NBA PREVIEW

UTAH JAZZ



After making a great campaign in the playoffs last season, Utah would have everything to have another great campaign this season. Carlos Boozer stayed healthy. Deron Williams came into his own. Mehmet Okur had a career year. But this season it won't be as good as last season was. At least the chemistry between all the elements of the organization isn't the best. After getting ripped by the Spurs, Deron Williams said some nasty words about his team mates' performances in a message clearly destined to Andrei Kirilenko. Kirilenko, who resents both Jerry Sloan and his role in Utah's offense, shined for Russia in this summer's European Championships, leading it to a gold medal. Good for him, but bad for Utah as Kirilenko has now another reason to ask for more money.

Andrei Kirilenko's multiple ""five-by-five"" stat lines and emergence as a defensive force like nothing seen on the hardwood, show that there is no most complete player than him right now in the league and probably since Pippen retired. Numerous sites have delved into the bizarre saga of Kirilenko's desire to leave the NBA for a Russian team. AK 47 at his best is capable of 15 ppg, 8 rpg, 4 apg, almost 2 steals per game and 3 blocks per game. Jesus Christ! It will be hard to keep Kirilenko happy in Utah, but he is the key for the Jazz's success not only this season, but also in the next years.

Deron Williams becomes into one of the league's best floor generals in only his second year, running Jerry Sloan's offense to perfection (9.3 apg, nearly 3/1 assists-to-turnovers). If he improves on last year's 32% three-point shooting, he could add at least two or three points per game to his average. If that happens, Williams will become a 20-10 guy. Improving on his previous year's scoring average by nearly six points (10.8 to 16.2) and more than doubling his assists per game from 4.5 to 9.3 in only eight more minutes per night is remarkable. The main problem for the Jazz will be find a solid backup for Williams.

Derek Fisher went to LA and Sloan will have a hard problem to solve. Jason Hart was brought into Utah to replace Fisher and to backup Williams. The young and athletic Ronnie Pricewill be the third point guard coming over from Sacramento.

The SG position is clearly the weakest position of the team. Giricek will start the season as a starter, but he will be nothing more than the fifth offensive option of the Jazz. But at least he can shoot (42.6% from three, 81.6% free throws). Matt Harpring will be the most solid backup for him and he should divide the minutes of the game with Giricek. In 25 mpg last season, he was capable of producing 11.6 ppg. Acceptable numbers for a player like him.

Boozer comes from an ET career season. If the fact that he remained healthy (played 74 games) wasn't enough, he had amazing numbers (56.1% FG, 20.9 ppg and 11.7 rpg). It will be hard to do better this season, but Boozer has reached an all-star level and the combo Williams-Boozer is pretty good and it gives some easy shots to Boozer.

The X factor for this season (besides AK47) will be Mehmet Okur. He had his best season ever last year. Centers who hit 38.4% of their 336 three-point attempts are close to the extinguish. But he did pretty terrible in the playoffs or at least, he did worse than in the regular season. So, there's my doubt in what he can do this season. If he is capable of getting back to his 2006-07 regular season numbers, then Utah will have the boost they need to do great again in 2007/08.

Utah has to be considered one of the top teams in the West on the merits of what they did last season, but San Antonio, Dallas, and Phoenix are one level above them. In addition, if Carmelo Anthony, Allen Iverson and company can actualize their potential in Denver, winning the Northwest Division again will be a bigger challenge this season for Utah. Repeat such great performance this season seems impossible.

ATLANTA HAWKS




Mike Woodson will enter his fourth season as the Hawks' coach. And that may be his last season in Atlanta, as he will need to present better results that in the last seasons. On July 8, 2004, Mike Woodson became the Hawks' tenth head coach since the franchise moved to the Atlanta area in 1968. After coaching Atlanta to a 13-69 record in his inaugural season, Woodson and the Hawks doubled that total of victories in year two, winning 26 of their 82 contests. With an overall mark of 39-125 (.238 winning percentage), even though he got more wins in successive seasons, this number isn't enough. Unfortunately the team doesn't have enough potential to reach the playoffs. Woodson's victory totals in the past two season has increased in spite of poor draft decisions, massive injuries and an ongoing power struggle for ownership of the franchise that has kept the team from being a major player in free agency. The need of winning in Atlanta is so big that the coach found himself in a position that he was even obligated to win the preseason games. Atlanta has a 4-1 record until now, using their starting team more time than it was expected. Curiously, it looks like they had right choices in the two draft picks they made this season: Al Horford (#3 overall) and Acie Law IV (#11 overall).

Horford is a physical specimen with a significant upside. The Hawks' roster is loaded with big forwards, so Horford getting squeezed out of minutes will definitely be a concern early on, but as the season progresses he should see more and more court time. Horford's value could come as a back-up center. Also as he won't have pressure to develop very quickly that will help him.

