In the last few NBA post-seasons there is inevitably a team ready to break out and establish themselves as a “legitimate” contenders by winning an upset or two and pushing further than they were projected. In the 2008 playoffs the New Orleans Hornets were the big story after a seemingly effortless dispatching of the Dallas Mavericks in round one and a game 7 showdown with the defending champion San Antonio Spurs, however in last year’s playoffs they only managed to squeak out a two point victory over the Denver Nuggets. In the 2007 playoffs the Cleveland Cavaliers took the world by storm on the steam of LeBron James and his 25 strait points in a double overtime win in Detroit to take the momentum and Conference finals victory to send the Cavs to their first ever NBA championship, in the following season they were hampered by the contract holdouts of Anderson Varejao and Sasha Pavlovic which severely crippled the team’s chemistry which as we all saw last season is how the Cavs make up for their lack evenly distributed talent.
In 2006 the Dallas Mavericks stormed their way through the Western conference all the way to the NBA finals where they fell short, but followed with a historical 67 win season and an even more historical first round playoff loss to the eighth seeded Golden State Warriors. Needless to say the spotlight in the NBA elite does not come without it’s pitfalls, one of which being the dread sophomore slump. Last year Denver and Orlando turned a lot of heads and definitely earned some stripes but can they meet the expectations that are now placed squarely on their backs? Or will they follow the model of the breakout team that just wasn’t ready for the spotlight?
A lesson in puberty;
The Denver Nuggets are what we used to refer to in high school as a, “late bloomer” you know when a kid comes back from summer senior year and he’s grown a foot and a half and is barely recognizable as the midget you and your buddies used to pick on? That’s Denver, a team that should have been able to defend itself against the bullies of the competitive western conference but instead could only muster up a total of four playoff wins in the past five NBA post seasons, that is until big brother Chancey Billups arrived in town to help stickup for the adolescent leader of the team Carmelo Anthony. Last season the Nuggets’ gelled at just the right time and started playing their best ball heading into the post season giving up two of their last eleven games and only two losses in the first two rounds of the post season. However, there were several factories playing into their near finals trip other than just their strong play in the post season, starting with their playoff seeding.
While they tied with the Spurs and Trail Blazers with 54 wins they slipped in front of the Spurs by one conference win, however with a healthy big three and they best fourth option ever on their team in Richard Jefferson I think it’s safe to say that #2 spot in the west is not a lock. In winning the #2 seed they avoided LA all the way to the finals and pounced on a dysfunctional New Orleans team (the previous year’s breakout) and a very exposed soft Dallas team in the second round along with a once in a lifetime shooting spree which resulted in NBa records of 58 point win over the Hornets and a 16 point average margin of victory through the first 10 games. Another emerging presence in the defense was Chris “Birdman” Andersen who was only on a one year “let’s see if you’re worth it” contract and over achieved finishing second in the league to Dwight Howard in blocks with 2.42 per game, despite a mere 20.5 minutes of playing time, resulting in a 5 year $26 million dollar contract. The Nuggets also lost significant role players Linas Kleiza and Dahntay Jones and gained Arron Afflalo in a trade from Detroit. While the Nuggets may struggle somewhat with the losses to their roster and a player without as much to prove and a much bigger contract their biggest challenge in living up to last year’s challenge will come from teams like San Antonio, Dallas, Portland, and even New Orleans all of which have made significant changes to their roster to help alleviate their primary scorers or help on in the inside (thanks to the Lakers gigantic front line). Simply put Denver’s got the attention of their peers and won’t have the luxury of sneaking up on unsuspecting opponents or a team trying to find it’s identity, and if they don’t finish at the #2 or #3 then they probably will face an early playoff rematch with the Lakers which barring any unforseen injuries or drama with new additions will lead to another June in Cabo.
