As I watched some more preseason indifference Saturday night (scores at the bottom), I began to fantasize about what a perfect NBA season would be like. Subconsciously, we all fantasize about our favorite teams winning it all or our favorite players snagging the MVP, but if you were to flesh out a detailed description of your perfect 2013-14 season, what would it look like? Here are the essentials of mine:
Champs: Houston Rockets
MVP: Kevin Durant
Defensive Player of the Year: Tony Allen
Eastern Conference Champs: Brooklyn Nets
Los Angeles Lakers Wins Total: 31
How about a Houston Rockets’ title to make you wanna dance? Photo credit:
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This is pretty much a standard collection of wishes, although each one is relatively possible. I want my favorite team to win (we haven’t had a shot in so long). I want someone else to win the MVP and I think Durant’s first six to eight weeks without Westbrook could be the springboard for his campaign. I want a wing defender to win DPOY because they never get enough consideration. I want the Nets to come out of the East for several reasons, with the most important one being that Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce get another year in the sun. I want the Lakers to win 31 games so that they get a bad draft pick (how’s 12th sound?) and miss the playoffs (because the Lakers ruined my childhood dreams).
Now, the best part of the preseason fantasy is that there are so many adjustable parts in the league, that so many players and/or teams can achieve relative success without even sniffing a title. In my ideal season, here are some of the more obscure outcomes that I’m pulling for:
– The Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs are both knocked out of the Western Conference playoffs in the second round (or earlier), leaving the Rockets and either the Los Angeles Clippers or Golden State Warriors in the Conference Finals.
– Jose Calderon will tear it up and draw comparisons to Steve Nash (even if this happened he’d probably pull his hamstring 56 games in).
– The Milwaukee Bucks make the playoffs, narrowly beating out the Detroit Pistons, proves that a team full of hungry veterans has a better chance to make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference than a group of thrown-together talent.
– The Philadelphia 76ers, Charlotte Bobcats or Utah Jazz end up with the first overall pick in the draft; all of them have a legitimate shot as of right now (along with a handful of other tank-tastic teams)
– Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook come back at full strength and look like they never missed a beat.
– Jeremy Lin gets packaged by the Rockets in a deal that sends a significant upgrade at the 1 to Houston.
– Damian Lillard begins to look like he’ll have just as good of an NBA career as Kyrie Irving.
– Andrew Nicholson averages 14 points and eight rebounds a game, drawing some analysts to compare him to Carl Landry.
– DeMarcus Cousins finds solace in yoga, classic rock and meditation, leading to him calming set up a meeting with team management, where he explains that he needs to be traded (I just want to see him somewhere else).
– The Minnesota Timberwolves average 110 points per game and make the playoffs.
– Tyreke Evans has a career year and the Pelicans stay in playoff contention all year (but narrowly miss the playoffs).
Like the team/division previews, I’ll be going back to this several times during the year to point out how well things are working out for me or to point out how unhappy I am by certain outcomes. That’s why they play the games, and this is why we watch, right?
Derrick Favors is Now Very, Very Rich
Saturday, the Utah Jazz and Derrick Favors agreed to a four-year, $49 million extension. Was it a good deal? Probably. Could it turn out to be a great deal? Definitely. Larry Sanders got $5 million less over the same amount of years and his offensive ceiling is considerably better than Favors’.
I see Favors as being a top-notch defender and a double-double machine. He has an entire year to start, play 35 to 40 minutes a game and figure his game out. I can’t even project exactly how Favors’ offensive game will come around, but with his seemingly strong feel for the game, size, athleticism, and early-career production, I have faith he’ll figure it out.
Preseason Scores
Los Angeles Clippers 118, Denver Nuggets 111
New Orleans Pelicans 93, Washington Wizards 89
Dallas Mavericks 89, Charlotte Bobcats 83
Miami Heat 126, San Antonio Spurs 96
Indiana Pacers 102, Cleveland Cavaliers 79