2018-2019 NBA Preview:

Central Division: With Lebron no longer in the East/Central the Milwaukee Bucks will be the best team in this division. They have the best player in this division who’s is only just getting better and better every year. Giannis Antetokounmpo is a freak of nature hence the nickname “The Greek Freak” he can do everything on a basketball court except hit a three point shot consistently.

With new coach Mike Budenholzer the hope is Giannis gets along with him since he didn’t like the firing of Jason Kidd last year. But the hope is with a healthy F Kris Middleton, former rookie of the year G Malcolm Brogdon, a full season of PG Eric Bledsoe, 1^st round pick G Donte DiVecenzo, and an improving F Thon Maker this young team can rule the Central and compete for the Eastern Conference Finals. They did bring back F Ersan Ilyasova to be a three point threat and a real center in Brook Lopez. Getting out of the 1^st round should be their goal. The Indiana Pacers surprised many by making the playoffs and taking Lebron & Co to 7 games but it was because of the All-Star year of G Victor Oladipo.

This year will be his test if he can replicate his personal season and guide his team back to the playoffs in a weakened conference. They are expecting another year of growth from C Myles Turner to form a dynamic duo with Oladipo. They have solid role players in F Thaddeus Young, an improving F Domantas Sabonis, guards Tyreke Evans, Cory Joseph, plus they have two 3 point weapons in forwards Doug McDermott and Bojan Bogdanovic.  Their goal also this year is getting out of the 1^st round since they have the talent. The Chicago Bulls have a very good young nucleus in year two of rebuilding after last year’s tank year. They wasted time by going with veterans who couldn’t shoot threes or run the floor which is what fits head coach Fred Hoidberg’s fast paced system. They had one of the best rookies last year in F Lauri Markkanen who will only get better in year two and re-signed explosive G Zach Lavine for a full year of health.

They also drafted a promising center in Wendell Carter Jr., and have an improving young PG in Kris Dunn who is just entering his 3^rd season plus picked up 22 year old PG Tyler Ulis. F Jabari Parker is back home on a one year prove it deal to show people he can stay healthy and is only getting better as a player. But they want to play him at SF which isn’t his best position because he isn’t a great three point shooter when his is a mid range game. They also have veterans G Justin Holiday and C Robin Lopez who seem like extra since they have six big men and another five backcourt players so they should be traded. This team will actually be trying to win games this year but not many even in the weakened conference. The Detroit Pistons will not be a last team due to their talent but also who left the other team as they fired GM/head coach Stan Van Gundy after only making the playoffs once. That was with PG Reggie Jackson being hurt for most of it since coming over from OKC and C Andre Drummond and you would think with two young talented players in the East they would make it but nope.

They even traded for PF Blake Griffin and his long term contract from the Clippers last year which was probably the reason Van Gundy got fired after only four seasons. When the league is going small with spacing/three point shooters their two best players are both big men which would work maybe even 5 years ago not this current NBA. Drummond is a prototypical center who plays by the basket and Griffin is a midrange/by the basket kind of player. They are stuck with this paring for awhile with Griffin under contract for another four years (I love Griffin) but he isn’t the same player he was and this paring isn’t going to work even in the weakened conference (They did this before with Greg Monroe). They have four total good players with their own issues but have an intriguing one in F Stanley Johnson but it will be a long season for Detroit. As stated earlier/many times before SF Lebron James packed his bags for Hollywood leaving his hometown after being swept in the NBA Finals. Cue last place for the Cleveland Cavaliers for a long time. They still have Kevin Love who might go back to Minnesota, Love averaging a double-double every night but he’s always hurt and they have no real center again since Tristan Thompson is a PF like Love.

They also still have G JR Smith, G Kyle Korver, G Jordan Clarkson, F Larry Nance JR (another PF), G George Hill, G Rodney Hood and brought back F Channing Frye (another PF who they traded at the deadline last year). The young players that are intriguing are PG Colin Sexton who they drafted and traded for F Sam Dekker (another PF). I would have traded Love, Thompson and their other veterans by doing a full rebuild mode but they re-signed Love to a four year extension. Trust me at this year’s deadline many teams could use seven of their veterans so trades will come. 

Atlantic Division: This will be the year that the Boston Celtics will make the NBA Finals and lose to the Warriors since they have the best roster in the East with two All Stars. They are banking on a healthy season from PG Kyrie Irving and that SF Gordon Hayward is the same player he was before the gruesome injury, plus the players they filled in for them will only get better with another season.