On the other side, Law has an NBA-ready game (he is actually older than Josh Smith and Marvin Williams) and even though he is a rookie, he has already a lot of experience. The Hawks desperately needed a guard such as Law. Not only he can pass the ball, he can score, which will take some of the pressure off of All-Star Joe Johnson to provide all the Hawks back court scoring and Law seems really to be the player they needed. Even though Law won't be a starter in the beginning of the season, as Speedy Claxton should get the upperhand, we all know in the future Law will be the team's PG.

The team will clearly depend from their stars: the two JJ. Joe Johnson and Josh Smith. Johnson had another phenomenal season for the Hawks in 2006/07; averaging 25 points, 4.2 rebounds and 4 assists. Despite proving himself incredibly durable throughout his young career, Johnson did miss a significant portion of the last season with a calf injury. In normal conditions, Johnson is a player to have 25 ppg, 5 apg and 5 rpg, which makes him an all-star player. But the lack of support to help him in Atlanta makes his talent to be almost invisible.

Josh Smith after a bad season, cameback and had a great 2006/07. He had 16.4 ppg and pull down 8.6 rpg, including an amazing 1.4 steals and 2.9 blocks per game. Not everything was great, let's not forget he also had 69.3% FT and 43.9% FG. His numbers will need to get better in order to be more competitive.

For the frontcourt positions, Atlanta doesn't have a lot of valid solutions. Marvin Williams and Zaza Pachulia will be the starters, but both need to develop a lot. People are expecting that Williams finally shows why he was a draft top pick. Over the last month of the 2006/07 season he averaged 16.8 points and 6.2 boards in 40 minutes. Maybe that's a good sign of what he can do this season, but we need to wait to see what he will do. On the other side, Zaza will have to divide minutes with Al Harford. His evolution wasn't as good as it was in 2005, but still he has a lot of potential to become a good player.

Mike Woodson has a hard task on his way and the team doesn't have enough options to make his job easy. There is a huge need to win and actually their calendar is favorable in the first games of the season for them. Maybe a good start can motivate them to do a good season. The main difference for this season is the inclusion of the two rookies, as they confirm they were good draft choices. If that happens, maybe Atlanta can think of reaching the playoffs. If it doesn't the run of Mike Woodson in Atlanta will finish this season.

ORLANDO MAGIC




Orlando has every condition to be a very strong team in this season's league. They have a very powerful big man and they will need to build the team around him. Curiously, Orlando's staff didn't do it in the last two season and they ended up paying the price for that (even though they reached the playoffs last season). For that task they hired the ideal coach to do this job: Stan Van Gundy, who worked with Shaq in Miami. He will know how to take advantage of the potential of Dwight Howard.

Howard had very good numbers last season (15.1 ppg and 11.6 rpg). But come on! He is capable of doing at least 25 ppg and that's the objective that Van Gundy will work with him. Howard last season had 60 double doubles, something that made him the best of double doubles in the East and only Garnett did better than him in the whole league. He shot 60% from the floor last year, exceeding his FT%. And, entering his 4th year, he is yet to miss a game! The main question about the team is if Howard will have the necessary support to be capable of playing his best. For that, Orlando hired the free agent Rashard Lewis. Actually they spent too much money on him.

Lewis is clearly overrated and he will need to show quickly that he was worth the money. The good part is that he is on his prime. Last season he averaged 22.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, 2.5 three-balls and 2.4 assists. Lewis is also a very efficient player and he was able to average those 22.4 points on just 16.8 shot attempts per contest. In Orlando he will have more chances to shoot the basket and if he is capable of staying well physically, then Lewis will explode. The player that didn't like the fact that Lewis is now on the team is the Turkish Turkoglu.

Turkoglu had a decent season last year, but will likely lose a significant share of his scoring opportunities with Lewis in the roster. Maybe he will be the 6th man that Orlando will certainly need in some matches.

To command the team, Van Gundy will trust that role to Nelson. Jameer Nelson had a disappointing year. His point and assist averages both dipped despite seeing an increase in playing time. He is a very short guard to defend some taller and stronger guards. I still can remember what Billups was capable of doing against Orlando last season. But in fact, Nelson has conditions to bounce back, as Orlando this season will have more offensive options, which makes the task of Nelson to decide what to do with the ball easier.

The 6′8 Ariza has a shot as the starting 2-guard. However, the Magic have rotation options at shooting guard. He will have to divide minutes with JJ Redick. Ariza will provide excellent rebounding and FG% for a guard, perhaps low double-figure scoring, steals, but nothing else. On the other side, Redick is expected to play more this season, as he averaged just 14.5 mpg in his rookie campaign. In the summer league, Redick in five games averaged 19.8 points, 3.8 assists and 2 three-pointers per game. So, I believe Van Gundy will give him more chances to play.