A letter to Cinderella;
If you play professional basketball in central Florida it must be down right offensive to consistently see your team ranked behind a Boston squad without Kevin Garnett and a Cleveland team with only one real star, especially considering the distribution of talent on your team. I mean what else do you have to do? You’ve got three legitimate all-stars, the league leader in blocks and rebounds and incumbent star big man, oh yeah and you swept the season series 2-0 against the Lakers!! If that weren’t enough just to make it to the finals you had to dig yourselves out of a hole after dropping game 1 of the series against Philly, then you had to become one of only a handful of teams ever to win a game 7 IN BOSTON, and the small task of upsetting the #1 overall seeded Cleveland Cavaliers. I mean sure you had a couple of hiccups along the way (suspensions to Dwight Howard and Rafer Alston) but you came up with big plays and big wins when you needed them the most. It was merely a blessing in disguise when Mickael Pietrus went down to injuries and Courtney Lee was given his slot as a starter allowing the young player to blossom and giving you a guy who can come in a defend athletic players and drop huge three and making that “you can’t guard me” gesture like Kobe Bryant.
In the Cleveland series alone Pietrus outscored the entire Cavalier bench on his own, which says just as much about the Cavs bench as it does about Pietrus. You shot a staggering.381% from the arc throughout the playoffs, which in combination with you’re uber-ahtletic big man, un-stoppable pick and rolls, and size mismatches with Hedo Turkgolu (who as all contract year players probably was having the season of his career) and Rashard Lewis left your opponents dumb founded on the defensive end. The only real miscue from you guys came when it mattered the most, on the big stage. It’s really not your fault though, I mean no one really expected you to make it to this level anyways so it’s really a win-win right? That is unless you have a true leader who is turned off by losing, someone who has taken it as their personal responsibility to lead your squad to title, but you’ve got that right? Or do you? The real problem with your team is accountability, a sense of ownership and expectations to win. The Celtics have it, the Lakers have it, the Cavaliers have it, and the Spurs definitely have it. The expectation to win every year and the discomfort and agony that losing brings. Teams cannot ride the whole “Hey no one’s giving us a chance to win so let’s prove em’ wrong” thing all the way to the world title, not in this league at least.
That is the benefit and detriment of the 7 game series, that’s that it’s hard for Cinderella to show up night after night all the way through mid-June. Now I’m afraid the clock has struck mid-night and Hedo your many-a-time hero and big shot maker has left for greener pastures and it’s only a matter of time before bthe league finds out why. Although you should some solace in your Finals loss, I mean you did trade for Vinsanity Carter right?? But at what cost, your young budding star Courtney Lee or Rafer Alston? Now it appears your bench star of the 09′ playoffs Mickael Pietrus will return to the starting line up leaving a lack of firepower in the second unit. Oh but you scored Jason Williams so that’s got to account for something, even if his best ball is behind him and he hasn’t played on a real team since the 06′ Heat championsip team. The truth is even with the additions of Brandon Bass, Matt Barnes, and Jason Williams the loss of Turkgolu and Lee will undoubtedly change up the chemistry in the starting line up and leave your bench short of play making ability. As if that wasn’t enough that big green bully who wears #5 will and if you don’t see him then you’re probably going to see the big trophy hunter in Cleveland who’s gunning for this “MDE want to bee”. Life’s likely going to be a lot tougher this season/post-season. If I were you I’d go ahead and book those plane tickets for early June now while you can still get a good deal.
It’s not probable that the Magic will make a return to the NBA finals or even that the Denver nuggets will return to the conference finals. There’s a pretty good probability that they’ll go through some growing pains over the next season as wells as struggle with there new identity among the NBA’s elite, but the goods news is they’re for the most part young teams with a lot of time to learn and grow into champions but as they now know EVERYTHING has to go the right way to win it all. One could easily argue that if not for a steal in the final 30 seconds of game 1 in the WCF or if a couple shots rattled in during the two over-time losses in the NBA finals, history might be different for the Nuggets and Magic. There’s always next year, right?