Young players G Terry Roizer, G Jasyon Tatum and F Jaylen Brown filled in nicely for them during their playoff run, plus they still have veterans in F Marcus Morris , C Aron Baynes and former All Star Al Horford in the front court. The only issue is who is going to start between Hayward, Tatum and Brown at SG/SF unless they go small with one at PF but Horford has never been a true center. If they don’t win the East that will be the biggest disappointment this season since they have the best roster, 2 All Stars and the best coach in the East in Brad Stevens.
The Philadelphia 76ers also have 2 All Stars so this rivalry will be playing out for years since they are the two best teams in the East. Another season of development for PG Ben Simmons and C Joel Embiid will be scary if they both can learn to shoot from distance with consistency. 

Plus they have F Dario Saric who is a three point threat with veterans G JJ Redick, F Robert Covington and F Wilson Chandler will make up the good support system for two emerging superstars. The question for this team is will last year’s #1 overall pick get back to being the scorer he was in college and not get into his head that he can’t shoot after he got hurt, and they told him to change his shooting form instead of letting him just get healthy. If G Markelle Fultz can be on the court all season (since they are only asking him to be is their #3/#4 option) and just make the shots when he’s open and plays to his potential they can definitely have a Big 3.  Boston VS Philly will be the best rivalry this year and when they meet up in the playoffs it will be epic but when the best 3 teams are in the same division it shows how weak the East is as a whole.The Toronto Raptors will be the 3^rd best team simply because they traded for the services for one the top 10 players in the whole NBA in SF Kawhi Leonard. It might only be for one season but Leonard and PG Kyle Lowry will hope their tag team is better than the previous one that kept losing to Lebron & Co.

They still have C Jonas Valanciunas but he hasn’t improved that much over 6 seasons and PF Serge Ibaka isn’t the same player he was in OKC so their 3^rd best player might be G Norman Powell (who most of you never heard of plus most of their roster). They did bring in PF Greg Monroe and G Danny Green to be veteran presences for G CJ Miles to help this young team. But since this tag team of Leonard-Lowry isn’t as good as Simmons-Embiid or Irving-Hayward and they will not win the conference this year and see Leonard leave leading to a full rebuild with a new head coach after firing Dwane Casey. The Brooklyn Nets will not finish in last place this year that would be the New York Knicks since NYK is missing their franchise player in F Kristaps Porzingis all year/playing for next year’s free agent class. Centered on young players G D’Angelo Russell and F Rondae Hollis-Jefferson they look like they have more promise but also can be players for two max contracts next season like the Knicks.

They also don’t have a roster of nobodies they have F DeMarre Carroll, G Allen Crabbe (who Portland missed last year), C Ed Davis, G Spencer Dinwiddle, G Jared Dudley, F Kenneth Faried and G Shabazz Napier all who could be trade pieces at the deadline.

While the Knicks have a roster of rejects/failed draft picks from other teams in PG Trey Burke, PG Emmanuel Mudiay, F Noah Vonleh, and F Mario Hezonja. They have overpriced role players in G Courtney Lee, G Tim Hardway JR and C Enes Kanter plus they are still paying for C Joakim Noah who can’t stand up right to suit up. They drafted a PG in Frank Ntilikina last year but then got two other young PGS so who plays PG? Then this year they drafted SF Kevin Knox but brought in two other failed forwards plus are paying Hardaway to play SF so they are all over the place. Good luck to David Fizdale who was wrongfully fired by Memphis so we all are happy he got a 2^nd chance but unless they get one or two all stars in 2019 to pair with KP its going to be a long four years for him. 

Southeast Division: The Washington Wizards still have one of the best backcourt duos in the NBA but they should have split them up and gotten a good frontcourt player instead. Guards John Wall and Bradley Beal are talented and always make the playoffs but they never do anything in the playoffs and are on their 2^nd coach.

They also both have a history of not staying healthy and they just traded their starting center Martin Gortat for G Austin Rivers so they had a hole at center so they signed Dwight Howard. Yes he can play defense, grab rebounds and play well inside but he hasn’t been the same dominating player since his back started acting up. So even in a weakened East a trio of Beal-Wall-Howard isn’t scary even if forwards Otter Porter Jr and Kelly Oubre Jr are nice young players who play up to their potential. They are not better than the top 4 teams but nonetheless a top 5 team. They also brought in forwards Jeff Green and Lavoy Allen to add to their veteran bench players in C Ian Mahinmi, G Jodie Meeks and F Markeiff Morris. The Miami Heat are one of those remaining teams that are good enough to make the playoffs in the East based on a few good players they still have in guards Goran Dragic, Dion Waiters and C Hassan Whiteside.

