Season Preview: Chicago Bulls

I realized that, the season is coming (yay!), but I still have a good number of teams left (like 5 not including this one) to preview (not so yay). So I'll try to start cranking.

Starting 5
PG- Kirk Hinrich
SG- Larry Hughes
SF- Luol Deng
PF- Drew Gooden
C- Joakim Noah

Off the bench
Guards: Derrick Rose, Ben Gordon, Thabo Sefalosha, Darius Washington
Forwards: Tyrus Thomas, Andres Nocioni, Demetris Nichols
Centers: Aaron Gray, Omer Asik, Cedric Simmons

Forgive me if I'm not on the Derrick Rose bandwagon. I haven't seen a whole lot to impress me yet though. Regardless of how well the no 1 pick pans out, the fact of the matter remains that this team still needs a lot of work.   It's a young team, the veterens being the expendable Drew Gooden, Larry Hughes, and Andres Nocioni.  I believe that to begin with Larry Hughes and Drew Gooden will get their starts, but if Vinny Del Negro decides to go young, I can see them benched with Derrick Rose and Tyrus Thomas picking up starting spots and Kirk Hinrich sliding over to the 2 guard position.

The thing I note with this team is that they're deep, however, their depth consists mostly of average level talent, and doesn't begin with any All-Star caliber players.  The center position is the weakest as I believe Joakim Noah to be little more than a young Ben Wallace, meaning, high energy and negligible on the offensive end.  Omer Asik is supposed to have a lot of upside, but I haven't heard or seen anything to tell me it's anything but upside right now.  All in all, Deng, Gordon, and Hinrich have not shown that they can carry a team unless they're all playing at their best at the same time, which hasn't happened in two years.  I'm not as optimistic about this team as most other people.

34-48

Season Preview: Golden State Warriors

I don't dislike the Warriors, in fact, they're the closest team that I can go watch, so I have a slight personal vested interest, sort of. I'm not a fan either though, however, objectively, I can't say they'll be very good this year.

Starting 5:
PG- Monta Ellis
SG- Stephen Jackson
SF- Corey Maggette
PF- Al Harrington
C- Andris Biedrins

Off the bench
Guards: Marcus Williams, CJ Watson, Dan Dickau, DeMarcus Nelson
Forwards: Marco Bellinelli, Kelenna Azubuike, Anthony Randolph, Brandon Wright, Anthony Morrow, Ronny Turiaf
Centers: None

Technically, Harrington and Turiaf would likely split time at the 5 with Biedrins, given how Nellie runs his small ball lineups. I wouldn't be surprised to see Randolph and/or Wright get playing time there too. The season hasn't even started and it's already been ruined for most Warriors fans, everything went downhill when Baron Davis opted out and fled south to his favored hometown of LA to join the Clippers. The features of this year's Warriors will be the same as those of previous years; minimal defense, lots of running. All this of course less Baron Davis and Monta Ellis.

It hurts that Ellis is out for so long, and from what I hear, his injury is not a quick recovery, he could very well be rehabbing for the better part of the season. Much of the onus of scoring and production now fall upon new acquisition Corey Maggette and captain Stephen Jackson. Al Harrington also will now have a chance to prove himself worth something, maybe that'll get him traded or something, if that's what he wants. Azubuike and Bellinelli look to fill the void left by reserves Barnes and Pietrus, which some might consider an upgrade. I hope that Nellie opts to develop his younger players more. Ronny Turiaf was a solid, but expensive addition to help mitigate the post and assist Biedrins on the glass, I think they can do better.

Playoffs unfortunately are well out of the picture. Stephen Jackson and Corey Maggette will be interesting playing next to each other, but all in all everything remains the same, minus the beard. Hopefully Marcus Williams or CJ Watson can really step it up.

38-44.

Season Preview: Indiana Pacers

I warn you that this isn't written for fantasy, so you use your own discretion if you use it for such.

Starting 5
PG- TJ Ford
SG- Mike Dunleavy Jr
SF- Danny Granger
PF- Troy Murphy
C- Rasho Nesterovic

Off the bench
Guards: Marquis Daniels, Travis Diener, Jarrett Jack, Brandon Rush
Forwards: Josh McRoberts, Austin Croshere, Shawne Williams
Centers: Jeff Foster, Roy Hibbert, Maceo Baston

I would like to reiterate the fact that I don't think this team is very good, in fact, it's average, so average that it's forgettable. Which shocks me, because Danny Granger is considered like top 5-10 SG/SF material on like every other ranking board I've seen. Ok, he had a career season last year, 19.1 pts, 6.1 rbds, 2.1 assts, 1.2 stls, 1.1 blcks per game, a respectable line. Top 5? I don't know about that. Here's Yahoo!'s Kelly Dwyer's take:

8:29	[Comment From Jaceman] Is there any specific reason that Granger is ranked so high in all the power rankings? Or am I the only one that thinks he's been massively overhyped?

