Andre Gomes

Southeast Division

Orlando - 47,5
Miami - 37,5
Washington - 37,5
Atlanta - 36,5
Charlotte - 36,5

This seems to be the weakest division on the East, even though 3 teams of this division have qualified to the Playoffs last season: Orlando, Washington and Atlanta. Orlando finished last season with a 50-32 record and it doesn’t seem hard for them to break the 50 wins barrier once again this season. Curiously the Magic had more wins on the road last season than at home (27-14 vs 25-16) and just Boston had a better record on the road than them last season. Orlando clearly dominated their division rivals, going 12-4 in divisional games last season and their favoritism will continue this season. Their goal of getting better at home this season should be easy to achieve and at the same time, Howard will become an even tougher matchup for their opponents.

The other four teams should remain very close in the standings during the whole season. Miami is in rebuilding mode, with a new coach and even though they have a lot of talented players, their roster seems to be disproportional, without a true big man to play at the center position. Wade seems to be back at 100% and with him, the Heat won’t be that competitive team that struggled in the final minutes of the game anymore. Beasley can also be a good second solution in the offense. The Bobcats is a little bit like Miami. Rebuilding team with a new coach, however there weren’t any big chances on the roster and the challenge of Larry Brown will be to put the team playing good defense, just like he loves to do on his teams. Washington is a team which is already being massacred by injuries and they will be without Arenas during the first months of the season. Eddie Jordan has already proved that he can make some miracles and they will need to continue happening this season.

Prediction: Orlando Magic Over 47,5 Wins

Central Division

Detroit - 50,5
Cleveland - 47,5
Chicago - 40,5
Indiana - 34,5
Milwaukee - 30,5

Detroit’s line is 50 wins and that’s nothing more to them than to repeat what they have done since the 2001-2002 season: 50 or more wins in the regular season! That won’t be hard to achieve once again, after all the team is basically the same. Even though they have a new coach, Michael Curry knows the Pistons extremely well and he was an assistant of Flip Saunders, so the 50 wins barrier is an achievable goal for them this season.

The Cavs disappointed last season, especially on the regular season. The team finished with a 45-37 record and 7-9 in divisional games, which is surprising as just Detroit was a strong team during the season. Now with some changes, the Cavs may perform better this season, but I think 47 wins is a fair number and I don’t see any value on their future wins line.

The Bucks and the Bulls are in a similar situation for this season. They are coming from terrible seasons, they have a new coach and they have done some changes to make their teams stronger. In these conditions, the teams become unpredictable and their seasons will depend from how well the players will adapt to the system of their new coaches. The Bulls finished last season with a 33-49 record and their line for this season is 40,5 wins, which is basically the same to ask if the Bulls will go to the Playoffs this season or not. Honestly both things can happen, as we are talking about a team with a disproportional roster: too many guards and a frontcourt which lacks quality, in comparison to the other top teams in the East. In Milwaukee, the situation is different and besides having a more experienced coach than Del Negro, the team seems to have a more solid roster for every position and the chemistry between the players and the adaptation to a new system seems to be the main obstacles they need him to break this season. The 30 wins doesn’t seem hard to be achieved, but as they are basically a whole new team, I’m not going to take risks with them.

The Pacers are a curious team. They are keeping the same coach and the same system, but at the same time they have some changes on their roster. Their line for the regular season is 35 wins, which is basically asking them if they will do better or not than last season. However, if a team wants to play in a run and gun system, they better have at least one good playmaker and a powerful big man, who can score easily in the transitions. The Suns had success playing with that style, as they had Nash and Stoudemire. And who has Indiana for these two tasks? T.J. Ford and Nesterovic? Typically a run and gun team has problems against good defensive teams, with a powerful frontcourt. That’s why they went 0-4 vs Detroit, 0-3 vs Boston and 0-4 vs Cleveland last season. I think those struggles should return this season, with things getting even more serious for them, as the Sixers and Toronto are stronger this season. On the other side, the Pacers took advantage very well last season of the struggles of Miami, Knicks, Nets and Bucks and went 12-4 against them. However, that won’t happen again, as these teams will be more competitive this season. The schedule of the team in January will be brutal for them: they will go on a road trip into the West of 5 games in 8 days, just to comeback home and face Detroit and Toronto in a row. So, I think it will be extremely hard for them to do better than last season, so my bet is Indiana to about 30 wins maximum this season.

Prediction: Indiana Pacers Under 35,5 Wins

Atlantic Division

Boston - 53,5
Philadelphia - 48,5
Toronto - 47,5
Knicks - 31,5
NJ Nets - 27,5

This division is in theory the strongest division of the East this season, with three teams which should reach the Playoffs and have a lot more wins than losses in the regular season: Boston, Philadelphia and Toronto. Honestly, even though the Sixers and the Raptors are stronger this season, the difference between the Celtics and these two teams is much bigger than the 5 wins the bookies are telling us (Boston 53.5 wins - Sixers 48.5).

Boston finished last season’s regular season with a 66-16 record and even though, it will be hard for them to repeat such performance this season, the bookies have put their line for this season 13 wins below from their last season’s record! Boston knows how to handle the pressure, even though they had done nothing two seasons ago, they were one of the favorites to win the league last season and not only they had no problems in handling the pressure, the team kept winning even without Garnett and Allen on the field. The winning dynamic of the team is huge and it won’t go away this season.

The Sixers have potential to do better than the 40-42 record they had last season and with the addition of Elton Brand, the Sixers have become one of the main contenders to win the East. The sportsbooks are offering a line of 48.5 wins for them, which is a fair number, as they will have a lot of competition on their division and we don’t know how they will handle the pressure of having to win.