Tonny Battie will be the PF of the team. Even though there is a chance that Turkoglu ends playing at this position, taking advantage of the fact that Howard is capable of dominating the boards alone. Battie played very few minutes last season, but he had a good performance but also nothing that makes him an untouchable starter in the team.

This Magic have conditions to do better than last season, they just need to work on their style of play and taking the max advantage of the beast they have, as Howard with 22 years old can do more than he has done until now and everybody waits that this year he can finally fulfill his talent.

CHARLOTTE BOBCATS



Charlotte appears to be self-destructing even before the start of the league. It seems unbelievable, but they haven't played one official game and already two important players are out of the season: Sean May and the 3 Draft Pick last season Adam Morrison. After a bad rookie season, Morrison was preparing to do better this season (worse was impossible), but a knee injury will make him skip the whole season of 2007/08. A couple of weeks ago, the same happened with Sean May. So this team begins this season with a huge handicap towards their opponents and if it wasn't that they would fight for a positive season. Even though they don't have a roster full of superstars, but have a complete and deep roster.


Felton is the guard Sam Vincent wanted to have. Felton has managed two promising seasons. Last year he was up to 14 points and 7 assists per game, along with 1.3 3's – playing a solid 36 minutes per game. His biggest question mark is the field goal percentage. He is capable of distributing the ball very well, conduct the game on a quick way and at the same time defend well. Felton looks like from being the same class as Deron Williams and Chris Paul. Even though he isn't as good as these two players, Felton is a really interesting player.

Felton's backup will be Marr Carrol. Last season he shot an impressive 41 percent from behind the arc and was one of the top free throw shooters in the league at 90 percent. Carroll has improved in every offensive category last season from his previous career stats including shooting percentage, three-point percentage, free throw percentage and scoring per game.

Jason Richardson is clearly the biggest hiring that the Bobcats did this off season and he will be clearly the most talented player of the team. J Rich will have green card to shoot the basket, but he needs to get his % FG and FT better than last season. Well that won't be hard, as in Golden State he ended up shooting from any place of the field. He also has very good numbers in both assists and rebounds. He is capable of doing 5/6 rebounds and 3/4 assists per game. If he is capable of keeping himself healthy, J Rich will have arguments to reach the average of 22/23 ppg. Something that shouldn't be very hard to do, as he had these numbers a couple of seasons ago.

Talk about Gerald Wallace is talk about one of the most underrated players in the league. He is a stats machine, putting up huge numbers in any category on any given night. Wallace is a very complete player and he had very good numbers in almost all categories last season. 18.1 ppg, 7.2 rpg, 2.6 apg, 2.0 spg and 1.0 bpg make him a very versatile player. If he remains at 100%, the Bobcats will have a top player to work with. Don't forget that Wallace in April had 24.1 ppg, 59.4% FG and 9.1 rpg. These are all-star numbers! If we look to his max numbers on a game last season, he had 42 points, 17 rebounds, 9 assists, 6 steals and 5 blocks! Wow! He is capable of doing everything!

The Bobcats' frontcourt is very solid. With Sean May, it would have been even better, but Emeka Okafor is doing what he needs to do: defend and get a lot of rebounds. He had 14.4 ppg, 11.3 rbp, 2.6 bpg and 0.9 spg in 2006/07. Of course he could have done better in terms of points, but Emeka is clearly a better defender than an attacker. He has been consistent during his first three years and his improved shooting is an indication that he is perhaps on the verge of raising his offensive post game to the next level. His physical shape is still his weakest link, as he has missed 71 games in the last two seasons and an injury this season would be the end of the line for the Bobcats this season.

To complement Okafor, the Bobcats will put the Argentinian Walter Hermann in the field, who had an amazing month of April last season. The reserve forward averaged 9.2 points and 1.1 3's in about 19 minutes per game in his first NBA season. But in April, he exploded with 19.9 points (on 57.3% shooting), 5.6 boards, and 2.8 three's per contest! Without Sean May, the Argentinian will play more minutes and he will be able to improve even faster.

Primoz Brezec will be the other option for the frontcourt and even though he isn't capable of doing the numbers he did in the past, Brezec has still some quality. He dropped off substantially last year, with an injury and limited playing time (58 games; 14 minutes per game), but his technique is still there and he will have more minutes this season for sure.

Without Sean May and Adam Morrison, the Bobcats lost almost all hopes to reach a playoff spot. They want to do a better record than last year and they should be capable of doing that. Ask more than that will be hard, as Jordan is forming a team for the future and it won't be still this season that the Bobcats will go far in the league.

