NBA Predictions 2011: Predicting the Playoff Seeds for Each Conference Next Year
The NBA Finals is as hot as possible right now, and with the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat locked in what is turning into an epic battle for the Larry O'Brien Trophy, what does that mean for next season in the NBA?
Neither team in the Finals right now was the best team during the regular season, and that didn't seem to matter once they got into the playoffs, as they kicked their game into fifth gear and wiped the floor with their opponents along the way.
Miami is on the upswing, and it looks like they are going to be good for a long time, but Dallas is full of aging players and it's going to be hard for them to keep up their hot play for very long unless they get younger.
So let's take a look into the old crystal ball, shall we, and see what the playoff picture for 2012 is going to look like.
East 8th, Philadelphia 76ers
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The Philadelphia 76ers floated between the seventh and tenth seed all season long, and with questions surrounding the salary cap and a mid-first round draft pick in a seemingly week draft they might not be getting any better next season.
They have nearly $20 million locked up in Elton Brand next season and after re-signing a few key players they will have a salary of around $53 million, which could be right around what the cap will be next year.
Philly does still have room for improvement from their young players, Jrue Holiday, Lou Williams and Evan Turner all look to be improving, so they could get better, but the rest of the East is improving as well.
East 7th, New Jersey Nets
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New Jersey is committed to keeping Deron Williams whether he wants to re-sign with the Nets or not, which should be plenty to get the Nets into the playoffs.
Aside from Williams they still have Brook Lopez, who is looking like a good center despite his sudden inability to rebound.
The Nets may not have the best team on paper, but they do have some serviceable players who, with Williams running the point, could easily help the Nets wriggle into the playoffs.
East 6th, Atlanta Hawks
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Atlanta is on the way down, and if they make some moves that are being rumored then they will have another step down next season.
There have been rumors of the Hawks dealing Josh Smith, and if they do they would be losing one of their best two players for some young guys and draft picks, which wouldn't exactly help them this season.
Joe Johnson may not bounce back as well as people are expecting either, and they could be without Jamal Crawford if he signs elsewhere with the promise of starting, so they should be having a season next year that was worse than this year's.
East 5th, Orlando Magic
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Orlando is pretty much in the same boat as Atlanta, except all of their eggs are loaded in one enormous basket.
The Magic should be able to rack up a good number of wins before they have to make a decision about Dwight Howard, and after trading Howard (if they do) if they are lucky they could end up with Andrew Bynum, which should keep them afloat enough to keep them in decent positioning for the playoffs.
East 4th, New York Knicks
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Next season should be a breakout season for the New York Knicks.
This past year was too wild for any team to do much better than what the Knicks did, having Amar'e Stoudemire run the team for half of the year and then suddenly having Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups come in is too much to work out on the fly.
With that time playing together, plus an offseason of training and playing together they should be able to crack the top four in the East.
East 3rd, Boston Celtics
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Boston is getting older, we all saw that in their series against the Miami Heat, but that doesn't mean they are done yet.
The Celtics still have four players who are in the top-ten at their position in the NBA, and playing their style of basketball should be enough to get them back to the playoffs in a top-three spot.
East 2nd, Chicago Bulls
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Unfortunately for Derrick Rose and company, I don't see another first place finish in the cards for the Chicago Bulls.
They should be able to challenge for the spot, and will probably have it for a good amount of time throughout the season, but the team they will be fighting with over it will be too much to overcome.
If Carlos Boozer finally gels with the team (he has looked out of place quite a bit this season) then they may be able to snag it again, but I just don't see it happening.
East Number One, Miami Heat
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Miami is on top of the world right now, as long as you take out the fact that LeBron James scored just eight points in game four of the Finals (something Michael Jordan never would have done...ever) and they find themselves facing a best of three series for the title now when they could have gone up 3-1 if not for a few miscues.
They have showed that they don't need a good point guard or center to be a good team. Hell, they have made one of the worst starting centers in the NBA look actually serviceable for most of the season.
