NBA Western Conference Playoff Race: Odd Teams Out
The 2009-2010 Western Conference playoff race went down to the wire for seeding two through eight.
Expect the same this year.
E xpect a few teams to shockingly be left out of the picture.
Let’s start with the teams that will likely make it past the regular season. Although it is too early to start predicting possible seeding arrangement come playoff time… wait, no it isn’t.
Here is what the playoff seeding arrangement will likely look like come the 2011 playoffs.
For more on this take a look at the following slide show.
Let’s take a good look at the teams that did not make it to that list, focusing on New Orleans, Memphis, and San Antonio.
New Orleans will have a healthy Chris Paul back next year along with arguably the same roster of last year. This team will win its share of games and like come close to a 50 win season. I n order to make the Western Conference playoffs, it will take more than that.
Chris Paul and David West will anchor the team’s offense along sophomores Darren Collison and Marcus Thornton. T hey will fall just short of a playoff seed and closer to an inevitable life without Chris Paul.
The Memphis Grizzlies have the same team back after re-signing of Rudy Gay. This team gave playoff teams a run for their money with a healthy roster. Once injuries attacked the team, their mediocre bench, to say the least, showed how this team does not have much potential out of the starting five.
After making no significant upgrades to their bench, you can expect this team to once again go on promising runs. Ultimately, another .500 season and no playoff berth.
The surprise of the day, and the reason for plenty of hateful comments to come:
T he San Antonio Spurs will likely miss out on the 2011 NBA Playoffs.
Not only that, they will probably also miss a few more playoffs to come once the Duncan era is over.
It is time for San Antonio to hand the gloves, trade their veteran potential for young potential, and start executing a rebuilding plan.
But it will not happen this season.
This team will come out with a mission.
A mission that will ultimately fail.
The Spurs will go down as one of the best sports dynasties of all time.
All great things come to an end. This is the year it ends for San Antonio.
