A couple of days ago I talked about the vicious reshuffling in the Eastern Conference of the NBA. Today I set my sights on the Left Coast or the teams that have been running the NBA since MJ left. Now out East the philosophy has been ‘throw shit at the wall and hope it sticks’. This has led to major league moves that have propelled pretenders into playoff races. Out West it has been the complete opposite, mainly because there is a different philosophy on this coast. And less opportunity to make the leap.
Portland, Minnesota, Seattle, the Clippers, Sacramento, New Orleans and Memphis. When you look at all seven of the Western Conference lottery teams they all met a need or improved somehow. Only New Orleans and the Clippers were in the race for the 8th spot. Memphis finished with 22 wins and the other four finished with 31-33 wins and were out of the race. Also both the Clippers and Hornets can blame themselves for simply losing games they should have won. What I am attempting to say is none of these teams needed or could have a move that would have propelled them to the prestigious Western Conference Playoffs. Are they all better? True. Are they set up for the future? Most are. Have they made the leap to the playoffs? Not so much.
Portland will reap the dividends of Oden, Roy and Aldridge later in life. This will be a year of growing for all three. I hope the fairweather Blazer fans understand this. As a fan I’m excited because this is a fun, likeable team that will be talented. It is just going to take some time. The Blazers are still lacking in the PG department and don’t have a lights out shooter. I’m sorry but I’ve seen Martell Webster and James Jones and when they are on they are on. But when they are off boy are the off. And they are mostly off. They will make things interesting but realistically I don’t know if they can make the leap.
Seattle is currently rebuilding and have done a good job of keeping their fans interested thanks to Kevin Durant. They’ve got some youth with Durant and Green, some athleticism in Chris Wilcox, a banger in Nick Collison but they lack depth. I think this is a team that is going to surprise people but will ultimately find themselves on the outside looking in of the playoffs.
Everyone is talking down on Minnesota. Hey when you are blowing up a team and trading a Hall Of Famer you can do far worse than Minnesota did. Now what they need to do is fire their coach ASAP to give themselves a fair chance. What was the big complaint about Minnesota before the KG trade? The fact that they had nothing to surround him with. Now they have depth. They don’t have a superstar, but they have a roster full of young guys who can play the game. The T-Wolves have got to run and gun to even have a chance. How do you have Ricky Davis, Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green, Rashad McCants as your wing players and not run a little bit. If they run a half court offense they will be so bad it won’t be funny.
Sarcramento is bringing the same team with a big white guy and a crazy black guy. Memphis is almost a ditto, but if the Juan Carlos Navarro deal goes down they become even more dangerous. Both have first-year coaches and both will be tasting the lottery next year.
Out West, we are looking at the same 8 teams going to the playoffs. The only teams I’m iffy on are Utah (I wonder if they can do it again), the Lakers (I just need to know if Kobe will be sane) and Golden State (there is a reason why they barely made the playoffs). I think they will all return. The thing is the top four in the West are scary good. In no particular order; Phoenix, Dallas, San Antonio and Houston should all be facing each other in the semi-finals.
We’re in for a treat this year.