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Everything you need to know about the 2013-14 NBA season
As the NBA returns, here is all you need to know about all 30 teams, from the Miami Heat aiming to three-peat to the Philadelphia 76ers being "strategically noncompetitive"
Link to video: Miami Heat v Chicago Bulls: LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh get ready to defend NBA title
In case you haven't figured it out from the fact that LeBron James's face is staring at you from every magazine rack, the 2013-14 NBA season will start up again on October 29. It feels like the NBA season just came to an end, but that might just be a byproduct of how long its postseason lasts. Weren't the San Antonio Spurs like just about to win the NBA Finals, it was so clear that Miami Heat fans left American Airlines Arena rather than witness the end of all-but-certain end of their season. Of course, then Ray Allen hit the biggest three of his life, and he has hit many threes in his long basketball life, and suddenly the Miami Heat weren't just alive they were in command of the series as they won their second straight NBA Finals in Game Seven to cap off an end of a surprisingly entertaining postseason.
In case you missed it, it went something like this:
So what now? Can the Heat plan for a three-peat? Can a team emerge from the Eastern Conference that could challenge them? Who will emerge from a tough, crowded Western Conference to make the NBA Finals. What will the networks do if both the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics suck? Will Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook be healthy? Will JaVale McGee make any sense? (Spoiler alert: No.) Will fans start to like Dwight Howard again? Will we, gasp, actually end up missing outgoing commissioner David Stern, set to retire midway through the season?
(For a more in depth look at most of the major moves franchises made this offseason, there's this guide to the major free agent signings and trade acquisitions as well as this breakdown of David Stern's farewell edition of the NBA Draft.)
EASTERN CONFERENCE
Atlantic Division
NEW YORK KNICKS
Can the New York Knicks win it all with a team built around Carmelo Anthony? It's not a particularly fair question mind you, especially in a league where the bigger question is "Can any team in the East win when built around Not LeBron James?" With rebuilding Boston Celtics solidly in the Knicks' rear-view mirror, although their old friends will still visit in the guise of the Brooklyn Nets, this might be the team's best shot to prove they could make the Eastern Conference Finals with the talented but limited Anthony as their leader.
Now, how far can they get? Well, the Miami Heat are more vulnerable this year than they were last year, and don't let Michael Jordan fool you, three-peating ain't easy and the Knicks have an interesting lineup. While Carmelo Anthony's game might be almost as underrated by current statistics as it is overrated by the eye test, he will get his team points and Tyson Chandler still should be able to help on the defensive end. They'll see what they can get out of the legally-obligated-to-call-him-enigmatic Andrea Bargnani and the hard-partying J.R. Smith, who wants to jump from Sixth Man role to the starting rotation. Metta World Peace is a Knick now, in a very real Jack Torrance in "The Shining" sense, he's always been a New York Knickerbocker. The 2013-14 Knicks are very talented yet also exceedingly flawed, which makes them maybe the most Eastern Conference-y team in the Eastern Conference.
While the Heat could very easily find itself fighting with the risen Derrick Rose's Chicago Bulls or in a rematch with the Indiana Pacers, it seems inevitable that LeBron and the Miami Heat would have to face off against Melo and the New York Knicks at least once with an NBA Finals visit on the line. Do the guys from Gotham have an actual shot to knock out the King? That might be a tougher thing to predict. (On the other hand, if they keep up roster spaces for their players' less talented brothers, it's pretty easy to predict that they won't.)
X-Factor: Iman Shumpert. If 21 Shump Street doesn't get traded and if he keeps the fade, he's close to a lock at becoming the next Knicks cult figure.
