Arena: Barclays Center
General Manager: Billy King
Head Coach: Avery Johnson
Last Season: 22-44
Brook Lopez C, 7-0, 265, 24
Kris Humphries PF, 6-9, 235, 27
Gerald Wallace SF, 6-7, 220, 30
Joe Johnson SG, 6-7, 240, 31
Deron Williams PG, 6-3, 209, 28
MarShon Brooks SG/SF, 6-5, 200, 23Mirza Teletovic SF/PF, 6-9, 242, 27C.J. Watson PG, 6-2, 175, 28 Reggie Evans PF, 6-8, 245, 32Andray Blatche PF/C, 6-11, 267, 26Keith Bogans SG, 6-5, 215, 32Josh Childress SG/SF, 6-8, 209, 29Tyshawn Taylor PG, 6-3, 185, 22, (R, 41st Pick)Tornike Shengelia SF, 6-8, 207, 20, (R, 54th Pick)Jerry Stackhouse SG, 6-6, 218, 37
Gerald Green SG/SF, 6-8, 195, 26Jordan Farmar PG, 6-2, 180, 25Johan Petro C, 7-0, 247, 26Anthony Morrow SG, 6-5, 210, 27Sundiata Gaines PG/SG, 6-1, 200, 26DeShawn Stevenson SG/SF, 6-5, 218, 31Shelden Williams PF/C, 6-9, 250, 28
The SkinnyWhen the Nets open their season on November 1st at the $1 billion Barclays Center, it will mark the first time in 55 years that a professional sports franchise has called Brooklyn it's home.
Upon buying the Nets in 2010, owner Mikhail Prokhorov declared a championship would be realized within 5 years. With only 3 years remaining on that declaration, General Manager Billy King pulled out all the stops this offseason.
The only contracted player to return from last years roster is MarShon Brooks. A pleasant surprise as a rookie, Brooks will more than likely find himself in the role of 6th man, and will be counted heavily upon to produce.
Everybody else was either resigned, traded for, or brought in via free agency.
It'll be interesting to see how the fans respond to Brook Lopez. Considering Kris Humphries was booed out of every arena for humping Kim Kardashian for a few months, how will the fans react to the man who prevented the Nets from landing Dwight Howard?
More importantly, is how will the now healed broken foot respond for Lopez. Despite playing in only 5 games last season, and never averaging double digit rebounds at any point in his career, the 7 footer still secured a max contract from billionaire Prokhorov.
Speaking of max contracts, the Nets made waves by acquiring six time all star Joe Johnson from the Atlanta Hawks. With that, they additionally acquired one of the worst contracts in professional sports. To consider, Johnson will be making $25 million in the 2015-16 season. Even this season, he is making more than the 3rd max contracted player on the team, all world point guard Deron Williams.
Williams is easily a Top 5 pg in the league, and not much more needs to be said about him. He is clearly the most important member of this Nets squad.
Rounding out the starting 5 is Gerald Wallace. Yet another starter with all star status to his pedigree.
The only starter who has never been an all star is Humphries, despite the fact that for the second straight season he averaged a double double in points and rebounds.
So while the Nets sport one of the most impressive starting 5's in the league, it comes with a price. $72 million in fact for this season. Which puts them $14 million over the cap in starters alone.
As previously mentioned, Brooks will need to carry an extremely heavy part of the load off the bench. Who will be the second leading scoring option off the bench is anybody's guess. Either a resurgence from Blatche or an amazing rookie season from Teletovic, will be needed in order to provide any semblance of respectability from the second unit.
Speaking of Blatche, as it stands right now, he's the backup center. Think about that for awhile.
Unless Jay-Z gets the solid backing of the bench that he gets from Beyonce, this years Nets are nowhere close to putting a ring on it.
Arena: TD Garden
General Manager: Danny Ainge
Head Coach: Doc Rivers
Last Season: 39-27 (Advanced to ECF, Lost to Miami 4-3)
Kevin Garnett C, 6-11, 253, 36
Brandon Bass PF, 6-8, 250, 27
Paul Pierce SF, 6-7, 231, 34
Courtney Lee SG, 6-5, 200, 26
Rajon Rondo PG, 6-1, 186, 26Jason Terry PG/SG, 6-2, 180, 35Jeff Green SF/PF, 6-9, 235, 26Avery Bradley PG/SG, 6-2, 180, 21 Darko Milicic C, 7-0, 275, 27Chris Wilcox PF/C, 6-10, 235, 30Jason Collins C, 7-0, 255, 33Rob Kurz SF/PF, 6-9, 232, 27Jared Sullinger PG, 6-9, 280, 20, (R, 21st Pick)Fab Melo C, 7-0, 274, 22, (R, 22nd Pick)Kris Joseph SF, 6-7, 210, 23, (R, 51st Pick)Ray Allen SG, 6-5, 206, 37Marquis Daniels SG/SF, 6-6, 200, 31Keyon Dooling PG, 6-3, 195, 32Ryan Hollins C, 7-0, 240, 27JaJuan Johnson PF, 6-10, 221, 23E'Twaun Moore SG, 6-4, 191, 23Aleksandar Pavlovic SG/SF, 6-7, 235, 28Mickael Pietrus SG/SF, 6-6, 215, 30Greg Stiemsma C, 6-11, 260, 27Sean Williams PF/C, 6-10, 235, 26
The SkinnyGUARDS"The Big Three" is no more, and Rajon Rondo couldn't be happier. The rumored rift between Rondo and Ray Allen turned out to be more than just a rumor, and despite being offered more money to remain a Celtic, Allen took his fading talents to South Beach. He won't be missed.
