, Chris Mullin, and a young Latrell Sprewell.
Adelman handled Spree in his first two years before PJ Carlesimo took over and
we all know what happened that following season.
When the NBA kicks off its 66th
season on Christmas Day, 2011 (North America time), only seven players (minimum
10 years) will have played their entire career (thus far) for only one team:
Kobe
Bryant – Los Angeles Lakers (15
years)
Tim
Duncan – San Antonio Spurs (13
years)
Jeff
Foster – Indiana Pacers (12 years)
Manu
Ginobili – San Antonio Spurs (10
years)
Dirk
Nowitski – Dallas Mavericks (14
years)
Tony
Parker – San Antonio Spurs (11
years)
Paul
Pierce – Boston Celtics (13 years)
Others included in this list if they
suit up with their current club for the new season will be:
Michael
Redd - Milwaukee Bucks (12 years)
Andrei
Kirilenko – Utah Jazz (10 years) but
he is with CSKA Moscow now.
No comments:
Post a Comment