sports: The NBA is officially under way as of two days ago. The Miami Heat are looking to defend the championship against a field led by many of the teams that were the top contenders last year. Most of the teams that were top contenders last year, including the defending champs, are coming back with significant alterations to their rosters and thus potentially to the style in which they play.
As the Heat begin their title defense, they are showing that the look of their team will strongly resemble what we saw from them in the NBA finals last spring. Lebron James will be starting at power forward this season and playing out of the post unless the team finds themselves in transition situations where James can handle the ball. Dwayne Wade will be the teams slasher. Chris Bosh will primarily play out of the weak post and flash for mid-range jumpers. The other roles will be filled by shooters. Along with Mario Chalmers, Shane Battier, and Mike Miller coming back from last years team, the Heat have also added Rashard Lewis and former Celtic Ray Allen. With this look, like in last years Finals, the plan will be to run the offense through James in the post and let him distribute to shooters or a slashing Wade if the double team comes. If it doesn't then he will be allowed to go to work and score one on one. While this offensive game plan dominated against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Finals, the question has to be how this will work during a full eighty-two game season, especially with James playing full times against players who are more physically comparable to the himself rather than the guards and small forwards the has been matched up against in the past.
The Boston Celtics are probably the biggest threat to the Heat in the Eastern Conference. They are the second most talented team in the conference as well as having a wealth of experience to bring into big games. The Celtics return stars Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Rajon Rondo. These three form a strong nucleus with the two veterans and Rondo, who should assume alpha dog status on this team and possibly put himself in the running for MVP. The Celtics should also be bolstered on defense with the return from injury of Avery Bradley, who when healthy last year proved to be one of the best one on one guard defenders in the league (look up his shutdown performance against Dwayne Wade towards the end of the regular season last year.) Also coming back from health issues is Jeff Green. Green had high expectations coming over from Oklahoma City in the Kendrick Perkins trade before being sidelined with heart issues. Green may never be a star but he certainly can be a fine complementary piece to Boston's big three as a scorer and rebounder. Probably the biggest addition to the Celtics roster is Jason Terry. Terry was brought in as a free agent from Dallas to replace Ray Allen. Terry could prove to even be an upgrade from Allen. Terry will be OK with coming off the bench, a thing Allen was unhappy about after the emergence of Avery Bradley. Terry is also better with the ball in his hands. Terry has experience running a second unit from his time in Dallas and is more than capable of creating his own shot. And as far as crunch time goes, Terry was an integral part of the Dallas fourth quarter offense and should prove to be in Boston as well. His more than adequate range and ability to play with the ball in his hands combined with his total fearlessness (the words for him are "irrational confidence") should be a fine replacement for Allen. The biggest question for the Celtics, given the age of the stars as well as concerns about Green, is health. If the core of this team can be on the court together they have a chance to beat anybody.
Their are two other main contenders in the east. The Indiana Pacers showed last year that they are capable of challenging the best teams in their conference. They seem to have some things working against them though. They traded their starting point guard, Darren Collison, who while not an all star, fit well into what that team did. Like many teams this year losing key players, that could create a getting to know you process that can slow Indiana down. The Pacers also still lack a go to player that can take over at key moments late in games. Probably the biggest problem is that Indiana won't surprise anyone this year, and any athlete will tell you that life is harder when you have a target on your back.
The other team could be the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls will be face with a similar task as last year of having to survive until the return of superstar point guard Derrick Rose. While the Bulls were 18-9 without Rose last year, things should not be so easy this year. The Bulls failed to re-sign key bench players from last year: Ronnie Brewer, Kyle Korver, Amir Asik, and C.J. Watson. These players, especially Watson who started in Rose's absence, were key contributors on last years deepest team. Without them the Bulls will be looking much more to tread water rather than win while awaiting Rose's return. Then they have to hope that after a torn ACL Rose will still be the same. If he is though, even as a middling playoff team they could threaten anyone they play.
Out west things look about as different as they do atop the east. The defending west champs, the Oklahoma City Thunder, are returning with a major change to their team. Just two days before the start of the season they traded sixth man of the year James Harden to the Rockets for Kevin Martin and Jeremy Lamb. While Martin has been a fine scorer throughout his career, averaging about 18 points per game, and the rookie Lamb is a good outside shooter, shooting 37% from three in college, there is a big gap that the two of them won't be able to fill. Harden was the leader of the second unit, being able to create and run the offense with the ball in his hands. Martin and Lamb will be better off the ball and in pick and roll situations. The Thunder are hoping that the return of backup point guard Eric Maynor, who missed all of last season with a torn ACL, will be able to run the second unit offense in place of Harden while Lamb and Martin roam without the ball and make up the scoring void of Harden. The Thunder should be one of the best teams in the entire league again regardless of losing Harden given that they still have Durant and Westbrook who might be two of the best twelve players in the league. Also, if the Thunder can adjust their style of play to accommodate the two new players, which could be a good thing to learn for the Thunder since their biggest flaw in the finals (besides going big) was their ineffectiveness in half court sets and having two off the ball scorers will force that to improve, this could even prove to be a very nice trade for them.
The most drastically different team, maybe in the NBA, is the Los Angeles Lakers. In the off season they acquired superstars Dwight Howard and Steve Nash to compliment Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol while in the process losing all-star center Andrew Bynum. The Lakers will also be sporting a new offense in order to allow these players to work together. The Princeton offense, as it is called, emphasizes pick and rolls and off the ball movement to free up shooters and maximize touches in the post. This sounds great for all involved in theory. The thought of Howard and Nash running the pick and roll should make any basketball fan salivate. Also, the thought of Gasol passing out of the post to a slashing Bryant is a recipe for excitement, showing more than the stagnant version of Bryant we saw last year when he would hold the ball too much along with the passing skills of Gasol, who might be the best passing big in the league. Their are problems with this notion though. Bryant has not had to play off the ball since his first couple of years when he was still very young and playing along side Shaq at a time when he was the at his most dominant. The other problem is that Nash has spent his entire career in the ultra fast paced offenses of Don Nelson in Dallas and Mike D'Antoni (and his replacements/assistants) in Phoenix. This is the first time he will run an offense built around playing in a half court set. Needless to say it will be all about adjusting in L.A. But as this team learns how to play together, the talent and experience of these stars should allow them to gel and be a power come playoff time. The one thing that will need to be addressed as the season moves forward is that the Lakers lack depth. But if they can pick up a good shooter and ball handler during the season, which shouldn't be too hard, those holes can be filled.
The San Antonio Spurs are the only team that comes back looking like the same team we saw last year. They return thirteen players including their stalwarts: Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli. The young players that shone last year also now have that much more experience under their belts and will be expected to take on larger roles. This should not only help the Spurs in terms of player improvement, but as the season wears on coach Greg Popovich will be able to trust the team even more to players such as Danny Green and Kawaii Leonard while resting his aging stars. Much like the Celtics, health will be the biggest issue for this team. And also like the Celtics, if the Spurs have their stars on the floor, they are a championship caliber team.
I can't remember a season where so many top level teams came back for a season looking so different. The trades and free agent pickups, as well as adjustments in styles of play, will certainly make the season as interesting to watch closely as any in recent memory. But as the Heat begin their title defense, those adjustments and new fits will affect their ability to defend the title as much as it will affect other teams ability to take it from them.
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