They also have good veteran role players in G Wayne Ellington, forwards James Johnson, Kelly Olynyk, and G Dwayne Wade is coming back for a final season with F Udonis Haslem. Plus they have young improving players in forwards Justise Winslow,  Josh Richardson and G Tyler Johnson that will be enough to snag the last playoff spot. If they trade for Jimmy Butler to play SF they can leapfrog over the Wizards or the Pacers.The Charlotte Hornets will be the 8^th seed this year based on the weakened talent level in the East plus they have an All Star in PG Kemba Walker.

If they are smart they will give G Jeremy Lamb, F Frank Kaminsky and C Cody Zeller their 3 best young players more minutes instead of playing veterans past their prime/overrated ones instead of them. They also hope G Malik Monk can turn it around his sophomore year with rookie F Miles Bridges to help lead the scoring on the 2^nd unit with Tony Parker at PG. They can easily make the playoffs if they play their more talented players to see if they can play rather than the backups they are trotting out there in C Bismack Biyombo, F Marvin Williams and the offensively challenged F Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. If James Borrego can learn from the mistakes that Steve Clifford made with this team/bring over the knowledge from Greg Popovich they will consistently making the playoffs. The Orlando Magic were lucky the Atlanta Hawks were purposely trying to lose last year or they would have been the worst team in the East. I have no idea what they are doing when they drafted Mo Bamba since they already had a starting center in Nikola Vucevic and F Aaron Gordon who is best suited at PF.

We saw how bad it was for him to spend too much time at SF since they had too many big men last year but it will happen again. They had to trade Biyombo and cut Mo Speights to make room for Bamba but still signed a center in Tomfey Mozgov too. They could have drafted a PG since they did trade away their starting PG Elfrid Payton during last season/Oladipo a few seasons back. They could have drafted Trae Young who the Mavericks traded anyway that night or Colin Sexton at PG or even went with a good wing player in Knox, Bridges (2x) or Porter JR but they now have no starting PG because they are starting DJ Augustin or Jerian Grant or Evan Fournier who are all backups. Atlanta will be haunted for years for trading away Luka Doncic for Trae Young who isn’t the world’s best defender or was he consistent in college but hey they are in a rebuild so they are trying anything to be good. They do have some good players on this team but most are rejects from other teams in F Thomas Robinson, C Miles Plumlee, G Jeremy Lin, C Alex Len, C Dewayne Dedmon and the ageless wonder Vince Carter,

But they hope the young core of Young, F Taurean Prince, and F Johns Collins can improve on last year’s record but their best player at this moment might be G Kent Bazmore which is the sign of last place this year and for a few more years.  

Pacific Division: The Golden State Warriors are the best team and have four of the best 20 players in the league so they are the favorites to win the NBA Championship again! As long as you have PG Steph Curry, SG Klay Thompson, SF Kevin Durant and forward Draymond Green it’s going to be another championship year for them.

They also signed C DeMarcus Cousins who is coming off an ACL tear to help them in the 2^nd half/playoffs to make an unbeatable lineup, plus they still have F Andre Iguodala, G Shaun Livingston and G Nick Young off the bench. They also F Jonas Jerebko to solidify the bench. The only real question is who will play center till Cousins comes back now that JaVale McGee and Zaza Pachulia are gone? The Los Angeles Lakers now have SF Lebron James which is what they do in terms of either drafting a hall of famer or signing the hall of famer.