In the last few NBA post-seasons there is inevitably a team ready to break out and establish themselves as a “legitimate” contenders by winning an upset or two and pushing further than they were projected. In the 2008 playoffs the New Orleans Hornets were the big story after a seemingly effortless dispatching of the Dallas Mavericks in round one and a game 7 showdown with the defending champion San Antonio Spurs, however in last year’s playoffs they only managed to squeak out a two point victory over the Denver Nuggets. In the 2007 playoffs the Cleveland Cavaliers took the world by storm on the steam of LeBron James and his 25 strait points in a double overtime win in Detroit to take the momentum and Conference finals victory to send the Cavs to franczyza their first ever NBA championship, in the following season they were hampered by the contract holdouts of Anderson Varejao and Sasha Pavlovic which severely crippled the team’s chemistry which as we all saw last season is how the Cavs make up for their lack evenly distributed talent.
In 2006 the Dallas Mavericks stormed their way through the Western conference all the way to the NBA finals where they fell short, but followed with a historical 67 win season and an even more historical first round playoff loss to the eighth seeded Golden State Warriors. Needless to say the spotlight in the NBA elite does not come without it’s pitfalls, one of which being the dread sophomore slump. Last year Denver and Orlando turned a lot of heads and definitely earned some stripes but can they meet the expectations that are now placed squarely on their backs? Or will they follow the model of the breakout team that just wasn’t ready for the spotlight?
A lesson in puberty;
The Denver Nuggets are what we used to refer to in high school as a, “late bloomer” you know when a kid comes back from summer senior year and he’s grown a foot and a half and is barely recognizable as the midget you and your buddies used to pick on? That’s Denver, a team that should have been able to defend itself against the bullies of the competitive western conference but instead could only muster up a total of four playoff wins in the past five NBA post seasons, that is until big brother Chancey Billups arrived in town to help stickup for the adolescent leader of the team Carmelo Anthony. Last season the Nuggets’ gelled at just the right time and started playing their best ball heading into the post season giving up two of their last eleven games and only two losses in the first two rounds of the post season. However, there were several factories playing into their near finals trip other than just their strong play in the post season, starting with their playoff seeding.
While they tied with the Spurs and Trail Blazers with 54 wins they slipped in front of the Spurs by one conference win, however with a healthy big three and they best fourth option ever on their team in Richard Jefferson I think it’s safe to say that #2 spot in the west is not a lock. In winning the #2 seed they avoided LA all the way to the finals and pounced on a dysfunctional New Orleans team (the previous year’s breakout) and a very exposed soft Dallas team in the second round along with a once in a lifetime shooting spree which resulted in NBa records of 58 point win over the Hornets and a 16 point average margin of victory through the first 10 games. Another emerging presence in the defense was Chris “Birdman” Andersen who was only on a one year “let’s see if you’re worth it” contract and over achieved finishing second in the league to Dwight Howard in blocks with 2.42 per game, despite a mere 20.5 minutes of playing time, resulting in a 5 year $26 million dollar contract. The Nuggets also lost significant role players Linas Kleiza and Dahntay Jones and gained Arron Afflalo in a trade from Detroit. While the Nuggets may struggle somewhat with the losses to their roster and a player without as much to prove and a much bigger contract their biggest challenge in living up to last year’s challenge will come from teams like San Antonio, Dallas, Portland, and even New Orleans all of which have made significant changes to their roster to help alleviate their primary scorers or help on in the inside (thanks to the Lakers gigantic front line). Simply put Denver’s got the attention of their peers and won’t have the luxury of sneaking up on unsuspecting opponents or a team trying to find it’s identity, and if they don’t finish at the #2 or #3 then they probably will face an early playoff rematch with the Lakers which barring any unforseen injuries or drama with new additions will lead to another June in Cabo.
