NBA Season Preview - Western Conference

The NBA season is just days away from tip off and in order to be prepared for 82 games of action you need to know who is good, who is bad and who will be ugly.

So, here are my predictions for the Western Conference (Eastern Conference tomorrow) and a quick little note on what you need to be aware of.

1. LA Lakers - They made lots of changes in the offseason so it may take the regular season for all the new parts to fit together, but when you have this many all-stars and future hall of famers players together, even if they are cohesive they can still win. Kobe, Nash, Howard, Gasol and World Peace....scary sight for any opponent.

2. San Antonio Spurs - The model franchise. Title contenders year in and out, they have run into some bad luck in the post-season the past two years, but they are still deep and a threat in the West. Tim Duncan is on his last legs so he'll start to rely even more on Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.

3. Oklahoma City Thunder - The Thunder feature the second best scorer in the league in Kevin Durant and that alone would be enough to carry them to the three seed, but they also have a top five point guard in Russel Westbrook. The trade of James Harden on the eve of the season might put them behind the eight ball in terms of team chemistry, but they got some good parts in return. Might not be a title contender this year, but will have the Spurs consistency in terms of being title contenders.

4. Denver Nuggets - A very sexy pick to be a top of the conference team in the West. They are doing it without one bonafide superstar. It is conceivable that the Nuggets could not have an all-star this season but end up in the Western Conference finals. They have improved their defence, but still need to find a reliable crunch time scorer.

5. LA Clippers - Lob City is back! They have so much depth it is almost laughable, unfortunately it is depth all at the same position and no one is quite certain how coach Vinny Del Negro is going to get them all playing time. Blake Griffin needs to be more of an all-around player than a human highlight film for SportsCentre.

6. Utah Jazz - The major story coming out Utah this pre-season is that Enes Kanter dropped 50 lbs and is ready to make an impact in his second season. The Jazz have support for Kanter if he ends up getting pushed around in the post with Al Jefferson. The supporting cast isn't too shabby either with Mo Williams running the point, Paul Millsap, Derick Favors and Randy Foye. Much has been made of the Nuggets depth and youth, but this Jazz team might give them a run for their money.


7. Portland Trailblazers - New uniforms! Beside the slightly new look, the Blazers actually have some talent and could cause trouble in the playoffs. Perennial all star LaMarcus Aldridge will lead and has support in Wesley Matthews and Nicolas Batum. Besides the big three, rookies Damian Lillard and Meyers Leonard have both played well in the pre-season. Lillard is even getting some rookie of the year buzz.

8. Memphis Grizzlies - The Grizz might have blown their championship chances when they failed to use Zach Randolph's magic playoff run a couple of years ago. They still have two of the best big men in Randolph and Marc Gasol but the rest of the roster leaves alot to be desired.

9. Minnesota Timberwolves - The T-Wolves have alot of "try hard" players supporting one super star in Kevin Love. The issue with the super star is injury. Love broke his hand during the preseason and is out for 6 weeks. While it isn't a huge part of the season, it might be enough to put Minny behind early and unable to climb outta their hole. They also have the injury to Ricky Rubio that will delay their success this season. The interesting players to watch here are Brandon Roy and Andrei Kirilenko. Kirilenko returns after a season away from the NBA and Roy returns after retiring before last season. If these two can regain their form, an playoff spot isn't out of the question.

10. Golden State Warriors - The success and/or failure of the Warriors will be based on the health of its best players - Steph Curry and David Lee. Unfortunately for the Warriors they are already hurt and no one is sure when they will be back or if they can stay healthy.

11. Dallas Mavericks - Mark Cuban got his championship and has decided a second one is not necessary. The rag tag bunch of players will not give the Mavs much hope of making the playoffs this year. Dirk Nowitzki is still around and will have to carry much of the scoring load. Vince Carter, OJ Mayo and Darren Collison (filling in for Jason Kidd) will have to try and make the best of the situation.

12. New Orleans Hornets - First overall pick Anthony Davis will make an immediate impact but unfortunately he is only the start of the rebuilding process in New Orleans that might take a few more drafts. Eric Gordon is a quality starter and will make it his mission to guide the ship.

13. Houston Rockets - Although they acquired a couple of nice pieces in the offseason in Omar Asik, Jeremy Lin and now James Harden, GM Daryl Morey has a quick trigger finger and is trying to rebuild quickly. It will be interesting to see if he has any more moves up his sleeves.

14. Sacramento Kings - A great fantasy basketball roster, but put them on an actual basketball court and disaster. Tyreke Evans is probably the player who has the most talent, but no idea how to use it. DeMarcus Cousins is another player that needs to find a way to harness his skills and become an all star. They are still bummed to not be in Anaheim.