The Knicks and the Nets will be the underdog teams on this division. The Knicks are capable of everything and D’Antoni’s system uses to work very well on the regular season. Their line is at 32 wins, which is nothing else than do better than the Knicks with Isiah Thomas did two seasons ago and please don’t tell me that’s impossible to do. The Nets are a totally different case. They are the weakest team on this division, which will have 3 teams in the Playoffs and when that happens, there is always a team which finishes the season with a terrible record. For example, last season in the Northwest division with Utah, Denver and Portland with positive records, Minnesota and Seattle finished the season with just 22 and 20 wins. Also in the Southwest division, Memphis had 22 wins. With the Nets thinking already in the future, I wouldn’t be surprised if the team starts thinking on the draft lottery at a certain part of the team, in order to have a better chance of getting the top pick next season.

Toronto is considered by the bookies to be at the same level of Cleveland this season, with a line of 47.5 wins. And 47 wins was exactly the number of wins the team had two seasons ago, when they won the division. However, everybody besides the Raptors, all teams on this division struggled during that season. Boston finished with 24-58 record, the Knicks with 33-49, the Sixers with 35-47 and the Nets with a 41-41 record. The Raptors finished that season with a 11-5 record in divisional games and there is no way that will happen this season. Boston will always have more than 50 wins this season, the Sixers will have a positive record and unless the Knicks and the Nets have less than 20 wins each this season (unlikely), Toronto won’t be able to score nothing close to 50 wins this season. As I’ve written on the team preview, the roster isn’t deep and especially Jermaine O’Neal doesn’t have a good backup. I am an optimistic person by Nature, but the chances of JO playing the 82 games of the season is close to 0 and at the moment I’m writing this, I saw that O’Neal already got injured on a preseason game. 48 wins for this team? No way! The line is too high.

• Prediction: Boston Celtics Over 53,5 Wins
• Prediction: Toronto Raptors Under 47,5 Wins
• Prediction: New Jersey Nets Under 27,5 Wins

Northwest Division

Utah - 51,5
Portland - 44,5
Denver - 41,5
Minnesota - 30,5
Oklahoma - 25,5

Utah is the favorite on this division and just a catastrofic scenario will prevent them from getting the 1st place on the division. The Jazz are a young team, with two All-Star players on their roster: Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer. They seem to be almost unbeatable at home and the 50 wins mark doesn’t seem to be hard to achieve, especially with Denver being weaker this season.

Portland will play the role that Denver had last season: being the biggest division rivals of the Jazz on the division. The team has two new players, who will have an immediate impact on the league: Greg Oden and Rudy Fernandez. Nate McMilan has been doing a great job with this team and they finished last season with a 41-41 record. They have now a line of 44.5 wins for this season and it doesn’t seem to be impossible for them to have 5 more wins this season.

Denver’s scenario is much different. They had a 50-32 record this season and they are now listed to have just 40 wins this season. This team was always known for having no defense and there was even a recurring joke that they should be called Enver Nuggets because they have no “D”. In order to save this problem, they allowed their best defender Marcus Camby to go, in exchange for… nothing! Iverson and Carmelo can solve any game down the stretch, but asking them to do this in 82 games is simply too much.

The young Thunder are listed to have 25 wins, 5 more they had last season. And with the same coach and with Durant now with one year of NBA experience, that doesn’t seem impossible to be done.

I really like Minnesota’s team this season. I don’t place them to be a possible outsider for the Playoffs, as that’s unrealistic, but it’s a team which can win about 35 games this season. They are now listed with 30.5 wins and the team has what it’s needed to have an impact on the league: a powerful frontcourt. Al Jefferson gave indications last season that he can become a dominant force on the league, with a 20-10 season. The frontcourt was improved, with the addition of Kevin Love, who is one of the most NBA ready rookies this season. If that wasn’t enough, the Wolves have also a player who is an offensive threat in the exterior game: Mike Miller, who will make their opponents think twice before double teaming Al Jefferson. Besides that, Randy Foye and Sebastian Telfair are both fit right now, something which didn’t happen last season. Minny had a 7-34 record on the road last season and 3-13 in division games, but that’s something they should easily improve this season. I expect the Wolves to be more competitive this season.

Prediction: Minnesota Timberwolves Over 30,5 Wins

Pacific Division

Lakers - 54,5
Phoenix - 46,5
Warriors - 37,5
Clippers - 33,5
Sacramento - 28,5

The Lakers are the clear favorites on this division and they should win it. If that doesn’t happen, it’s because that had a disastrous regular season. 55 wins seem to be achievable, but I don’t want to take risks, as we are yet to find out if Odom will get used to be a 6th man or not and how will adapt Gasol and Bynum to play together, knowing that both players like to be on the same position on the field. Kobe refused to get surgery in the offseason, in order to not missing any time. But what if something happens to him? It’s too many factors to take the over in here.

The Suns can be the sleepers in the West. They are a good team, but they aren’t considered to be favorites, like they were a couple of seasons ago. However, they have the necessary tools to have great season. But the fact that they have a new coach makes their season be hard to predict, as it will depend from how they will adapt to the new system and that’s even more important in the case of the Suns, as their style of play will really change this season.

The Clippers have changed a lot in the offseason and in this case we are talking about a very young team. Baron Davis and Marcus Camby are great player and nobody can question that, but nobody joins a team and becomes immediately adapted to a new city, a new team and a new system and that’s the challenge of the team for this season. If things work well for them, they should do better than the 34,5 wins. However, if something goes wrong, then they should go under the total listed.