Allen had already lost his starting job anyways late last season to tweener guard Avery Bradley. The insertion of Bradley into the starting lineup saw the Celtics go on a 14-5 run to finish up the regular season. Bradley wasn't as effective once the playoffs began and with good reason, it was discovered that he had TWO dislocated shoulders.
Bradley's doctors have reportedly targeted a January return for the 21 year old, but he says he's ahead of schedule.
Unwilling to simply wait around for the return of Bradley, Celtics General Manager engineered a not so simple trade in the off-season to secure his new starting shooting guard, Courtney Lee.
In a three team trade involving Houston and Portland, the C's gave up in total: JaJuan Johnson, E’Twaun Moore, Sean Williams, Sasha Pavlovic, three future second round picks and cash to acquire the versatile Lee. You think Ainge kind of likes this guy? And he should.
Lee is a terrific defender, a proficient three-point scorer (15th in the league last year in 3pt fg%), and will even chime in with a few boards and assists to boot. But Ainge still wasn't done reshaping the backcourt.
How do you upgrade an abysmal scoring bench? You bring in a former 6th Man of the Year, and a guy who is 4th all time in career three-pointers made, Jason Terry.
Unlike Allen, who not so quietly turned his nose up at the thought of being the sixth man, "The Jet" fully accepts and embraces that role. Even last season at the age of 34, Terry still averaged over 15 points a game, in spite of the fact that he only started 1 game all season. You want instant oatmeal, get Quaker. You want instant offense, get
The Jet.
All that said, the unequivocal leader of the backcourt, as well as the entire team, is Rajon Rondo. Coming off one of the most memorable playoff performances of all time, Rondo will look to pick up where he left off.
In the biggest game of the year, Rondo notched his 4th triple double of the playoffs, though it wasn't enough to unseat the Heat. At only 26 years old, he is already tied for 3rd all time for most career playoff triple doubles. And if all that isn't enough, on May 30th, 2012, Rondo played what many have called the greatest playoff game of all time: 44 points, 10 assists, 8 rebounds, 3 steals, while playing an astonishing 53 minutes and shooting 67% from the floor.
Adding to his impressive offensive arsenal, is the fact that he has been on either the 1st or 2nd All Defensive Teams the last four years running.
With more weapons surrounding him this year than ever before, it looks like another huge year for what many call, "The best point guard in the league."
FORWARDSLast season Paul Pierce remained relatively near his career numbers across the board. What was alarming was his 38% shooting in the playoffs. Though he denied being hurt at the time, it was later learned that he had indeed suffered a sprained MCL early on in those playoffs. After an off season strength and conditioning program, Pierce has declared himself 100% healthy to start the 2012-13 campaign.
You'd like to get more than 6 rebounds a game from your power forward, but that's exactly what you get from Brandon Bass. He does offer a fairly efficient mid range jumper averaging roughly 50% from the field for his career.
The Celtics could decide at some point that they want more rebounding from that power forward position, and if they do, the human White Castle, draft day slider Jared Sullinger just may fit the bill. Sullinger was expected to be a lottery pick, but was flagged by some teams as having back issues which account for his draft day free fall. If those issues don't pan out to be that of a serious nature, the C's will have found themselves quite a steal with the 21st pick.
After missing the entire 2011-12 season with a heart, Jeff Green is back and will presumably come off the bench to play either of the forward positions. While having a nice offensive game, his defensive game is offensive in it's own right. Too slow to guard the perimeter and not strong enough to bang down low. The Celtics did think enough of him however, to depart with then starting center Kendrick Perkins.
CENTERSThough he would preferably play PF, Kevin Garnett will man the middle. He was outstanding in the playoffs last season, and will look to build upon that. His career numbers not being what they once were obviously, KG will still be an upper echelon center in a comparatively weak position throughout the league.
It is imperative that Garnett stay healthy, because if he doesn't the Celtics will be forced to go with one of the following: Chris Wilcox (back from a heart), Darko Milicic (doesn't have one), Fab Melo (not fabulous or Anthony) or Jason Collins (I don't know who he is either)
People seem to forget that this team was 1 (ONE!) quarter away from advancing to the Finals last season. The only somewhat significant loss was Ray Allen, and they subsequently replaced him with Courtney Lee, Jason Terry, the emerging Avery Bradley, the comeback of Jeff Green, and the possible draft day steal in Jared Sullinger.
