Portland Trail Blazers' Future Bright as Conference Rivals Fade

Trail Blazers’ GM Kevin Pritchard more than deserves the praise he’s received for rebuilding his team so efficiently over the last couple of years.  He’s stockpiled a plethora of young studs via the draft and trades, with almost mocking simplicity.

This year, however, Pritchard may have to acknowledge his Western Conference peers as much as himself for the Blazers’ first return to the postseason in four years.

After the postseason drought the Blazers have suffered, both the team and its fans would be ecstatic to simply sneak into the playoffs as a seventh or eighth seed.  The teams that have scrambled for those positions over the last couple years (Golden State, Denver, Sacramento, and Dallas) have all taken significant steps backwards this summer.

Warriors lose Davis to Clippers, Ellis to injury

Golden State looks to be this year’s version of the 2006-07 Clippers—spiraling back to its former doldrums after a season or two of relevancy. 

The Warriors’ first offseason wound was inflicted by team star and emotional leader Baron Davis.  The former All-Star spurned the team he helped revive in hopes of uniting with Elton Brand in Clipper Nation—only to be spurned by Brand in return.

Warriors’ brass insisted their priorities were extending the contract of stud Monta Ellis, which they accomplished in short order.  But in the process of doing so, they also lost free agents Matt Barnes and Mikael Pietrus—both of whom were valuable role players during the Warriors’ resurgence.

They did make an attempt to compensate for the loss of Davis by signing Corey Maggette away from the Clippers.  Golden State’s front office no doubt took solace in repaying the Clippers for stealing Davis away from them.

While Maggette does make up for Davis’ point production (Maggette dropped 22.1 ppg to Davis’ 21.8 ppg), he’s not a point guard.  GM Chris Mullin and coach Don Nelson insisted Ellis was up to the task—as did Ellis himself.

Then the bomb dropped.  Ellis is out at least three months with a surgically-repaired ankle.  In the competitive West, a rocky start—which Golden State looks certain to have—spells doom for any team's playoff hopes.

Nuggets sell their last line of defense

Come training camp, the Nuggets will undoubtedly perform their yearly ritual: verbalizing their re-commitment to defense.  Unfortunately, that claim will be a harder sell then ever thanks to the trade that sent Marcus Camby to the Clippers for nothing but cap space in return.

It’s very possible that Camby’s numbers (13.1 rpg and 3.61 bpg) were slightly inflated due to the nature of his teammates.  The perimeter defense—or lack thereof—allowed opponents to go straight to the hoop—and into Camby’s waiting wingspan.   His teammates' less-than-accurate shooting led to multiple rebounding opportunities.

Still, the fact that Camby could capitalize on those occasions made him invaluable to a team in desperate need of any defensive presence.  Without him, opponents may see the Nuggets as an extension of a pre-game layup line.

Having barely reached the playoffs ahead of Golden State last year, it’s safe to say that Denver will slide a bit this season.

The Kings get rid of the talented/troubled Artest

With Artest in the lineup, at least Sacramento was a borderline lottery team no one could sleep on.  He gave them relevancy and a chance to win every night.  When his teammates actually played up to par, they were a playoff team, capable of being the ballclub no one wanted to see in the first round (cf: San Antonio Spurs, 2006).

In the long run, the Kings will thank themselves for shipping Artest to Houston.  His distractions outweighed his production.  In the short term?  They successfully beefed up an already-dangerous conference rival, while miring their own team in a rebuilding phase.

That’s three teams that fought for the last playoff spot a year ago, and probably won’t get that chance again this year.  Dallas and Phoenix have aging star players in Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, and Shaquille O’Neal.  The Clippers' signing of Baron Davis is negated by the loss of Brand and Maggette.

The Blazers?  Not only will they return this year with most of their team intact from last year’s team, but they’ll also trot out more horses for the playoff race.  A team that went 41-41 will add Greg Oden and Jerryd Bayless this season, shoring up their only two questionable positions on the roster—center and point guard.

While a team of talent is needed to make the playoffs, a little help from other postseason hopefuls doesn’t hurt, either.