The NBA Preview Edition

...wondering what ever happened to "Big Country" Reeves:
(all links underlined)

What was Joe Johnson thinking? He was a starter on a Phoenix team that won the most games in the NBA last season, making it to the Western Conference Finals. Thanks to a threadbare early-season bench that gave him inflated minutes and subsequent stats, paired a frantic offense, Johnson went into the off-season on the heels of a career year. Enter the Atlanta Hawks, $70 million-dollar offer in hand. A restricted free agent, JJ signs the offer sheet. So far, pretty normal stuff here. Until Johnson calls Suns owner Robert Sarver and asks him not to match. Sarver counters with a ridiculous $75M. Nope, Johnson wants to go to Atlanta. Wants to go to Atlanta! And not on vacation or anything like that. He actually wants to be a Hawk. Dude -- I'd be a St. Joseph's Hawk before an Atlanta Hawk...Last year we kept an eye on the sophs, and they did not disappoint. Kirk Hinrich took his team to the playoffs for the first time since MJ left and Dwayne Wade made Shaq's terming the Heat "Flash's team" anything but hyperbole. After one run through the grinder, year two is where the wheat gets separated from the chaff. Who will we be eyeing this season? With in-state help coming from the pair of Tar Hill rooks, it will be interesting to see what Emeka Okafor can do to follow up his ROY performance. The other guy we'll be following closely will be Andre Iguodala. This guy could be a monster in the making...Last season's Scattershot target Sam Bowie spotted last month in Lexington, Kentucky, being inducted into the UK athletic Hall of Fame. He lives a few miles mile from Rupp Arena, tends to a stable of horses and is enjoying the good life, with his wife and three children. For a very good Portland Tribune piece on Bowie, click here...If you're new to the pro game, the Daily Oklahoman (OKC) has broken it down in an article, under "Recent Hornets Headlines". If you already follow the NBA, do not click the link, as it will only annoy you. For one of the better jobs of season-long overall coverage of the entire league, check out the Sacramento Bee...And finally, in our annual Fashion Feature, the Pacers will be the only team in the Association wearing new unis this season, so they win our critics' survey, though not necessarily by default. The streamlined design of the new gear blends in perfectly with a beautiful Conseco Fieldhouse. Will the new unis equate to a ring in June, per our long-standing insistence that uniforms matter? There's only one way to find out. On to the Annual Pre-Season Awards and Useless Predictions:

First coach to be fired: Sam Mitchell, Toronto Raptors -- His players hate him, his roster is garbage and after the Carter trade last season, the fans want blood.
Don't be shocked if it's: Bob Weiss, Seattle SuperSonics -- After Nate McMillan's unexpected departure, the Sonics made a "lifetime achievement award"-type hire and went with Weiss. When they start out slow -- and they will -- he'll be the fall guy.
Last year's pick: Dead-on, with Lenny Wilkins, of the New York Knicks
(Our "don't be shocked if it's" pick, Don Nelson, was gone by March.)

Breakout season coming from: Josh Howard, Dallas Mavericks -- With Michael Finley gone, someone has to step up. In his third season, Howard is primed to put up All-Star numbers.
Don't be shocked if it's: Larry Hughes, Cleveland Cavaliers
Last year's pick: Amare Stoudemire -- With a 6 point jump in PPG, combined with a nearly 10 point bump in FG%, he was the true MVP of the Suns.

I give up on: The Orlando Magic -- For now. Brian Hill will help, but he's going to have to clean house. This team is on a five year cycle it seems, wherein they put together a collection of talent, increase their win percentage, threaten to breakout into the elite, then implode.
Last year's pick: The Chicago Bulls -- Who promptly made the playoffs.

I still say he's a star-in-the-making: Darko Milicic, Detroit Pistons -- There's no way that may people were wrong on this guy. This is the make or break year. And now that he's got a CBA-caliber head coach, he'll be developed properly this season.
Last year's pick: Drew Gooden, Cleveland Cavaliers
--Solid number 2 man to LBJ has help, should be even better this year.

Best offseason, team: Milwaukee Bucks -- This is what is supposed to happen. Milwaukee over achieved two years ago, came back to earth and ended up in the lottery. They got the number one pick and made the wise choice with Bogut. While they overpaid for an overrated Michael Redd, the Bobby Simmons and Jiri Welsh pickups were nice. This team will make the playoffs this season and it will not be the fluke it was in 2003-04.
Last year's pick: Denver Nuggets
--If the organization had either committed to Jeff Bzdelik or hired George Karl over the summer, they would have been a top-two seed and possibly gone to the Conference Finals. As it was, they sleep-walked through the first part of the season then played like a team possessed under Karl and gained a little more playoff experience for down the road.