And somewhere up in the rafters of the Garden, Arnold Jacob "Red" Auerbach can be heard singing.......
It's a helluva start, it could be made into a monster if we all pull together as a team.
Arena: Madison Square Garden
General Manager: Glen Grunwald
Head Coach: Mike Woodson
Last Season: 36-30 (Lost in 1st Round to Miami 4-1)
Tyson Chandler C, 7-1, 240, 30
Amar'e Stoudemire PF, 6-10, 260, 29
Carmelo Anthony SF, 6-8, 230, 28
Ronnie Brewer SG, 6-7, 227, 27
Raymond Felton PG, 6-1, 205, 28JR Smith SG, 6-6, 220, 27Steve Novak SF, 6-10, 240, 29Iman Shumpert SG, 6-5, 220, 22 Jason Kidd PG, 6-4, 210, 39Marcus Camby C, 6-11, 235, 38Kurt Thomas PF, 6-9, 230, 39Pablo Prigioni PG, 6-3, 180, 35, (R, Free Agent)James White SG/SF, 6-7, 200, 29Rasheed Wallace PF/C, 6-11, 230, 38Jeremy Lin PG, 6-3, 200, 24Landry Fields SG/SF, 6-7, 215, 24Toney Douglas PG/SG, 6-2, 185, 26Jared Jeffries PF/C, 6-11, 240, 30Josh Harrellson PF, 6-10, 275, 23Dan Gadzuric C, 6-11, 245, 34Jerome Jordan C, 7-0, 240, 26Mike Bibby PG, 6-2, 195, 34Baron Davis PG, 6-3, 215, 33
The Skinny The Knicks may have an even tougher foe than any they will face in the Atlantic, the Eastern Conference, or the rest of the NBA this season. To make matters worse, he's undefeated. His name is Father Time. Upon the expected imminent signing of 38 year old Rasheed Wallace, the Knicks will become the oldest team in NBA history, with an average age of 32 years and 240 days old. That's an astounding average of nearly 5 years older than they were just last season when they averaged 27 years and 300 days old. That may very well be the definition of insanity, without the "L".
Gone is 24 year old Jeremy Lin. The Knicks were 16-10 with Lin in the starting lineup. They were 20-20 when he didn't start. But it was the BL and AL (Before Lin and After Lin) that were most striking. The Knicks started the season 7-15 before Lin entered the starting lineup. Then, as mentioned, they went 16-10 with him in it. But even after they lost him to a season ending injury, they maintained their inspired play going 12-5 without him.
Also gone are Baron Davis and Mike Bibby. How do you replace a point guard trio that averaged 30.3 years old? With one that averages 34 years old. (And that even includes a rookie!)
GUARDSRaymond Felton is back to man the point. Known as the "Bulldog" appropriately enough, Felton showed up to Blazers camp last year the size of a bull, and played the entire season like a dog. He has reportedly lost 20 lbs this summer, and will look to improve on last years career lows in PPG (11.4) and Reb (2.5).
Jason Kidd will at least initially be Felton's primary backup. Kidd himself is coming off career lows in, well, most everything. Check out these stats from last year for the surefire HOF'er: 6.2 PPG, 5.5 Ast, 4.1 Reb, 36.3 FG%. To his credit, Kidd fully embraces the backup role, and should have a wealth of knowledge to impart upon Felton, who has called Kidd one of his childhood idols.
Rounding out the trio of points guards is
35 year old rookie (Not a typo), Pablo Prigioni. Some have speculated that should Felton falter, Prigioni may sooner than later become "The guy". I wouldn't get too excited though if I were a Knicks fan, as he would've been here a long, long time ago if he was anything special.
The only member on the roster younger than 27 years old is 22 year old Iman Shumpert. He had a pleasantly surprising rookie campaign cut short by a torn ACL as well as a lateral meniscus in his left knee during the Knicks playoff series with the Heat. By all indications, a January return seems most likely. Woodson suggested that Shumpert would've been his starting two guard if healthy. Before the injury, Shumpert was by far the Knicks best perimeter defender, and one of the very best young defenders throughout the league. If he can reign in his erratic mid to long range shot selection, his dribble drive penetration is really kind of a thing of beauty for somebody only entering their second year.
The loss of Shumpert necessitated the signing of Ronnie Brewer. While Brewer had alarming drops in career FG% (42.7 vs. 50.1) and FT% (56.0 vs. 68.6), he does continue to provide stellar defense and ball control. In early September, Brewer had arthroscopic surgery to repair a medial meniscus tear in his left knee. His rehab is expected to take about six weeks, and he should return just in time to begin the season as the starting two guard.
J.R. Smith is coming off one of his worst seasons from the field (40.7%), the free throw line (70.9%), and three point land (34.7%). Despite those drops in numbers, Smith is still one of only a couple of Knicks who can ideally provide instant offense, and thus the reason he will most likely continue to come off the bench in a 6th man type of role.
