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Who will win the title?
The Lakers of course.
The Cavs, who's gonna stop the King?
Its The Magic's season.
The Celtics will bring it home.
The good o'l Spurs will show us how it's done.
We've all heard it over and over again, but what if none of these teams win? What if it's an upset?
These are the teams that the elite teams of the league should not take lightly. Too much cockiness or arrogance and some of the elite teams might not make it through the playoffs as they intended.
The Portland Trailblazers, Dallas Mavericks, Atlanta Hawks, Denver Nuggets and the Miami Heat could all make noise next year and might upset a few elite teams.
Atlanta is a young team that has the ability to upset favourable teams as we saw a few times last season. I know whenever my team, the Lakers, plays Atlanta I'm always afraid about what Atlanta is capable of. When they play well they are hard to beat.
As a Laker fan, Portland is also starting to scare me. They always play well against the Lakers, and in the playoffs they have the ability to pull off an upset. If they manage to aquire Lamar Odom they will truly be a formidable opponent. They have a great star and leader in Brandon Roy, good big men in Oden and Pryzbilla, and, not to mention, LaMarcus Aldridge down low.
The Dallas Mavericks were good before they got Shawn Marion, now they are a whole lot better. The 17.8 ppg, 1.3 bpg, 1.8 spg and 9.9 rebounds per game that Marion brings will greatly help the Mavericks. With Jason Kidd running the offence, Marion should fit right in. A big three of Dirk, Kidd, and Marion could pull off some upsets.
The Nuggets made it to the Western Conference Finals last season only to be beaten by that season's champions, the Los Angeles Lakers. The Nuggets surpassed all expectations last season, and whose to say they won't do that next season. With the veteran guidance of Chauncey Billups, the Nuggets have grown as a team and become a force to be reckoned with in the NBA. Carmelo Anthony is one the the best players in the league and one of the most clutch. The Nuggets' sharp-shooting and toughness may take them far next season.
Dwayne Wade carried the Miami Heat last season. Next season if they find him some help, they could make some noise. The Heat will be hoping that Michael Beasley improves his game and becomes the dominant forward they drafted him to be. Maybe the Heat could go for Iverson to give Wade some help. Iverson can still be a good scorer despite being out of his prime, and that will take some of the load of Wade.
Any of these teams have the potential to make it big next season and eliminate some of the elite teams out of the playoffs. If the Lakers, Cavs, Magic, Celtics, Spurs don't put in enough effort it could be costly for them. We almost saw it last season when the Yao Ming-less Rockets took the champion Lakers team to 7 games.
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