Oct

26

Slam Dunk Central Reporter Stephen Rhodes’ Predictions For The 2009-10 NBA Season, Part II

Posted by Stephen Rhodes under NBA Analysis, SDC COMMENTARY 

Last Wednesday, I made some predictions in reference to the Ten Best Teams in the NBA, Ten Worst Teams in the NBA, Top Five Surprise Teams, Top Five Disappointing Teams, Top Five Rookies and Top Five MVP Candidates.

This week, I will predict the Eastern Conference champions, Western Conference champions, NBA champions, NBA MVP, Rookie of the Year and Coach of the Year. Without further adieu, here I go (again):

Eastern Conference Champions: Cleveland Cavaliers. Will Delonte West get through his issues in time for the Cavaliers to make a meaningful run through the Eastern Conference playoffs? Will Shaq make a meaningful difference for the Cavs (and more importantly, play 30+ minutes a game?) Mo Williams should be able to pick up his level of play in light of the fact that Daniel Gibson is his backup at point guard? LeBron is LeBron regardless. Bottom line – the personnel in place should be sufficient to reach the NBA championships this season.

Western Conference Champions: Los Angeles Lakers. Kobe Bryant is going to have a typical “Kobe-like” year. Pau Gasol should be relatively healthy come playoff time and Lamar Odom should do well even with his recetn marraige to Khloe Kardashian (both are used to the TMZ/circus-like atmosphere in LA-LAland). Maybe the point of contention is at center; can Andrew Bynum progress to the player that the Lakers hoped he would be? San Antonio will make interesting for them during the Western Conference finals.

NBA Champions: Los Angeles Lakers. For those of you who read my posts, then you already know that I despise the Lakers, as I am an Eastern Conference kind of guy (Have been a Pacers fan since the ABA days). Yet you cannot dispute that the NBA Finals this season will be a Kobe vs. LeBron series. But I think that the difference in the championships will be – believe it or not – Pau Gasol. Gasol can play center as well as power forward, which is huge considering that Shaq and probably Anderson Varejao will play most of the minutes at center (with an occasional appearance by Ilgauskas) for Cleveland. But Kobe and Co. will reign supreme when this series ends (and it pains me to even say this).

NBA MVP: Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers. It will take an act of Congress for anyone but LeBron James of the Cavaliers and Kobe Bryant of the Lakers to be the finalists for the NBA MVP award this season. By definition (at least my definition), an NBA MVP is a player who provides the most value to his team while making his team better. That being said, the Lakers seem to have more complementary parts to their team for Kobe to work with as opposed to LeBron and the Cavaliers. The edge (and the voting will be fairly close) in this case will go to Kobe.

Rookie of the Year: Tyreke Evans, Sacramento Kings. I know, I know. You’re thinking, “Why are you being a Blake Griffin hater?” Actually I am not. I chose Evans for at least a couple reasons. Firstly, he can play both the 1 and 2 guard positions, which is big in the Kings’ roster makeup (like Beno Udrih is actually going to get any better). Secondly, he will be a good complement to Kevin Martin as the Kings haven’t had a true point guard since Jason Williams (which isn’t saying much, really). In a lot of respects, he reminds me of a young Mark Jackson, which will make Kings coach Paul Westphal’s job a bit easier. Don’t get me wrong here; I really like Blake Griffin. The problem is that while he will be a top rookie, he happens to play for one of the most dysfunctional teams in the NBA (with apologies to the Golden State Warriors) in the Los Angeles Clippers.

Coach of the Year: Gregg Popovich, San Antonio Spurs. Popovich is a classic example of a coach who can make chicken salad out of chicken poop – in other words, her manages to make his team overachieve despite the odds. Fortunately for him this season, he has Richard Jefferson to add some scoring punch in addition to the team he has from last season. The key is Antonio McDyess staying healthy as Tim Duncan is a power forward (according to him, anyways), although Duncan will get some minutes at center. Eddie Jordan of the Philadelphia 76ers will get a surprising amount of support in the Coach of the Year balloting.

Do you agree? Disagree? Let us know here at Slam Dunk Central!


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