In case you're wondering where Landry Fields is, the 24 year old landed in Toronto - which means you'll probably never see or hear from him again. In much the same fashion that Houston did with Lin, the Raptors offered Fields a poison pill laden contract, and the salary strapped Knicks were basically forced to let him go.
FORWARDSStatistically, Carmelo Anthony is coming off one of the worst seasons of his career. His 43.0 FG% was the lowest it's been since his rookie season of 03-04. His 6.3 Reb were the lowest they've been since 06-07. His 22.6 PPG were the lowest he's seen since the 04-05 season.
He has also not been the most durable player over a span of the last 6 seasons, missing 11 games on average. Having competed in last year's whirlwind 66 game schedule, a playoff series, and then the Olympics, could prove to be quite detrimental.
Nevertheless, 'Melo is once again saying all the right things as he claims he will do anything he has to do to help the team win.
Backing up Anthony will be the best pure three point shooter in the league last season - Steve Novak. He shot a prolific 47% from beyond the arc last season, and along with J.R. Smith, the Knicks are counting on him to provide much of the scoring for the second unit.
Throwing out the 05-06 season when he played in only 3 games for Phoenix, Amar'e Stoudemire is coming off a season where he saw career lows for the last seven seasons in the following categories: FG% 48.3, FT% 76.5, Reb 7.8, Blk 1.0, PPG 17.5. Reportedly, Stoudemire spent two weeks of the Summer at Hakeem Olajuwon’s ranch, working primarily on his low post game. Surprisingly, the Knicks did not offer Olajuwon a contract.
It should be noted that in games Anthony and Stoudemire have played together since arriving in New York, the Knicks have a sub .500 record.
CENTERSTyson Chandler had himself quite the season last year. He won the Defensive Player of the Year award, and led the league in FG% with a ridiculous 67.9 pct. He fits the bill perfectly for Coach Woodson's defensive oriented approach. It'll be interesting to see how he holds up after going on a championship run with Dallas, last year's jam packed lockout shortened season, and then this Summer's Olympics. Over the past 4 seasons, Chandler has missed an average of 20 games per.
Backing up the frontcourt will be the oldest active player in the NBA, Kurt Thomas (turns 40 tomorrow), the 5th oldest in one time Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Camby (38) and the 6th oldest, Rasheed Wallace, who hasn't played in the Association in two years.
If this was NBA Live 2003, you'd have an outstanding chance to capture the title.
In a perfect storm, these Knickerbockers just may advance past the 1st round of the playoffs for the first time in 13 years. But in the intense Miami heat, this squad is sure to get burned.
Arena: Wells Fargo Center
General Manager: Tony DiLeo
Head Coach: Doug Collins
Last Season: 35-31 (Lost in ECF Semis to Boston 4-3)
Andrew Bynum C, 7-0, 285, 24
Lavoy Allen PF, 6-9, 225, 23
Evan Turner SF, 6-7, 205, 23
Jason Richardson SG, 6-6, 225, 31
Jrue Holiday PG, 6-4, 180, 22Thaddeus Young PF/SF, 6-8, 220, 24Spencer Hawes C/PF, 7-1, 245, 24Dorell Wright SF, 6-9, 205, 26 Nick Young SG/SF, 6-7, 210, 27Kwame Brown C, 6-11, 270, 30Damien Wilkins SG/SF, 6-6, 225, 32Royal Ivey PG/SG, 6-4, 215, 30Dan Gadzuric C/PF, 6-11, 245, 34Arnett Moultrie PF, 6-11, 249, 21, (R, 27th Pick)Andre Iguodala SF, 6-6, 207, 28Louis Williams PG/SG, 6-1, 175, 25Elton Brand PF, 6-9, 254, 33Jodie Meeks SG, 6-4, 208, 25Nikola Vucevic PF/C, 6-10, 240, 21Sam Young SG/SF, 6-6, 220, 27Tony Battie C, 6-11, 240, 36Darryl Watkins C, 6-11, 258, 27
The SkinnyOn June 12th, 1994, 76ers starting point guard Jrue Holiday turned 4 years old. 17 days later, Knicks point guard Jason Kidd was selected by the Dallas Mavericks as the #2 overall pick in that year's NBA Draft. That little "Did You Know?" nugget encapsulates the difference between the two division rivals. The 76ers are the anti-Knicks. They are young. They are versatile. And the organization is in tremendous shape in relation to the salary cap.
Not willing to rest on their laurels or their relative success in last year's playoffs (pushing Boston to Game 7 of ECF Semi's), Philly brass blew the whole thing up. Gone are former All-star Elton Brand (amnestied), Olympian Andre Iguodala (traded) and the team's leading scorer from last season, Lou Williams (free agency).
The Sixers return 5 players from that squad: Jrue Holiday(22), Evan Turner(23), Thaddeus Young(24), Spencer Hawes(24) and Lavoy Allen(23). Each of them are expected to play vital roles in the revamped rotation. Though they're young, that doesn't necessarily mean they're inexperienced. For example, at just 22 years old, Holiday is already entering his fourth season in the league.