The case of the Kings is different, as they are listed to win just 28.5 games and almost nothing is expected from them and maybe they can be a surprise because of that. They surprised a lot of people last season by having a 38-44 record and playing most part of the season without Bibby, Artest and even Martin. The team doesn’t have the quality of their rivals, but they can still be a strong team.

And then, we have the Warriors and my analysis is similar to the one I’ve wrote about the Pacers. Baron Davis is now in LA and on a wild run and gun system, he was able to average almost 8 assists per game. Without him, who will have that role on the team? Monta Ellis? He is a pure scorer! He will never be a playmaker and besides that, he will be out of the first part of the season and knowing that he needs his speed to play his best, when will he really return at 100%? The team doesn’t have the same weapons they had last season and it will be hard for them to maintain the level they had on the past two seasons.

Predicition: Golden State Warriors Under 37,5 Wins

Southwest Division

Houston - 53,5
New Orleans - 51,5
San Antonio - 48,5
Dallas - 46,5
Memphis - 22,5

This division seems to have the perfect lines for every team. Memphis will once again struggle with four top teams on their division and having 22 wins was what they had last season and I’m not seeing this team improving this season.

The Hornets were one of the surprises last season and they have everything to play well, as basically nothing has changed. Paul, West and Chandler are still very young and they will continue to make a lot of damages on the next few seasons.

Dallas is coming from a poor season and they are listed to have 47 wins. The team maintained the same players from last season and now they have a coach, who managed to have great first seasons on his last two teams. I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens with Dallas this season too.

Houston seem to be a little bit overrated, but if the team managed to build that amazing winning streak last season without Yao Ming, what can they do with an healthy Yao and with Artest on the roster? I’m not taking the risk of betting on the under, even though the chances of something going wrong with them is big.

The Spurs will be without Ginobili in the early season and they may struggle, but their schedule in the beginning of the regular season is fairly easy. Their first road trip to the East is just in February and their beginning of season against Phoenix, @Portland, Dallas, @Minnesota, Miami and Knicks doesn’t scare anyone. Besides that, Popovich is known for making miracles and even though the team may not play very well, at the end they will find a way to win the games.

The Celtics were one of the few teams in sports who have done what they had promised before the season started: the championship. The challenge of putting three great players together on the same team and with the pressure of winning immediately never seemed to be easy, but Garnett, Pierce and Allen left their ego’s at home and focused on team work.

The team finished with a regular season record of 66-16 and they started the season in an unbelievable way by going 29-2 in their first 31 games. In the Playoffs, they struggled against the Hawks and the Cavs, but they cameback to their best level and they defeated the Lakers in the NBA finals in a very easy way. The key of all this success was the winning dynamic the team had during the whole season, otherwise it wouldn’t be possible for Boston to have a 9-2 record without Garnett (the two defeats were by 1 and 3 points) or to have a 8-1 record without Ray Allen. Also in the last part of the regular season, when the minutes of the starters were reduced, Boston continued winning, due to an impressive winning dynamic.

For the first time in 7 seasons, Paul Pierce averaged less than 20 ppg (19.6 ppg) on a season. It is expected that Pierce has a similar performance this season, helping the team in every area: defense, offense and leadership. Also Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen decreased their numbers, in comparison to their previous seasons, with Garnett averaging less than 20 ppg and 10 rpg for the first time since the 1997-1998 season and Allen averaging less than 20 ppg for the first time since the 1998-1999 season! These two players are now coming from another season on the league and the expectations on them continue to be huge. However, we can’t forget Garnett is 32 years old and Ray Allen is 33. As if it wasn’t enough for Boston to be the team that everybody wants to beat this season, the competition on their division will be much bigger this season. Last season they won the Atlantic division by having more 25 wins than Toronto (2nd on division) and 43 more wins than the Knicks (5th).

The offseason didn’t bring many news to Boston and the only real change was James Posey leaving to the Hornets. Posey had a very important role in the Playoffs and during the season. Even though he has “just” averaged 7.4 ppg and 4.4 rpg, the truth is that he was a good offensive threat and GM Danny Ainge wasn’t able to find a replacement for Posey. Darius Miles signed a contract with the Celtics, but he was later waived and it’s fair to ask until what point the departure of Posey this season will be important for Boston.

P.J. Brown has finally retired with a championship ring and he will leave Garnett alone in the frontcourt with the talented youngsters Glen Davis and Leon Powe, who had very good rookie seasons last year. Without Brown, these two players will have a more important role on the Celtics this season, in order to give some rest to Garnett and Perkins.

Rajon Rondo took advantage of the confidence and the opportunity of being able of playing with the Big Three and he was impressive. Many analysts predicted that he would struggle in leading the team in the Playoffs, due to his lack of experience, but that didn’t happen and Rondo managed to keep Sam Cassell sited on the bench more time than everything was expecting him to be. The role of Cassell this season will be to help the team more outside the field than inside, as his physical shape isn’t the same from a couple of seasons ago and Eddie House will be the main backup of Rondo this season. Tony Allen will have the role that Posey had last season, as the 6th man of the team and with his physical problems solved, Allen will be capable of doing that role well.

Boston comes to this season once again as the main favorite to win the Eastern conference and the expectations very high once again. The team has shown last season that they can handle the role of being the favorites, not giving any chances to their opponents during the regular season. The competition on the Atlantic division is stronger than ever and even though, the Big Three will be one year older than they were last season, nothing should prevent the Celtics from being once again in position to win for another NBA championship.

Bryan Colangelo has been doing a good job in making the Raptors a competitive team and for the second season in a row, the Raptors went to the Playoffs, just to lose in the first round. The team won the Atlantic division two seasons ago with a 47-35 record, but their record last season was just 41-41, far away from the eventual champions Celtics. One of the main problems of the Raptors last season were the injuries: Chris Bosh missed 15 games and if there were doubts about his importance on the team, these doubts are now over, with the Raptors going 4-11 without him. Also TJ Ford missed 31 games with a severe back injury and he was never able to regain his old level.