BROOKLYN NETS
Well, you can't accuse the Brooklyn Nets for standing pat, all hail the Brookston Netlics! Yes, after a somewhat disappointing first year in Brooklyn the Nets have decided to become the Knicks' newest rival by incorporating bits of their previous biggest rival, trading for Boston Celtics legends Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett (and also, to a much lesser extent, Jason Terry). Combined with Deron Williams, Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez, this configuration gives the Nets one of the best looking starting lineups on paper, or at least one of the most expensive ones. Can they all cohere into a proper team before Russian owner Mikhail Prokhorov gets sick of paying for his new toy? It's up to first year coach Jason Kidd, just months after the end of his playing career, to mold this group of past and present All-Stars into something remotely resembling a team. Will the fact that he's still seen more of as a player make him the perfect choice to lead this pack of veterans, or will his lack of any (seriously any at all) managerial experience come back to haunt Nets ownership?
Overall this feels like another failed "fantasy dream team" experiment that franchises keep trying to piece together out of big-named big-budget players. If the guys who used to play in New Jersey (Deron Williams, Brook Lopez) don't step up, expect them to go the way of last season's Lakers.
X-factor: Brook Lopez. He has the opportunity to establish himself as the best center in the Eastern Conference, particularly if the Pacers' Roy Hibbert has another rough regular season and Andrew Bynum is once again in "back of the milk carton" mode.
TORONTO RAPTORS
The Toronto Raptors reminded casual fans that they exist last season when they traded for Rudy Gay, a strange all-in moment for a team that wasn't likely to reach the playoffs last year and only have a shot this year because the Eastern Conference is as watered down as the liquor bottle in an Eugene O'Neill play. An all-scoring ballplayer, Gay's numbers have been on the downswing for a few years now, but Toronto hopes that he will be better now that he's getting a vision problem corrected.
Sure, the Raptors' second option might be Kyle Lowry at point guard, but still things are looking a little sunnier for the Raptors this season, if only because they can't quite possibly disappoint Toronto as much as the Blue Jays did over in MLB. The Raptors hired new GM Masai Ujiri, a move that was solidly praised and they are contemplating rebuilding . There's even talk of a long overdue name change, which is even better news unless one happens to be a huge "Jurassic Park" fan.
X-Factor: Rudy Gay. It had to be tough to see the Memphis Grizzlies not only succeed without him but for being on the receiving end of "addition by subtraction" arguments. Expect him to be beyond motivated this season.
BOSTON CELTICS
The Boston Celtics will not be good next season, and, in fact, if they are good and in danger of departing from the realm of lottery teams, management will start to trade away pieces. If Rajon Rondo recovers from his ACL injury faster than expected and shows he's still the same player, GM Danny Ainge will trade him if he gets the right offer. If the Celtics take a page from their baseball brethren and go on some sort of unexpected win spree, ownership will put an end to all that and dismantle them. The only reason to watch the Boston Celtics play basketball this season is that they will be incredibly interesting, but not interesting in a "score more points than the other team" sort of way.
The Big Three are all gone. Ray Allen is now a Miami postseason hero. Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett are out there in Brooklyn as part of the World's Most Expensive Fantasy Team. Doc Rivers is a Clipper now, working with Chris Paul is his reward for having to deal with Rondo for all of these years. In his place Boston has hired college coach Brad Stevens, the man most responsible for all of those "Butler Did It" headlines. Stevens could be a fine NBA coach, but this almost certainly will be a training wheels year for him. No wonder longtime Celtics flagship WEEI didn't renew their contract this year.
X-Factor: Avery Bradley. Because nothing you can say can take me away from my guy.
PHILADELPHIA 76ers
The Philadelphia 76ers this season are less of a NBA franchise and more of a basketball-centric remake of the The Producers. When the Philadelphia 76ers traded their best player, Jrue Holiday for injured lottery pick Nerlens Noel it was a signal that the 76ers, having given up Andre Iguodala in exchange for zero minutes of Andrew Bynum the previous season, were no longer in the business of winning actual games. Instead, their clear priority is landing one of the top picks in what promises to be one of the most loaded NBA Drafts in recent memory.
So, the goal this season is to land the best chance of winning one of the first two slots in the draft lottery, which means losing as many game as possible, which means the likes of Evan Turner and rookie Michael Carter-Williams will be on your 76ers program guides. "Tanking" of course is such an ugly word for fans who want to believe that their team is at least trying to win, so let's just call it something like "being strategically noncompetitive". And this season, this 76ers team has a shot to be the most strategically noncompetitive team in NBA history.