15. Phoenix Suns - Oh boy. Put the ping pong balls in the hopper for these guys. Unless you are following Jared Dudley on Twitter there is no real point to turn in to watch these guys.

Kobe Says Aurevoir To The NBA in 2013-14

Let the retirement tour begin! Apparently, 2013-2014 will be Kobe Bean Bryant's last in the NBA. Since being drafted in 1996 by the Charlotte Hornets (yes, it is true, he wasn't always a Laker), Kobe has achieved greatness and no matter how much you hate the purple and gold and all their championships, you can't deny that.

His career will be defined by multiple things; his competitive nature, his 5 championships, being a ball hog, scoring 81 points in a game against the Raptors and desire to be better than Michael Jordan. All of these traits have made Kobe into the great player we still see on the court.

Why retire now though? The Lakers have just made two of the biggest off-season acquisitions in Dwight Howard and Steve Nash and he is playing with 2 other all-stars in Pau Gasol and Metta World Peace.This hardly seems like the time you would decide to hang 'em up. Kobe is only 34 years old, but has been playing in the NBA since he was 18. There are definitely a lot of miles on his legs, especially considering the Lakers have often gone deep into the playoffs and he has also played internationally. Recently signed teammate Steve Nash is 38 and signed a 3 years deal, why not stick around and play out the string with him, try and pick up an extra title or two. Kobe is apparently in a place where he feels good about leaving the Lakers. They will be in good hands with Howard and Gasol moving forward to keep the winning tradition alive, or so he hopes. Why not wait until he is sure Howard can produce at the championship level that Lakers fans demand?

The other big bullseye for Kobe, other than tying Jordan with 6 titles, is the all-time scoring record. He is currently about 9000 points behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, or about 5 decent seasons. This doesn't seem out of reach for such a competitive athlete, especially if those knee treatments continue in Germany each off-season.

Kobe will be missed once he retires, probably not by fans in places like New York, Denver, Utah or Toronto, teams he consistently torched, but you probably do have to honor him when he comes to town one last time. If the Raptors are planning on doing so, I hope they decide to do it with a Raptors jersey with 81 on the back and Bryant as the nameplate.

GAME 7

After 82 regular season games and four best of seven playoff series the NBA champion will be decided in the final game of 2009-10 season.

The NBA season was very unpredictable. The Western conference had the dominant teams all season long. The Lakers, Spurs, Nuggets, and Suns all could been the top seed at some point during the regular season. The Eastern conference had the big three coming into the season - Orlando, Boston and Cleveland. They were joined by Atlanta and Boston disappeared from contention around the all-star break. Near the end of the season Boston apparently came together as a team and made their playoff run, and the Lakers proved their championship caliber by running through all Western contenders.

The six games leading up tomorrow's night death match has been just as unpredictable as the season. Game one was dominated by the Lakers, game two was the Ray Allen show, game three was the anti-Ray Allen show, game four was the Celtics bench dominating, game five was Paul Pierce show and then game six was total Lakers domination. There has been no MVP that has risen to the top or no overiding theme other than there has been no them.

So what does this game 7 mean to the NBA? It means everything...instead of a best four of seven, the NBA gets it's one shining moment like all the other sports where one game final decides the champion.

So what happens tomorrow night? The Lakers and the crowd is pumped up, but if Ray Allen or Paul Pierce can hit some early baskets to quiet the crowd they stand a chance. Without Kendrick Perkins for game 7 due to a knee injury sustained in game 6, the Lakers need to take advantage of that with Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol. The MVP though, will be Kobe Bryant. He lives for these situations and you better believe he has another 30 point game in him.

Lakers NBA Champions!

NBA Finals - It's The Usual

The NBA Finals start this week and it shouldn't be a shock as to which teams are playing - Lakers vs. Celtics. This will be the 12th time the teams meet in the finals. It shouldn't be a shock either because the same teams to appear in the finals year after year. The NBA, unlike other major sports seems to thrive on dynasties.

The 1960's were dominated by the Celtics who won 10 of 11 championships, the 1980s the Magic Johnson led Lakers and the Larry Bird led Celtics again controlled the Larry O'Brien trophy. The 1990's were dominated by the Chicago Bulls led by none other than his airness Michael Jordan. If Jordan was retired, the Rockets took back to back championships and then in 2000's it was the David Robinson/Tim Duncan San Antonio Spurs who won four trophies.

So why can the NBA be dominated by one team. The simple answer is that one dynamic player can control the game. Everything that these dynasties had in common was the superstar. Whether it was Magic, Bird or Jordan - the one player could score, defend and bring home the championship.

The other thing these teams had in common were a great second fiddle - Worthy, McChale or Pippen. These players were able to bail their teams out if the star wasn't playing well and was the tie that bound the team together.

