A quick reminder: Last year, when the Celtics brought together Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, most pundits stated that while the Celtics were obviously improved, they would struggle to get these three superstars to mesh and their bench would be too weak for them to be a true championship contender. This was a fair reason however - bringing star players together did not guarantee anything, in fact, there are very few cases where a team with one superstar acquired two more superstars to join him and it garnered success.
This year: The pundits are jumping on the Laker and Rocket bandwagons, because the Lakers have a healthy Andrew Bynum and the Rockets acquired Ron Artest, giving each team its own "Big Three" and thus, declaring them title contenders. So much that 7 have picked the Lakers and 2 have picked the Rockets to win it all. The problem I have is that they all used the reasons these teams will win it all as reasons why the Celtics wouldn't have done so last year. So now that the Celtics broke the mold, it's the new mold? Also, here's my even bigger problem. These pundits (half of ESPN's so-called 'experts') are comparing the trios of Kobe, Pau & Bynum and T-Mac, Artest & Yao as equal to or better than KG, Pierce & Ray. WHICH IS RIDICULOUS. Why is that ridiculous? Maybe because Pau has no balls, Bynum's unproven, T-Mac can't win in the playoffs, Yao is as fragile as they come and Artest is a frickin' nutcase. Plus, Kobe's drive for a title is being spoken of in reverent terms, like he's the most driven athlete for a title. Are you friggin' kidding me? Nobody is as crazy and intense as KG when it comes to going for the title.
Plus, the assumption that Bynum is going to be a stud coming off major knee surgery is absurd. It's also absurd that Stephen A. Smith has declared that the Lakers wouldn't have been handled so easily by the Celtics and probably would have won the title with him last year. Lost in Stephen “All Volume, No Content” Smith’s rant is that they never would have dealt for Gasol if Bynum was healthy and that Bynum may have tired towards the end of season because he's a big young player who'd never played so many minutes in so many games before.
Don't forget Lamar Odom is in a contract year and will most likely act out (unleash your inner Manny, Lamar, do it) because he's going to want to showcase his skills to get paid more in the offseason. And now he's coming off the bench. Yeah, good luck with that situation.
So throw out the Lakers and the Rockets (who, for the record, still haven't won a first-round series with T-Mac). The logical predictions, in my mind, are (1) the Celtics, (2) the Hornets and (3) the Spurs. Here's why:
(1) The Celtics - why not? They have the Big Three back; Rondo and Perkins are a year older and should improve, as should Leon Powe (a dark-horse 6th Man candidate). Tony Allen's finally fully back from his ACL tear a season and a half ago. True, they lost James Posey (a big loss, but manageable), but no team in the East will challenge their conference dominance, save a possible LeBron show.
(2) The Hornets - because they brought back their very good team and added the ultimate bench player in James Posey. Chris Paul is a year older and wiser and the Hornets look poised to make 'the Leap.'
(3) The Spurs - because you don't mess with them on an odd year! Not really, but despite Manu Ginobilli being out until December/January, he should be healthy and rested for the playoffs, a HUGE detractor for them last year. And you should never sleep on Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobilli.
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