The NHL decided to be this year’s lockout sport, so the NBA will take their labor peace and start the 2012-2013 season on time – the night before Halloween! With new basketball comes this year’s NBA Lightweight Report!
The 2012-2013 Lightweight Report, sponsored by this year’s edition of Trick or Treat Bynum!
Now, as you should know by now, the NU does not go full-body into the NBA season like the NFL season. As explained last year:
NBA previewing doesn’t require as much science. The NFL schedule is a significant variable in a team’s success. Everyone plays everyone in the NBA, so the best teams win. Alas, there’s the caveat with the “team” parts of things. In the NFL, teams (and their coaching staffs) are pretty much set for the season. In the NBA, things change constantly: Stars get traded, injuries and transactions can completely remake a team, and coaches and even general managers can lose their job with as little as a bad 16-game streak. Nobody is safe in the NBA!
Of course, due in part to the lockout, teams decided to wait until after the season to blow up their rosters. Of the 25 All-Stars from last season, five find themselves on new teams this year (Joe Johnson to the Brooklyn Nets, Andre Iguodala to the Denver Nuggets, Andrew Bynum to the Philadelphia 76ers, and Steve Nash and Dwight Howard to the Los Angeles Lakers). There are also five head coaches that weren’t leading their respective teams in last year’s training camps (Mike Woodson of the New York Knicks, Randy Wittman of the Washington Wizards, Jacque Vaughn of the Orlando Magic, Mike Dunlap of the Charlotte Bobcats, and Terry Stotts of the Portland Trail Blazers).
Welcome Back Toronto! (Shoutout to BasketballDNA/Reddit)
We’re going to set the bar here, and just about every team has a healthy amount of optimism going into the season. But wins and losses will change those attitudes. I’ll be tweeting on every team once this is released @1maddskillz, and I also plan to do some basketball work for Neon Tommy this year. On to the report now:
NORTHWEST: Oklahoma City Thunder (2nd Western), Denver Nuggets (5th Western), Minnesota Timberwolves (8th Western), Utah Jazz (9th Western), Portland Trail Blazers (11th Western).
PACIFIC: Los Angeles Lakers (1st Western), Los Angeles Clippers (4th Western), Golden State Warriors (12th Western), Phoenix Suns (13th Western), Sacramento Kings (15th Western).
SOUTHWEST: San Antonio Spurs (3rd Western), Memphis Grizzlies (6th Western), Dallas Mavericks (7th Western), Houston Rockets (10th Western), New Orleans Hornets (14th Western).
CENTRAL: Indiana Pacers (3rd Eastern), Chicago Bulls (7th Eastern), Milwaukee Bucks (9th Eastern), Cleveland Cavaliers (12th Eastern), Detroit Pistons (14th Eastern).
ATLANTIC: Boston Celtics (2nd Eastern), Philadelphia 76ers (4th Eastern), New York Knicks (5th Eastern), Brooklyn Nets (6th Eastern), Toronto Raptors (11th Eastern).
SOUTHEAST: Miami Heat (1st Eastern), Atlanta Hawks (8th Eastern), Washington Wizards (10th Eastern), Orlando Magic (13th Eastern), Charlotte Bobcats (15th Eastern).
WESTERN FIRST ROUND: Lakers over Timberwolves … Nuggets over Clippers … Spurs over Grizzlies … Thunder over Mavericks.
WESTERN SEMIS: Lakers over Nuggets … Thunder over Spurs.
WESTERN FINALS: Lakers over Thunder.
EASTERN FIRST ROUND: Heat over Hawks … Knicks over 76ers … Nets over Pacers … Celtics over Bulls.
EASTERN SEMIS: Heat over Knicks … Celtics over Nets.
EASTERN FINALS: Heat over Celtics.
—–N-B-A—–F-I-N-A-L-S—–
LAKERS over HEAT in 5.
Championship or bust: The Dwightmare is over for now, but is this 2004 all over again?
-1SKILLZ