Predicting the Future

And Lebron will be Playing for…

Well it’s time for the NBA Finals and now that we have a good 4 day break, I would like to spend this time to think about the marquee free-agent scenarios this summer.

Before I spoil the big surprise, let me provide you with my credentials: I am a certified psychic and have been so for the past 3 years. I graduated from the school of clairvoyants and am a member of the fraternity of fortune tellers.

Now that I have revealed my true self, let me show you what I see in my crystal ball.
After the final buzzer of the Finals sounds, all 30 teams will be trying to dialing up Lebron’s agent. As of right now, the favorite destinations for King James are: New York, New Jersey, Chicago, and Cleveland. However, a different team will scoop him up.

Lebron has consistently stated that he wants to win. He’s arguably the most talented basketball player in the world, so I am pretty sure that money (and ownership) is of little issue for King James. He has many endorsements and his own shoe line, so he can ultimately play for the midlevel exception if he desires. Cross out New York.

Honestly, let’s just cut to the chase: Chicago is out because Lebron does not want to be compared with MJ; and New Jersey is out because it’s not New York nor will the Nets be moving to Brooklyn fast enough.

Lebron will be playing in Los Angeles. No not the Lakers, but the other LA team. What a perfect way to intrude into Kobe territory in order to see who the true number one player in the NBA is. They will play 3-4 times a season and won’t have to wait for a (gasp!) never occurring NBA Finals matchup.

Plus, the Clippers have a solid nucleus with the forgotten Blake Griffin, underrated Eric Gordon, DeAndre Jordan, Chris Kaman, and will add to that with the eighth overall pick in this year’s draft (a Patrick Patterson or Al-Farouq Aminu. Also, the Clippers complement their young core with solid veterans such as Baron Davis, Travis Outlaw, and Steve Blake.

Bringing LBJ to LA will definitely cause some unexpected dominoes to fall this summer.

1. Dwayne Wade will bolt South Beach for the Windy City and join forces with Derrick Rose to form the most athletic backcourt in the NBA. Boasting a starting lineup of Rose, Wade, Deng, Gibson, and Noah will vault the Bulls into contention for an Eastern Conference title. The Bulls will try to woo Amare Stoudemire and Chris Bosh, but both players will end up elsewhere.

2. Amare Stoudamire and Chris Bosh will re-sign with their original squads. However, only Amare will continue to play with the team he signed. Amare will make one last run with Steve Nash and co. to contend for a title.

3. Chris Bosh will be playing with the Oklahoma City Thunder next season. In a shocking sign-and-trade, the Thunder emerge as the victor in the Chris Bosh sweepstakes. The rebuilding Raptors will receive a package including Jeff Green and a late 1st round pick/early 2nd rounder or a Nick Collison and a mid-first rounder.

4. The Knicks will end up as the losers this summer, but not as big as you might think. All that salary cap build up will reap little reward for the upcoming season. Sorry New Yorkers, King James will NOT be playing in Madison Square Garden. Instead, the Knicks will re-sign David Lee and will end up bringing Joe Johnson to the Big Apple. Should they fail to bring in Lebron, the Knicks front office will immediately focus for next season’s free agency to bring in Syracuse legend Carmelo Anthony to NYC.

What’s the Next the Step in the Highlight Factory?

I am a huge Hawks fan: I have witnessed the team hit rock bottom (a 13 win season led by Antoine Walker and Al Harrington) and stuck with them through the growing pains. Now, the Hawks have learned how to fly, but it seems as though they still have a lot of work to do.

After completing one of the best seasons in the history of the franchise, the Hawks dream season came crashing down in a horrendous best-of-seven series versus Dwight Howard and his Orlando Magic. The Magic controlled every element of the series and showed it by winning all four games with convincing double digit wins. Dwight’s vanishing act shed light on the huge schism between the Hawks and the elite.


Assume the position for Dwight.

Near the end of the regular season, I witnessed the Hawks annihilate the Lakers, which got me to believe that the Hawks were legit contenders. However, the Hawks’ playoff struggles have exposed the glaring weaknesses of the team. These weaknesses have plagued the Hawks since before the 13 win season, but when the team is winning, they are easier to cover. But in all due respect, these issues need to be addressed in order for the Hawks to get better.

1) Find a true center.
We need to find someone to scrap with Superman. It was just too easy. Horford is a power forward, not a center. I was trying to see who the Hawks could chase this offseason via trade or free agency, but not much come to mind: Brandon Haywood, Greg Oden, Marcus Camby, Jermaine O’Neal, Samuel Dalembert, Theo Ratliff, or Amare Stoudemire. Or we can find one through the draft such as Cole Aldrich, Hassan Whiteside, or Solomon Alabi. OR just convince Dwight to come back home.