It may seem weird, but the truth is that the most important player in Toronto in the past two seasons was Jose Calderon, who isn’t the team’s best player, but his development was way better than everybody was expecting and from a backup of Ford, he has now become the team’s starting PG, which allowed Ford to become expandable. Calderon was the main responsible for Jermaine O’Neal coming to Toronto, as if the team didn’t believe in the Spanish player, they would have never traded T.J. Ford. Calderon was one of the main causes for Toronto to become the league’s best team in A/TO with a 2.13 ratio and he was also the player on the league with the best A/TO ratio of the league with 5.38! For you to understand how good this is, Chris Paul had a ratio of 4.62 and Steve Nash 3.04! The most surprising is that we are talking about a player, who averaged 30.3 minutes per game. Besides that, Calderon had 11.2 ppg for 51.9% FG, 42.9% 3pts and 90.8% FT! The team is trusting him so much right now that they’ve offered him a contract until 2013 and without T.J. Ford on the roster, he will play more minutes this season and it is expected that he has another brilliant season.

Chris Bosh has every reason to be happy with the arrival of Jermaine O’Neal to the team. The Raptors were accused many times for being a soft team in the paint and it’s only necessary to go back to their last season’s Playoff series against Orlando to see that Dwight Howard had 20 pts/20 reb games against them. Now with O’Neal, Toronto will gain some aggressiveness on the paint. Bosh’s numbers decreased last season, as he finished with 22.3 ppg, 8.7 rpg and 49.4% FG and with Calderon leading the team and with O’Neal on his side, he has everything to have a good season. However, his main challenge for the season will be to improve his defensive skills, as with Kevin Garnett and Elton Brand playing on the same division of the Raptors, it will be essential that Bosh is able to compete against these two players.

What Toronto really needs from Jermaine O’Neal is that he is capable of keeping himself at 100%, as we are talking about a player who has missed 122 games on the last four seasons due to injuries and very few people believe he can comeback to the level he had in Indiana. If he manages to regain that form, then Toronto can even be a contender to win the East.

Even though the Raptors don’t have a big star for the SF and SG positions, both Anthony Parker and Jamario Moon are very interesting players. Parker is a player with an amazing shooting ability (43.8% 3pts last season) and he is coming from a season, where he averaged 12.5 ppg. On the other side, Jamario Moon was one of the league’s big surprises last season and he was involved in some highlights with dunks and blocks, due to his amazing physical condition and athleticism.

The Raptors have a very strong starting team, but they will struggle with their lack of depth on the bench. Calderon doesn’t have an experienced backup, who could have an immediate impact on the game. Ukic and Solomon don’t have any experience on the NBA and it will take them time until they are capable of showing their real level. The frontcourt has just one quality backup: Andrea Bargnani, who is yet to show why he was the #1 pick on the draft, a couple of seasons ago, but the most concerning thing is that the team doesn’t have a good backup for the injury-prone Jermaine O’Neal. Do the Raptors really believe that nothing bad will happen with O’Neal this season?

This team has conditions to do better than last season and win a Playoff series, however everything will need to work well, without severe injuries on their stars. The lack of depth on the roster is something it should be solved by Colangelo and the Raptors will begin this season with high expectations.

The Sixers were the team with the biggest hype in the offseason, after all the team didn’t lose any important player and they managed to get in the market Elton Brand. This addition makes the team to be now appointed by the analysts as one of the candidates to win the East. Let’s remember the Sixers reached the Playoffs last season, when nobody was expecting that and they were actually one of the best teams on the league at the end of the season, finishing with 22-13 record on their last 35 games.

Their big challenge this season will be to handle the pressure of being a top team, something the Sixers aren’t used to in the last couple of years. Suddenly, the team will be one of the targets to take down on the Eastern conference and if Boston could handle that pressure extremely well and became champions, the truth is that they had experienced players, who were involved before in tough battles, like Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce. The Sixers have now their own Big Three with Iguodala, Brand and Miller, but neither of these players has even reached a conference final before and handling this pressure of winning can become a major struggle for them during the season.

Elton Brand will give the team the offensive skills down the post the team lacked last season and even though he has missed almost the whole season in LA last year, he played the last 8 games of the Clippers and he averaged 17.6 ppg and 8.0 rpg, very encouraging numbers. Together with Dalembert, Evans and Ratliff, the Sixers will have players capable of stopping any frontcourt of the league, at the same time the Sixers will also win with Brand, a player capable of creating his own opportunities in the paint and give more freedom to the backcourt of the Sixers.

The frontcourt of the Sixers isn’t just made by experience. Marreese Speights is a very talented rookie, who won’t have the pressure of needing to cause an imediate impact on the team. He will have time to learn and develop with Elton Brand. Thaddeus Young was one of the biggest surprises of the league last season, as he averaged 8.2 rpg and 4.2 rpg on his rookie season and it was when Maurice Cheeks decided to start him that the Sixers began improving big time and reached the Playoffs. Young is a versatile player, capable of doing several tasks on the field and with a speed of execution extremely high. With him getting more minutes, the Sixers became in the middle of the season the team with most counter attacks on the league. For this season, it is expected that Young to improve even more, as he will be more experienced and Cheeks has already proved that he knows how to use Young’s great potential.