8:29	KDonhoops: Because it sounds right. Solid player, does everything OK, but that's it. He's OK, but he's just ... OK.

8:30	KDonhoops: ... as he charges into Tyson Chandler.

8:31	[Comment From Jaceman] Ok enough to be considered top 10 SG/SF?

8:31	KDonhoops: Nope.

There you have it. I'm done. No, I'm not, but seriously. Danny Granger is good, but he's not THAT good. There are still other people I'd rather have on my team, and that is the reason why he, little Dunleavy, and TJ Ford are not going to take the Pacers to a playoff series this year.

That seems to be the problem with everyone else on the roster too, they're all just OK. I don't see Marquis Daniel or Travis Diener being anything more than serviceable, Jarret Jack already is serviceable, and unless Roy Hibbert and Brandon Rush somehow manage to win playing time and breakout then maybe. However, I don't see them outperforming Rasho Nesterovic and/or the above mentioned Marquis Daniels anytime in the near future. Honestly, there's nothing that convinces me that this team will perform well against the better constructed teams. It's like where all the players that deserve a contract but no one really wants ends up. I might change my analysis if Rasho Nesterovic or Troy Murphy start averaging 20-10, but until then, Pacers have a bleak season ahead of them.

34-48

Oh the Vinsanity

I promised a gig about Vince Carter and so here it is. Most people remember him as a Raptor, because as a Raptor, he completely redefined the Slam Dunk Contest, and that's all anyone will remember him for. Well, that and jumping over a 7-foot Frenchman. Vince Carter is a good guy, he really is, he's opening a chemical addiction treatment center, he saves cats from trees and stops robbers stealing purses, the whole 9 yards. Ok, ok, in all seriousness Vince Carter's antics can always be limited to the basketball court, which unfortunately, as his profession dictates, creates something of a problem. You'd think that he and little cousin Tracy McGrady on the same team, at the same time would've been insane, but they both hated Toronto, Carter wanted to play for a winner. So, T-Mac goes to Orlando where he catches some chronic injury from Grant Hill and Vince ends up in New Jersey next to Jason Kidd.

Upon his arrival New Jersey was coming off of 3 playoff appearances, 2 of those losses in the Finals to the Lakers and to the Spurs. Vince Carter helped them get 3 more, but they always got knocked out second round. Some people say that Carter got complacent, for a guy playing complacently 21 pts, 5 rbds, and 6 assts per game isn't too shabby. I like his performance, but I would agree, he doesn't really have the fire in him anymore. So trade him. What's the problem? Well, I would guess $14 million per year for the next four years might be one of them, or rather, 56 million of them, depending on how you're counting. A lot of people view Carter as a highly talented player, but a washup that isn't really worth the money. He just doesn't have that edge that makes him a winner. That makes him hard to market. Especially since most teams can't really afford to pay star power money for someone who isn't necessarily going to bring star powered game to the court night in and night out.

A lot of people, Yahoo! BDL included, think that Carter will be traded very soon, very, very soon, as in, before the February trade deadline, which in terms of basketball talk, is pretty quick. We all know that the Nets are in the running for the LeBron James sweepstakes as many of the star-studded 2003 rookie class becomes free agents. Joining LeBron in the free agency would also include Olympic teammates Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade. Amare Stoudemire would also be a free agent in the upcoming summer. So, there's a lot of All-Star talent out there, and you need a lot of money to throw a max contract out there that one of them will take. So New Jersey, has long been enamoured of LeBron James, and is hoping to somehow draw him to the Nets (with a few hints from Jay-Z maybe) come free agency. So the Nets have been shedding talent for cap space left and right, picking young players with "upside" over proven veterans. They obviously don't really care if they win or not this year, because it's all about when LeBron gets to town.

The only problem; Vince Carter and his $56 million contract.

So, again, trade him. Well, given that fat of a contract, what kind of team would take him? We're looking for a team that has a weak SG slot, and is looking for an immediate solution, they are just that one SG away from being a winner. In fact, they'd be willing to give up an expiring contract or something just so they could fill that slot with effective talent. If we look at VC's contract, because it's 4 years, no rebuilding team wants him. Out go OKC and Memphis, the usual spots to dump bad contracts. So contender material... Spurs? No, Pops still likes Manu. Lakers? They got Kobe. Boston? Ray Allen and Paul Pierce. New Orleans? No, no contracts to make even close to matching. So you see the problem?

