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Lakers, Celtics, Cavaliers, Magic and Spurs. Am I missing anyone?
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The Phoenix Suns record is a lot closer to that of the Boston Celtics than most people expected
Before the 2009-10 NBA season started most prognosticators were certain that they had their ducks in a row. Los Angeles just won an NBA championship and the team should only be better with Ron "Bull in a china shop" Artest. Boston could have been the Eastern Conference champion last year if not for a badly timed knee injury to perennial All-Star Kevin Garnett. Now Boston has Rasheed Wallace coming off of the bench to bolster their fantasy league line-up. Orlando may have gotten better this off-season trading Hedo for Vince, and if nothing else is starting off healthy. San Antonio can never be taken from the discussion with their immense success this decade and the big three in tact. With a few key pick-ups the Spurs should challenge LA for western dominance. Lastly, you have Cleveland; a team that made the Finals when it was a younger Lebron and four other guys. Now it's Lebron James, Shaquille O'neal and three other guys! They should be fantastic!
With these five teams decided upon, the elite of the NBA was solidified. These are the best of the best. No one else has the fire power to give these teams a real run. No one else got better in trades and free agents like the fantastic five. Every other team could consider this season a good time to take notes and get pointers on how to be good a year from now. Or so it seemed from what we were told time and time again.
Still the basketball consortium could not end things there. Everyone knew those teams would be good. There was no fun in that! The informed had to make their "sexy picks". It was time to make mention of the rare upstart that might end up in the third, fourth or fifth spot in either conference. They bequeathed a small amount of attention on the Atlanta Hawks, Utah Jazz, Denver Nuggets, Washington Wizards and Portland Trail Blazers. The caveat was as follows: The Hawks don't have the right coach to do too much damage. Denver didn't get any better this off-season and therefore have been surpassed by much of the West. Washington can't stay healthy. Utah will be steady but not impressive. Portland is still too young to be anything but a nice diversion from reality, on occasion.
In the end the top five was still unreachable (even though Denver might be a better fit in that number than two other, not to be mentioned, teams). Juggernauts. Unequaled in quality, coaching and overall interest. So all the teams that didn't fit into the "elite" section, but that also weren't worthy of the "honorable mention" category were left out in the cold.
By no means do I seek to disagree with the elite status of many of the first five teams, or the excitement factor in the second five, but I submit five "other" teams who were overlooked and cast off as ordinary too soon.
1) The Phoenix Suns. Quick as usual. Versatile, with big men that can drain three pointers, run the floor and battle inside. Well founded with a core of the incomparable Steve Nash and the electrifying Amare Stoudemire. Phoenix is off to its best start in years after missing the play-offs last season. Most people wrote them off, expecting them to finish no higher than 7th in the Western Conference and possibly fall out of the play-off picture all together. But with Phoenix exceeding expectations while teams like Portland, New Orleans and Utah struggle it looks now like 7th place should have been the floor and not the ceiling.
2) The Miami Heat. Last season Dwyane Wade got Miami to the fifth seed in the play-offs with very little assistance. Now getting reliable contributions from Jermaine O'neal, Udonis Haslem (off of the bench), Mario Chalmers, Chris Quinn and Michael Beasley, the Heat have only one loss (to the streaking Suns) and look like they shouldn't be ignored by any of the Beasts of the East.
3) Dallas Mavericks. In some power polls the Mavericks took on the role of the "sexy pick", but those that left them out of the mix for Western supremacy made a mistake. Dirk Nowitzki has been MVP caliber, Jason Kidd has acted as floor general sublimely and the return of Josh Howard and added presence of the Matrix has created defensive problems galore for rivals who expect a waltz and instead get trounced. Don't forget that Dallas still employs one of the best sixth men in the league in Jason Terry and has put his scoring skill and defensive intensity to good use.
4) Houston Rockets. You have San Antonio and Dallas. Wait. What do you mean there's another team in Texas? Didn't they disband that team when Tracy needed surgery, Yao broke his foot and Artest bolted for LA? It turns out the Rockets are still alive and kicking. Who would have thought that the Rockets, without those three aforementioned stars, could possibly make noise this season? Well- the Rockets, their fans and anyone who watched the NBA post season last year, for starters. For reason one, the Rockets, led by Shane Battier took the eventual champion Lakers to the brink with gritty hustle and outside shooting. In the second instance, although the Lakers let him swap places with Ron Artest Trevor Ariza was a big reason that Phil Jackson's last thumb doesn't feel like an outsider anymore. Plugging him into the roster with the dangerous Aaron Brooks, new edition Chase Budinger and two "little big men", Luis Scola and Chuck Hayes, has generated an exciting, surprising and winning formula for basketball.
5) Chicago Bulls. Ben Gordon and his hard-nosed, clutch performances are gone. But the Rookie of the 08-09 season, Derrick Rose remains, anchoring a team that also possesses the reinvigorated and fully invested Joakim Noah. Luol Deng, Brad Miller and John Salmons all got a taste of what things could be like when they nearly knocked off the Boston Celtics in one of the most exciting series in NBA history. Instead of the slow and shaky starts that Bulls teams past have gotten off to, this team looks poised for another run at the play-offs and knows what it will take to go beyond the first round.
So the season is young, but the NBA is relevant. More than five teams have the ability to make a deep run in the play-offs this season. Orlando proved that the unexpected can not only happen, but be interesting to watch. Whether some of the "other" five or outside teams like Oklahoma City, or a healthy Clippers team sneaks in and mixes it up, the one thing that we can be certain of is that things are going to be a lot less certain than we were led to believe.
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