GUARDSJrue Holiday was the penciled in starting point guard the past couple of seasons, but he often acquiesced control and distribution of the ball movement to Iguodala, Turner, and Lou Williams. With only Turner returning, expectations have changed dramatically for Holiday.
Coach Doug Collins has gone on record saying that Jrue is now expected to be one of the leaders of the team, the full time facilitator each and every time he is on the court, and is expecting him to also improve upon his scoring. The 2011-12 campaign for Holiday saw small dips from his sophmore season in PPG (13.5 vs 14.0), Ast (4.5 vs 6.5), Reb (3.3 vs 4.0) and FG% (43.2 vs 44.6). But when the lights shone most brightly in last years playoffs, it was Holiday who was the team's best and most consistent post season performer.
Holiday has finished in the Top 15 total steals each of the past two seasons, and is a more than adequate defender.
This is where it gets tricky. Coach Collins doesn't like to pigeonhole players into staid positions, instead preferring to deploy and exploit lineups based on matchups. The starting lineup you see above means nothing. In fact, it's not even the starting lineup that's been talked about the most during Sixers camp, but it's the one they should start the season with and soon you'll see why.
There's 4 (or more) lineups being discussed for opening day. None of them match the lineup I have presented to you above.
1st.......... 2nd.......... 3rd.......... 4th.......... PG Holiday. PG Holiday. PG Holiday.. PG Holiday
SG Turner..SG Turner..SG Richardson SG Richardson
SF Wright...SF Wright..SF Turner....SF Turner
PF Hawes...PF Young....PF Hawes.....PFYoung
C Bynum....C Bynum.....C Bynum......C Bynum
Aside from Holiday, Collins has also assured a starting spot to third year guard/forward Evan Turner. The exact spot is yet to be determined.
If Turner starts at SG, Dorell Wright would most likely land the SF spot, but that would also leave the Sixers with a second unit featuring Jason Richardson and Nick Young. Wing players around the league would be celebrating Christmas on a nightly basis.
If Turner starts at SF, then Richardson more than likely starts at the two guard, which ideally breaks up the pairing of him and Young.
With Iguodala,
dala,
dala gone, Turner becomes the playmaker on offense. Though he'll still be expected to run the offense in order to give Holiday a blow for roughly 10 minutes a game, Collins has specifically stated he wants to see Turner creating his own shots and doesn't want to see him distracted by having to facilitate the offense. Though he's shown glimpses, there's no denying that by and large, his offensive prowess has not warranted his selection as the #2 overall pick in the 2010 Draft.
McCartney may have led the Wings, but he never did it to the tune of a 22.8 defensive rebounding rate as Turner did last season. It was better than the rates of prolific rebounders such as Tyson Chandler, Pau Gasol and Joakim Noah. In fact it was unprecented in the annals of NBA history as Turner had the best defensive rebounding season of any wing play ever. EVER!
Few players had even a semblance of a penchant for shooting beyond the arc last season for the Sixers, and thus spacing was an issue more times than not. That should change this year.
Only Ray Allen, the NBA's all time leader in 3 pointers, has made more of them since the 2004-05 season than Jason Richardson. For a team as young as this one, Richardson will bring a veteran presence, help in opening up the lanes, and has the ability to play both SG and SF. One thing he won't bring much of with him is defense. Speaking of which, let's take a look at Nick Young.
Young likes to shoot. And shoot. And shoot some more. He'll more than likely be the second option off the bench and will provide the type of instant offense that Lou Williams provided last season. Like Richardson, he can hit the three and play both SG and SF. (At least offensively)
Before leaving the "Guards" I should make a brief mention of Royal Ivey. Great name, not so great game. When Holiday rests, Ivey may see some stretches of guarding the opposing point guard as he is a nuisance on defense if nothing else. He still wouldn't be the distributor, as that would fall to Turner in those instances.
FORWARDSThaddeus Young is only 24 years old but he's already entering his sixth season in the league. He's easily the longest tenured Sixer. And if he had his way, he would be the team's starting small forward. Young showed up to camp weighing in at 235 pounds, up from his season ending 212. It's all muscle. And it's perhaps an indication that Young realizes he will not get his way, and will once again be the first player to come off of Coach Collins' bench. For the record, though Young feels that SF is his natural position and would like to start there, he has never caused a stir about it.
Young is the classic tweener. A touch too slow to guard small forwards, not big enough to bang with power forwards - which is mainly where Collins likes to play him. Young brings an abundance of energy off the bench which makes his coach very happy. Perhaps throwing a bone to Young, Collins has stated that he will play him a little bit at SF this preseason to determine if he can adequately guard upper echelon small forwards.
Though he isn't a prototypical either or, Young still has established himself as one of the top reserves throughout the league. For his career, he shoots over 50% from the field, and chips in with approximately 13 PPG and 5 rebounds.