The backcourt of the team has a lot of depth, just like the every other area, with lots of solutions for any system Cheeks wants to use. Andre Iguodala has recently signed a new contract ($80 millions for six seasons) and he will need to prove that he is worth this huge contract. He averaged 19.9 ppg, 5.4 rpg and 4.8 apg for 45.6% FG last season. Cheeks will need to make Iguodala understand that he shouldn’t shoot from the perimeter, as it’s his weakest part of his game (just 32.9% 3pts last season and 33.1% on his career), but to drive to the basket instead. AI is a very complete player: very strong on the offensive transitions and also a good defender. The presence of Elton Brand on the team will give more space and he should take advantage of that to average more than 20 ppg this season for the first time on his career. He is a very fit player, as he has just missed 6 games on the last four seasons in Philadelphia!

Andre Miller is coming from a career season, with 17.0 ppg and 6.9 apg, for almost 50% FG! His ability to be on the interior positions caused a lot of problems to their opponents (we have seen how Billups struggled so much in defending him on the Playoffs) and he was a true leader on the field. However, it will be curious to watch how Miller will play this season. Will he be a scorer PG or he will convert himself into a playmaker? He has attempted 14 shots per game last season and I doubt he will have so many attempts this season.

Lou Williams was another surprise of the Sixers last season and he was even decisive in some ballgames. After two poor seasons, he exploded last season by averaging 11.5 ppg in just 23.3 minutes per game. Having in account he had 1.9 ppg on his rookie season and 4.3 ppg on the following season, this says it all about his improvement and it is expected that Williams continues to improve this season, in order to become the team’s starting point guard in the future.

The Sixers were the worst team on the league last season in 3pts shooting, with just 31.72% and to solve that, GM Ed Sefanski acquired Kareen Rush from Indiana and also the veteran Donyell Marshall, but honestly I doubt these two players will play enough minutes, in order for the team to improve on its exterior shooting. The best idea for them will be to play with what they have, which is enough to be a major force in the Eastern conference.

The Big Three of the Sixers can compete in the East against Boston and Detroit and they have an extremely deep roster, which will give Cheeks different solutions for every game. The big challenge of the team this season will be to know if they will be able to handle the pressure of being now a favorite to reach the NBA finals.

Is it possible for a team to enter the 2008/2009 season already thinking more on the 2010 season than in this season? If that’s possible, then the Nets are clearly doing that. The Nets were one of the biggest disappointments of the league last season, ending the season with a 34-48 record, when they were before the season one of the main candidates to win the Eastern conference, together with Detroit and Boston. As soon as the season started, it became clear that the team wouldn’t be able to play as good as it was expected and the duo Kiki Vandeweghe and Rod Thorn made that clear in the mid season that the results weren’t important anymore, when they traded Jason Kidd to Dallas, in exchange for Devin Harris and some other players.

This trade can actually be considered as positive for the Nets, as Jason Kidd was 35 years old and Devin Harris is a 25 years old guard, with a contract until 2013 and he has been improving his numbers season after season. Harris doesn’t obviously has the level of Paul or Williams, but still he finished last season in New Jersey, with 15.4 ppg and 6.5 apg, which are good numbers. Harris will definitely be the future guard of the team, whatever it happens in the next offseasons.

In this offseason, Richard Jefferson got traded to Milwaukee, with the Nets getting Bobby Simmons and Yi Jianlian. This trade was another sign that the Nets are already thinking in 2010 (Lebron James) and they will let the team in the hands of Vince Carter.

Vince Carter is coming from a season with 21.3 ppg, 6.0 rpg and 5.1 apg and he will need to carry the team daily, if the Nets want to be competitive this season. This will be problematic, as we all know Carter’s physical shape isn’t the same from a couple of seasons ago. Besides that, the Nets will be a team this season with few offensive solutions, so their opponents will be more than ever focused in defending Carter.

On the frontcourt, the Nets have a lot of young players with potential but lacking experience. Will they be able to play well against Kevin Garnett, Jermaine O’Neal, Chris Bosh and Elton Brand? Yi Jianlian can be a good surprise this season. He is coming from a rookie season, where he averaged 8.6 ppg and 5.2 rpg. Now that he is fully adapted to the NBA, he will have conditions to show the great potential he has. There are very few players with 7′0 and such a perfect shooting technique and he will create problems to his opponents, with his great mid-range shots.

For the center position, the Nets have 7 players! All of them with low salaries or expiring soon, which will allow them to manage the team very well, thinking already on the future of the franchise. Brooke Lopez is the type of player you don’t see a lot of them on the drafts: 7′0 and 260 pounds. Naturally, he will have a lot to learn this season, especially in how to use his body to gain advantage over his opponents. Lopez has potential to be one of the most physical players of the league and it will be important for Lawrence Frank to help him on his development. As a backup, the Nets will have another very young player: Josh Boone, who was one of the very few players who had a good season in New Jersey last season, with 8.2 ppg and 7.3 rpg, in just 25 minutes per game. It is expected that he keeps developing this season.

Eduardo Najera is coming from Denver and he will be a player who will bring aggressiveness to the frontcourt of the team and also some experience to this unit. He has also some ability to shot from the outside and he will compete will another young player in the PF position: Sean Williams, who had some interesting moments last season and an impressive physical shape, with a lot of mobility. He is naturally a player with a lot of potential, but I don’t think he is ready to be consistently good in the present, just like almost the whole roster of the Nets this season.

The Nets won’t have a lot of expectations for this season and we can’t really expect much from them, especially when they are in a division, who has greatly improved on the past two seasons. The quick development of their players or not will dictate how competitive will the Nets be this season, as Rod Thorn is more concerned with the future than with the present.

