NBA New Year
| Published 11/03/04
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This year, the NBA promises to be different, with a new divisional structure as well as a new team, the Charlotte Bobcats. Also, some big trades went down over the summer, the biggest being the move of Diesel, Shaquille O’ Neal to Miami, for Brian Grant, Lamar Odom, and Caron Butler. Those are some positive changes. The biggest negative in the off-season was the lackluster play of the Olympic team, losing to Puerto Rico, and only finishing with a bronze medal, the worst finish in recent memory, with the Dream Team in the past few Olympics. The team was criticized for being a bunch of individual players that never learned to play together, and therefore lost to teams we should have defeated. The first thing we need to discuss is the new divisional lineups. The NBA now features six divisions, The Atlantic, Southeast, Central, Pacific, Northwest, and Southwest. This means, that there are three divisions to be won in each conference, so there are three automatic bid type spots, then seeds 4-8 will be decided by standings after the winners. This move was triggered by adding the expansion Charlotte Bobcats. They were implanted in the Southeast, while the New Orleans Hornets moved from the Eastern Conference to the Western Conference. The NBA team total moved from 29 to 30, and there are six five-team divisions. The Charlotte Bobcats first pick in the draft was Emeka Okafor, the All-American shot blocking wizard from National Champions UConn. In the expansion draft, they gained very little, with this team looking much weaker than the previous expansion teams of Toronto and then Vancouver. Gutsy veteran guards Steve Smith and Brevin Knight highlight the expansion class of veterans for the Bobcats. They have little promise to contend for anything except for a Rookie of the Year award for Emeka Okafor, he biggest challenger, with the influx of youth and international players in this year’s draft will be college teammate Ben Gordon, who plays for Chicago. The off-season move of O’Neal to Miami was the biggest story of the off-season, coupled with Kobe Bryant’s rape case. Bryant is okay to play, and the charges were dropped. Shaq’s trade changed the face of two teams, the Lakers and the Miami Heat. The Heat, now move to instant contenders in the East, with a big man, that most of the time, is a dominant force. The Lakers are now Kobe Bryant’s team, as he prepares to possibly have the best season of his career. A lot of people are calling for the Lakers to miss the playoffs. I think this will occur. The Heat will definitely be in the playoffs, as at least a three seed, as I see them winning their division. As for other predictions, I see the division winners being Minnesota in the Northwest, Sacramento in the Pacific, and Dallas in the Southwest. Other playoff teams in the West will include Denver, Portland, San Antonio, Houston and Phoenix. In the Eastern Conference, the division champs will be: Philadelphia in the Atlantic, Detroit in the Central, and Miami in the Southeast. Other playoff teams will include Boston, Indiana, Cleveland, New York, and Milwaukee. The race in the East for the last playoff spots will be lots of under achieving teams, and will be very close, as it has been recently. So, who wins what? I’ll take Detroit in the East, and Minnesota in the West. Detroit will make a run at the repeat, but Kevin Garnett and the Timberwolves will cut down the nets in six games. Detroit will probably take the one seed in the East, led by Big Ben and the Piston’s bad-boy reminiscent defense.
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