Kobe’s 60 point walk off along with the Warriors getting win 73 to break the all-time record made for an historic final night of the regular season this past Wednesday. It was an incredible night for NBA fans that won’t soon be forgotten. But now, the real season begins. The Playoffs!
At the start of the season and again now with the playoffs starting you’ll hear coaches and players alike with the cliché “The only goal is a championship” or “we’re in and everyone has a clean slate, we have as good a shot as anyone.” The reality is not really, not all goals and expectations are created equal and in most cases that’s ok.
The Houston Rockets terribly underachieved this season and they’ll be put out their misery quickly. Memphis and Dallas on the other hand, while probably suffering the same fate as Houston, have nothing to be ashamed off. The fact that they even made the playoffs considering everything they’ve dealt with is a credit to the professionalism of their players, the culture that’s been established in both places and the fantastic coaching of Rick Carlise and Dave Joeger as well as their respective staffs. Neither team may win a game in each if their series but you can bet they’ll both leave it all on the floor for as long as the games are still being played. Same can’t be said for the Rockets. All three teams face major off season questions most notably the pending Unrestricted free agency of Dwight Howard and Mike Conley Jr.
The Detroit Pistons won 44 games this year, a 12 game improvement from last season and their most since winning 59 in 2008. You need to have incremental goals when rebuilding and just because you try to reach them doesn’t mean you are losing site of the bigger picture. It was important for Detroit to make the playoffs this season and they have. The Pistons have put together a young, talented core of guys with Andre Drummond, Reggie Jackson, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Tobias Harris who are all 25 and under. Small forward Stanley Johnson has had a nice rookie campaign and at only 19 years old he’s just a baby. This playoff experience will do wonders for the young Pistons. Under the watchful eye of Stan Van Gundy things are looking up in the Motor City.
When going through all of the playoff teams I felt as though I had a pretty god handle on all of them as far where they stand. Except for the Pacers. I’m not sure what to make of them. Two years ago they imploded in the second half of the season and ultimately lost to Miami in six in the ECF. Then Paul George got hurt and since David West, Roy Hibbert and Lance Stephenson have moved on. Paul George had a really solid bounce back season, is probably a borderline top 10 player and is still only 25 years old. It looks like Indiana has found a stud in rookie big man Myles Turner but beyond he and George there isn’t much on this roster. I think the Pacers will acquit themselves well in their series against Toronto but beyond that they appear to be treading water. Larry Legend has his work cut out for him to get this franchise back to true contender status while Paul George is still in his prime.
Charlotte, Portland and Boston have all had terrific seasons and won’t be easy 1st round outs. In the case of the Celtics they may even win a series. With Charlotte and Portland you’d have to say both are ahead of schedule as not many prognosticators had them in the playoffs back in October. The challenge for both will be to build on this success and find ways to add more talent without doing damage to the chemistry that’s already in place. Boston is in the best position of the three to make a major leap next season with all the assets Danny Ainge has stockpiled but he’ll also be faced with same issues. Everyone wants to get that franchise player but at what cost? Winning 43-47 games is one thing, getting to that 55-60 realm is a whole different story.
Winning a championship is the ultimate goal but it’s not always the most realistic. There is nothing wrong with making good basketball decisions, playing the hand your dealt and taking your best shot at it for a handful of years. That’s the spot these next three teams find themselves in. The Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors and Atlanta Hawks. The Raptors won 50 games this year for the first time in franchise history. Kyle Lowry and DeMarre DeRozan have become household names and all-star level players. Air Canada Centre is one of the best environments in the league. But it’s time for them to do it in playoffs. What the Miami Heat have been able to do since losing Lebron James has been nothing short of remarkable. Most franchises would have gone into the abyss and when you couple that with the health issues of Chris Bosh it’s amazing that here they sit the 3 seed with 48 wins. The Hawks almost blew up this core at the trade deadline and that would have been unfortunate. Again there is nothing wrong with what the Hawks are. It took them little while to find their footing this season but with Paul Milsap playing at and all-NBA level the Hawks have been lights out since the All-Star break. I like all three of these teams and a trip to the conference Finals would be a success for all of them.
Five teams remain and some would say these are the five who have a real chance to win the whole thing. I don’t necessarily agree with that so I’ll break them up into two.
San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Cleveland and the Clippers are all terrific teams loaded with star power and if absolutely everything broke the right way for them they could win a championship.
The DeAndre Jordan free agent fiasco of last summer somehow took the focus away from the Clippers horrific choke job in the conference semis against the Rockets. They had a 3-1 series lead and a double digit second half lead at home in game five and they lost the series. It was completely inexcusable! Seems like we’ve been saying this for a few years now but a lot of pressure on Chris Paul heading into these playoffs and if the Clippers fall short again how much longer to they stick with the DeAndre, Blake, Paul core?
Oklahoma City enters the playoffs healthy for the first time since reaching the 2012 Finals. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook are two top five players and with them you always have a chance. Will they get enough contributions elsewhere? How will Billy Donovan perform under the bright lights of the playoffs for the first time? How will their offensive execution be late in tight games? And most pressing of all is this the last time we’ll see Westbrook and Durant as teammates?
Of these four teams I trust Cleveland the least but being in the East they have the path of least resistance to the Finals and they have Lebron James. Who in my opinion is still the game’s best player despite his seemingly non-stop passive aggressiveness. Just play ball dude, please!
The Spurs had an amazing season going 67-15, Greg Popovich is the best coach in the game and Kawhi Leonard has reached true superstar status. LaMarcus Aldridge has had a fantastic first season in San Antonio and after flying way under the radar all season (stop) it would be typical Spurs to see them win another championship.
ODDS ON FAVORITES: GOLDEN ST WARRIORS and if you don’t think so you either haven’t watched, are being stubborn, or both.
First round predictions: Warriors 4-0 over Houston
Clippers 4-2 over Portland
Thunder 4-1 over Dallas
Spurs 4-0 over Memphis
Cavs 4-1 over Detroit
Hawks 4-3 over Boston
Heat 4-2 over Charlotte
Raptors 4-2 over Indiana
