LAKERS LOOKING TO BRING THE HEAT
Miami may be the favourite when the NBA season gets underway, but Dwight Howard and the Lakers might have something to say about that,
NBA training camps open this week and it’s a time of optimism for all 30 franchises. No one has lost a game, no one has suffered an injury, it’s all sweetness and light in the world of team chemistry.
Reality will hit home soon for a lot of franchises that have spent the summer making changes in search of improvement.
A look at some of what’s transpired:
KEEPING PRETTY GOOD COMPANY
If the Raptors truly are planning on challenging for a playoff spot this season after four springs with nothing to do but watch the post-season, they are going to have to leapfrog a handful of teams.
And all of them in their division seem as good, or better, than they were at the end of last season.
The Brooklyn Nets added Joe Johnson, kept Deron Williams and Gerald Wallace and might be the best team in the Atlantic Division; they’ll also be jazzed by playing in front of real people instead of empty seats in Newark.
The Boston Celtics can never be counted out and they don’t have Ray Allen anymore, but they do have Jason Terry to line up alongside Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce and a rejuvenated Kevin Garnett.
The Philadelphia 76ers will be different; not sure how much better, but they did add Andrew Bynum and if he can stay healthy, he’s the best centre in the East. But he’s already out for three weeks at the start of training camp with a knee injury.
The New York Knicks still have Amar’e Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony and the issues they had meshing a year ago; they traded in Jeremy Lin for Raymond Felton — who knows if that’s an upgrade — and they’ve gone geriatric with Jason Kidd and Marcus Camby. Better? Debatable but possible.
The Raptors? They’ve got a long row to hoe to get back to the playoffs.
LAKERS, NOT HATED
Perception is reality, as we’ve heard, and the creation of the NBA’s latest Big Three shows that all imposing teams are not created equally.
When the Miami Heat amassed their talented collection of LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, the players and team were roundly criticized and became a collective Public Enemy No. 1.
This summer, the Los Angeles Lakers went just as far, putting Steve Nash (free agency) and Dwight Howard (four-team trade) next to Kobe Bryant, and the hue and cry was barely audible.
But they have put together a dynamic team that has to go into the season as at least the favourite to win the West. If the Lakers do go something crazy like 68-14 or 70-12 and lay waste to all opponents in their way, the criticism may arise.
For now, though, they seem to have gotten away with putting together a star-laden team far more easily than the Heat did.
SILENT THUNDER
If the Lakers are seen as the cream of the crop in the West, the current conference champions can’t be left out of the conversation. However, there are issues with the Oklahoma City Thunder that arose over the summer and have to be dealt with or the much-anticipated juggernaut could be in for a bit of a rocky road, at least early in the season. James Harden, at one time seen as invaluable to the Thunder’s future, still doesn’t have a contract extension in place and he and the team only have the preseason to get it done. Whether it becomes a distraction or not remains to be seen but not re-upping Harden will be a scary signal from Thunder management about its willingness to keep a promising core intact. “There are certain realities that we face, and there are some inherent challenges that we face,” general manager Sam Presti told the Oklahoman newspaper. “I don’t feel comfortable, quite honestly, talking about limitations and things that we ultimately will have to decide on. “But I think we’re making a commitment to try to continue to put a competitive team on the floor. But we also have to do the right thing for the organization in the short and the long term.” And, Oklahoma City will have to go through training camp and the preseason without the services of veteran centre Kendrick Perkins, who is still recovering from wrist surgery.
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BS, TOUGH TASKS
e only 30 jobs like it on the planet ming an NBA head coach is a gnificant accomplishment. e is, the good jobs tend to stay d coaches and the ones that come summer tend to be with strug- gling teams that set up the new guys for failure. Welcome to your new gigs, Jacque Vaughn in Orlando, Terry Stotts in Portland and Mike Dunlap in Charlotte. Have a lot of fun.
None of those teams is expected to challenge seriously for a playoff spot, so judging the new guys on wins and losses is doing them a disservice.
But wins and losses are the measure of any team’s success and it’s hard to see how the new guys are going to have a lot of success right off the bat.
The one local connection? Jay Triano, former head coach, assistant coach and scout with the Raptors, is back on the bench with Stotts in Portland.
THE BATTLE FOR NEW YORK
Even within the difficult Atlantic Division, which might be the best in the entire NBA, there rages a battle that bears watching closely. The Brooklyn Nets, having moved across the river from the urban blight that is Newark to a New York City borough starved for attention and sporting legitimacy, have taken dead aim at the Knicks for New York supremacy.
There is an abundance of talent on both rosters but the Nets are going to have to make huge inroads on a city that’s been Knicks through and through for years.
Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov has boldly predicted a championship in short time, Brooklyn GM Billy King has put the pressure on coach Avery Johnson to get the most out of an impressive roster. When the teams were in Manhattan and Newark, a healthy rivalry was building; now that they are in the same metropolis, it’s going to get better and the voracious New York media should have a field day.
REMEMBER THE CHAMPS?
Right. The Heat. What’s up with those guys? Well, they aren’t any younger but they might be better and it’s hard to see a legitimate challenger in the East right now.
One might emerge, and it’s a long season that can be disrupted by many things, but putting Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis next to LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade and the existing Miami supporting cast is like piling talent upon talent upon talent.
No reason to think the Heat aren’t the championship favourite today.