X-Factor: Nerlens Noel. Wait, what he's going to be out the entire season, man that's gotta hurt the team's win total. (Cut to 76ers executives partying gleefully to the tune of Loverboy's "Working For The Weekend")
Central Division
CHICAGO BULLS
Keys to the game: Derrick Rose. Derrick Rose, Derrick Rose, Derrick Rose. The Chicago Bulls season will be entirely about the return of their former MVP from ACL injury, he injured his before it was cool. Derrick Rose has looked good in the preseason, which is encouraging because "seeing how players returning from injuries look" is quite possibly the only worthwhile reason to pay attention to preseason games. If he stays healthy and productive he can return to his 2011 peak era identity as LeBron's Eastern Conference Rival.
In hindsight, the idea that the Chicago Bulls could have beaten the Miami Heat last year with Derrick Rose back at 75% seems absolutely ludicrous, the byproduct of two memorable Heat defeats (one in the regular season, the other in the playoffs). Still, they revealed they had the heart of a championship team. In Rose's absence, Joakim Noah developed more of a leadership role and Jimmy Butler flourished. Luol Deng should continue to be the rotation's rock if head coach Tom Thibodeau avoids overworking to the point of exhaustion and/or possible death.
Assuming that Rose's return doesn't negatively affect this newfound chemistry, and the core three (Rose, Noah, Deng) stay healthy, the Bulls should be the second best team in Eastern Conference and Miami's clearest rival. That might be too much of an "if' though, especially considering that no one player has shown the difference that injuries can make than their former MVP.
X-Factor: Every internet and sports radio tough guy who called out Derrick Rose last season. You don't think Rose remembers every single time he was called a coward?
The Pacers have raised expectations by taking the Heat to a Game Seven. Photograph: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
Everything you need to know about the 2013-14 NBA season | Sport | theguardian.com
As the NBA returns, here is all you need to know about all 30 teams, from the Miami Heat aiming to three-peat to the Philadelphia 76ers being "strategically noncompetitive"
Link to video: Miami Heat v Chicago Bulls: LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh get ready to defend NBA title
In case you haven't figured it out from the fact that LeBron James's face is staring at you from every magazine rack, the 2013-14 NBA season will start up again on October 29. It feels like the NBA season just came to an end, but that might just be a byproduct of how long its postseason lasts. Weren't the San Antonio Spurs like just about to win the NBA Finals, it was so clear that Miami Heat fans left American Airlines Arena rather than witness the end of all-but-certain end of their season. Of course, then Ray Allen hit the biggest three of his life, and he has hit many threes in his long basketball life, and suddenly the Miami Heat weren't just alive they were in command of the series as they won their second straight NBA Finals in Game Seven to cap off an end of a surprisingly entertaining postseason.
In case you missed it, it went something like this:
So what now? Can the Heat plan for a three-peat? Can a team emerge from the Eastern Conference that could challenge them? Who will emerge from a tough, crowded Western Conference to make the NBA Finals. What will the networks do if both the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics suck? Will Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook be healthy? Will JaVale McGee make any sense? (Spoiler alert: No.) Will fans start to like Dwight Howard again? Will we, gasp, actually end up missing outgoing commissioner David Stern, set to retire midway through the season?
(For a more in depth look at most of the major moves franchises made this offseason, there's this guide to the major free agent signings and trade acquisitions as well as this breakdown of David Stern's farewell edition of the NBA Draft.)
EASTERN CONFERENCE
Atlantic Division
NEW YORK KNICKS
Can the New York Knicks win it all with a team built around Carmelo Anthony? It's not a particularly fair question mind you, especially in a league where the bigger question is "Can any team in the East win when built around Not LeBron James?" With rebuilding Boston Celtics solidly in the Knicks' rear-view mirror, although their old friends will still visit in the guise of the Brooklyn Nets, this might be the team's best shot to prove they could make the Eastern Conference Finals with the talented but limited Anthony as their leader.