WASHINGTON WIZARDS




The Wizards have what every top team should have: at least three elite players. But when we look to the contenders for the title, do we even think about Washington? I don't think so. Even though they have Arenas, Jamison and Butler and they have won more than 50% of their matches in the last three seasons, they are yet to prove that they can win the title. They are like the Suns of the East, but without the ability of deciding games in the last second. Even though Arenas gave some examples how to decide games in the last second, we can't expect him to score three points 10m far away the basket in the last moment of the match every time. The last season was more like a practice. Arenas and Butler got injured and the team lacked weapons to fight in the playoffs. This year, things are expected to be a little bit different, as people are expecting Washington to be more competitive in the postseason.

Arenas is a NBA superstar and one of the most charismatic players in the league. Very few players are capable of doing these numbers: 228.5 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 6.0 apg, 8.2 FTM (at 84.4%) and 41.8% FG shooting in 2006/07. But it's even more impressive that he did 2.8 3-points per game. I don't expect nothing but Arenas to repeat a performance like this, this season. To help him, Arenas will have DeShawn Stevenson.

Stevenson didn't have a bad season last year (11 ppg, under 3 assists and less than one 3 per game), but this season he will have more chances to do better numbers, taking advantage that the Wizards' opponents will be more worried with the three superstars than with him. When Arenas got injured, Stevenson had 2.2 threes per game, something that is a good sign of what he can do this season.

Carton Butler should confirm his ascendant career - 3 years in a row getting better - 19.1 points, 7.4 rebounds (2.3 offensive), 3.7 assists, 2.1 steals. He shot a respectable 46% from the floor and an outstanding 86% from the line (on 5.2 attempts). These are good numbers and it's expected that he can confirm them this year.

To complete the trio, we need to talk about Jamison, who had a great performance in the playoffs, but he couldn't do nothing alone. Jamison's game has become more and more perimeter-oriented, but unfortunately for the Wizards, this isn't what they need right now, as they are already very strong in the perimeter. Of course Jamison had very good numbers in the regular season (almost 20 points, 8 rebounds and 2 threes per contest of last year is exceptional), but his numbers in terms of rebounds (especially in the offensive ones) are falling down and the Wizards will have problems against teams with very powerful centers.

The center position looks to be the weakest link in the team. Etan Thomas will be out due to a heart irregularity and Haywood will be the new starting center of the team. Haywood has been losing influence in the team, even though he will get more minutes this season, but I don't expect him to do any kind of development this season. If he has a season at the level of what he did in 2004/05 (9.4 ppg, 6.8 rpg and 1.7 bpg), it would be good, but I doubt that he can do it.

Antonio Daniels, who showed some good basketball when Arenas got injured, will be a good support when the team will need something new on a match. Of course I can't forget that the Wizards decided to trade Juan Carlos Navarro, in a move that will cost them a lot for sure. For the frontcourt, the main backup will be Darius Songailla, who showed in FIBA Eurobasket that when he has minutes to play, he can contribute with good numbers. Songaila is a reliable percentage shooter, better than 50% FG and 85% FT.

The season of the Wizards will be better than last season, at least the last month of competition will be for sure. The goal of 50 wins in the regular season in possible, but making a good run in the playoffs will be very hard. Even though Arenas is a great shooter, the team lacks a killer instinct and a center who can do 10/11 rebounds per night.

MIAMI HEAT



What the Miami directors thought before the off season? Maybe the way that Chicago squashed team in the playoffs made them go nuts and they decided to change the team. And in fact, they changed it. But the team just got way worse than it was. The team's management in the offseason has been terrible. Jason Kapono, Eddie Jones, James Posey and Gary Payton have all left the team. To compensate the fact that so many good players left the team, they should have hired player equally good or better than them. Did they do it? No way!

To the guard position, they hired Smush Parker! The only positive aspect Smush has is being durable. He is capable of doing a whole season without injuries. Besides that, he is a turnover prone player and he can't command himself let alone a whole team. Also he won't be the better option for Miami because even though Wade will create space for Parker, he is a bad 3pt shooter. So, the team will be dependent of the physical shape of Jason Williams. If he is 100% fit, Williams is a good player, capable of doing everything well. Forget the white chocolate from six seasons ago, this one is different.

Miami missed the hiring of both Bell and Mo Williams, another example of bad management. The team will start without Dwayne Wade and that's a worry for them because Wade alone fills up the PG and SG positions. When healthy, Wade is the most talented player in the league and he is capable of doing some insane numbers. Having 27 ppg, 49% FG, 5.0 rpg, 7.5 apg, 2.1 spg and even 1.2 bpg is just crazy and only 1% of the NBA players can actually dream about doing these numbers. He just needs to get better in his % 3 pts, but that will be hard as Wade is clearly a specialist in penetrating into the basket and make his opponents foul him. In 2005/06 he went 803 to the free throw line. Wow!

