5 Team Race For The Ship

The Denver Nuggets are lead by Big Shot Billups and have a very talented supportive cast featuring Melo, JR, Birdman, Martin, Nene. This team was a couple plays away from going to the NBA finals last season and I believe have an outside chance to be in the Finals this season.

Strengths: Amazing floor leader in Billups, Great ability to score the ball, and solid depth on the bench.

Weakness: 3 or 4 lose cannons that could go off at any second and sometimes for no reason. They also have not shown that they can play great defense when needed.

Question: The team is filled with a lot of athleticism but can coach Karl get the team to gel and play team defense?

Last seaon was a great disappointment to Cleveland fans after losing to the Magic in the conference finals. The reason for that was to do with the supporting cast. Which has been a theme for the Cavs ever since obtaining LBJ. This off-season they addressed some of the post scoring problems by acquiring Shaq.

Strengths: They have the leagues current MVP and one of the two best individual players in the game. The move to get Shaq is an up grade to big Z. They play great defense and rebound the ball well, this should improve even more with more acquisition of Shaq, Jamario Moon, and Anthony Parker.

Weakness: They still do not have another wing player who can score on a consistant basis. They need this player for the end of games and also when LBJ goes to the bench.

Question: Can Shaq stay healthy for two seasons in a row and contribute all the way through the finals?

The Spurs have the most underrated player of my generation in Timmy. This team battled injuries all last season and Tony Parker did an unbelievable job getting them to 54 wins. They made the move of the off-season by getting Richard Jefferson. Although other teams made moves with bigger names, RJ can contribute more than the other players acquired. Plus they added more depth to the bench through the draft and free agency.

Strength: Great leadership from players to head coach. Depth up and down the rotation with the ability to score and play great defense.

Weakness: Complacency, feeling that its ok not to have home court advantage against a team like the Lakers.

Question: Can the Spurs win a Title in an even year?

Last Season without their best overall player and emotional leader KG they still took the Magic to 7 games. They Brought in one of my favorite players in Rasheed Wallace and he can provide more depth to a team already littered with bigs.

Strenghts: The best roster point thru center when healthy. Everyone can do everything in the starting five, score, defend, rebound which makes it easy to substitute players in and out of the line up.

Weakness: The biggest problem with this team is age, and playing games together. They may also find trouble incorporating Wallace into the offense at first but that should come around.

Question: Can they over come some problems with contracts and off court disputes with good role players?

The Los Angeles Lakers have the chance to be the best team I've watched since the 96 Bulls. The only position that I don't have confidence in is the point guard spot and by mid season Brown could emerge nicely playing with all that talent. Adding Artest can go one of two ways Titles and parades or fights and ejections.

Strengths: The best player in the world next to LBJ, and probably even better in crunch time. Offense can be better than the opponent or if they have to they can out play you on defense and rebounding. Great Depth and obviously the most successful coach of all-time.

Weakness: Is the health of the bigs, Bynum can't stay healthy and Gasol is having hamstring problems which can pop up at any time during the season.

Question: Can the Lakers focus and gel as a basketball team with all the external stuff surrounding the organization?

As a Pistons fan this pains me to say that I think the final will be the Celtics vs Lakers. This rematch from two years ago will come down to a much closer outcome.

Even though the Lakers have to play through some adjustments bringing Artest into the fold, they have the best coach and the best player in the game. With a strong supporting cast and the fact that Kobe and Phil both know what it takes to repeat, lead me to my decision.

I will not be surprised if any of these teams win but when I take everything in it tells me that the Lakers will be victorious in a great series.