The Knicks have finally done what their supporters were asking for: changes! Isiah was finally fired and for his place, GM Donnie Walsh has hired Mike D’Antoni, the former coach of the Suns and the past seasons of the Knicks and D’Antoni have been antagonistic. While D’Antoni had a 232-96 record in the past four seasons in Phoenix, the Knicks had a 112-216 record in the same period. Normally when a team is rebuilding, it’s usual to see a lot of trades, after all when something went wrong in the past, it’s normal that teams try to get some new players on their roster. The Wolves traded Kevin Garnett, Seattle traded Ray Allen, Portland traded Zach Randolph, New Jersey traded Jason Kidd and I could stay here giving examples of that for the whole day.

But what happens with the Knicks is that Donnie Walsh hasn’t been able to trade at least one of the Knicks theoric Big Three: Stephon Marbury, Zach Randolph and Eddy Curry. The reason is actually simple to explain. These three players have very heavy contracts and nobody wants to have them right now, as they are known for creating problems in the locker room and not being able to play as well as they were supposed to do, according to their big contracts.

D’Antoni had in Phoenix a guard, who was a leader on the field and with an extraordinary vision of the game: Steve Nash. He had a very powerful center, capable of slaughtering his opponents on the paint: Amare Stoudemire. And besides these two players, D’Antoni also had a very quick PF, who was capable of scoring a lot of points in fast breaks: Shawn Marion. The version of D’Antoni in New York will have to be totally different, unless there is a last minute trade, as comparing Marbury, Randolph and Curry to Nash, Stoudemire and Marion is like comparing water to wine: it’s incomparable!

Either winning or losing, the Knicks will play on a totally style this season with D’Antoni, if we consider that the Knicks had actually a style of play with Isiah Thomas. The run and gun will be good to watch in the MSG, but the problems begin for this team in the PG position. Unless a miracle happens, Stephon Marbury won’t be the same player he was a couple of seasons ago, when he was averaging 20ppg and 8 apg. He will now have the role of being the backup of Chris Duhon, who will be the starting PG of the team and he is a player more known for being a good defender than being a good offensive guard. His character and leadership will be unquestionable, but the Knicks will also need a guard with great offensive skills. This position will be the key of the success or not of the Knicks this season.

The backcourt of the Knicks will be completed with Jamal Crawford and Nate Robinson, who are perfect for D’Antoni’s system, as they are players who are more concerned with the offense than with defense. Crawford was the team’s best scorer last season, with 20.6 ppg and 41.0% FG. He has also averaged 5.0 apg and certainly it won’t be hard for him to at least equal these numbers this season. With Robinson, the situation is basically the same. His speed will be a weapon in the offense and Robinson has been showing on the preseason that he is in good form and perfectly adapted to the new style of play of the Knicks.

Danilo Gallinari was a very risky draft pick, having in account that there were very good players still in the draft, when the Knicks used their #6 draft pick. D’Antoni knows the Italian basketball very well and also Gallinari’s father, but until what point will the Italian rookie have an immediate impact on the league? If he is able to correspond to the expectations, then the Knicks will gain a versatile player, capable of being dangerous in any zone of the field, however that task won’t be easy and the last player being selected on a very high position on the draft is still yet to make a big impact on the league: Andrea Bargnani. He will compete with Quentin Richardson for the SF position, who is the player who D’Antoni knows better, as they were together in Phoenix a couple of seasons ago. A curious fact is that Richardson has made 230 3pts shots in three seasons in New York. The same Richardson who has made 226 3pts shots just in one season in Phoenix, where he led the league in the 2004-2005 season.

The frontcourt of the team has the problems I’ve previously refered with Randolph and Curry. Will these two players be capable to adapt to a run and gun system? A positive factor is that D’Antoni will be more concerned with offense than with defense and that’s good news, as these two players are known for their terrible defensive skills. Randolph will be able to continue using his good mid-range shot and it won’t be hard for him to average a double double, like he did last season (17.6 ppg and 10.3 rpg). The player who can be more benefited with these changes is David Lee, as he has been the most supported player by the crowd, as he gives everything he has on the field and that’s a strong enough motive, having in account the rest of the options the Knicks have in the frontcourt. Lee has great conditions to have a career season, now that Isiah Thomas (who misused him big time) is gone. D’Antoni has already starting to use him more and as he is a player who moves very well, he will fit very well on the run and gun system. He was a starter in 3 preseason games and he has averaged 10.5 ppg and 12.0 rpg, with 74% FG!

The Knicks will compete on the hardest division of the East, together with Boston, Toronto and Philadelphia. Mike D’Antoni will need to prove that he can do miracles this season or that Marbury, Randolph or Curry can become into the players everybody was expecting them to be, when they joined the Knicks. If that happens, the team will be competitive. In one way or another, the Knicks will be a funny team to watch this season.

The Lakers are the clear favorites to win the West and everything worse than another NBA final for them will be considered as a failure. These expectations are curious, as one year ago, a lot of people were doubting that they could even reach the Playoffs and that Kobe was more interested in leaving the Lakers than staying in LA.

Everything changed with the breakout season of Andrew Bynum, who last season basically doubled his numbers. He averaged 13.1 ppg and 10.2 rpg, for 63.6% FG! His physical presence on the paint caused a lot of damages on his opponents and a lot of people say that with Bynum on the field, the Lakers would have beaten the Celtics last season in the finals, but that’s another story. It’s important to refer that Bynum is now fully recovered and that may be the key of the Lakers’ success this season.

Pau Gasol was the key of the Lakers last season after Bynum’s injury and the Lakers can thank the Memphis staff, who made sure the Lakers will stay competitive on the next few seasons. With Gasol, the Lakers went 22-5 on the regular season and he entered very well on the team, with 18.8 ppg and 58.9% FG, however a lot of people accused Gasol of being soft on the finals against the Celtics. I think Gasol isn’t the most aggressive player on the league, but I think the people were too harsh on him, as the Celtics had a more powerful frontcourt than the Lakers and Gasol alone couldn’t do anything, in order to stop the Celtics on the paint.

