The playoffs are finally here, and each series brings a sense of open possibility, all important in deciding the eventual outcome. Records are wiped clean, and though there are clear favorites and underdogs, each series begins with the pretext that anything could happen.
For now: A big-picture of pro’s & con’s of every team in the Playoffs.
Pros – The Miami Heat are the best team in the league right now.They have the best player on earth right now in LeBron James and the best sidekicks in Chris Bosh & Dwayne Wade, they also the best 3-pt shooter ever in Ray Allen and a handful of key role players.
What else you do need ?
Cons – You can never be too sure about playoff basketball you had few bad games and you’re out.Also Denver, OKC, Spurs, Grizzlies & Clippers could all give the HEAT a run for their money this year.Injuries too, just ask Gallinari & Kobe Bryant.
Given all that Miami chances are pretty high of having a repeat this year, they are pretty much a lock to get into the finals so the last series is all that matters for them.
Pros – New York has a world class scorer in Carmelo who has just won a scoring title and looks confident and deadly, they also got a defensive anchor in Tyson Chandler – something a good championship squad always need and the leading sixth man of the year candidate in J.R Smith, they also got a bunch of decent role players and a very good defensive coach in Mike Woodson.
Knicks are also a really good small team with Melo at the 4, a necessity if you want to beat the heat.
Cons – The only thing New York has been consistent this season is at being inconsistent.They had their share of both losing and winning streaks and as dangerous as the Knicks are from deep (they set an NBA record for three-pointers this season and ranked fifth in percentage) they won’t get to get that much chances in the playoffs and the fact that they are the oldest team certainly doesn’t help their case too.
Pros – the biggest X-factor Indiana has is that they can beat any given team on a day, their defense is on elite lvel and they have shown all season long how they can basically stop any offensive juggernaut.Last year they came very close to beating the Heat and put this on record if any eastern team has a chance of beating the Heat this year its the pacers with their hard and grind basketball.
Cons – Defense wins you championship but you do need offense too and Indiana with the absence of Danny Granger lacks a serious go to scorer, sure Paul George has fill in the shoes better than anyone can, but if you leave him the rest of Indiana aren’t really a potent offensive threat.
Pros – A very very good big men (Brook Lopez), two really good defense-oriented big (in Reggie Evans/Andray Blatche), a floor general who is on fire after a cold first half of NBA season (in Deron Williams), a light out shooter (in Joe Johnson) a player who can guard any guy you want him to (in Gerald Wallace) and a surprise (in Kris Humphries) all these things and you get a decent championship contender any given day.
Cons – As good as Brook Lopez & Deron Williams have been, the team is pretty much nothing without them on the court as their bench of reasonably useful players never seems to fit together in quite the right way.
Pros – Defense is one quality the Bulls will always exhibit as long as they got Tom Thibodeau, the Bulls like to wins games with their defense and has the personnel to do it in Noah, Deng, Butler, Gibson & to some extent Boozer.Nate Robinson has really been a pleasant surprise this year and could play a big part in Bulls playoff run.
Cons – Inconsistency the Bulls all season long never had a winning or losing streak of more than 3 games (a feat which has only happened once in the NBA) which is both a good and bad thing come playoff time.
Also, Noah hasn’t really played much in previous few games so he is not a 100 %, the Bulls made a great use of their limited resources to make the playoffs and now its a big question mark of whether they’ll progress any further.
And obviously not having Derrick Rose hurts ?
Pros – Two decent big’s ( Al Hordford & Josh Smith) , a league top 1o defense, a decent point guard (Jeff Teague), sharpshooters (Kyle Korver & co.) and Atlanta is a good foundation team under a great coach Larry Drew.
Cons – Another then above stated the Atlanta are pretty much nothing else, there big’s are good but certainly not Tim Duncan - David Robinson esquire dominating and the rest of the squad are also not the Spurs.
Pros – Two Hall of Famers (Kevin Garnett & Paul Pierce), a supreme talent in Jeff Green and a whole defensive minded squad under Doc Rivers sounds really good and if you put in the fact that the playoffs always get most out of the Celtics its just sounds more good.
The tragic recent bombarding at the Boston Marathon could just light the fuel in them.
Cons – Age, The aging of Paul Pierce & Kevin Garnett doesn’t help neither does the fact that Jason Terry and the rest of the supporting cast have been a bit flaky this season.
Pros – LARRY SANDERS ! what a defensive presence he is been this season anytime you got the league leader in block shots it helps your case as the opponent try to look for the blocker and that affects his rhythm also according to Synergy Sports opponents tends to settle for more mid-range jumpers when Sanders is on court.The Bucks also got two extremely elite scorers in Brandon Jennings & Monta Ellis and a very good backup in JJ Redick, Mike Dunleavy Jr.,etc.
Cons – Chemistry the bucks have so much depth at every position that they haven’t really find the right lineup till now as good as Larry Sanders is on defense his offense is still raw plus also accounting the fact that they face the Miami Heat in the first round is certainly a spoiler.
So in my prediction its either Miami vs New York at the ECF’s or Miami vs. Indiana or Brooklyn by a long shot either way Miami is winning this thing.
Guess the Lakers players!