Worst offseason, team: Phoenix Suns -- Quentin Richardson for Kurt Thomas was bad enough. Then Joe Johnson apparently smokes about a pound of crack and actually asks to be traded to Atlanta -- for less money. And the kicker -- Stoudamire's injury, which is far more serious than they are letting on. This team has taken a big step back.
Last year's pick: New Orleans Hornets -- Were we wrong?

Best offseason, fans: New York Knicks -- Sentenced to a life with Snake Boy Thomas, if nothing else, the fights between the coach and President are going to be epic -- and very public. On top of that, there will be marked improvement on the floor. Spike's favorite team will be back in the playoffs.
Last year's pick: Miami Heat -- And the celebration rolled right through to the Conference Finals.

Worst offseason, fans: New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets -- Aside from the obvious off-the-court tragedy, this was a bad basketball offseason as well. There is no talent, the team was last in the NBA in attendance last season and George Shinn has now taken two prime markets and ruined them. Wording in the Oklahoma City agreement provides for a team option to stay next season if New Orleans Arena, or the financial climate "are not conducive to resuming play in New Orleans". First the Jazz, now the Bugs. Say goodbye to your team, New Orleans. They'll not be back.
Last year's pick: Brooklyn Nets -- After an abysmal first half, the owner publicly admitted the talent dump was a mistake and made moves to reverse course.

Best offseason trade: The Miami Heat somehow turning Eddie Jones and Rasual Butler into James Posey, Jason Williams and Antoine Walker. -- Pat Riley must talk as smooth as he looks.
Last year's pick: Mobely, Cato & Franchise to Orlando for T-Mac, in Orlando's favor. -- Oops. With the subsequent Mobely-for-Jackie Christie trade, paired with T-Mac's abuse of Dallas in the playoffs, this one ended up a Rocket steal.

Worst offseason trade: The Atlanta Hawks being so desperate to get someone -- anyone -- to come there that they traded two thinly protected number one picks (top 3 protected first year, unprotected in the second, for each) for the aforementioned Joe Johnson. The Hawks are still going to be pitiful when those picks come to fruition and Phoenix will get great players. Terrible trade.
Last year's pick: Piatkowski & Griffin for Mutombo, to the detriment of Houston. -- Again, a Rocket steal. Mutombo was solid in limited action and the guys shipped to Chicago were insignificant.

Sam Cassell Award for he who will bitch the loudest this season about the contract he voluntarily signed: Latrell Sprewell, when he finally signs one.
Last year's pick: Sam Cassell, Minnesota Timberwolves. -- And boy, did he earn it, dragging an entire team down with him.

Shawn Bradley Award for most undeserved contract given to a free agent: Brian Scalabrine, Boston Celtics. -- $15M over five years for a 3.9/2.9/1.0 guy who shoots a career 39% from the field? Danny Ainge has been dipping into Joe Johnson's stash. What made this worse was that it was just enough to keep the C-men out of the running for an inordinately large crop of guys available at the mid-level.
Last year's pick: Adonal Foyle -- Out-scored and rebounded by Erick Dampier, who the Warriors let go in order to keep him.

Penny Hardaway award for most overrated player in the NBA: Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Sacramento Kings -- If the Nets got him they were going to the Finals?!? Has this guy ever won anything? Ever?
Last year's pick: Dampier -- Not as bad as it could have been, but still not worth what he got paid.

All-Jobless Team, as of 30 October:
PG -- Travis Best
SG -- Kerry Kittles
SF -- Latrell Sprewell
PF -- George Lynch
C -- Clarence Weatherspoon
Sixth Man: Steve Smith
Coach: Don Nelson

Last year's squad, and where they ended up: Kendall Gill (Milwaukee), Chris Whitney (Retired), Marcus Fizer (Milwaukee), Karl Malone (Retired), Sean Rooks (Orange County Crush - ABA), Eric Musselman (Assistant, Memphis). -- We told you it was a weak field.
*As an aside, officially retired from the NBA, Gill is now a professional boxer, with a record of 2-0.

Rookie of the Year: Chris Paul, New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets -- Wake guys are generally NBA-ready when they get there and he will get plenty of minutes with the Bugs. Though picked at number one, the preseason has shown Bogut to be a year or so away.
Don't be shocked if it's: Raymond Felton, Charlotte Bobcats
Last year's pick: Devin Harris, Dallas Mavericks -- The thinking was that with a strong team around him and Steve Nash leaving a vacancy , Harris would get good minutes and thrive. The thinking was wrong. Our "don't be shocked" pick, Chris Duhon, fared better.