Kobe Bryant finally won the MVP award last season and he earned it, for being able to focus after such a story between him, the Lakers and the Bulls. He ended the season with 28.3 ppg, 6.3 rpg and 5.4 apg, for 45.9% FG. Naturally, it is expected that Kobe will remain was the franchise player of the team, but his big task for this season will be to make the team be globally better, something he has managed to do last season. Also we know that when the Lakers are involved in a ballgame with just a few seconds remaining on the clock, we know who’s gonna take the responsibility: Kobe Bryant.

With Bynum’s return, the Lakers have now one of the most powerful frontcourts of the league and at the same time, one of the tallest too: Bynum is 7′1, Gasol is 7′0 and Odom is 6′10. Naturally, the team will improve in the rebound department and it will be very hard to stop them on the paint, but not everything is positive, as if they win in height, they also lose in speediness and mobility and the opponents may take advantage of that factor.

However, the main problem for Phil Jackson will be the chemistry the team will have or not, with these three players on the field at the same time. There are rumors that Odom will be the team’s 6th man, but he’s not happy at all with that. If he is used in the SF position, we can say it’s his original position, but he hasn’t played on that position on the past few seasons and we don’t know if he will be able to adapt to that position once again. He is not a good player on the perimeter and with Gasol and Bynum getting the attention on their opponents, the Lakers will need good exterior shooters and Odom isn’t that type of player.

All the remaining roster is the same from last season, which will be positive, as there weren’t many changes. The bench of the Lakers were the 7th best last season with 32.3 ppg, even though some players didn’t play well at all in the finals, like Walton or Radmanovic.

The expectations for the Lakers this season are huge and they will be the team everybody will want to beat in the West. The team has all the conditions to make another run into the NBA finals and Kobe Bryant will have to show what he hasn’t been able to show on his entire career: be able to be the decisive player on the finals. He was out shadowed by O’Neal on his first three finals and last season, the Celtics didn’t have problems in stopping him.

The Mike D’Antoni era in Phoenix is now over, with the coach going to New York and even though the Suns played some amazing basketball in the last seasons, the truth is that they couldn’t even reach a NBA final. Since Steve Nash joined the team in 2004, the Suns had a record with more than 70% of wins in the regular season and always they had to face the Spurs in the postseason, the result was the same: a loss.

Maybe because of this, GM Steve Kerr thought that a coach that was just thinking about the offense wasn’t the right person to lead the Suns to a championship. A proof of that was the Celtics easily beating the Lakers in the NBA final last season and with Steve Nash with 34 years old, he thought it was the right time to make a change.

Terry Porter is now the coach of the Suns and we will witness a new mentality in Phoenix. I don’t believe the offense of the Suns will suffer a major change, as with Steve Nash running the offense, the unbelievable passes will continue, but the defense will be changed and improved. Porter was a very competitive guard as a player and a very good defender. On his 17 seasons as a player, he had a winning record of 815-547 (almost 60%) and he missed the Playoffs just once, so we are talking about someone with a winning mentality. His experience as a head coach on the league is short, with just two seasons in Milwaukee, with a 71-93 record and a Playoff appearance, but this roster of the Suns has nothing to do with the roster of the Bucks back then.

One of the main problems of this team has to go with the age of some of their key players. Steve Nash is 34 years old, Shaq is 36, Grant Hill will also turn 36 and Raja Bell is 32 years old. Mike D’Antoni was heavily criticized for not resting Nash on the regular season, so he could be at 100% in the Playoffs and one of the challenges of Porter will be to keep these players healthy and rested for the Playoffs, without decreasing the level of the team during the regular season.

Steve Nash is coming from another fabulous seasons, where he had once again more than 10 apg and 50% FG, just like in every other season in Phoenix. Offensively, we can’t ask more from him than he did last season: 16.9 ppg, 11.1 apg, 50.4% FG, 47% 3pts and 90.6% FT. His problem will be on defense, where players like Chris Paul, Tony Parker and Deron Williams are younger than him and have caused a lot of problems to the Suns last season, while exposing Nash’s problems in defending.

Maybe thinking about that, the Suns selected in the draft the Slovenian Dragic (yes, it’s true!), who is a talent and who may be the future of the Suns in the PG position, after Nash’s retirement. Dragic is a very quick player, with a natural ability to drive into the basket and he will have an amazing coach (Nash) to help him on the adaptation to the NBA. Dragic would receive way more money in Europe, but he decided to join the Suns, as it was a dream for him to play with Nash.

With the addition of Dragic, Leandro Barbosa will get more minutes in the SG position, which is his natural position. As we all know, Barbosa is a natural scorer and not a pure guard. As a 6th man, he is one of the best players in the league in coming off the bench and have an immediate impact on the game and that’s why he was won the 6th player of the year award before.

The frontcourt of the Suns is one of the most powerful on the league and they don’t fear anyone. Amare Stoudemire may not be the “beast” he was before his injury, but he keeps dominating his opponents. He averaged 25.2 ppg and 59% FG last season, but it’s on the defense where Amare will need to improve to make the Suns be a dominant force on the defensive area. He averaged 9.1 rpg last season and for the first time on his career, he averaged more than 2 blocks per game. The Suns will play on a slower pace this season, but the productivity of Amare should remain the same, as playing with Nash, he will always have a lot of opportunities to score and he will also benefit from the presence of Shaq on his side.

