Re: NBA: A New Decade of Players (CAP)
Sacramento, CA -- It’s that time of the year again ladies and gentleman, the NBA season is back and ready for another great year. Los Angeles Lakers are looking forward for the four-peat while Miami’s looking towards accomplishing what they set out to accomplish, an NBA championship. Both teams were among the top five for the power rankings at 2 & 3 respectively, the teams that followed them were the Trail Blazers and the Thunders with the Chicago Bulls topping off the charts.
The opening day of the NBA season will begin with the fifth team in the power rankings, the Oklahoma City Thunder facing off against the seventh team, the Los Angeles Clippers. Last year, OKC finished the season with a record of 50 and 32. Clippers on the other hand were bad, real bad, bad enough to make the lottery, yes, that bad. This year they’re back with a vengeance as Blake Griffin attempts to forget about the 34-48 record and focus on becoming the best damn team they can be. The NBA which is now based off having big three’s sees Thunder placing their own big three at the focus of their success, Granger, Westbrook and Durant are all extraordinary players in their own right. Durant is considered the future of the NBA and a phenomenal scorer, Westbrook broke free from being the sidekick and even made the all-star the previous year, finally there’s Granger who despite the lack of award last year, still managed to average of 20 points. These are three men who will get you over 60 points a game combined and with a great core all around (Ibaka, Robinson, Perkins, Hansbrough, Rush, Maynor), this teams looking to make a run for the championship. Clippers don’t have a big three but they have a huge one in Blake Griffin, the sophomore had an amazing season averaging a double double every game and nearly winning rookie of the year. Next to him is Eric Gordon who’s improving year by year as a shooting guard having upgraded his points per game last year by three, his rebounds by one, assist by two and steals by one. This year he’s looking forward to making another impact. Chris Kaman is another all star who’s looking to make a run in the playoffs. Much like OKC, they have an amazing young core of stars to help them out (Williams, Aminu, Blatche, Foye, Garcia, White, Yu-Law). We’re going to go with Oklahoma winning, Clippers just don’t match up them in terms of star power, Durant and West Brook are already too much for this Los Angeles team but add Granger and that places the icing on the cake.
The main event for the night will be the New Orleans Hornets facing off against Sacramento Kings. New Orleans are projected to making the playoffs and are twelfth in the power rankings while Kings are seen as attempting and failing to clinch the playoffs at nineteenth. Both teams had losing seasons the previous year so this is a chance for a new beginning. The first thing that jumps out at us is Chris Paul of course who’s in his last year with Hornets. For them, it’s make or break, if they fail to impress then Paul might just leave and look for a new beginning but if they manage to make a run for the championship, we could see Chris remaining in New Orleans. He is well surrounded though by three great starters in Okafor, Ariza and West with a few good back up stars in Jarrett Jack, Beau Allen and Larry Hughes. We aren’t going with New Orleans though believe it or not, the Kings can’t really lose this. Brooks could very well match up with Paul and if he fails, they always have the rookie Hines to make up for his failures. Cousins is young and will likely dominate Okafor in the paint, Evans will be matching up against Jack who’s going to be playing shooting guard in a mock match up and Thompson will keep West in check at the power forward position. As we mentioned before, Hines will likely make a huge impact on his debut and both Udrih and Hawes will look to impress off the bench as well. Kings, while underrated have their own mini big three in Brooks, Cousins and Evans and in two or three years, this could very well be a huge big three.
Washington Wizards will also be facing New York Knicks and we’ll be going with the Knicks for the easy win against the Wizards in this one.
The opening day of the NBA season will begin with the fifth team in the power rankings, the Oklahoma City Thunder facing off against the seventh team, the Los Angeles Clippers. Last year, OKC finished the season with a record of 50 and 32. Clippers on the other hand were bad, real bad, bad enough to make the lottery, yes, that bad. This year they’re back with a vengeance as Blake Griffin attempts to forget about the 34-48 record and focus on becoming the best damn team they can be. The NBA which is now based off having big three’s sees Thunder placing their own big three at the focus of their success, Granger, Westbrook and Durant are all extraordinary players in their own right. Durant is considered the future of the NBA and a phenomenal scorer, Westbrook broke free from being the sidekick and even made the all-star the previous year, finally there’s Granger who despite the lack of award last year, still managed to average of 20 points. These are three men who will get you over 60 points a game combined and with a great core all around (Ibaka, Robinson, Perkins, Hansbrough, Rush, Maynor), this teams looking to make a run for the championship. Clippers don’t have a big three but they have a huge one in Blake Griffin, the sophomore had an amazing season averaging a double double every game and nearly winning rookie of the year. Next to him is Eric Gordon who’s improving year by year as a shooting guard having upgraded his points per game last year by three, his rebounds by one, assist by two and steals by one. This year he’s looking forward to making another impact. Chris Kaman is another all star who’s looking to make a run in the playoffs. Much like OKC, they have an amazing young core of stars to help them out (Williams, Aminu, Blatche, Foye, Garcia, White, Yu-Law). We’re going to go with Oklahoma winning, Clippers just don’t match up them in terms of star power, Durant and West Brook are already too much for this Los Angeles team but add Granger and that places the icing on the cake.
The main event for the night will be the New Orleans Hornets facing off against Sacramento Kings. New Orleans are projected to making the playoffs and are twelfth in the power rankings while Kings are seen as attempting and failing to clinch the playoffs at nineteenth. Both teams had losing seasons the previous year so this is a chance for a new beginning. The first thing that jumps out at us is Chris Paul of course who’s in his last year with Hornets. For them, it’s make or break, if they fail to impress then Paul might just leave and look for a new beginning but if they manage to make a run for the championship, we could see Chris remaining in New Orleans. He is well surrounded though by three great starters in Okafor, Ariza and West with a few good back up stars in Jarrett Jack, Beau Allen and Larry Hughes. We aren’t going with New Orleans though believe it or not, the Kings can’t really lose this. Brooks could very well match up with Paul and if he fails, they always have the rookie Hines to make up for his failures. Cousins is young and will likely dominate Okafor in the paint, Evans will be matching up against Jack who’s going to be playing shooting guard in a mock match up and Thompson will keep West in check at the power forward position. As we mentioned before, Hines will likely make a huge impact on his debut and both Udrih and Hawes will look to impress off the bench as well. Kings, while underrated have their own mini big three in Brooks, Cousins and Evans and in two or three years, this could very well be a huge big three.
Washington Wizards will also be facing New York Knicks and we’ll be going with the Knicks for the easy win against the Wizards in this one.
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