2) Get a new coach
Everyone knows that Mike Woodson is NOT a good coach (he’s better than Paul Hewitt though). Seriously though, he has no idea what he is doing out there: does not have much aptitude for offensive sets, sucks at developing young players, and has poor clock management. We need to bring in a coach who knows how to coach, like Byron Scott or Avery Johnson. Lastly, Woodson also needs to realize that Joe Johnson is NOT the truth, which leads me to my next point…

3) Joe Johnson needs to realize that he’s not Kobe
In every sense of the word, Joe is an All-star player. However, he must think that he is one of the elite players in the league. Unfortunately, he does not have enough moves to be like Kobe. Johnson utilizes two moves: a crossover semi-fadeaway jumper and a driving floater in the lane. Most importantly, if you are a star you have got to make your shots when you are being aggressively guarded. Kobe, Melo, Lebron, D-Wade, heck even Paul Pierce all shoot around 33-40%, while scoring 15- 18 on a bad night. That’s making at least one out of every three shots. Johnson? 12 points on 28% shooting. But hey, by all means bring him back. I like the rotation with him and Jamal Crawford right now, so Rick Sund should try at all costs to re-sign Joe, but not at a max contract.

4) Develop a point guard
This kind of goes with firing Mike Woodson. Remember when Marvin Williams was supposed to be the next big thing coming off a National Championship at UNC? Well, he is now just a role player struggling to gain any momentum on his career. Is he content with being a side dish? Or is his coach suppressing his ability to contribute? Maybe it is a little bit of both, but I am sure that Woodson has done a HORRIBLE job in developing players. The only 1st round picks to fulfill their potentials are Josh Smith, and Al Horford (who was one of the most polished players coming out of the draft). The others? Josh Childress, Shelden Williams, Marvin Williams, and Acie Law have all been labeled as busts. Okay, to defend Woodson a little, the GM makes the ultimate decision, but the coach has direct input and influence on the pick and these selections and Woodson was all for drafting Williams ahead of CP3 and Deron Williams, two potential Hall of Famers. Woodson kind of has the opportunity to make up for his mistakes with the development of Jeff Teague, but he rarely played Teague, most of the time in favor for veterans Jamal Crawford and Mike Bibby. Teague has already displayed the ability to be a solid if not upper-half point guard in the NBA: he has quick feet, can run the floor, decent vision, and can score at ease. He can probably accomplish close to what Darren Collison did last season off of athleticism alone.


The second coming of agent zero?

Speaking of developing players, the NBA Lottery is this coming Tuesday. Won’t it be interesting if Minnesota wins the draft lottery? They already selected Jonny Flynn and Ricky Rubio last year, but now can add a John Wall. How about the Hawks, Wizards, or Heat swooping in and offering a deal for Rubio or Flynn? Interesting.

The Sun is Still Shining in Phoenix

Can these reborn Suns win it all?

Just a couple of years ago, the Phoenix Suns were declared done. The fiasco of bringing in Shaq, the departure of Mike D’Antoni, and the poor coaching of Terry Porter did not yield any positive results for the Suns, who seemed to be on the decline. Things got so bad last year that the Suns failed to make the playoffs, despite a team that consisted of Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire, Jason Richardson, and Grant Hill.

This rollercoaster ride seemed to be one of the biggest questions prior to the 09-10 season: as most sportswriters and analysts were sure on two scenarios: GM Steve Kerr would be fired, and Amare Stoudemire would be traded.
However, Kerr has the last laugh. His Phoenix Suns, the third seed in the Western Conference, are now headed to the Western Conference Finals for the first time under Kerr’s helm.

The fact that they made it this far is pretty surprising, but the road they travelled is even more shocking. Everyone expected them to beat an injury-plagued Portland team, but no one, including myself, ever thought that sweeping the Spurs was ever possible. The Suns had never beaten the Spurs in a 7 game series in the last six tries and the Spurs also eliminated the number 2 seed Dallas Mavericks, showing that they were still a threat in the playoffs.

I am not going to go in and analyze every little detail on how the Suns swept the Spurs, but I will go and say that the Suns coaching staff and front office deserve a
whole lot of credit.

I always thought that Kerr was a legitimate basketball mind. He has plenty of big game experience and served as a basketball analyst. Although this is not a very impressive resume for a general manager, he knows basketball very well. When he acquired the Diesel, I was extremely puzzled because this move signaled an end to D’Antoni’s “7 seconds or less” offense. Maybe this move was for Kerr’s desire of the team to play defense or maybe to move Amare back to his more natural power forward position, but in every sense of the word, this plan was an epic failure.

About halfway through the 08-09 season, though, Kerr found the right man for the job: Alvin Gentry. After the firing of Terry Porter and the disposal of Shaq, the NBA witnessed an explosion of the Suns offense. Over the first 3 games of Gentry’s tenure, the Suns averaged over 120 points per game. The leading scorer? Amare Stoudemire, who stringed together two 40+ performances. However, a gruesome eye injury caused him to miss the rest of the season. Even though the sample size was extremely small, it showed everyone that the Suns still possessed some swagger from their glory days. Unfortunately, with the loss of Amare, it was too little too late, as they missed the playoffs.

This duo seems destined for great things, with Gentry preaching defense and, even more surprising getting the team to actually play some, and Kerr bringing the right players for the offense (Channing Frye, Jared Dudley, and Robin Lopez). Nobody gave this team a chance, and many are still not, with the anticipated meeting between them and the Lakers. But hey, let us backtrack a little bit: the Suns have beaten the Lakers in their last two playoff meetings (albeit without Pau Gasol, Ron Artest, and Andrew Bynum). After a convincing series win over the Spurs, yes I’ll say it, these reborn Suns can play with any team. GO SUNS!!!