Miami is taking home the number one seed next season for the Eastern Conference barring an unforeseeable injury or another Gloria James-Delonte West type incident in South Beach.
West 8th, Denver Nuggets
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Denver impressed everyone last season by staying afloat with a high-powered offense after the departure of Carmelo Anthony, but it's hard to see that continuing into next season at the same level.
They will probably end up losing Nene, so they will be losing the anchor of their already weak defense, which will turn them into a playoff-able version of the Golden State Warriors.
They should still be a fun team to watch, but they won't be as good as they were this year unless they make a huge free agency move.
West 7th, Houston Rockets
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The Rockets proved last year that they can threaten to make the playoffs with a frontcourt containing Luis Scola and Chuck Hayes.
They were a scrappy team and will have some cap space to fill some holes with a mid-level free agent or two, or they could go for one of the bigger name centers that will be out there this summer.
Plus they have Chase Budinger, who I am assuming is succeeding in the NBA because the other team thinks he's just a guy in a Rockets jersey who wandered on the court somehow and they just let him be.
West 6th, Memphis Grizzlies
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At the beginning of the playoffs this year I totally jumped on the Grizzlies bandwagon, picking them to beat the Spurs in the first round and never looking back.
They may not be able to re-sign all of the guys they had this year, but they will have the nice core of Zach Randolph, Rudy Gay, Tony Allen and Mike Conley, and I don't see them letting Marc Gasol get away any time soon.
With Gay there for the whole year and another year of the team getting into a groove together, so I see them being better than last year.
Come join me on the bandwagon because (I never thought I'd say this) the Grizzlies are actually fun to cheer for.
West 5th, Portland Trail Blazers
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The only player that actually played a full season for Portland that they need to re-sign to have the same team they did last season is Andre Miller, who they should have no problem inking.
That means they will have another year of stellar defense and intriguing play with no single player dominating the ball.
If They end up re-signing Greg Oden and he actually plays then that's just icing on the cake, and if Brandon Roy's knees don't catch fire from all the bone-on-bone friction then that's just a glass of milk to go along with the freshly iced cake.
West 4th, San Antonio Spurs
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Everyone is getting on the Spurs after their loss to the Grizzlies, saying that the San Antonio Dynasty is over.
I have to agree that they probably won't be winning any more championships with the team as it is, but they are still a good team.
They still have Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker who are very tough to guard, and they still have Tim Duncan, who is the smartest player in the NBA.
West 3rd, Dallas Mavericks
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Your Western Conference Champions have a few things to address in the postseason, and if they don't address some of these problems they won't be able to improve much next season.
Jason Kidd is going on 74 or so (just estimating), and they have Tyson Chandler, Caron Butler and DeShawn Stevenson to re-sign, all of which may be impossible if the cap turns hard this summer.
However, they still have Dirk Nowitzki who is the best player at his position in the league.
West 2nd, Los Angeles Lakers
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Everyone has gotten on the Lakers for their selection of Mike Brown as a head coach, so let me speak from experience here on Mike Brown.
I watched Brown coach the Cavs for five seasons and as soon as he joined the team they were noticeably tougher and more efficient on defense.
Brown isn't the offensive coach Phil Jackson was (newsflash!), but the Lakers as they are are much more capable of running an offense regardless of their coach than LeBron's Cavaliers were in the last two years with Brown as the coach.
The regular season should be no problem, and they should be able to get back to the number two spot in the West.
West Number One, Oklahoma City Thunder
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I feel it ladies and gents, I legitimately feel it.
They had a questionable showing of knowing what was happening on offense at the end of games all throughout the playoffs, but that is something that should get resolved with experience, and experience is what they got this year.
Oklahoma City should have a better defense next season with a full year from Kendrick Perkins blending into the team. Plus I have this immense feeling that this will be the year Kevin Durant stops being such a mediocre defender.
What's more, thanks to the incredible job of building a team that Sam Presti put forth, the Thunder actually have cap space next season with only $49 million on the books as of right now for the year.
