Which NBA Teams Does a Shortened Season Help and Which Does It Hurt?

With the NBA lockout coming up on three full months, there have already been games canceled, and depending on what happens in a meeting between the players, owners and a mediator in the next two days could mean more cancellations or a new deal being signed.

Basically we are at D-Day here, folks, with the possibility that if no deal is struck by Tuesday evening with the two sides meeting with the mediator, that each side could retract their best offers and just start sitting and waiting for the other to blink.

So if there is no deal by Tuesday, it's very likely that the lockout could extend well into the season, even pushing it all the way into 2012.

But what happens if there is a lockout that long and we see a severely shortened season?  Who does this hurt and who does this help?

Well it makes each game much more important, so teams with the ability to streak a bunch of wins together definitely have the opportunity to claim an advantage, while a team that plays consistent basketball could be left out in the cold, as consistency is rewarded more over an 82-game schedule.

There are plenty of other factors that figure in to who is helped and who is hurt; let's start off with the teams that will be helped the most. 

7. Miami Heat

The core of the Miami Heat have already spent a full year together, so they won't be hurt quite as much as other teams by missing training camp, preseason games and all the practices that would have taken place otherwise.

They already have a year's experience with each other, so it's not exactly going to kill them if they miss that part of the schedule.

However, it also helps them out because it gives every player a less of a chance for an injury, which could decimate the Miami Heat if it happened, and it gives Dwyane Wade a shorter season to see his body break down, as he is usually slowing down a bit near the end of an 82-gamer.

6. Atlanta Hawks

The Atlanta Hawks could potentially surprise people if the season is shortened down to around 50 games like it was back in 1999.

For starters, the Hawks play good defense, which is easier to do game in and game out from day one because there doesn't need to be the same rhythm or flow established like in the offensive game.

On top of that, with the team that they had last season, which shouldn't look too much different from the one they put on the court this season, they started out 32-18 over the first 50 games last season (winning 64 percent of their games), but finished just 12-20 over the last 32 (winning just over 37 percent of their games).  It's hard to believe that this relatively young team got tired, but they did slow down, so perhaps a shorter season could help them this year.

5. Milwaukee Bucks

Like I've said before, it's easier for a defensive team to start playing good defense from day one than it is for an offensive team to get into their rhythm right away.

Given a few weeks of practices and a few preseason games, the Bucks should be able to pick up where they left off last season when they allowed the third fewest points in the league.

Plus, they'll have Brandon Jennings play a shorter season, which means less of a chance for injury, and potentially a better season, as he had lulls in the middle of the season for the past two years.

4. Detroit Pistons

The Detroit Pistons need nothing more right now than to bottom out, and this lockout should give them that opportunity.

They just fired John Kuester and hired Lawrence Frank, which should mean they struggle more early on than most teams because they need to figure out how to run his system.  This means less of a chance that they make a run where they win too many games and get stuck in the middle of the lottery yet again, rather than competing for that top pick in the draft.

3. Boston Celtics

The Boston Celtics are old, we know that much, so it can't hurt to have them play 32 fewer games than they would have.

Sure, they might be more effected during the season when there will be fewer off days and the potential for multiple back-to-back-to-back games being played, but once they get to the end of the season and have time to rest up a bit, the old knees of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen should be feeling mighty fine.

2. San Antonio Spurs

Just like the Celtics, the Spurs need to give Tim Duncan more life in his old man's knees.  The best way to do this is to have the big fellow play fewer minutes over the course of a season, and there's no better way to do that than to play fewer games.

The Spurs will be able to sit Tim Duncan periodically if they play too many games in a row, so he shouldn't really be a factor in many of those times when teams play three games in a row, but in the end it should set the Spurs up more for the playoffs in terms of having their players ready.

1. Dallas Mavericks

Supposing that the Mavericks are able to re-sign the majority of their players who are currently free agents (which may be more difficult under the new CBA), they'll be sitting pretty for the upcoming season.

