1. Can Kevin Durant get Oklahoma City the franchise their first championship?
Kevin Durant’s is coming off another stellar year where he should be crowned MVP and being crowned scoring champion for the fourth season since he’s come into the league. If he adds the MVP award to his resume there will only be one more piece of hardware he will have to obtain to be recognized as a first ballot hall of famer, a ring. He led the Thunder to the finals back in 2012, but fell short which wasn’t his fault it was a very young roster and his supporting cast didn’t show up against a Miami Heat team that had its eyes on the prize. This year we’ve seen Durant carry Oklahoma City to a 59-23 record even with Westbrook being injured for 36 games this season. The Thunder’s first hurdle is against the Memphis Grizzlies who played them tough in the 2011 playoffs for seven games, but eventually fell to them. The way Durant has played this season, and if Westbrook shows up I expect Oklahoma City to get back into the Finals.
2. Will father time finally doom The San Antonio Spurs?
For the past three or four seasons everyone has expected The Spurs to regress a bit, and with the Big Three aging by the day with a lot of miles on their legs. They haven’t. San Antonio last season made it back to The NBA Finals going seven games against The Miami Heat the only player we really saw struggle for most of the series was Manu Ginobli. Of course this season San Antonio ended up number one in the Western Conference a feat they’ve accomplished five times since 1999. Parker and Duncan have certainly helped lead the way this season and Ginobli scoring twleve points off the bench per game helps, but my key for them to have success in the playoffs this year is for the role players like Boris Diaw, Danny Green, and Patty Mills (just to name a few) need to really step up.
3. The Chicago Bulls will be the team in The Eastern Conference everyone will want to avoid.
Chicago has locked up the fourth seed despite losing Derrick Rose due to injury (yet again) and Luol Deng being traded away. They’ve played hard nose defense, hustled for 50/50 balls and this all will carry over to the playoffs. Joakim Noah has played his best season in the NBA and is the motor to this Bulls team. Taj Gibson provides excellent energy and scoring off the bench as well. Thibodeau’s system on offense has worked well this year mainly because he gets his best shooters open with screens and proper floor spacing. Which is why Dunleavy and Augustin both had success this season. The Chicago Bulls will force Washington to bring their “A” game and this should be John Wall’s biggest test of his career. The only trouble I think Chicago will have is keeping up with a team like Miami later on in the playoffs if they do happen to advance that far. Where they have stars like LeBron and Wade that can carry the scoring load during droughts. Chicago had that luxury when Rose was healthy and on the floor. Chicago may not be one of the most exciting teams to watch, but I can tell you this, their defense will make opposing teams earn each win and that’s what playoff basketball is all about.
4. Which Rising Star will take the next step in the playoffs?
This year a lot of young talent will be on display in the playoffs, and for some of the talent it’s uncharted waters. Their will be guys that take the next step for their franchises and come up big. Here are some players to watch:
John Wall- drafted in 2010 with the potential to be the next superstar point guard of the league and his numbers have increased each year, but he didn’t necessarily have the best roster around him. Washington drafted Bradley Beal last year which helped take some of the scoring load off of him, and Beal’s progression this year along with John Wall’s is what helped them get into the playoffs. Wall averaged 19.3 PTS 8.8 AST and 4.1 REB in the regular season and if Wall has a big playoff series it’ll create talk of him being better then a top five point guard in the NBA.
Damian Lillard– We knew The Portland Trailblazers had a good roster going into the season, but no one saw Portland being this good. Lillard averaged 20.6 PTS 5.6 AST and 3.5 REB at times he took over games when Portland needed him most. LaMarcus Aldridge is still the star of the team, but Lillard can take the torch as the star with a big playoff series and I fully expect him to have some big moments in the post season.
Kemba Walker-he posted 17.7 PTS and 6.1 AST this season another Point Guard with potential to be a star, and we all saw Kemba Walker have the “it” factor in college which helped UCONN win a national championship. Walker posted 17.7 PTS and 6.1 AST this season, he’s certainly been one of Michael Jordan’s best draft picks since taking over the franchise and has progressed well each season. The Bobcats take on the two time defending champions Miami Heat and now is the time for Kemba Walker to exploit a weakness of Miami’s and that is point guard play. Miami’s guards will have trouble covering Walker. Mario Chalmers isn’t the greatest defender and Dwayne Wade isn’t the “Flash” we are all used to seeing due to knee injuries catching up to him. Walker may have a big playoff series just based on match ups being in his favor.
5. Which surprise team in the regular season will step up to the plate in the playoffs?
The regular season we had some surprise teams like The Toronto Raptors who were supposedly going to tank so they can draft Andrew Wiggins in this summers draft. If going 48-34 is tanking and being 3rd in the eastern conference is tanking then sign me up. Toronto has a pretty talented roster starting off with all star snub Kyle Lowry. Lowry has had a nice career bounced around from team to team for a few years, but this season has certainly been his best by getting career highs in points and assists. We’ve also seen the development of younger players like Terrence Ross, DeMar DeRozan, and Jonas Valanciunas.
The Charlotte Bobcats have also shocked everyone by going 43-39 this season. Newly hired Head Coach Steve Clifford has done an excellent job this year and should be in the mix for coach of the year. It certainly was a head scratcher on why The Bobcats would throw $13 million at Al Jefferson, this was supposed to be a team building through the draft and a couple years away still from playoff contention. Jefferson has been excellent this season averaging 21.8 PTS and grabbing 10.8 REB per game. He’s another All Star snub and who I feel hasn’t received proper recognition his whole career. Steve Clifford and The Bobcats have a tough task at hand against Miami, but we’ve seen in the past Miami’s interior defense is at times non existent. The Bobcats have the perfect post presence on offense to help exploit that weakness but will it be enough to upset Miami?
The Portland Trailblazers went through a small patch of bad luck with Brandon Roy retiring and Greg Oden not being able to stay healthy as well, but this year they were back and looked very impressive. Of course the star is LaMarcus Aldridge who reportedly in the off season stated he wanted out of Portland, and I think we all saw first hand how winning cures everything in the NBA. Damian Lillard has looked like the up and coming star point guard that they drafted last season and had high expectations for, and he’s certainly met them while not even scratching the surface of his potential. A big part of what Portland is doing though is in large part of Nicolas Batum staying healthy playing in all eighty two games. I think Terry Stotts has done an excellent job with this team leading them to a 54-28 record in his first year there.
