For the month of October, Mitch Pratt, Andrew Kasmarek and Charlie Tritschler will be previewing the NBA teams for the exciting 2013-2014 season.
What I know:
- For weeks I have been asking myself, “WHERE BROOKLYN AT!?!”, because I have no idea where to put these guys in terms of seeding, and because there ain’t no party like a Brooklyn party.
- I still sometimes call them New Jersey after I lost my Brooklyn Nets hat and am no longer reminded of it daily. But Jay-Z did a lot of “work” in Trenton, New Jersey when he was younger, and also sometimes in Baltimore, so I’m hoping he would not be too upset if he heard me call them New Jersey[1].
- Jason Kidd is 40. Kevin Garnett is 37.
- The first six players in Brooklyn will have combined to play in 35 all-star games going into the season: Paul Pierce (10), Kevin Garnett (15), Joe Johnson (6), Brook Lopez (1), Deron Williams (3), Andrei Kirilenko (1). That has to translate to something right?
Additions/Subtractions:
We know about all the Celtics (Jason Terry, Pierce, Garnett). Jason Kidd is the new coach; he will also have his #5 Jersey retired during the home opener, which he coincidentally is suspended for because he likes to swerve (2 Chainz voice)[2]. They brought in Kirilenko, which should surprise no one because I am sure Mikhail Prokhorov was sick of not having any Russian players on his team, but do not over look this move. He played very well in Minnesota when healthy and I am sure he is going to be however they say "excited” in Russian (Ed. Note: It's возбужденный - CT). They also drafted Miles Plumlee, I’m just going to leave it at that as my evaluation of him.
They subtracted Kris Humphries and MarShon Brooks should not matter at all.
What I have been pondering…
Leading up to my writing of this, I have had a couple of concerns with the Nets. Sure, they have the roster on paper. They made the playoffs last year, with basically the same team, but now they have KG, Paul and Terry. Things should realistically trend upward, but what have we learned about super teams in their first year? Often times they need at least a year to figure how to fully play with each other. LeBron and Wade were awkward to watch the entire first year, Shaq/Kobe/Malone/Payton had tons of problems[3], and most recently the Los Angeles Lakers brought together Kobe/Nash/Pau/Dwight and that clearly went sour fast.
Egos play a major role in NBA teams hierarchy, especially championship teams. Generally there is usually a coach and player that everyone defers too and listens too. On a team full of players known as prideful veterans, who the hell is going to take a step back? Deron Williams? Doubtful. Joe Johnson did this to PaulPierce last year, how is he going to let Pierce take the last shot before him? And that doesn’t even bring up the fact that Kevin Garnett already said talks between him and Jason Kidd about playing time “didnot go well”.
On the flip side, with all those All-Stars on the roster, you know they will bring professionalism. And to contrast all the assembled “super teams”, the outlier of the group is the ’07 Celtics, who assembled, took their roles, and kicked ass for an entire season. 2/3 of that nucleus was Pierce and Garnett, which goes to show they know how to sacrifice for the greater good[4].
Prediction:
I have been agonizing over this. Everyone seems to agree that the Top 5 seeds in the East will be Chicago, Miami, Indiana, New York and Brooklyn, in some order. Personally I have them at the five seed, and my reasoning echoes the first couple paragraphs of the “pondering” section, will the combination of a staggering amount of all-star veterans, and a coach being someone that was so recently viewed as a peer, what will happen if the going gets tough, and people start pointing fingers and taking sides?
Something makes me worried that this could be a divided locker room by seasons end. There will be too much talent for this to be a total failure, and they will enjoy more success then that of the Lakers a season ago, but I expect this team to represent the East as the five seed, and not to get passed the second round. I have no faith in these guys beating Miami, Indiana or Chicago in the playoffs.
-Andrew
[1] He is also, technically, no longer part of the franchise so he should not be mad anyway. Also I’m sure he did not lose his courtside seats. I’m half way expecting him to take on of his “Basquiat’s” that he raps about, to sit courtside at least once this year.
[2] I have to imagine they will now wait to retire the ole #5 during his first game on the bench.
[3]You can read more about this is Phil Jackson’s book “The Last Season” which was actually his seventh to last season. The main problems consisted of Shaq vs Kobe (they really were not on the same page) and Gary Payton being pissed off he was old.
[4] On the flip side of the flip side they had Doc Rivers. And I think there are only five or six coaches out there right now, that have garnered 100% respect league wide by the players. Doc is one of them, and it allows him more leverage when handling player egos.
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