Unlike Young, Dorell Wright was brought in to specifically play one position, small forward. Whether that's as a starter or a reserve remains to be seen. Two years ago, Wright led the entire NBA in three pointers made, as well as attempted. He's in Philadelphia to stretch the floor offensively and bring length defensively. He knows how to protect the ball, has played a little point forward, is a decent rebounder and plays adequate defense.
As far as the power forward position, Doug Collins keeps teasing, and almost insisting that Spencer Hawes will be the guy. He's being talked about as sort of a generic Pau Gasol, which would recreate the famous pairing of the Lakers big men over the past few seasons. Whether Hawes can consistently hit that top of the key, high post jumper the way Gasol does is questionable at best. Hawes does possess a nice skill set on offense, but that may be asking a little too much of him. Still, it would be interesting to see a pair of 7 footers teamed together in the frontcourt. He is certainly not the banger, not the guy willing to do the dirty work like last season's playoff surprise Lavoy Allen is.
Collins went to Allen early and often in the playoffs. Should Allen end up the starter at PF, it would lighten the load of that newly acquired 7 footer that I'm getting to, allowing him to become the force on offense that most believe he can be. Allen has a fairly solid mid range game, and is willing and capable to defend the low post that most others on the Sixers are not. If you start Allen, your second unit is virtually peerless throughout the NBA:
PG Turner
SG N. Young
SF Wright
PF T. Young
C Hawes
or
PG Ivey
SG Turner (running the point)
SF Wright
PF Young
C Hawes
CENTERSThey say to save the best for last, and so I have. His name is Andrew Bynum.
When the Orlando Magic decided to wake up from their year long Dwightmare™, nobody, and I mean nobody, knew that they were going to inexplicably pass on landing the second best center in the league. In fact, many pundits believe that Bynum has a much more polished low post game than Howard.
Before acquiring Bynum, head coach Doug Collins had gone on record in saying that Kwame Brown would be the team's starting center on opening night.
A healthy Bynum creates endless possibilities for Philadelphia. As he's double and triple teamed, that basket gets bigger and bigger for perimeter shooters like Wright, Young and Richardson. As defenses focus their attention on the all star center, slashers like T. Young, Turner, and Holiday see their field goal percentages, points, and paychecks go up.
On defense, Bynum will erase a lot of the mistakes that his teammates in front of him make.
For the first time since Moses Malone, the Sixers have a dominant center. Now if he can just stay healthy.
Training Camp hadn't even opened yet and the 76ers were already announcing that Bynum would sit out the first three weeks. It's even been rumored that he will miss the entire preseason. The team is suggesting that this is simply a precautionary move which allows Bynum even more time to recover from a non invasive surgery called the Orthokine treatment which he received last month in Germany. This is the same treatment program that former teammate Kobe Bryant had and raved about afterwards. Doctors have examined Bynum and declared that he has no structural damage in the knees, but after the 24 year old expressed to management that he had some recent discomfort in the knees, they decided to err on the side of caution. And cautious they should be.
In the past 5 seasons, Bynum has missed 6, 28, 17, 32 and 47 games in consecutive seasons. In other words, over the past 5 seasons, Bynum has missed a total of 1 1/2 of them.
They say Philadelphia is the City of Brotherly Love. If they don't love this team, they should change that motto. Then again, they DID boo Santa Claus. But this time, Santa Claus delivered Andrew Bynum.
Arena: SkyDome
General Manager: Bryan Colangelo
Head Coach: Dwane Casey
Last Season: 23-43
Jonas Valanciunas C, 7-0, 231, 20, (R, 5th Pick 2011)
Andrea Bargnani PF, 7-0, 256, 26
Landry Fields SF, 6-7, 215, 24
DeMar DeRozan SG, 6-7, 216, 23
Kyle Lowry PG, 6-0, 205, 26Jose Calderon PG, 6-3, 211, 31Ed Davis PF, 6-10, 232, 23Terrence Ross SG, 6-6, 195, 21, (R, 8th Pick) Amir Johnson PF, 6-9, 210, 25John Lucas PG, 5-11, 165, 29Dominic McGuire SF, 6-9, 235, 26Linas Kleiza SF, 6-8, 234, 27Alan Anderson SG/SF, 6-6, 220, 29Quincy Acy PF, 6-7, 225, 22, (R, 37th Pick)Aaron Gray C, 7-0, 270, 27
Jerryd Bayless PG, 6-3, 208, 24James Johnson SF/PF, 6-9, 248, 25Ben Uzoh PG, 6-3, 205, 24Gary Forbes SG/SF, 6-7, 220, 27Solomon Alabi C, 7-1, 252, 24Anthony Carter PG, 6-1, 190, 37Sonny Weems SG/SF, 6-6, 205, 26
The SkinnyThe Good: When the Dallas Mavericks won the NBA Title at the conclusion of the 2010-11 season, many observers credited then assistant coach Dwane Casey with being the architect that nurtured a culture to that of a more defensive minded approach. After just one season as head coach of the Toronto Raptors, it appears fairly apparent that those observers were correct in their assessment of Casey.