Now, how far can they get? Well, the Miami Heat are more vulnerable this year than they were last year, and don't let Michael Jordan fool you, three-peating ain't easy and the Knicks have an interesting lineup. While Carmelo Anthony's game might be almost as underrated by current statistics as it is overrated by the eye test, he will get his team points and Tyson Chandler still should be able to help on the defensive end. They'll see what they can get out of the legally-obligated-to-call-him-enigmatic Andrea Bargnani and the hard-partying J.R. Smith, who wants to jump from Sixth Man role to the starting rotation. Metta World Peace is a Knick now, in a very real Jack Torrance in "The Shining" sense, he's always been a New York Knickerbocker. The 2013-14 Knicks are very talented yet also exceedingly flawed, which makes them maybe the most Eastern Conference-y team in the Eastern Conference.
While the Heat could very easily find itself fighting with the risen Derrick Rose's Chicago Bulls or in a rematch with the Indiana Pacers, it seems inevitable that LeBron and the Miami Heat would have to face off against Melo and the New York Knicks at least once with an NBA Finals visit on the line. Do the guys from Gotham have an actual shot to knock out the King? That might be a tougher thing to predict. (On the other hand, if they keep up roster spaces for their players' less talented brothers, it's pretty easy to predict that they won't.)
X-Factor: Iman Shumpert. If 21 Shump Street doesn't get traded and if he keeps the fade, he's close to a lock at becoming the next Knicks cult figure.
BROOKLYN NETS
Well, you can't accuse the Brooklyn Nets for standing pat, all hail the Brookston Netlics! Yes, after a somewhat disappointing first year in Brooklyn the Nets have decided to become the Knicks' newest rival by incorporating bits of their previous biggest rival, trading for Boston Celtics legends Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett (and also, to a much lesser extent, Jason Terry). Combined with Deron Williams, Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez, this configuration gives the Nets one of the best looking starting lineups on paper, or at least one of the most expensive ones. Can they all cohere into a proper team before Russian owner Mikhail Prokhorov gets sick of paying for his new toy? It's up to first year coach Jason Kidd, just months after the end of his playing career, to mold this group of past and present All-Stars into something remotely resembling a team. Will the fact that he's still seen more of as a player make him the perfect choice to lead this pack of veterans, or will his lack of any (seriously any at all) managerial experience come back to haunt Nets ownership?
Overall this feels like another failed "fantasy dream team" experiment that franchises keep trying to piece together out of big-named big-budget players. If the guys who used to play in New Jersey (Deron Williams, Brook Lopez) don't step up, expect them to go the way of last season's Lakers.
X-factor: Brook Lopez. He has the opportunity to establish himself as the best center in the Eastern Conference, particularly if the Pacers' Roy Hibbert has another rough regular season and Andrew Bynum is once again in "back of the milk carton" mode.
TORONTO RAPTORS
The Toronto Raptors reminded casual fans that they exist last season when they traded for Rudy Gay, a strange all-in moment for a team that wasn't likely to reach the playoffs last year and only have a shot this year because the Eastern Conference is as watered down as the liquor bottle in an Eugene O'Neill play. An all-scoring ballplayer, Gay's numbers have been on the downswing for a few years now, but Toronto hopes that he will be better now that he's getting a vision problem corrected.
Sure, the Raptors' second option might be Kyle Lowry at point guard, but still things are looking a little sunnier for the Raptors this season, if only because they can't quite possibly disappoint Toronto as much as the Blue Jays did over in MLB. The Raptors hired new GM Masai Ujiri, a move that was solidly praised and they are contemplating rebuilding . There's even talk of a long overdue name change, which is even better news unless one happens to be a huge "Jurassic Park" fan.
X-Factor: Rudy Gay. It had to be tough to see the Memphis Grizzlies not only succeed without him but for being on the receiving end of "addition by subtraction" arguments. Expect him to be beyond motivated this season.
