In July, the basketball world had to concede defeat to King James and the villains also known as the “big three”. With the NBA season just under way, King James and the Heat are looking to defend their title and repeat.
But the Brooklyn Nets and their new look team might have a few things to say about that. In addition to moving cities and changing jerseys, they made noise by resigning Deron Williams and trading for veteran shooting guard Joe Johnson, formerly of the Hawks.
With Brook Lopez at full strength, the Nets now have a big three of their own. The Hawks did trade their best player, but cleared up a lot of salary cap space and are a threat to make the playoffs, as they are every year. The rest of the league includes a Chicago club who could get Derrick Rose back by the second half of the year, an older Boston Celtics team who lost Ray Allen to the Heat, but who had a very good draft by stealing Jared Sullinger and Fab Melo.
Philadelphia made a great playoff run last year before falling in the second round to the Celtics. They weren’t expected to be contenders at all which made it impressive, but more impressive is them getting Andrew Bynum in the trade for Dwight Howard, giving them arguably the second best center in the league.
Look for the Milwaukee Bucks to take the Magic’s spot in the playoffs. Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis give the Bucks one of the best guard duos in the league.
Linsanity if officially extinct in New York and now that the hype has died down, Carmelo Anthony will have to anchor this often-disappointing team to yet another disappointing season. There were reports that Melo forced Lin out of New York, as Melo was trying to make an alpha dog reference. If this is true, there will be much scrutiny or praise placed on him depending on how well the team does.
Enough about the east, onto the west.
San Antonio finished the 2011-12 season tied with the Bulls for the best record, but after no offseason moves and their already old team a year older, they are a safe bet for the playoffs but don’t expect them to make much noise.
With their core of Durant, Ibaka, Westbrook and the newly acquired Kevin Martin, there is no reason to expect anything less of a season equal or greater to last year for Oklahoma City. We will soon see if the Thunder will miss their bearded sixth man, James Harden.
Most people would pick the Thunder to win the west because most people dislike the Lakers.
The Lakers stacked their team and Metta World Peace thinks they can go 73-9. It’s a little early to be talking but they should easily be the favorites to win the west.
The Timberwolves went and signed Brandon Roy out of retirement and Andrei Kirilenko to low-risk, high-reward contracts. If Ricky Rubio and Kevin Love can stay healthy this team could surprise.
It should get interesting with Houston and Minnesota not making the playoffs last year but bolstering their teams this year in an effort to fight for that eighth seed.
First overall pick Anthony Davis is going to be making headlines every game both for his raw talent, being first overall, and the unibrow that he has trademarked.
This season is important for teams like the Spurs, Celtics and Mavericks who are all getting old. The clock is finally starting to tick and there isn’t much time left for them to get back to the finals.
Connor Anthony can be reached at connor.anthony@spartans.ut.edu.