What do you work as in your every day life? Are you a nine-to-five office guy? Maybe you work in retail, a gym or as a salesman? I don't know, you fill in the blanks, it's your job. Nonetheless, in your line of work, aren't you constantly under pressure to do well? I mean, if you don't sell some cars or have your weekly statistical analysis report on your bosses desk by 5pm Friday, won't you get some heat from the guy upstairs as to why you aren't doing your job well? It's life, and it happens in every single aspect of it. Don't ya just love it though? No? Not at all? Good, congratulations -- you're human. In the world of pro basketball, the pressures are just the same. So, whether they like it or not, here are seven teams and a band of stripe wearing officials who face some serious pressure this season.
1) Cleveland Cavaliers and The Dallas Mavericks. Last year it was constantly said that LeBron finally had a supporting cast strong enough to get it done. What are we labelling this year's batch so? Gone are dead weights Ben Wallace, Sasha "I only play good hard when I feel like it" Pavlovic, Wally's World and Tarence Kinsey. In come Shaq, Anthony Parker and Jamario Moon. Now the Cavs have depth. Now we can safely label this squad as the Cavalier team to get it done. Danny Ferry has spent oodles and canoodles of cash getting this team together, and it's a Championship or bust. Literally. If we don't get the Larry O'Brien, rumours will persist of LeBron leaving, which will not happen, thank you crummy economy! Either way, he will be getting increasingly frustrated which isn't good for our franchise. Remember the Lakers when we thought Kobe was going to Chicago? Times that by about a bajillion and you're getting there. As for Dallas, Dirk's window is closing faster than car dealerships in Detroit. He now has a team of players who three years ago would have been really really good. If Gortat had come aboard, all bets would have been off. I think that he was the anchor they needed, because Eric Dampier just isn't getting it done for you for 82 games. Sorry Damp. So maybe they go small, with Dirk as their starting five? Maybe, who knows, and does anybody outside of Mark Cuban's office care? Maybe some Dirk lovers in Germany, that's about it. But we all as NBA lovers and followers know that the regular season vastly approaching us brings great expectations for these two success starved franchises.
2) Everybody associated with the Clippers. Look, I've seen people leave comments on this site saying all HOOPSWORLD does is bash the Clippers. I got some news for you -- every site not having a web address of www.laclippers.com does the same fricking thing! Why? Maybe because it's easy. Maybe because Mike Dunleavy makes more people angrier than another Eddie Murphy movie. Or, or (!!!!) maybe it's because they won like 3 games last year and have a worse bill of health than an army platoon. Which one do you think it is? Now hear me out, I'm 100% convinced that if they get fully healthy, if Blake Griffin's career isn't ruined in year one, they are playoff bound. I'll go one further as to say who would want to face a fully fit Clipper team come June? Baron Davis loves postseason shocks. They have so many scorers it isn't true. They genuinely could be a darkhorse in the West, but we know it won't happen. It's the Clippers!!
3) NBA Officials. Come one, they have to get better right? I mean, even in the playoffs just gone, we had some horrendous officiating decisions. Remember the Bulls-Celtics series extravaganza? Wow, great basketball but some brutal officiating. Remember Rondo's Brock Lesnar assault on poor Brad Miller? I do. Poor Antoine Wright now knows that to get a call he may just have to fully NFL the bajeesus out of a player. I'm the biggest LeBron fan in the world, but he does get some, let's call them "favourable" decisions. Dwight Howard nearly took off Dalembert's head with an elbow -- note the word nearly, as in, he didn't even connect. Surely that's not worthy of a game's suspension? He did it against the Cavs in the direction of Mo Williams, why didn't he get one then Stern? The average age for an NBA player is what, 26? That sounds about right. Refs on the other hand, it's somewhere in the 50's? Come on. The NBA has a plethora of world class ballers at their best going at it right now, let's not have officials ruin that. Please?
4) Detroit Pistons. I think that any other year you trade for Allen Iverson, you don't get the slack that Joe Dumars did. You can't blame the guy for taking a hail mary chance at bringing AI on board, this is Allen freakin Iverson after all. He invented the one-on-five game, which can now be seen in Cleveland from time to time. Dumars got unlucky in the sense that 1) Chauncey and Denver went ballistic for the remainder of the season and 2) Michael Curry may not have been the best coach to deal with Iverson's Iversoness. In fairness, Iverson didn't help the situation, feigning back injuries and all that. AI is a nightmare, we know this. Hates practice, hates not taking shots, but he can play like nobody's business. I love the idea of him in Houston, they're going nowhere anyways, why not bring him in for one year? Detroit as a result, suffered a terrible season culminating in a crushing playoff exit. PANIC STATIONS. They shipped a lot of money to two guys this summer. Ben Gordon, fresh off a life altering playoff series has come on board, but don't they already have a top quality two guard in Rip Hamilton? I like the potential versatility at the forward spots with Tayshaun and Charlie V, but a rotation of Kwame Brown and Ben Wallace won't suffice against Shaq, Howard or KG. The Pistons face an uphill struggle this season if they are to get back to where they want to be.
5) Boston, The Lakers and The Magic. The former champs, current alpha dogs and last seasons runners up. Boston must do battle with age, fitness, Rajon Rondo not being all that liked or wanted apparently and some dude named Sheed not freaking out after a KG pumped-up-chest-bump. The Lakers have to contend with the loss of Trevor Ariza (you're kidding yourself if you think he isn't a major loss), replacing him with a clearly declining Ron Artest and having to meet Lamar's sweet tooth desires. Orlando hope Jameer's shoulder comes good, that Dwight learned a thing or two this off season about playing down low and that Vince Carter doesn't see this as his one last chance to shine on a contender, thus resulting in him hoisting up shot after shot and making Stan Van Gundy lose all sanity. All three teams could provide us with comedic moments of brilliance, be it Sheed and KG going at it UFC style (I know they're friends, but look who we're talking about), Artest taking to the stands to punch out an abusive Leonardo Di Caprio or Stan Van Gundy being Stan Van Gundy. Thing is, all three teams more than likely will win 60 games, one of these three will definitely be competing for a Championship, and all three are going to be scary good. If they can handle the pressure that is.
Til next time...