NBA: The X-Factors For The NBA Championship Contenders
Amar’e Stoudemire has been struggling with injuries the past couple of seasons. However, he may be the Knicks answer to an NBA championship. (Flickr.com photo by Bryan Horowitz)
There is just over a month until the NBA tip-off and most of the teams already have the key components of their rosters set. Here’s a look at who the preliminary NBA championship contenders will look to as difference makers in order to turn the 2013-14 season into their season.
Los Angeles Clippers: DeAndre Jordan
Last year, Chris Paul ran point as well as anyone, Jamal Crawford continued to break ankles and Blake Griffin dunked on people. DeAndre Jordan, on the other hand, shot 38 percent from the foul line and the Clippers were bounced in the first round by the Memphis Grizzlies.
Not by any stretch of the imagination does the blame solely go on Jordan, but by no means is he guilt-free.
At 6’11” and with freakish leaping ability, the sixth-year center should be grabbing every miss and swatting away anything in the vicinity. Or at the very least be grabbing more than the 7.2 rebounds and blocking more than 1.4 shots per game like he did last season.
The other key members will likely continue to be productive, but for the L.A. Clippers to win the franchise’s first championship and justify the $43 million contract Jordan signed in 2011, they will need some more production out of him.
Although dunking on people will endear him to fans.
Miami Heat: Greg Oden
Miami went out and got their man in order to help address their height deficiency and the end result was 7’1” Greg Oden, who despite the chronic history of injuries should improve the league’s worst rebounding last season.
Despite being meticulous about playing time, coach Erik Spoelstra’s worry will be trying to balance Oden’s minutes so that he gets a good run and quality minutes while avoiding any unnecessary risks, though I don’t think he’ll care much if he doesn’t play at all in the regular season so long as he’s available come June.
Chris Bosh could be also be a candidate for this spot after faltering offensively in the penultimate stages of the championship campaign. But he did manage to put in some fantastic defensive performances and the rest of the team picked up the scoring slack.
Now armed with at least three defensively sound big men with height, as well as being decent rebounders, Miami is now ready to battle it out with the likes of Brooklyn and Indiana, who each boast dominant bigs within their ranks.
Oklahoma City Thunder: Jeremy Lamb
Having let go James Harden and Kevin Martin in successive years, Oklahoma City is now looking to rotate sophomore shooting guard Jeremy Lamb into the sixth man role.
Standing at 6’5” and a just 180 pounds, Lamb isn’t exactly the biggest of 2s but he is still a pretty good player. The 21-year-old is a silky smooth operator and coach Scott Brooks hopes he can tap into his old Connecticut ways and make the days of James Harden into nothing be but a distant memory.
Serge Ibaka was up for consideration here, but as long as he continues to protect the rim like his life depends on it, he can probably get away with not scoring as much as he should for a little while longer.
San Antonio Spurs: Kawhi Leonard
Kawhi Leonard has almost been the bridge between the “Big 3” and the future for San Antonio, sort of what Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili were following the Twin Towers Era.
And although he may be the future of the franchise, San Antonio will need Leonard to continue to develop into a star and pick up the work load offensively on a more regular basis to ease the pressure placed on the aging duo of Tim Duncan and Ginobilli.
Defensively he is already good and is a great rebounder for his size thanks to his 7’2” wingspan, massive hands and athletic ability. Now he just needs to utilize those physical gifts to take over games on the offensive end.
Indiana Pacers: Danny Granger
Thanks to some knee problems, Danny Granger missed the majority of the Pacers’ 2012-13 campaign. However, that proved to be somewhat of a blessing in disguise as Paul George (and Lance Stephenson) had a breakout year, playing in his favored small forward position.
Indiana, perhaps to some surprise, made it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals and came to within a single win of advancing to the NBA Finals, but they just lacked that little something extra to send them over the eventual champions – Miami Heat. Upon his return, Granger could perhaps be just that, the extra va va va voom they needed.
The problem however is where will he play? Will he slot back into his old small forward position and push George back to the shooting guard spot or will he come off the bench? Moreover, how will he affect the team dynamic now that it is based around George, David West and Roy Hibbert as the core?
Chicago Bulls: Derrick Rose/Jimmy Butler
With the 2013-14 season looming, the return of the 2011 NBA’s Most Valuable Player and Chicago’s prodigal son will be much anticipated after he opted to sit out the rest of the 2012-13 season despite being medically cleared to play.
Whether he does a Dwyane Wade-esque return, in which he came back from injury with a vengeance and terrorizes the NBA with 30 points per game in the 2008-09 season, is yet to be seen.
Assuming Rose does return to his old form, Chicago does still need to replace Nate Robinson’s scoring. In comes Jimmy Butler.
The third-year swingman has proven to be a good find for the Bulls, so much so that there are murmurs he has made Luol Deng expendable.
At 6’8” and with great athleticism, Butler is a good defender but he will need to turn his spurty scoring into a more consistent practise in order to help take Chicago to the next level.
However one thing is for sure, for Chicago it is simple: In order to challenge for a NBA championship, they need Derrick Rose at his very best.
Houston Rockets: Jeremy Lin
Having taken the NBA–and the world–by storm back in his days a New York Knickerbocker, Linsanity cooled down somewhat last season and at time he struggled to coincide with superstar shooting guard James Harden.
Nonetheless, with the addition of Dwight Howard this summer, Houston will be fancied as a championship contender and Jeremy Lin will be called upon to be the third scorer and provide the spark for the team.
Coach Kevin McHale may decide to give Lin the sixth man role, which would give him the leeway to go Linsane, which will hopefully lead to more Lin-ning (I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist).
Brooklyn Nets: Jason Kidd
The Brooklyn Nets got better in a hurry as the Russian billionaire owner, Mikhail Prokorov, tries to win now with the additions of Kevin Garnett, Jason Terry, Paul Pierce and fellow countrymen, Andrei Kirilenko.
However the riskiest move may have been appointment of Jason Kidd as the head coach merely days after retiring from his Hall of Fame career.
They may already be some second guessing though, as it was discovered that Kidd may actually have to miss sometime after he was arrested for DUI, an offense which may carry a prison sentence.
New York Knicks: Amar’e Stoudemire
Amar’e Stoudemire is yet another star who became an injury victim and because of this, he was not much of a factor last season, thus the team evolved and found a way to cope without him.
Now his future is in the air but he could figure to be a huge part in the Knicks hopes for NBA supremacy.
The question now is where will he feature in Mike Woodson’s squad since New York adopted the small ball style of play with Carmelo Anthony at the 4? Then again, it is pretty difficult to see him as a bench player because of 1) the amount of money New York is paying him and 2) there’s no way in hell he will accept that.
Although having said that, ‘Melo and STAT didn’t exactly click last time they played together. Unfortunately for Mike Woodson, that’s the only way New York gets even a sniff at the title and he has to figure out a way to make the duo more compatible.[slider_pro id=”31″]