Melo’s (Potentially-Partial) Final Season with the Denver Nuggets
Glass half-full - They come out of the gates strong, raising the price for any team wanting to pry Carmelo away. In December, they finally give in to the Nets, getting Derrick Favors, Terrence Williams, and 2 unprotected first round picks. They decide to go all in on rebuilding the team by trading Billups and Kenyon Martin to a contender for expiring contracts and another first rounder. Instead of losing these players for nothing, they now head into the next two seasons with Favors (3rd overall pick), five first round selections (including their own), and about $30 million in cap space. Not bad.
Glass half empty - They refuse to give in to Melo’s trade requests and keep hoping that he’ll sign their extension offer. Melo’s sulking begins to bring down the rest of the team. (I know you’re thinking guys like J.R. Smith and Kenyon Martin wouldn’t let another players attitude affect their own, but let’s assume it does.) The team wallows it’s way to a 34-win season. Melo is so upset at the way the team treated him that he refuses to be part of a sign-and-trade, and willfully takes less money in free agency just to screw Denver over.
OK City Thunder
Glass half-full - Durant somehow continues to improve exponentially with every game he plays. He becomes the youngest two-time scoring champion with a ridiculous line of 33 ppg, 9 boards, 4 assists, 2 steals, and 1.5 blocks. Russell Westbrook moves himself firmly to the bottom of the upper echelon of point guards (Deron Williams, Chris Paul, Steve Nash, Derrick Rose, Rajon Rondo, Westbrook.) Those two lead the best cast of young role players in recent memory to the best record in the west. They role through the Jazz and Spurs in the first two rounds. In the conference finals, after Matt Barnes and Ron Artest allow Durant to put up 40 in Game 1, Kobe takes it upon himself (and his bad knees) to guard Durant. He completely wears himself out on the defensive end in a futile effort and Pau can’t do enough offensively to carry LA. In the first matchup of what will become the rivalry of the 10’s, Durant averages 42 per game against the Heat in the finals. The Thunder’s superior role players are the difference and Seattle cries as OKC wins in 7.
Glass half-empty - Barring injuries, I really don’t see anyway this team falls apart. They don’t have one questionable character on their roster. I think the basement for this team is about 48 wins and the 5th seed in the West. Of course, if Durant goes down, hello lottery.
San Antonio Spurs
Glass half-full - It will be an odd (number-wise) year by the time the finals come around, so you can’t count Duncan & Friends out. With the maturation of DeJuan Blair and the addition of Brazilian Tiago Splitter, Duncan is able to keep his minutes in the upper 20’s for the regular season. Manu Ginobili leads the team to another 50-win season. With a fresh Duncan, the Spurs oust the Jazz in the first round, and push the Lakers to six games in round 2. I think that’s probably the ceiling for this team from now on.
Glass half-empty - Everyone goes down to injuries and they have to rely on Richard Jefferson to do something.
LA Lakers
Glass half-full - Sasha Vujacic’s poor play is such a turn off that it forces Maria Sharapova into the arms of someone out of the spotlight, possibly a 20-something white guy with a kick-ass beard who, as a hobby, writes for a blog that freely mixes posts about the NBA with top-ten Halloween character lists. But, as far as basketball, they complete Phil Jackson’s 4th three-peat and Kobe ties MJ’s 6 titles.
Glass half-empty - Sharapova goes through with the wedding, Artest goes AWOL after the all star break and is finally found in mid-April, shirtless in a small town in Iowa, freestyling to a group of stoned high school kids with no recollection of the past 3 months, and Kobe can’t take the lingering pain anymore, opting for season ending surgery, so he can make a healthy run next year.
Predictions
East
Playoff Seeds
1) Miami
2) Orlando
3) Boston
4) Chicago
5) Milwaukee
6) New York
7) Atlanta
8) Charlotte
Conference Finals - Miami over Boston in 7
West
Playoff Seeds
1) Lakers
2) Dallas
3) OKC
4) Utah
5) Phoenix
6) Houston
7) San Antonio
8) Portland
Conference Finals - Lakers over OKC in 6
Finals - I’m not really going out on a limb here, but I’ll say Lakers over Heat in 6
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