the state of the nba....wolfpack blog pre title contenders

the lakers championship was a long time ago....so who are the teams to beat (prior to the draft---maybe this changes in 6-7 hrs)?

the lakers won---great but i think this needs to be put in perspective since the celtics were not healthy....say what you want about my asterisks theory but i don't think the lakers beat the celtics with triple double threat rondo, solid bench play in big baby, and a more mature perkins that would have killed bynum (maybe they get something out of marbury when he actually plays with garnett)....i think the celtics if healthy can still beat the lakers....the only question in boston now is how the organization feels about rondo....shopping him around can't be good for chemistry if no deal is made and if they give up allen they are probably done. i refuse to believe rondo is that hard to play with since he is a triple double guy. i think they know rondo's ceiling and are trying to cash in while the hype is their kinda like ace shopping around bret farve last year after he had a 6 TD game w/ 0 INT.

then we have the rockets....i think they should be better next year with the growth made by brooks mainly....inserting t-mac although not easy should enable them to beat the lakers in game 7 (question is do they get to game 7 with t-mac playing)....i think next year they could with yao, scolla, artest, t-mac, brooks with landry, hayes and von off the bench.

then you got the spurs....people forget r jefferson is a dream teamer (although the worst usa team---i put the failure squarely on larry brown and the lack of a true PG). he has the ability to be a legit number 2 or 3 on a championship squad but he will be asked to be the number 3 or 4....this is nuts....this splits up the grinding minutes from the aging duncan and gino....i think this is huge also considering this will be the easiest insertion, non chemistry breaker of all these aquisitions on a team that does not get rattled anyway. it also another body (paul pierce, melo-like) to throw at kobe and odom even....

of course the big cactus in cleveland....people think shaq will clog the lane too much....this is where coaching comes into play. this is only a problem if you run bron on five offense....if you run plays this is a big help to lebron (he will have more left in the tank at the end of the game). and maybe some of those shots mo, delonte, gibson, wally get are that much more wide open and they can sink the shot since they will be touching the ball. but if the coach of the year runs bron iso, this will be a disaster....who else has a back up center now the caliber of ilgauskus....i think they are shopping big z but i would keep him unless they can get a solid SG (too bad mike miller is not available) for big z (at this age shaq and big z can use EACH OTHER)....either way cleveland with shaq should beat the magic and the lakers (there is no way healthy SHAQ and BRON lose to kobe....shaq will kill to win that series; actually kobe would too but it is like deadliest warrior simulation---i gotta take bron and shaq)....

then you got the magic....i think they could be strong again but this depends on how they manage the skip-nelson garbage....if skip can be happy off the bench he will be one of the best bench PGs in the league...this can be huge if he accepts it and jameer returns to pre-allstar break form (this is key because if jameer sucks, there is no way skip will be content backing up someone he feels he is better than or even if it is wash--jameer has to be flat out better). this playoff experience alone should better them but then again the cavs were in the finals a few years back.

to be objective....the lakers have a wildcard too...if bynum can play a whole season at pre injury form, they will be tough to beat. these arguments are perdicated on the fact that with current bynum, the lakers are weaker down low than the magic, rockets, cavs, spurs, and celtics. if bynum is great again the lakers are tough in the frontcourt and have a legitimate big 4. they also need to retain ariza who could also be better.

right now because of the man made chemistry issues in boston i got the spurs and cavs in the finals and who knows the winner....alot of time left but i love it when the nba starts these one-upping each other trades.