The Heat are the best team in the NBA. I don’t think anyone would dispute that. But which team is set up to be the best for the future? Shlomo Sprung argues that, at least in the East, it’s the Pacers. It’s an interesting point. The Heat will probably be better than them this season, and the Nets and Bulls could be up there as well. But the Nets’ stars, apart from Brook Lopez, probably aren’t going to get any better at this point in their careers. The Bulls don’t have the Pacers’ depth, but they do have Derrick Rose — if he’s healthy. Likewise, the Heat have LeBron and Wade, but they could be hit hard by free agency in the not-too-distant future.
This question becomes even more interesting when applied to the West, where the Thunder still have Durant and Westbrook, the Clippers just keep getting better, and the Warriors and Rockets exceed all expectations and then go out and add proven veteran stars. And of course, the Spurs can never be discounted either. I don’t know which of those five I’d pick, quite honestly. Maybe the Rockets. Let me know which Western Conference team you think is most secure in the comments.
Now let’s get to the latest news and rumors from around the NBA:
Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com gets a Mitch Kupchak quote that denies an idea that could have been interesting: “Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak doesn’t expect Kobe Bryant to try to play a particular way in order to make the Lakers more attractive to free agents next summer. “Kobe is not going to play to lure somebody to Los Angeles,” Kupchak said Wednesday, addressing the press in advance on Saturday’s media day. “He’s going to play to try to win games. If the way he plays helps lure players to Los Angeles, then so be it. But trust me, in January, February and March, that’s not what he’s thinking when there’s a game being played.” “- Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle interviewed Kevin McHale recently, and asked some really good questions about Omer Asik and Dwight Howard. Click through for those. Here’s what McHale said about the Rockets’ tempo: “I think we’re going to play basically the same style. We have to get better defensively, and with Dwight we have to have more of an emphasis on trying to get the ball in the post. Through Dwight running and Dwight doing different things, I think we can do that without really having to change our identity. We still want to get the ball up and down the floor. We still want to be aggressive and run and attack offensively. I think we have two of the top rim protectors in Dwight and Omer, so we have to use those guys. I’d like to use them together. It gives us a chance to have a defensive presence and run off our defense a little more. Our style will change a little bit because our personnel changes, but it won’t change dramatically. At least I hope it doesn’t.”
- Mark Woods of ESPN.com talked to Tony Parker about being one of the biggest NBA stars to play EuroBasket when many others stayed home: “Although some in NBA front offices, most vocally Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks, have rallied against their star employees heading off on national duty, Buford and Spurs coach Gregg Popovich are not among them. “I saw R.C.,” Parker said. “He wants me to play less minutes to be ready for the Spurs next season. But I have a great relationship with the Spurs. I’m very lucky to have R.C. and Coach Pop to let me play for my country. They know that I love playing for my country. I take a lot of pride playing for France. I’m just happy that I have the Spurs organization to let me do that.” “
One player who stayed home was the Wizards’ Kevin Seraphin. Michael Lee of the Washington Post has a story on his decision: “Part of Kevin Seraphin would’ve loved to have been on that stage in Slovenia on Sunday with fellow NBA players Tony Parker, Nicolas Batum and Boris Diaw, hoisting the Nikolai Semashko trophy and drowning under a gold confetti shower as they celebrated France’s first European Championship title. But Seraphin had made up his mind months ago that he needed to take some time for himself, to advance his NBA career, rather than commit another summer to his country. The decision was difficult and was greeted with some backlash back home, but Seraphin has no regrets, even after watching his friends finally emerge as the best team in Europe with an 80-66 win over Lithuania. “I’m glad for them,” Seraphin, a native of French Guyana, said of his countrymen. “It was not I didn’t want to. Of course, I wanted to be with them on the national team. Sometime you have to make sacrifice. And I had to make sacrifice this summer to get better, to step up my game and that’s what I did.” “- Paul George signed a max extension with the Pacers today. Here’s the story from the Indianapolis Star: “Indiana Pacers All-Star forward Paul George knew keeping a “poker face” would benefit him in his contract negotiations … but he couldn’t. “My heart was really here and I couldn’t see myself anywhere else,” he said Wednesday during a news conference at Bankers Life Fieldhouse announcing a multi-year contract extension. Terms of the contract were not released.The 6-8, 225-pound small forward averaged 17.4 points, 7.6 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.8 steals per game last season, earning his first All-Star Game appearance and the NBA Most Improved Player Award.”
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Presti says “there’s a chance” the Thunder will wear a sleeved jersey this year. Would not say the date.
— Darnell Mayberry (@DarnellMayberry) September 25, 2013
- Monta Ellis explains why he chose the Mavericks, via the Dallas Morning News: “I chose this place because of all the options that I had, I felt like this was the best chance and the best opportunity for me to be on that elite state. They’re a great organization. They got a hall of fame player in Dirk, so without the defense focused mostly on me, I can expand my game a little bit more. And the city is great. It’s great for my family, my kids love it in school, so I just felt like it was the right fit for me, and I’m happy to be a Maverick.”
The Sixers added a player who many expected to be drafted as they continue to fill the open spots on their roster, reports Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer: “Rodney Williams is one of the newest 76ers. The undrafted rookie free agent out of Minnesota recently signed a partially guaranteed, multiyear contract with the Sixers, a team source confirmed. The organization also announced the signings of first-round picks Nerlens Noel and Michael Carter-Williams on Tuesday. Noel, however, actually signed his contract Sept. 16. Rodney Williams, a guard-forward, will be on the team’s roster when it opens the season against the Miami Heat on Oct. 30.”-
#Sixers Brown on Royce White: ‘He is here. He’s slowly getting to a level where we want him to be. I want to give him our best shot.’
— Tom Moore (@tmoore76ers) September 25, 2013
- ESPN.com’s Jon Robinson interviewed a man who created something that is very close to my heart: NBA Jam. Here’s what Mark Turmell had to say about his classic game: “The big thing for us, though, was the fact that it was the very first NBA-licensed coin-operated game. That was quite a hurdle, because the NBA was really concerned about putting their logo in arcades. Back then, a lot of the arcades they were used to in New York were kind of seedy with drug dealers hanging around, and the NBA didn’t want to be associated with that. We really had to educate the league about all the family fun centers and bowling alleys, and why the NBA logo should be on the side of these cabinets. We tried to make them forget about the seedy side and they finally agreed. Then right off the bat, we knew we had a huge game. Jam was making so much money when it first came out. There was so much four-player action at this one arcade in Chicago that the first week they had to shut the arcade down, because there was a huge fight over whose turn it was to play. There was so much money coming in, they had to change the coin-box every day. It was crazy.”
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Dan Malone is in his fourth year as a journalism student at the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and spent this summer as a features intern at the Cape Cod Times. He blogs, edits and learns things on the fly for Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on Twitter.