Dallas has the same issues as Boston and San Antonio in terms of aging veterans, but they also have tons of momentum coming into this season and all the chemistry that it would take so that they don't struggle out of the gate.

If they can get to the playoffs in any better shape than they were in last year when they had to trudge through a 82-game schedule (which saw them losing more games near the end of the year because of tired bodies), then they could just repeat as champions.

Now lets go on to who this lockout hurts the most.

7. Denver Nuggets

The lockout has already taken the biggest toll on the Denver Nuggets, as Kenyon Martin, Wilson Chandler and J.R. Smith, three of their most important players, are stuck in China at least until march.

That means they are going to have to throw a team together in the few weeks that come between the end of the lockout and the beginning of the season.  From there they hurry through a severely abbreviated training camp and preseason and throw what amounts to a brand new team on the floor together.

They'll have trouble stringing together too many wins right out of the gate because of this, and likely fall behind too quickly to even think about making the playoffs.

6. Sacramento Kings

The Sacramento Kings are basically in the same boat as Denver, only they know who their ragtag team will be, while Denver is still in the dark.

Sacramento added JJ Hickson, Jimmer Fredette and John Salmons in the offseason, while losing Omri Casspi, Beno Udrih and Corey Maggette.  On top of that they will likely end up losing Samuel Dalembert (who will go to a good team in need of a center) and Marcus Thronton (who will get overpaid).

That means they'll be putting their team together on the fly, hoping that it all works out for the best.

5. Charlotte Bobcats

The most important thing that the Bobcats could have gotten this year would have been an actual training camp.

With or without it, they won't be a very good team this year, but it would have given Kemba Walker a better shot at coming into this season with an idea of what he needs to do to overcome his height disadvantage, and it would have given Bismack Biyombo a chance at putting down a foundation to start building his game from.

Instead the team will be thrust right into the season and won't have a training camp together until next year, which does more harm than good at this point.

4. New Jersey Nets, New Orleans Hornets, Orlando Magic

The worst part about a shortened season for these three teams is the thought of an earlier trade deadline.  In 1999, the trade deadline was on March 11th, right around 20 games into the season depending on which team you look at, rather than the usual 55 games or so.

So what does this mean for these three teams, they only have a few dozen games to evaluate their teams, decide whether they will be good enough to convince their star players to re-sign, and if not, find a suitor for that player.

At least, for these guys' sake, they pretty much have a team rolling over from last season that will give them some consistency. 

3. Phoenix Suns

The Phoneix Suns have a three-tiered burden going into this next season now that the lockout has shortened it and likely will continue to shorten it.

Phoenix has the misfortune of deciding what to do with Steve Nash, just like the Magic, Hornets and Nets have to do.

However, on top of that, the Suns must work a few new players into their lineup, as they look to use Markieff Morris quite a bit this season, and Aaron Brooks, who only came to the team in February of last season.

Then, they must deal with the stigma of being primarily an offensive team, which means they should struggle playing at a high offensive level consistently.

2. Los Angeles Lakers

The Lakers are damned any way you look at the lockout.  If there wasn't a lockout they would have had the past few months to regroup and work out what they needed to do better this season, but they'll have to play a full 82 games, if there was a lockout (like there is now) then they have no regrouping period.

I think in the end it would have been more valuable to the Lakers had they had a training camp to put their team together.

Now, they'll have to learn Mike Brown's system in just a few weeks and go out there and play basketball immediately.  

1. New York Knicks

The best thing the Knicks could have gotten out of this season they already missed out on.

Carmelo Anthony came over to join Amar'e Stoudemire at the trade deadline, which basically turned them into a completely different team than what they were prior to the trade.

What would have helped them the most would have been a training camp to start to work out some of the kinks that showed once they made it to the playoffs, which would have set them up nicely for the upcoming season.  Instead, they'll be thrust back into the game with little time to prepare.

If you are one of those twitterers, you can follow me @JDorsey33.