With Posey out of the team, Walker will be the probable starter in the SF position, but it will be for a short time, because he should never play more than 30 minutes per game. Besides that, Walker is a typical playoff player and Pat Riley won't use for a lot of minutes in the regular season. Maybe Riley is already preparing the enter of Dorell Wright in the starting team. Dorell started 19 games for Miami last season and in those starts he averaged 28.4 minutes, 8.7 points, and 6.7 rebounds and nearly a steal and a block per game. There is also another contender for a spot in the team: Penny Hardaway is back with 36 years old! But he had too much time without playing and he won't be a valid solution. I won't even say anything else about him, as his performance will be an incognito.

For the frontcourt positions, Miami will continue with O'Neal and Haslem. The second one did 10 ppg and 8 rpg last season, but come on! He has some confidence issues and with the talent he has he should be a player to do 15 ppg and 9/10 rpg without any kind of problem. Let's wait that this year he can finally play according to his talent. I left O'Neal for last. It's sad but O'Neal is already in the downfall of his career. Last season proved that. He played less games and for that the first game he played less than 30 mpg. He also had less than 9 rpg and for the first time in 14 seasons, he had less than 20 ppg. The solution will be save him the max time possible for the playoffs, so he can show the good old O'Neal that is still inside him. But without Wade out in the beginning of the season, the whole team will depend of him. Alonzo Mourning is a solid backup, but he doesn't have 30 years old anymore and Pat Riley will need to manage the time of these two players very well.

This team of Miami can't be considered a contender for the title for now. It will depend from the physical shape they will be in the postseason. They have the advantage of belonging to the weakest division in the NBA, which may give them some advantage towards the other teams, but they won't be clearly the dominant team they were 2/3 years ago, because they don't have enough valid solutions for that.

Philadelphia 76ers


The Sixers were one of the biggest surprises of the season last year. After being 5-19 with Iverson, with AI leaving the team, they ended up having 30 wins in 59 games. How can you explain that? Besides Iverson, Webber left the team too. What was the key for that? Andre Miller? Miller had a fast adaptation to Philadelphia but he wasn't the responsible for that, actually if Iverson couldn't carry the team, why would Miller able to do it? What really changed was the team chemistry. That was the factor that contributed for the positive season of the Sixers pos-Iverson. And also the fact that some opponents underestimated them and curiously this good record that made them 3rd in the division may be fatal for the future of the squad.

When the Sixers decided to let Iverson go, they did it with the propose of having cap salary for the future and for some good positions at the draft. With the good run last season, they lost the chance of having a top pick. And from a possibility of having 1 or 2 draft picks, they got the 12th choice. The supporters weren't expecting that as they were hoping to get Greg Oden or Kevin Durant. Thanks to that the Sixers enter this season just with the best they had last season: team chemistry. But will be that enough for a 82-games season?

Andre Miller will try to have the same productivity he had last season in here already, where he was capable of doing 13 ppg, 7 apg and 4.5 rpg. He'll also shoot a solid percentage from the line and come up with some steals. Kevin Ollie will be his backup, but he won't be able to help a lot. I expect Miller to play something like 37 mpg.

The main star of the team is Andre Iguodala (A.I 2.0), who had a tremendous evolution after Iverson left the team. His full season numbers were 18.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, 5.7 assists, 2.0 steals and 6.0 free throws per game (on 7.3 attempts, 82%). His FG% dropped from 50% in 2005-06 to 44% last year, as he added significant attempts from the outside with the departure of Iverson. Of course with the departure of Iverson, Iguodala easily reached the mark of the 20 points.

To complete the roster in the perimeter, the Sixers have Kyle Korver and Willie Green. Korver is more certain and he can be specially useful as he is again expected to start (between the 2 and 3 with Iguodala). He should maintain his 30 minutes per game participation. He is a prolific 3-pt shooter but Korver hasn't improved in the last months and he is only useful for these two categories. I think it would be more useful for the team if he was used as the 6th man. Green has also averaged double figure points, at 11.3 per game, often showing flashes of greater possibilities. His evolution has been good as he averaged 29 ppg in the last three matches last season and made eight 3's in the last two games. Of course he won't do that in the regular season, but it's a good indicator of what he can do on a good day.

For the frontcourt positions, the Sixers are very limited when it comes to the attack. They have good players to fight for some rebounds, but nothing more than that. They hired Reggie Evans, who is a great rebounder. Evans may start, or will certainly have the opportunity to garner starter minutes one way or another, as he can approach double-digit rebounding numbers on a nightly basis. With the style of Evans, we have Dalembert. He managed to play all 82 games last season, averaging nearly 11 points, 9 rebounds, and 2 blocks in 30 minutes per game. The main concern is that he is injured right now and nobody knows if he will be get back to his good form when he comes back.