We see that the problem isn't that VC doesn't fit anywhere, or that he's a bad player, it's just that, there's no where that can use him that is able to pay him his contract. Except... Well, Wally Sczerbiak seems to have a $13 M expiring contract... That works... Except... VC to the Cavs might just make Cleveland good enough for LeBron to want to stay. Hey, I'm all for VC to the Cavs, get LeBron some more help. Seriously though, the Nets would be shooting themselves in the foot if they went for Wally just because he's an expiring contract, unless they're really going for Dwayne Wade all this time...

UPDATE: Yahoo!'s very own KD on VC for Wally Sczerbiak:

8:32	[Comment From Jaceman] I don't know that Carter will be that easy to trade. The quickest solution would be for Wally Sczerbiak's expiring contract, but then, would that make Cleveland good enough for LeBron to stay?

8:32	KDonhoops: Yeah, that's one of the weirdest non-trade scenarios I can remember for years. It would help both teams, but both teams would be wondering if it would be helping the other a bit TOO much.

NBA.com confuses me

So, I've been looking around at various rankings, and to be honest, I shouldn't be so surprised that EA Sports predictions based on a simulation run on NBA Live 2009 or something comes up with weird stuff. Power rankings are fickle things, but seriously, some of these are absurd. Granted, maybe I'm somewhat biased with my own opinions but still... I think the best way we can look at this is to throw up a couple and see what's going on:

Eastern Conference:

	My Picks	EPSN's John Hollinger's Team Forecasts	EA Sports Season Simulation via NBA.com
1	Boston Celtics	Boston Celtics	Miami Heat
2	Detroit Pistons	Detroit Pistons	Detroit Pistons
3	Orlando Magic	Philadelphia 76ers	Boston Celtics
4	Philadelphia 76ers	Orlando Magic	Chicago Bulls
5	Toronto Raptors	Cleveland Cavaliers*	Cleveland Cavaliers
6	Cleveland Cavaliers	Toronto Raptors*	Orlando Magic
7	Washington Wizards	Indiana Pacers	Toronto Raptors
8	Miami Heat	Charlotte Bobcats	Charlotte Bobcats
9	Miwaukee Bucks	Miami Heat*	Milwaukee Bucks
10	Atlanta Hawks	Chicago Bulls*	New Jersey Nets
11	Charlotte Bobcats	Washington Wizards	Philadelphia 76ers
12	Chicago Bulls	Miwaukee Bucks	Atlanta Hawks
13	Indiana Pacers	Atlanta Hawks	New York Knicks
14	New Jersey Nets	New York Knicks	Washington Wizards
15	New York Knicks	New Jersey Nets	Indiana Pacers

* tied for the higher seed

Western Conference:

	My Picks	EPSN's John Hollinger's Team Forecasts	EA Sports Season Simulation via NBA.com
1	LA Lakers	Utah Jazz	LA Lakers
2	New Orleans Hornets	LA Lakers	Houston Rockets
3	Utah Jazz	Houston Rockets	Dallas Mavericks
4	Houston Rockets	New Orleans Hornets	New Orleans Hornets
5	San Antonio Spurs	San Antonio Spurs	Denver Nuggets*
6	Portland Trail Blazers	Phoenix Suns*	San Antonio Spurs*
7	Phoenix Suns	Dallas Mavericks*	LA Clippers
8	Dallas Mavericks	Portland Trail Blazers	Phoenix Suns
9	LA Clippers	Denver Nuggets	Utah Jazz
10	Denver Nuggets	Golden State Warriors	Portland Trail Blazers
11	Minnesota Timberwolves	Minnesota Timberwolves	Golden State Warriors
12	Golden State Warriors	LA Clippers	Memphis Grizzlies
13	Sacramento Kings	Memphis Grizzlies	Sacramento Kings
14	Memphis Grizzlies	Sacramento Kings	Minnesota Timberwolves
15	Oklahoma City Thunder	Oklahoma City Thunder	Oklahoma City Thunder

*tied for the higher seed

So far we agree on two major things, all of us, and that is, Detroit will do well, and OKC is going to suck. I don't know, but I don't see how EA managed to pull Miami, Chicago, Dallas, and Denver to do so well. Seriously. The Jazz and the 76ers not making playoffs this year? I really don't know what they use to figure this out, but all I have to say, is that I hope Tony Parker breaks the curse.

Season Preview: Minnesota Timberwolves

Continuing onward...

Starting 5:
PG- Randy Foye
SG- Mike Miller
SF- Corey Brewer
PF- Kevin Love
C- Al Jefferson

Off the bench
Guards: Sebastian Telfair, Rashad McCants, Blake Ahearn, Rodney Carney
Forwards: Ryan Gomes, Craig Smith, Krik Snyder
Center: Mark Madsen, Calvin Booth, Rafael Araujo

The T'Wolves are another team that made a major acquisition in the off-season. I meant the steal that was in essence Mike Miller for Antoine Walker and Marko Jaric, that and the ugliness of Brian Cardinal's contract, but that aside, it was a steal. Granted the trade was highlighted around the rookie swap of Love and Mayo, but the fact that Kevin McHale could squeeze a solid veteran player like Mike Miller out of it was big. I only have two problems with it. First, Mike Miller needs to be on a win-now team. Second, the T'Wolves are not a win-now team.

