last season, warriors did suprise the basketball world. which team you think will follow their footsteps?
these are my 2 picks:
hornets - cp3 is the key
bobcats - j rich, g dub and okafor
Your darkhorse for this upcoming NBA season?nba stats
That's quite close to mine.
I see the Hornets making the playoffs comfortably at the 7th seed, and beating the Mavs who will be the 2ndth seed. The Hornets will have Peja back, a scorer and perennial 3 pt threat next season. They also acquired a solid role player in Mo-Pete, who shoots the 3, defends, and plays ball solidly. With a healthy and rapidly growing high-potential core of West and Paul, with rebound-beast Chandler who's developing and honing his offensive skills(he showed a decent jumper and a hook shot previously not seen before), the Hornets have an excellent starting five, and also have good bench depth. West is not much of an interior defender at the PF position so deploying him to guard Dirk outside of the paint won't be as much of a mismatch as other teams. Also, Jason Terry always looks uncomfortable defending quick guards, and few come quicker than CP3, who's also an excellent playmaker and shooter. Hornets have what it takes to beat the morale-shaken Mavs, who might let the playoff hangover of GSW affect their composure against the Hornets, particularly if they lose the first home game to the Hornets. Their panicking and internal collapse and Dirk + Terry'schoking (Terry seems to get away with choking in clutch games because Dirk is there to shoulder the majority of the blame) will be key factors.
I expect Bobcats to go deep into the East, as they will have a good seeding IF Okafor and Wallace don't get the 35 game injuries they always seem to get. And with the addition of J-Rich, who's a shooter, go-to scorer, decent defender, good backcourt rebounder, the Bobcats actually have a pretty good team. Their undoing will be their usage of a low-budget, unproven coach. Several series have shown that coaches do turn the tide and change the whole face of the series. Flip Saunders of the Pistons, Mike Brown of the Cavaliers show that poor/ineffectual coaches can lose you the series or get you blown out in the finals, whereas a coach like Don Nelson can devise tactics to defeat particular opponents and exploit opponents' weaknesses to increase your chances of victory.
My third pick would be the Heat. They are supposedly an elite team, but they have rarely looked that way the past season, and with everyone counting them out since Shaq is old, out-of-shape, past-his-prime and has lost his competitive desire, D-Wade will be re-habbing, and them losing or standing to lose a few key players of the previous title run, they do look quite shabby. However, the Heat look to match up favourably against the Pistons, as Ben Wallace had often seemed key to Piston's containing of Miami's offense and the Pistons lack slashers/inside scorers to draw fouls on the Miami big men, which is an important way to handle the Heat. I expect Detroit to be 1st seed whereas Heat would be 4th seed, and the Cavs might finish off the Bulls for them and subsequently lose to the Heat, thereby removing the Heat's weakness but the Cavs match up poorly against the Heat as well. Also, Posey, whom I expect to return, is a tough defender who can really trouble James, and again Shaq lacks a competitor on the inside to give him trouble on either end of the floor. The loss of sharpshooter Kapono may not be that devastating, because he gave up lots of points. He was step-slow in guarding shooters and gave up lots of open-drives, fouled weakly and badly, and was scored upon by his opposing counterpart with ease. He also plays the same position as Posey, who is a valiant defender and offers more versatility on offense as he can slash to the hoop as well as shoot the 3. Therefore, I believe the Heat may not have deteriorated much, and coupling that with the East having not improved much in terms of the elite teams which are looking to trouble Miami, I believe Miami have a good shot.
Your darkhorse for this upcoming NBA season?nba score ,nba teams
You forgot Felton for the Bobcats...he's gonna blow up this year. I think if Minnesota gets rid of Ricky Davis they could go pretty deep, even in the Western Conference. I think the Knicks are gonna be good too, maybe even get past the first round of the playoffs good. Think about this l/u.
PG - Starbury
SG - Jamal Crawford
SF - Quentin Richardson
PF - Zach Randolph
C - Eddy Curry
Dangerous for sure.
I also like the Magic to do really well next season.
I agree with young boxer too...another thing is add Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington to J Rich and Baron Davis and you're really surprised?
IT'S NOT A DARK HORSE, BUT THE SUNS WILL WIN IT ALL THIS UP COMING SEASON. THEY CAME REAL CLOSE LAST YEAR AND YOU ADD A GRANT HILL TO THE MIX
Knicks - Z-Bo is very underrated and one of the best back to the basket scorers in the game and the Knicks got him for Basically nothing.
Grizzlies - two yeas ago they was in the playoffs then they sucked last year. Gasol was hurt half the year and their starting PG was out all year. I think Conley can start and hlp right away an possibly win ROY
Bobcats
warriors shouldnt have been a surprise. it is because you did not watch them. they have a great offense, they have been having this for a while. but their fast style and short ball is what always made them have close games because other teams would have to play with them. they could not get rebounds and defend the big guy. at the end they lost because of that.
Dont call me crazy cuz it the Philadelphia 76ers look at all the talent they got. DALEMBERT will have a break out season and ANDRE IGUODALA will average 23.4 ppg 6.1rpg and 6.2 assist and he will lead the league in steals per game
utah jazz :)
West: Philly (They might able to get into the 8th seed. I can see that they will be so close even they couldn't make the playoff.)
East: Portland (They are going to get better and better. They just have to learn, they are young. They are very similar to the bulls in two yrs ago. Drafted Deng, Gordon. A small piece is still missing to be perfect or great.)
new orleans is it
Dark Horse for the Play-Offs: Charlotte Bobcats.
Finals Dark Horse: Chicago Bulls
Reasons: Nobody is talking about this two teams. I think Charlotte is going to make it to the Play-offs for the first time since losing it's former team (Hornets) to New Orleans. Surprise Finalist: Chicago why? They built up a neat team team this summer. With Joe Smith in there they have a good post scorer and a hard worker plus a player with good work ethic: Joakim Noah.
call me crazy but cletics.
allen was a good addition, and glen davis is going to
contribute right away. i think they have good shot at
making playoffs and maybe get pass the 1st round.