And the Number One pick in the 2006 NBA Draft belongs to: The Toronto Raptors. -- There is just nothing here on which to hang hope.
Last year's pick: Los Angeles Clippers

Where they stand at the start of the season, our inaugural Power Rankings:

30 New Orleans/OKC Hornets
-- In freefall before the hurricane, now just sad.
29 Toronto Raptors
-- First NBA team to lose to a non-NBA squad since the '70's .
28 Atlanta Hawks
-- A starter died and they didn't get any worse.
27 Charlotte Bobcats
-- A franchise doing it the right way, UNC rooks will help.
26 Orlando Magic
-- Grant hill hurt again. What's next?
25 Portland Trail Blazers
-- Still can't believe they managed to alienate those fans.
24 Minnesota Timberwolves
-- The only solution: go Mark Cuban and blow the thing up.
23 Seattle SuperSonics
-- Vastly overrated last season, the fall to Earth will be swift, painful.
22 Utah Jazz
-- AK47 will bring them back to competitiveness, but that's all .
21 Philadelphia 76'ers
-- Can Mo suit up?
20 New Jersey Nets
-- Looks like Ratner figured it out, but has JKidd's knee closed the window?
19 Los Angeles Lakers
-- Starting PG: Something called Smush Parker. Enough said.
18 Boston Celtics
-- Name a Celtic other than Paul Pierce….time's up. (Scalabrine doesn't count)
17 Memphis Grizzlies
-- Team raided but Logo did nice job of restocking.
16 Los Angeles Clippers
-- Defending city champs have never won back-to-back titles.
15 Milwaukee Bucks
--Phenomenall offseason topped off by Mason-for-Maglorie deal.
14 Washington Wizards
-- Lost a starter in free agency but picked up three nice replacement parts.
13 New York Knicks
-- Larry. Brown.
12 Golden State Warriors
-- Longest current playoff drought in serious jeopardy.
11 Sacramento Kings
-- New alternate jerseys are -- gold. Huh?
10 Phoenix Suns
-- Amare injury could wipe out all hope for the season.
9 Chicago Bulls
-- Made the right calls on Curry, Chandler.
8 Dallas Mavericks
-- Still over the cap, Finley cut made no sense.
7 Cleveland Cavaliers
-- LBJ has some talent around him now, but a rookie coach.
6 Houston Rockets
-- Picking up Swift on the cheap bumps them to number 2 in Texas.
5 Denver Nuggets
-- Full camp under Furious George, but still no off-guard.
4 Miami Heat
-- Can Shaq keep multiple talents in line? Can Wade?
3 Detroit Pistons
-- With LB they go to the Finals. With Flip? Nope.
2 Indiana Pacers
-- Take away a November night and they'd be defending champions.
1 San Antonio Spurs
-- Won a ring, added NVE then Fin. The rich get richer.

And finally, our annual Useless Playoff Predictions:

EAST:

Division Champions: Miami Heat, Indiana Pacers, New Jersey Nets.
Should get in: Detroit Pistons, Cleveland Cavaliers, New York Knicks
The scrum: Philadelphia 76'ers, Milwaukee Bucks, Chicago Bulls, Washington Wizards, Boston Celtics.
Give the slots to: Philadelphia and Milwaukee

Round One:
(1) Miami over (8) Milwaukee
(2) Indiana over (7) Philadelphia
(6) New York over (3) New Jersey
(4) Detroit over (5) Cleveland

Conference Semifinals:
Miami over Detroit
Indiana over New York

Conference Finals:
Indiana Pacers over Miami Heat
_____
WEST:

Division Champions: San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets, Sacramento Kings.
Should get in: Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks, Phoenix Suns
The scrum: Golden State Warrirors, Memphis Grizzlies, Seattle SuperSonics, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers.
Give the slots to: Golden State and Memphis.

Round One:
(1) San Antonio over (8) Memphis
(2) Denver over (7) Golden State
(6) Phoenix over (3) Sacramento
(5) Dallas over (4) Houston

Conference Semifinals:
San Antonio over Dallas
Denver over Phoenix

Conference Finals:
San Antonio Spurs over Denver Nuggets

Your 2005-2006 NBA Champions:
The San Antonio Spurs (over Indiana)

30 teams, 82 games...236,160 minutes of pure roundball bliss!

Life is good.
(ps: if you ignored the links, you have got to go back and click on the one for Sam Cassell. Trust me, you'll thank me later.)