From the three draft picks, maybe Jason Smith will be the one that will offer something useful to the team. He may step in as more of an immediate contributor, given the team a substantial lack of front-line scoring ability.

The Sixers will a lot of ability to suffer and to work a lot, because their roster is so weak that only with a lot of chemistry they will be able of doing something positive. Doing a similar record to last season's would be already very good for them

TORONTO RAPTORS




Toronto was the ATS champion with a record last season of 50-37-1. The bookies started hating them because they didn't know how to rate them. They started with a 2-8 record, so how it was possible for them to do such recuperation? The answer is simple: Sam Mitchell had to change the style of play of the team. Toronto dropped the idea of a wild run and gun style to implement a more controlled style, to make them defend better. This new style of play fitted 100% on the team because most players have a big experience in Europe and that's the way they were used to play there. Calderon, Garbajosa, Parker, Bargnani and Nesterovic all had good performances last season, because they clearly fitted on this style of play. For this season, expectations are big. Toronto didn't make big moves. Just Kapono and Delfino entering the team and Morris Peterson leaving it. The big star of the team continues naturally to be Chris Bosh.

Bosh has dominated the east conference last season. This season he will have more opponents, but his numbers are unbelievable. Bosh is coming off another phenomenal fantasy campaign. He averaged 22.6 points, 10.7 boards, to go along with 1.3 blocks and great percentages. Bosh is dealing with plantar fasciitis in his left foot, but claims that this is just a precautionary measure. When he is 100% fit, Bosh is a 20/10 monster and his versatility makes him almost impossible to stop.

TJ Ford has a very good season last year - averaging 14 points, 7.9 dimes and 1.4 steals a night. With last season coming to an end, Calderon began stealing him more minutes, including in the playoffs. Ford expects to comeback to his best this season, but there is a factor that may screw him. Calderon is very talented and he could start for a few teams in the NBA and he will enter this season as a future free agent, so the Raptors will need to give him more minutes or they will have the risk of losing him in the offseason. This measure may be good for the team, but bad for Ford.

Parker proved that he is a good player. After being the MVP in the Euroleague (biggest European competition), his comeback to the league was pretty good. Not only he contributed in the defense, he also was a good offensive solution. This season he will have Delfino as a contender for his spot. But the more versatility of Parker should be enough to make him play at least 30 mpg.

Garbajosa was another pleasant surprise for the Raps last season, before suffering a gruesome leg injury late in the season. I believe almost nobody was expecting so much from him, but that was they were sleeping for sure. He averaged 8.5 ppg, 4.9 rpg and 1.2 spg. He will have Kapono as a backup, who will be very good for the team, as he showed that he is very efficient in the 3 point shooting.

Finally for the Center position, Toronto won't have problems. Nesterovic will begin the season as a starter, but even though he never screws the team, we all know the protagonism will be for Bargnani. The Italian even though was the number 1 pick last season, the specialists never expected a lot from him, but the proved the opposite. There is a lot to like about the 7-foot Italian stallion, as he made 11.6 ppg, 2.9 rpg and 1.5 three-pointers per contest last season. Bargnani needs to be more aggressive in the rebounds, but with Bosh on his side, this isn't that important right now. But of course it would be good if he was capable of averaging 5.0 rpg.

This team has everything to do another season at the level of last season. Same coach, same players, same system. After the playoffs, we will see if the team will be mature.

NEW YORK KNICKS

In the four years Thomas has spent as president, the Knicks have made the playoffs only once, getting swept by the rival New Jersey. They have never finished above .500. They spent a fortune to hire Larry Brown and then paid him to go away. If that wasn't enough that the players and coach couldn't do nothing right, the owner James Dolan to follow his employees and did another terrible management action. He offered in March a multi year extension contract to Isiah Thomas. That seemed right to him at the time, as the Knicks were very few games below 50% and playing well, but was these results enough to make Thomas earn a contract extension? The results speak for themselves: they just won 4 of the last 19 games last season.

As always the Knicks messed a lot with their roster in the off season with some relevant transactions. The biggest was Zack Randolph joining the team. But how will he fit in the team? The last big center double in the league was Davids Robinson and Tim Duncan. The two combined well because they had different styles and of course, they are two of best centers in the league ever. Even though Curry and Randolph had good numbers last season, one thing seems inevitable: the conventional wisdom dictates that one or both of them will have to sacrifice shots and scoring opportunities in order to co-exist. Don't forget that Randolph was one of only five players in the entire league to average over 20 points and 10 rebounds per game last season. The double Randolph-Curry seems to be indestructible, but I don't think that and we will see that this season. But there is something I know. Their opponents will toy with them and they are both terrible defenders. This double will end up destructing the future frontcourt star of the team: David Lee.