A letter to Cinderella;
If you play professional basketball in central Florida it must be down right offensive to consistently see your team ranked behind a Boston squad without Kevin Garnett and a Cleveland team with only one real star, especially considering the distribution of talent on your team. I mean what else do you have to do? You’ve got three legitimate all-stars, the league leader in blocks and rebounds and incumbent star big man, oh yeah and you swept the season series 2-0 against the Lakers!! If that weren’t enough just to make it to the finals you had to dig yourselves out of a hole after dropping game 1 of the series against Philly, then you had to become one of only a handful of teams ever to win a game 7 IN BOSTON, and the small task of upsetting the #1 overall seeded Cleveland Cavaliers. I mean sure you had a couple of hiccups along the way (suspensions to Dwight Howard and Rafer Alston) but you came up with big plays and big wins when you needed them the most. It was merely a blessing in disguise when Mickael Pietrus went down to injuries and Courtney Lee was given his slot as a starter allowing the young player to blossom and giving you a guy who can come in a defend athletic players and drop huge three and making that “you can’t guard me” gesture like Kobe Bryant.
In the Cleveland series alone Pietrus outscored the entire Cavalier bench on his own, which says just as much about the Cavs bench as it does about Pietrus. You shot a staggering.381% from the arc throughout the playoffs, which in combination with you’re uber-ahtletic big man, un-stoppable pick and rolls, and size mismatches with Hedo Turkgolu (who as all contract year players probably was having the season of his career) and Rashard Lewis left your opponents dumb founded on the defensive end. The only real miscue from you guys came when it mattered the most, on the big stage. It’s really not your fault though, I mean no one really expected you to make it to this level anyways so it’s really a win-win right? That is unless you have a true leader who is turned off by losing, someone who has taken it as their personal responsibility to lead your squad to title, but you’ve got that right? Or do you? The real problem with your team is accountability, a sense of ownership and expectations to win. The Celtics have it, the Lakers have it, the Cavaliers have it, and the Spurs definitely have it. The expectation to win every year and the discomfort and agony that losing brings. Teams cannot ride the whole “Hey no one’s giving us a chance to win so let’s prove em’ wrong” thing all the way to the world title, not in this league at least.
That is the benefit and detriment of the 7 game series, that’s that it’s hard for Cinderella to show up night after night all the way through mid-June. Now I’m afraid the clock has struck mid-night and Hedo your many-a-time hero and big shot maker has left for greener pastures and it’s only a matter of time before bthe league finds out why. Although you should some solace in your Finals loss, I mean you did trade for Vinsanity Carter right?? But at what cost, your young budding star Courtney Lee or Rafer Alston? Now it appears your bench star of the 09′ playoffs Mickael Pietrus will return to the starting line up leaving a lack of firepower in the second unit. Oh but you scored Jason Williams so that’s got to account for something, even if his best ball is behind him and he hasn’t played on a real team since the 06′ Heat championsip team. The truth is even with the additions of Brandon Bass, Matt Barnes, and Jason Williams the loss of Turkgolu and Lee will undoubtedly change up the chemistry in the starting line up and leave your bench short of play making ability. As if that wasn’t enough that big green bully who wears #5 will and if you don’t see him then you’re probably going to see the big trophy hunter in Cleveland who’s gunning for this “MDE want to bee”. Life’s likely going to be a lot tougher this season/post-season. If I were you I’d go ahead and book those plane tickets for early June now while you can still get a good deal.
It’s not probable that the Magic will make a return to the NBA finals or even that the Denver nuggets will return to the conference finals. There’s a pretty good probability that they’ll go through some growing pains over the next season as wells as struggle with there new identity among the NBA’s elite, but the goods news is they’re for the most part young teams with a lot of time to learn and grow into champions but as they now know EVERYTHING has to go the right way to win it all. One could easily argue that if not for a steal in the final 30 seconds of game 1 in the WCF or if a couple shots rattled in during the two over-time losses in the NBA finals, history might be different for the Nuggets and Magic. There’s always next year, right?

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