I weighed in with my predictions over the weekend, going big-time chalk on the NBA finalists — Spurs over Cavs — and off the grid, figuratively speaking, with Tom Thibodeau being the coach whose seat could get hottest quickest. Today, our esteemed staff of columnists and staff weigh in with their picks. Most of these guys are vets whose tenured covering the NBA are better counted in decades, not years, so their opinions are culled from their experience, intelligence and what
For Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors, it was another summer of dreams and possibilities after a relatively disappointing 2013-2014 season that ended in dramatic fashion in the first round of the playoffs against the Los Angeles Clippers. During the offseason last year, there was some talk about the possibility of Dwight Howard having interest in joining the Warriors. It was unlikely (and never materialized), but the interest alone elevated the team’s status to a destination that was slowly but surely becoming
All the San Antonio Spurs could talk about last season was avenging their 2013 NBA Finals loss to the Miami Heat, especially the heartbreaking loss in Game 6. The Spurs made sure it didn’t get to a Game 6 in 2014 as they dominated the Heat in five games to win their fifth championship. Tim Duncan, who many assumed would retire after his fifth title, now enters the 2014-15 season looking for a ring for his other hand now. The Spurs brought
Should we really be surprised that the league’s most interesting general manager chose to take the path of higher risk, higher reward? That’s where the Houston Rockets, led by daring and analytically driven GM Daryl Morey, enter the 2014-15 season. When we last saw them, contention didn’t feel far away. In the first year of the Dwight Howard-James Harden foundation, the Rockets went 54-28 in a loaded West and secured home court advantage in the first round. That was in line with preseason
About an hour after I had rolled into the Audi Garage next to the American Airlines Center in Dallas, and about four hours after I left San Antonio, where I had watched the Mavericks lose Game 7 of the first round of the 2014 playoffs to the eventual NBA champion Spurs, members of the Mavs spoke to the media. On the floor of their practice court, Dirk Nowitzki spoke about the disappointment of that game after taking the Spurs to the
The Phoenix Suns surprised everyone last season – including themselves – when they won 48 games and missed the playoffs only due to a couple of tough losses in the final week of the season. Goran Dragic had the best season of his career, Eric Bledsoe lived up to the potential his biggest fans envisioned and both Markieff Morris and Gerald Green were in the running for Sixth Man Award. Now entering their second season together – with a new key piece
The Memphis Grizzlies begin the 2014-15 season with high hopes. With the core in place and an exceptionally deep bench, making a return to the Western Conference finals – or further – is the goal. Last season, the injury bug bit the Grizzlies. Multiple key players missed extended time, and the Grizzlies couldn’t separate themselves in the West as a result. Ending the season contemplating what could have been is unpleasant, and it’s a situation the Grizzlies don’t care to find themselves
In all their years in the NBA, the Boston Celtics had only put together six seasons worse than the one they muddled through in 2013-14. The shattered remains of their former glory were cobbled into a team built to lose games and win ping pong balls in a draft allegedly top-heavy with potential franchise players. But 25 wins and the sixth pick later, the Celtics are setting forth on the slow journey upward. Their coach, Brad Stevens, having suffered through the