Lee was one of the most efficient players in the league last year. He averaged 10.7 points and 10.4 rebounds despite playing less than 30 minutes a night. In addition, Lee shot 60% from the floor and 81.5% from the free-throw line. Will Isiah Thomas be able to give minutes to Lee, as his aggressivity has nothing in common to Curry and Randolph and he clearly deserves that chance.

To supply points to these big guys, the Knicks will use Starbury. It would be brutal for the Knicks if Marbury could become Starbury again. His claim to fame was averaging over 20 points and 8 assists for the first 11 years of his career. Last season he only had 5.4 apg, when five seasons ago he used to have 9.0 apg. This factor will be the X Factor of the Knicks this season.

To complete the backcourt, the Knicks will have Jamal Crawford and Quentin Richardson. Crawford will have less opportunities this season. He isn't the 1st or 2nd option in the attack, but the 3rd or 4th option right now. His numbers in the last seasons are good, but terrible in the %'s. 40% for a player that plays 37 mpg isn't good. So, Crawford will need to get better and be more selective in his shootings. On the other side, Richardson will have the chance of improve his numbers this season. With Randolph and Curry in the area, he will be wide open a good number of times and he should use his great 3-points shooting ability to score a lot of points for his team.

Another seasons and the Knicks' fans without having the sensation of having a complete and competitive team. The roster isn't equilibrated and with Isiah Thomas in the bench, it will be hard to reach the playoffs. They should have a better record this season, but far from that seems very hard. They would need to get better and quickly.

NEW JERSEY NETS





The Nets don't need a lot to have a great season. They don't even need their players to develop a lot or wait for their rookie to do an amazing campaign. No, they just need they all their players keep healthy. Just that. And if that happens, we will have a team that will win more than 50 games without much trouble. Every top team has three elite players. Dallas has Dirk, Howard and Terry. The Spurs has Duncan, Parker and Ginobili. The Suns has Nash, Amare and Marion. Well, the Nets in normal conditions have four superstars.

Nenad Kristic is the key of the Nets. Before his injury last season, he was averaging 16.4 ppg and 6.8 rpg. Kristic is in the NBA for four seasons and he got better in all actions of the game. When he was getting ready to make a season close to an all-star level, he got injured and only played 26 games. His inclusion in the Nets will make the team way better and he is a center with an amazing technique, very similar to the other centers from the Eastern part of Europe. With him, the big three of the Nets will finally have someone in the interior zone in who they can trust.

We don't need to talk a lot about Kidd, as he is one of the three most complete players in the league ever. And he is like the wine. The older, the better. Kidd had probably his best season ever last year, with 13.0 ppg, 9.2 apg and 8.2 rpg, but if we look to his playoff numbers, he put a cherry on top of his phenomenal campaign by averaging a triple-double in the playoffs. Kidd became only the second player in the NBA history, joining Oscar Robertson, to average a triple-double (14.6 points, 10.9 rebounds, 10.9 assists) for an entire postseason. And his postseason included 12 games!

Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson need to improve their numbers, especially Carter who should be calmer, after signing a new contract. Even though Carter averaged a career-high in rebounds (6.0) and assists (4.8), his performance wasn't amazing. There were games where he simply didn't do nothing. Jefferson needs to be at 100%. The ideal would be him get back to his 2004 numbers, where he averaged 22.2 points, 7.3 rebounds and 4.0 assists, but something close to that would be already good.

The Nets hired Jamal Magloire and at the same time, they got rid of Mikki Moore. Magloire almost had all-star numbers in the past, but of course he will never reach that points in the Nets. He will be the 5th choice for the attack, but he will surely do better than in Portland last season, where he only played 21 mpg and just 6.5 ppg and 6.1 rpg.

One of the negative aspects of the team is that the Nets don't have a lot of good solutions in the bench. This season they are a little better as the now Sophomore Marcus Williams showed to be useful in the team last season, giving precious minutes of rest to Kidd. This season he will develop more, because it's impossible not to develop when Jason Kidd is your teammate. Bostjan Nachbar will be the 6th man, as his evolution has been spectacular and this season he should have enough confidence to be a solid backup.

Mark Allen and Josh Boone will be the backups of the centers. Boone has enough margin to improve and he will take advantage of the minutes he will play.

This team of Lawrence Frank, as long as they stay fit, has all the necessary conditions to dominate the league. It's a very complete team and they should be able of getting a top spot in the playoffs. More than 50 wins seems to be an accessible scenario.

BOSTON CELTICS




After the Celtics had their third worst season ever (24-58), something had to change. With their neighbors Red Sox and Patriots doing well, the real Celtics' fans wanted a real change in the team. Danny Ainge had two options: he either changed the team via new blood with top draft picks in a process that would take 2/3 years, but that would cost them Paul Pierce (who wouldn't stay in Boston without a chance to win) and a lot of supporters or they would destroy their future and to try to reach a title in 2/3 years. And his option, as we all know, as the second one.