Almost literally overnight, (considering the Lockout canceled the Summer League and severely impacted both training camp and preseason games) Casey transformed the Raptors from a team that was ranked 26th in scoring defense (105.4 points allowed) to 9th ranked (94 points allowed). Virtually all defensive metrics improved across the board. Though not many of the Raptors are considered superior individual defenders, Casey has certainly gained the confidence of his young team as far as their willingness to play team defense. In contrast to most of the roster, three of this years additions, Lowry, Ross and Valanciunas ARE known as better than average individual defenders, which should only help to bolster an already rapidly developing strength for the Raptors.
This Toronto squad boasts five recent lottery picks expected to be playing in it's regular rotation. (Bargnani, DeRozan, Davis, Valanciunas and Ross) Ideally, each of them should continue to make strides in improving their respective games, both individually and from a team standpoint.
The Bad: The offense. Only the Charlotte Bobcats had a worse offensive efficiency rating last season. Heck, even Terry's Peeps has a slightly higher post efficiency rating than the Raptors.
Toronto finished 23rd last season in field goal percentage at 44%. They finished 19th in three point shooting at 34%. To make matters worse, consider the following: Only 6 Raptors had a FG% higher than 43.6 last year, and none of them figure all that prominently, if at all, into this year's plans. They are Amir Johnson (57.6), Aaron Gray (51.6), Ed Davis (51.3), Jose Calderon (45.7), James Johnson (45.0) and Leandro Barbosa (43.6).
To put the shooting woes in perspective, let's look at the starting five again, only this time adding FG% and 3PTFG% in parentheses:
Jonas Valanciunas (N/A / N/A) Very raw offensive skills. Projected around 46-47% FG.
Andrea Bargnani (43.2 / 29.6) Despite shooting less than 30% from the three, still took 3.7 attempts a game.
Landry Fields (46.0 / 25.6) Hitting on only 1 out of every 4 three point attempts, still took 2 a game.
DeMar DeRozan (42.2 / 26.1) Now in a contract year, could be blessing in disguise or complete disaster.
Kyle Lowry (40.9 / 37.4) Gets the starting nod over the nearly 46% field goal shooting of Calderon.
Another area of concern for Toronto is turnovers. Last season they were the fifth worse team in turnover rate. And just how did the Raptors go about addressing this? They benched Calderon, who just happened to lead the league in assist-to-turnover ratio (4.50), for Lowry who was ranked 48th among qualifying point guards (2.39). While turnovers alone aren't quite the same thing as assists to turnovers, the point guard decision is indeed puzzling as far as that aspect goes.
The Ugly: 
GUARDSThe Raptors went all in during the Summer trying to bring Steve Nash back home to Canada. It was an effort to change to a more uptempo offense, if not a blatant marketing grab. As word leaked out that the Knicks were interested in a sign and trade for Nash and were dangling Landry Fields as part of any proposed deal, Toronto quickly moved in and offered Fields a backloaded poison pill contract in an effort to thwart the Knicks attempt by tying up one of their bargaining chips.
In the end, neither team got Nash, Fields ended up a Raptor, and General Manager Bryan Colangelo was forced to implement plan B. Enter Kyle Lowry.
With Coach Casey's fingerprints seemingly all over the team's offseason moves, the Nash one didn't seem quite right, the Lowry one does. Lowry brings everything with him that his new coach is looking for: defensive tenacity, toughness, high motor, ability to hit perimter shot or take it to the hole, a willing facilitator but not afraid to create his own offense. He is an exceptional rebounder for his size and position. Lowry had career high averages in the 2011-12 season in: PPG 14.3, Stl 1.6, Reb 4.6 and blk .3 and unfortunately turnovers 2.8. He had near career averages in ast 6.6, 3pt 37.4% and FT% 86.4. And those numbers reflected all of his games played. His numbers as a starter were even better. And that's the trouble.
Until he missed 19 games with a bacterial infection, Lowry was the starter. In fact, for the better part of the first half of last season, Lowry and the term "All Star" was resonating in many circles. Upon his return however, he had lost his starting spot and was rumored to be feuding with head coach Kevin McHale. Lowry has an extremely cap friendly salary of approximately $6 million over the next two seasons. To be fair, Houston did receive a mildly, mostly protected 1st Rd Pick for Lowry, but it doesn't become fully unprotected until 2018. There's just some disconcerting about the Rockets apparently giving up on Lowry so easily.
Rumored to be on the trading block himself, Jose Calderon will be backing up Lowry at the point. As mentioned, Calderon led the NBA in assist to turnover ratio last season, has a high basketball IQ, and is a very good shooter from the field or the line. Unlike Lowry, Calderon gives up a lot defensively and never really pushed the offense to Casey's liking. He's in the final year of his contract, and either provides a decent trade chip or the chance for Raptor management to clear $10.5 million off it's books at the end of the season.
Backing up both of them is John Lucas III. At 39.9 FG%, JL3 should fit right in. Defensively, he doesn't appear to fit the mold the team is looking for. Nobody really knows why he's here.