They have a lot of talent, but they need to continue to develop Al Jefferson. As good as Kevin Love is, he isn't what's going to carry this team into the playoffs, at least not this coming season. Mike Miller needs to mesh, but by the the time this team is ready, it may already be too late. Randy Foye needs to live up to expectations, and hope that his injury doesn't hinder him too much, and that he's at least as good as Brandon Roy, who he was traded for on draft night. There are too many what ifs. Craig Smith are Ryan Gomes look to be solid role players, but become nothing more than severely undersized power forwards, and as much as I like them, I wouldn't play them extensively except in emergency situations.

Certainly they're a better looking team, however, as much as people rave about Kevin Love, I cannot really see an effective co-existence of him and Al Jefferson. To me, they're too identical. It's not that they'll cannibalize each other's stats, but my concern is more at the defensive end, where teams can use size, among other things to exploit this matchup. I have to see more Love play, but he is small for a PF, and big bodied ones might take advantage of that. Additionally, Jefferson has struggled all season last year at the center position, the addition of Love helps him because... he keeps playing at center? It could end up working out, Jefferson could learn to fill the center role, however, they'll be sorely pressed when manned against a larger team like Toronto or Portland.

32-50. No post season.

What is Wrong With This Picture?

Seriously, why can't NBA get its own stuff right?


If you don't recognize the players here they are listed from right to left:

Chris Paul, Jason Kidd, Gilbert Arenas, and... Luol Deng?

It wouldn't bother me as much except that it says "Never Get Caught Off Guard" and the three other guys are point guards.

Season Preview: New Jersey Nets

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Starting 5:
PG- Devin Harris
SG- Vince Carter
SF- Bobby Simmons
PF- Yi Jianlian
C- Josh Boone

Off the bench
Guards: Chris Douglas-Roberts, Keyon Dooling, Julius Hodge
Forwards: Eduardo Najera, Jarvis Hayes, Ryan Anderson, Brian Hamilton
Centers: Brook Lopez, Sean Williams, Stromile Swift

Another one of those upside and potential teams, for good reason, their just collecting the pieces until they can hopefully win over LeBron in the lucrative free agency market to come. Thus, they have a hodge-podge of small contracts and are building up a lot of cap space hopefully to make a splash and land a new big star. They still have Vince Carter, and don't get me wrong, Vinsanity still has game. He put up a respectable 21.3 pts, 6.0 rbds, and 5.1 assts per game, and as much as he says he cares, it's pretty apparent that he wasn't really trying, meaning, he could play better. Granted he's another year older, he's a year past the wrong side of 30 for NBA players, and he's probably lost some of that athleticism that defined him in the 2000 NBA Slam Dunk competition.

Now that the show has officially become Vince Carter's and only Vince Carter's, it lends for him to step up and show that he's worth the contract given him, he's worth the remaining 4 years on it. Jason Kidd has been shipped to Dallas, Richard Jefferson to Milwaukee, now all that remains is Carter and a bunch of young guns that show promise but not much else. Devin Harris was considered the biggest mistake Dallas made, that is, in giving him up, he was considered the Tony Parker stopper, and instead, he was exchanged for playmaker Jason Kidd. Granted Kidd has more on his resume, but Kidd's also a lot slower, that makes it harder, not easier to stop Tony Parkers. In Jersey, things are looking up for Harris, perhaps now that he is a more integral part of the offense, he can begin to thrive more and be able to develop his game. Chris Douglas-Roberts, or CDR as he is known, has shown a lot of promise and Ryan Anderson has shown streaks of solid gameplay, granted both in Summer League. Likewise is the case for 1st round pick Brook Lopez. If Lopez develops I can easily see him ousting Josh Boone out of a starting spot, since his offensive touch around the rim is much more refined.

Yi has been listed as something of a marketing ploy more than any contributions he brings on the court. His game has shown flashes of greatness but they've easily been lost in his inconsistent rookie season at Milwaukee. Hopefully, on a team that doesn't care to win, Yi can really get some solid playing time and develop his talent much more. The obviously glaring gap within the lineup remains the SF position (hint, hint, LeBron), with only Bobby Simmons and Jarvis Hayes to fill the spot, it's not very promising, but again, we all know what they're after.

In review of the Nets roster, I realize, that they do indeed suck. 30-52.