Unfortunately, some of today's biggest stars haven't been able to carry their teams to titles recently. DeWayne Wade managed the feat in 2006 and Kobe Bryant has carried the Lakers for the three seasons, so can he do it again.

Here is my two cents, breaking down the 2010 finals

Guard
Celtics have the best young PG in the game in Rajon Rondo, with the best pure shooter Ray Allan. The Lakers will counter with the the clutch shooting of Derek Fisher and the best player in the NBA, Kobe Bryant.
Edge - Lakers. When you have the best player, you get the edge.

Forward
The C's have Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. While the Lakers have Paul Gasol and Ron Artest. Pierce the leader of the Celtics, will be covered by Artest. Artest has become the defensive stopper that the Lakers envisioned and he'll be put to the test in this series. Pau Gasol is able to get his points and rebounds no matter what the scenario, while Garnett has turned into a reliable role player for the Celtics.
Edge - Lakers. Gasol and Artest are too much for Pierce and Garnett to handle.

Center
The Celtics have the defensive power of Kendric Perkins playing the post. He has really come into his own during the post-season, but he will be challenged by Andrew Bynum. As long as Bynum's knee holds up this will be an interesting match up.
Edge - Celtics. With Bynum's injury bug, Perkins gets the edge.

My prediction - Lakers in 6 games, with Pau Gasol winning the MVP.

Here are the list of the most common NBA Finals match-ups (courtesy Wikipedia)
* 11 times: Boston Celtics (9) vs. Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers (2)
* 6 times: Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers (5) vs. Syracuse Nationals/Philadelphia 76ers (1)
* 5 times: Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers (3) vs. New York Knicks (2)
* 4 times: Boston Celtics (3) vs. St. Louis/Atlanta Hawks (1) (Such a meeting is now impossible due to current conference alignment.)
* 3 times: Detroit Pistons (2) vs. Los Angeles Lakers (1)
* 2 times: Seattle SuperSonics (1) vs. Washington Bullets/Wizards (1)
* 2 times: Boston Celtics (2) vs. Houston Rockets (0)
* 2 times: Chicago Bulls (2) vs. Utah Jazz (0)

Western Conference Preview - Denver Nuggets vs. LA Lakers

Just incase you don't know what is going on in the basketball world, we are down to the final four. The defending champs are out, the MVP hasn't lost a game in the playoffs and the team that everyone thought would win the title was just taken to a game 7.

Here is a breakdown of the conference finals by position;

Western Conference - Denver Nuggets vs. Los Angeles Lakers

Center: Andrew Bynum of the Lakers against Nene of the Nuggets. Bynum was and is supposed to the be the phenom at center, however between injuries and partying at the Playboy mansion he hasn't lived up to the hype. He went scoreless in 3 of the games vs. Houston. Nene is having one of his best years ever. A force on the inside and with other players that can play center such as Kenyon Martin and Chris Anderson, the Nuggets have lots of good options. Advantage - Nuggets

Forward: Pau Gasol and Trevor Ariza for the Lakers will wage battle against Kenyon Martin and Carmelo Anthony. This will be a great match-up. Kenyon Martin will put the body on Gasol and try to get him off his game, while Ariza will need to play stellar defense so that Carmelo is slowed down from getting his 27 points per game. Lamar Odom for the Lakers and Chris Anderson/Linas Kleiza will be the big factors off very short benches. Advantage - Nuggets

Guard: Derek Fisher and Kobe Bryant for the Lakers and Dhantay Jones and Chauncey Billups for the Nuggets. Without a doubt the best player of the series is in this group - Kobe Bryant. Everyone knows as he goes so do the Lakers. Kobe turns it on when the Lakers need him the most and they will need him if the Lakers look to return to the finals. Billups is Mr. Big Shot, he turned the Nuggets season around when he was traded from the Pistons and has them to the conference finals for the first time since 1985. The X factor in this group is JR Smith. Energy and shooting off the bench. He will be counted on to fill up the basket and run the Lakers off the court. Advantage - Lakers

Coaching: Phil Jackson for the Lakers and George Karl for the Nuggets. Both have been at the game a long time. Jackson has 9 championship rings to show off, Karl wore a jersey while coaching last season. Jackson gives his players inspirational readings, Karl makes certain his players aren't taking drugs. Different personalities, different styles, but both effective with their teams. Advantage - Lakers

Overall: Kobe Bryant is the guy who showed LeBron James what it takes to win at the highest level while they played together on the Olympic team. He also played with Carmelo, the people in Denver hope that Carmelo Anthony learned what it took to be a champion also. It will be a fast paced series, with high scoring games, the Nuggets will give the Lakers a run, but fall short. Lakers in 7.