NBA 2009 Preview: A Who's Who For Next Season

2) Phoenix Suns—What it is like to the leftovers of the L.A. Lakers? The Suns will not be able to compete with the Lakers next year as Shaq will continue to make fun of Kobe at clubs. Perhaps if Shaq wasn’t too busy rapping about Kobe and practicing his free throws and defense the Suns would be able to do something next year?

3) L.A. Clippers—I am very interested in seeing what Eric Gordon can do in his rookie season. In my opinion he could be the steal of this years draft and Gordon landed in a very interesting position as the Clippers fell in love with Gordon and believe he is their future. If he can produce, who knows perhaps the Clippers can steal the eight seed in the playoffs?

4) Golden State Warriors—Oh, what went wrong? A few years ago they were the talk of the league and now they are back to their usual position right near the bottom of the Southeast Division. Well at least they are not in last place.

5) Sacramento Kings—This team might win the lottery next year. I think next to the Knicks that they will be the worst team in the NBA. I love what they did in drafting Jason Thompson but they need more than Thompson to help their team.

Too bad they drafted Patrick Ewing’s son and not Patrick Ewing in general. I also see this being the year that they trade Ron Artest as they have more forwards than the Toronto Raptors.

Southwest

1) San Antonio Spurs—Everyone is tired of the Spurs, including the Spurs themselves. They are the oldest team in the team. They might be losing some players. In fact they will be losing some of their players but I think the Spurs still have enough gas in their tank to make one final run in the playoffs before they hand off the division to New Orleans.

2) New Orleans—Last year was a wonderful season for New Orleans. However, was it too soon? Will the winning of last year translate well into next year? Or will they slump somewhere during the season?

I expect a minor slump towards the beginning and the end of the season. I think they are a very talented team that will be a force to be reckoned with in the coming years but teams like the Utah Jazz and the Lakers are not going away anytime soon. But one team I did leave out was the San Antonio Spurs…

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?