The first step was the hiring of Ray Allen, by getting rid of their top draft pick. But the real step was the hiring of Kevin Garnett, in a trade that the world had never saw. Garnett was traded for seven players! Forwards Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes and Gerald Green, guard Sebastian Telfair and center Theo Ratliff, two first-round draft picks and cash considerations. But the Celtics' roster is now insufficient. To be a top team they need to have solutions in the bench and it won't be hard to get some good veteran free agents, but it will be Danny Ainge's skills that will decide the future of the Celtics.

Whoever they still get, this team is overrated. All supporters expect that the Celtics can become champions. Do they know how difficult it is to win the league? They are just setting up Boston with unrealistic expectations. Would you put this team fighting against Dallas or San Antonio in a best of 7 series? I don't think so, but in fact they don't need to win the title this season. Garnett is 31, Allan is 32 and Pierce is 30. They will be able to offer more 2/3 seasons at their best, so Boston will have a better chance to get the ring in the next few years.

The big star of the team is of course the big ticket, one of the main contenders to the MVP. And now he will be on the spotlight (something that he didn't in Minnesota). Garnett, along with former Celtics player Larry Bird, is one of only two players in NBA history to average at least 20, 10, and 5 for five consecutive seasons. He hasn't missed more than six games in a season since 1998-99. Last year he put up 22.4 points, 12.8 rebounds and 4.1 assists to go along with 1.7 blocks and 1.2 steals. He was also the player in the league with more double-doubles last season. But Garnett's style of play makes him be more prone to help the team in making assists than anything else. Boston needs clearly a good PG playmaker. And as they don't have one, Garnett will have to be something like a second guard and distribute the game, something that he does pretty well. If he is capable to repeat the numbers of the 2002-03 season (6.0 apg), he would be the MVP for sure. Another factor that will help him is the fact that he won't face Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki or Amare Stoudemire so many times, who use to cause him problems in playing his game.

Ray-Ray will benefit from the passing ability of Garnett. It looks like he didn't have a good season last year, but looking at the stats, he averaged 26 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists. Well, those would be career numbers for most of the players in the league. Actually only three players did better than him: Kobe, Lebron and Arenas. This season he won't shoot so many times, but when he shoot most of the times wide open, something that in Seattle he had problems to do.

To complete the big three, we have Paul Pierce, who has always been underrated and without any real company in the team. Last season he only played 47 games, but he had time to do his usual numbers - 25ppg, 7 rpg and 4 apg. It's his normal numbers and this season he won't even need to do such higher numbers. The chemistry between these three players will be essential to make a good team. In the preseason they have showed a good dynamic, but let's not overrate them. Duncan, Ginobili and Parker are at a higher level because they know each other very well, something that Pierce, Allen and Garnett will only conquer with time.

They are two open spots in the team and Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins should be the chosen ones, especially Rondo. Rajon will start mainly thanks to his performance in the last month of last year's league. Over the season's final month, Rondo averaged over 13 points, 5.8 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 2.5 steals while playing 36 minutes per contest. That was enough for Doc Rivers and Danny Ainge to let him stay in the roster. But he needs to work not on his shooting ability (he shot just 41.8% from the floor and converted just 64.7% of his free-throws last season), but specially on his passing abilities (his task will be to serve the big 3) and in this task he may have some problems. Is Ainge planning to hire an experienced guard?

Kendrick Perkins will be the center of the team. What he should do is taking advantage of the space Garnett will create. Perkins lead the Celtics in blocks (1.3 per game) last season and had decent rebounding numbers (5.2 RPG), considering he played just 22 minutes a night. He will be a good center for the team, but without doing amazing exhibitions.

Just like I said previously, Boston isn't the best team of the league, but they will be a target for public money and terrible in the ATS record. They need a deeper roster and only Posey seems to be a solid backup. If the team gets more players, they can think about a great run in the playoffs, but everything is going to depend on the team chemistry.

Woah, thats a lot of writing to read. You put it all together yourself or cut/paste ?

Also.. for people like me who don't recognise names that aren't Shaq, Pierce, or Bryant. Summary of all this, who do we bet on. Who is best Home / Away ?

The West is stronger than the East Chenyan

Leading chances in the west are - Phoenix (who are starting to really fire), Dallas and old boy Spurs

Leading chances in the East are - Boston, Orlando and Detroit. But the east is more open than the West. Teams like Cleveland and even Chicago (off to a terrible start) can contend late in the season.

And he cut and paste

Thanks for the details Nars. Appreciate it mate.

geez Damo, any sports you don't know anything about ?

Hi!
It wasn't me who wrote this,but i found this very interessting!
For value bets it can be a very good suport!

Plenty Chenyan.

Just know about a few.