The Western Conference, as we’ve become accustomed to, is once again stacked with playoff-level teams. This means one or more of those teams will miss the playoffs due to the level of competition, even if they end up with a winning record. The Mavericks could end up being one of those teams if Dirk Nowitzki, who has a swollen knee that has yet to improve, misses an extended period of time this season. See how the sharp-shooting big man plans
On Monday, we looked at the three NBA coaches that will be starting fresh with their respective teams. Each member of that trio has their hands full with rebuilding projects of varying sizes. Today, we will take an in-depth examination of another trio of coaches – those who took over during last season and will hold their first training camps with their teams. Keith Smart in Sacramento and Randy Wittman in Washington both will have the opportunity to implement their own schemes
And the best team in the Western Conference is … Ah, you don’t want to read about the Portland Trail Blazers, do you? You’d rather fawn over the Miami Heat for their 3 1/2-hour, triple-overtime victory in Atlanta, or dump on the Dallas Mavericks and those who said two weeks ago that they were the best team in the NBA. Perhaps you’d prefer to postulate over where Dwight Howard will end up (just a thought, but if I’m Rich DeVos, and I’m 85
For those of you who had Mike D’Antoni in the first coach to be fired pool, we have some bad news. Sacramento Kings owners Joe and Gavin Maloof pulled a fast one today, canning coach Paul Westphal just seven games into the season. Keith Smart will coach the team tonight against the Milwaukee Bucks, who will be without Andrew Bogut again (he is in Australia dealing with a personal matter and won’t return until next week.) Westphal went 51-120 in his two-plus