At shooting guard, you'd be hard pressed to find a more athletic, better defender, or better rebounder at that position than DeMar DeRozan. The trouble seems to be the more he shoots, the worse he gets. DeRozan has seen his FG% drop from 49.8 as a rookie when he was averaging 6.6 shot attempts, to 42.2 last season when he averaged 14.3 attempts. Thankfully for a slasher like him, he maintains 81% from the free throw line. The rest of his game is played almost entirely inside the arc.
DeRozan is set to be a restricted free agent at season's end, and it'll be telling to see if he can put aside his personal goals, for those of the entire team.
Perhaps as a harbinger of things to come, the Raptors drafted Terrence Ross with the 8th pick of the 2012 draft. Not quite the freakish athlete DeRozan is, Ross does possess a far superior perimeter game. Coach Casey feels that his defense is underrated and that the organization will be quickly vindicated for making Ross a surprise selection at #8.
FORWARDSHad it not been for the Nash scenario, Landry Fields probably wouldn't be in Toronto. Though he probably didn't deserve it, his $6 million per for three years isn't really as bad as some pundits make it out to be. I've seen much worse. What I haven't seen much worse of though is the near historic drops in shooting that Fields displayed last season.
He only dropped a few percentage points 49.7 to 46.0 in FG%, but he dropped a whopping 14% in 3pt shooting and an astronomical 20% from the charity stripe. The arrival of Carmelo Anthony in New York, really shouldn't have affected the way Landry Fields shot the ball.
He is a highly effective rebounder for his position. He plays physically strong defense, but lacks quickness when it comes to covering quick, athletic wingmen.
Whether the rookie or sophomore season version of Fields shows up this year, will go a long ways towards determining the overall success of the 2012-13 Raptors.
The primary backup to Fields is expected to be Linas Kleiza. Known as a good shooter, it's puzzling as to why that is. Kleiza's FG% has dropped for three straight years, and last season hit a career low of 40.2%. His career 3pt% of 33.7, certainly doesn't justify his taking 3.7 of them a game.
Like Fields, Kleiza is a physically strong defender, but lacks quickness and athleticism.
Dominic McGuire and Alan Anderson figure to be in the mix for any additional small forward minutes.
Perhaps the biggest reason why Toronto has above average rebounders at every single position other than power forward, is because their power forward apparently refuses to add that aspect of the game to his repertoire. At 7-0 and 256 pounds, it shouldn't be too much to ask for better than a career average of 4.9 reb a game. Especially when shooting percentages continue to decline across the board.
For the third straight season, Bargnani has watched his FG% drop from 47.0 to 44.8 to last year's 43.2. His three point shooting is on a four year slide from 40.9 to 37.2 to 34.5 to last season's career low of 29.6.
There's no question the former #1 overall pick from the 2006 Draft has plenty of talent. And to be fair, he's had to shoulder the load in Toronto for years due to the lack of talent around him. To his credit, he did buy in to Coach Casey's defensive teachings and became a much better and willing defender in the 2011-12 season. If he can just spend a little less time in three point land and a lot more time in the paint, the Raptors would almost certainly benefit from it.
Additionally, injuries have become a concern for Bargnani, as he missed 35 games last year, and 16 games the season before.
It'll be particularly interesting to see how a fiery player like Lowry, affects a low key player like Bargnani.
Backing him up at the power forward slot will be the three anti-Bargnanis, Ed Davis, Amir Johnson and Quincy Acy. While all three appear to be capable defenders and should be willing to bang down low for boards, they have very raw offensive games and will have minimal impact on scoring and/or playmaking.
CENTERSThe #5 overall pick from the 2011 Draft is finally in the fold. Due to contractual obligations, Lithuanian superstar Jonas Valanciunas wasn't able to join the Raptors until this season. Opinions vary widely on him, but most agree he has a huge upside. What they don't agree on is how long it'll take him to reach that potential. He struggled in this Summer's Olympics but he was the reigning MVP for the Lithuanian Under 16, 18 and 19 teams. He brings length, athleticism and some defense with him right off the bat. His offense is raw, and will take some time to get used to the nuances of the NBA. He'll go through some growing pains in the Association, but Toronto has nothing to lose in getting him on the court for big minutes this season.
The "White Panther" Aaron Gray will back up Valanciunas, thus reinforcing the thought that Toronto has absolutely nothing to lose by playing the young rookie big, big minutes.
Coach Casey worked wonders last season implementing, and getting the buy in of his highly effective defensive schemes. Toronto then went out and brought in even more defenders. If you can't score, you have to at least make sure your opponents can't either.
If three or four of the Raptors can attain even normal career averages in various shooting categories, the team will have a slim outside shot at the 8th seed for the Playoffs. If I were a betting man, I'd place them around 10th in the Eastern Conference by season's end.
With all that said, Terry's Peeps can fuck himself gently.
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) but last December JBi11s shot me a message asking if I'd like to split duties with him and provide you cretins with looks at each team. For whatever reason that never developed.