Shaq will continue to be very useful to the team, especially as the opponents won’t forget to guard him and that will create open shots to Amare and to the players in the perimeter. His move to Phoenix in the mid season didn’t have the expected results for the team and maybe the way the team was playing wasn’t the best for him, so Terry Porter will have the task to figure it out the best way to take advantage of what Shaq can give to the team, but also to manage his physical condition. We all know that Shaq is still capable to make the different in the Playoffs, but for that he needs to be physically at 100%.

For the first time in a lot of seasons, the Suns have a good number of quality solution for all positions and the rotation won’t include just 8 players, like D’Antoni was doing it. Matt Barnes (ex-Warriors) will be a good backup for Grant Hill, who was badly used last season, reaching the Playoffs dead tired. With Barnes on the roster, Porter has someone to put on the field, in order to rest Hill.

Boris Diaw is a player, who can play on several positions in the frontcourt and he has already showed he can be extremely useful in the different tasks he can do on the field. Also the Suns have drafted Robin Lopez, who even though he won’t have a lot of minutes this season will learn a lot with Shaq and Amare.

The Suns this season aren’t included on the top contenders to win the Western conference and the time line for Nash to win a title is getting shorter. However, the Suns have a really equilibrated roster this season, unlike the previous seasons and if Terry Porter is able to implement a defensive mentality on the team, then the Suns may be a serious contender to go very far on the Playoffs this season.

The Kings were one of the less talked teams last season, but managed to do better than the regular supporter was expecting, whose expectations were pretty low. The team managed to finish the regular season with a 38-44 record, despite several problems. Mike Bibby just started the season in January and after playing 15 games left to Atlanta. Artest missed the first 7 games of the season, due to suspension and later missed a series of 9 games. Also Kevin Martin missed 17 games in December, so looking at the record of the Kings, we can say Reggie Theus did a good job.

Now without Ron Artest, Kevin Martin will be the unquestionable franchise player of the team and the truth is that Martin has been improving season after season and if he keeps improving at the same rhythm, he will sooner or later be present on an All Star game. He averaged last season 23.7 ppg and his numbers say that he is an all around player, capable of shooting from every zone of the field: 45.6% FG, 40.2% 3pts and 86.9% FT. His ability to drive into the basket and to gain fouls, made him be the 5th player on the league last season with more FT attempts (9.5 per game). His effectiveness on that factor made him the player on the league with most FT conversions last season (8.2 per game). Without Artest, it won’t be surprising if Martin manages to improve his scoring numbers to something above 25 ppg. Martin is a low profile player and maybe that’s why he is so underrated, bue he shows a lot of attitude on the field. His main problem this season will be the fact that the Kings only have him as an offensive threat and his opponents will surely know that and double team him.

One of the main problems of the Kings last season was the lack of ability of passing the ball and consequently, to create good shooting opportunities. The Kings were second last on the league in terms of assists, with just 19.1 apg and first in the category nobody likes to be first: turnovers, with 15.3 TO/game! The consequence of that was obvious: they were last on the always important A/TO ratio, with 1.25!

Beno Udrih signed a new contract and he is the clear choice for the PG position. Last season, the Kings signed him from the Spurs, in order to replace Mike Bibby and he had a reasonable season, with 12.8 ppg and 4.3 apg, however having in account he had 2.28 TO/game, 4.3 apg isn’t enough for a player who averaged 32 minutes per game last season. This season will be very important for Udrih, in order to show that he can be a starter in Sacramento. Let’s not forget he had never been a starter before and he hasn’t joined the Kings right at the start of last season.

In exchange for Ron Artest, the Kings received Bobby Jackson, who comes back to a team, where he had the best moments of his career (2001-2005), where he was clearly a fan favorite. Jackson will be Udrih’s backup and he comes from a season, where he averaged 7.7 ppg and 40.3% FG, in 20 minutes per game, so I believe that he will have the same role in his new adventure in Sacramento.

The frontcourt of the Kings seems to be the weakest part of the team, not because they lack potential, but especially because they have a very strong competition in the West and it will be hard for them to get their frontcourt players to be capable to give a great immediate response. John Salmons was benefited from Artest’s departure and he will be a starter this season. He had already shown on Artest’s absence last season that he can be an interesting player, by averaging 21.0 points on the games Artest didn’t play! On the 41 games he was a starter last season, he had very interesting numbers: 17.5 ppg, 5.4 rpg and 3.5 apg and this season he will be the second offensive option of the team, right behind Kevin Martin.

Brad Miller and Mikki Moore will be the veterans of the frontcourt and they don’t seem to have the stamina they used to have, especially Miller, who was involved in another problem outside the field and he will be suspended from the first five games of the team. He averaged 13.4 ppg and 9.5 rpg last season and he may be replaced by the young talented Spencer Hawes, who was a surprise on his rookie season. When Miller got injured, Hawes averaged 12.3 ppg and 7.6 rpg and certainly he will have more opportunities this season than last season, where he just averaged 13.1 minutes per game.

Jason Thompson and Donte Green (who also came from Houston on the Artest trade) will be the rookies of the team this season and both have potential to become good players. Green impressed on the Summer League by scoring 40 points on the 1st game and being the 2nd best scorer on the whole competition. On the other side, Thompson had very interesting numbers on the four seasons he had in Rider, with 16.7 ppg, 9.6 rpg and 1.9 bpg and he will be the future of the team on the PF position.

Reggie Theus will have some young players at his disposal, in order to prepare the team for the future, as the competition in the Western conference is just too tough for the Kings to have a shot in the present. Sacramento surprised everyone last season by becoming a spoiler team in the West and once again, they can’t expect more than that from this season.