BOSTON CELTICS
The Boston Celtics will not be good next season, and, in fact, if they are good and in danger of departing from the realm of lottery teams, management will start to trade away pieces. If Rajon Rondo recovers from his ACL injury faster than expected and shows he's still the same player, GM Danny Ainge will trade him if he gets the right offer. If the Celtics take a page from their baseball brethren and go on some sort of unexpected win spree, ownership will put an end to all that and dismantle them. The only reason to watch the Boston Celtics play basketball this season is that they will be incredibly interesting, but not interesting in a "score more points than the other team" sort of way.
The Big Three are all gone. Ray Allen is now a Miami postseason hero. Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett are out there in Brooklyn as part of the World's Most Expensive Fantasy Team. Doc Rivers is a Clipper now, working with Chris Paul is his reward for having to deal with Rondo for all of these years. In his place Boston has hired college coach Brad Stevens, the man most responsible for all of those "Butler Did It" headlines. Stevens could be a fine NBA coach, but this almost certainly will be a training wheels year for him. No wonder longtime Celtics flagship WEEI didn't renew their contract this year.
X-Factor: Avery Bradley. Because nothing you can say can take me away from my guy.
PHILADELPHIA 76ers
The Philadelphia 76ers this season are less of a NBA franchise and more of a basketball-centric remake of the The Producers. When the Philadelphia 76ers traded their best player, Jrue Holiday for injured lottery pick Nerlens Noel it was a signal that the 76ers, having given up Andre Iguodala in exchange for zero minutes of Andrew Bynum the previous season, were no longer in the business of winning actual games. Instead, their clear priority is landing one of the top picks in what promises to be one of the most loaded NBA Drafts in recent memory.
So, the goal this season is to land the best chance of winning one of the first two slots in the draft lottery, which means losing as many game as possible, which means the likes of Evan Turner and rookie Michael Carter-Williams will be on your 76ers program guides. "Tanking" of course is such an ugly word for fans who want to believe that their team is at least trying to win, so let's just call it something like "being strategically noncompetitive". And this season, this 76ers team has a shot to be the most strategically noncompetitive team in NBA history.
X-Factor: Nerlens Noel. Wait, what he's going to be out the entire season, man that's gotta hurt the team's win total. (Cut to 76ers executives partying gleefully to the tune of Loverboy's "Working For The Weekend")
Central Division
CHICAGO BULLS
Keys to the game: Derrick Rose. Derrick Rose, Derrick Rose, Derrick Rose. The Chicago Bulls season will be entirely about the return of their former MVP from ACL injury, he injured his before it was cool. Derrick Rose has looked good in the preseason, which is encouraging because "seeing how players returning from injuries look" is quite possibly the only worthwhile reason to pay attention to preseason games. If he stays healthy and productive he can return to his 2011 peak era identity as LeBron's Eastern Conference Rival.
In hindsight, the idea that the Chicago Bulls could have beaten the Miami Heat last year with Derrick Rose back at 75% seems absolutely ludicrous, the byproduct of two memorable Heat defeats (one in the regular season, the other in the playoffs). Still, they revealed they had the heart of a championship team. In Rose's absence, Joakim Noah developed more of a leadership role and Jimmy Butler flourished. Luol Deng should continue to be the rotation's rock if head coach Tom Thibodeau avoids overworking to the point of exhaustion and/or possible death.
Assuming that Rose's return doesn't negatively affect this newfound chemistry, and the core three (Rose, Noah, Deng) stay healthy, the Bulls should be the second best team in Eastern Conference and Miami's clearest rival. That might be too much of an "if' though, especially considering that no one player has shown the difference that injuries can make than their former MVP.
X-Factor: Every internet and sports radio tough guy who called out Derrick Rose last season. You don't think Rose remembers every single time he was called a coward?
The Pacers have raised expectations by taking the Heat to a Game Seven. Photograph: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
Everything you need to know about the 2013-14 NBA season | Sport | theguardian.com