He instantly makes the team a playoff contender but in the deep West they will be fighting for an 8^th seed. They added some nice veterans to one year deals to help the young core out like PG Rajon Rondo, G Lance Stephenson, C JaVale McGee, F Michael Beasley and brought back G Kentavous Caldwell-Pope. They are each designed to start now/play a lot since the team is in win now mode but also to motivate/mentor the younger players that play their positions.  They have still have PG Lonzo Ball coming off an injury plagued rookie season, G Josh Hart, F Brandon Ingram who keeps improving every year and F Kyle Kuzma who balled out last season as a rookie. All of them will be fighting for playing time with those veterans. I’d like to be more optimistic but as Lebron gets older he can’t will this team to the Finals in this deep conference and with this roster since he has no #2 star to play with. So playoffs yes but nothing more than 8^th/7^th seed this year. The LosAngeles Clippers will be embarking the first full season without C DeAndre Jordan (Left for Dallas), PF Blake Griffin (traded last deadline to Detroit) and PG Chris Paul who was traded before last season started. It should be a total rebuild mode since they have no chance in the West. They have 10 veterans on their roster that can still play in the league not all of them are starters but they all can still play well. They still have the reigning 6^th man of the year in G Lou Williams.

They signed away F Luc Mbah A Moute from rival Houston, still have C Boban Marjanovic, F Tobias Harris, F Danilo Gallinari, G Patrick Beverley, G Avery Bradley, traded for C Marcin Gortat and signed F Mike Scott. They also still have Serbian passing sensation PG Milos Teodosic and young F Montrezl Harrell who they got in the Paul trade.  You would think they would start a full rebuild with young players and draft picks by trading some of these guys, and they only have Harrell and their two first round draft picks as building pieces. They will not be competing for a playoff spot this year or for awhile. TRADE these guys at the deadline, there are teams that can use them and I don’t know much longer Doc Rivers wants to stay around for a rebuild/mediocre team. The Phoenix Suns have been in rebuild mode for years and they at least have G Devin Booker to show for it.

They also had the 1^st pick in the draft this year and got a young exciting two way center in Deandre Ayton plus they traded at draft night for the draft rights to F Mikal Bridges and still have last year’s first round pick F Josh Jackson to build for the future around. They are going in the right direction by drafting young players/acquiring them since they have two 2^nd round picks on the roster, with another team’s 2^nd round pick from this year, and their 2^nd round pick from last year. But they still have this gluttony of big men on their roster with C Tyson Chandler, Dragan Bender who they got two years ago and F Ryan Anderson, so they had to let Alex Len go and trade Marquese Chriss to make room for all the big men. That is not a smart decision loading up on big men old and young when you need PG/wing players with Eric Bledsoe and Tyler Ulis gone. They did add some nice veterans to round out this team so they have veterans in the locker room in SF Trevor Ariza, G Jamal Crawford, SF Darrell Arthur, and G Isaiah Canaan , G Troy Daniels and F TJ Warren. The Sacramento Kings have been lost for years and they had All Star DeMarcus Cousins playing for them now they have nobody. They have the 2^nd pick in the draft which was used on center Marvin Bagley but they have been drafting big men for years instead of guards like drafting C Willie Cauley-Stein and Skal Labissiere when they had Cousins.

Now they drafted PG De’Aaron Fox and F Justin Jackson last year so at least they are making progress since they also got G Buddy Hield in the Cousins trade. They have a core of young players finally to build around but still will be a last place team even if they have G Iman Shumpert, F Zach Randolph, C Kousta Koufos, G Yogi Ferrell, and G Bogdan Bogdanovic, since a mix of too young-inexperienced players and backups will not win much in the West. 

Southwest Division: The Houston Rockets are the only real threat to the Warriors after taking them to 7 games in their conference finals but came up short since PG Chris Paul was injured and they missed 27 consecutive threes in the game. A healthy Paul with G James Harden, F PJ Tucker, G Eric Gordon, C Clint Capela, PF Marquese Chriss(only is 21) who they traded for and now SF Carmelo Anthony who gets to join his friend Paul is still a good core to compete with the Warriors.

Melo will be coming off the bench for instant offense with Gordon, Nene, F Gerald Green, PGs Brandon Knight and Michael Carter-Williams which means they are 10 deep. Their goal is NBA Finals or else this year so they should try to get into the Jimmy Butler sweepstakes since he is from Texas and that will put them on the same level as Warriors. The New Orleans Pelicans have one of the best players in the league in center Anthony Davis but the clock is ticking on when he will leave for brighter lights.

His fellow big man Cousins left them after missing the 2^nd half of the season with an injury so they got PFs Julius Randle and Jahlil Okafor to replace his offensive production. To replace Rondo they signed PG Elfrid Payton. Okafor and Payton are on their 3^rd team and both are under 25 busts based on their high draft positions even if those expectations were too high anyways. They also have scrapheap players in forwards Solomon Hill and Troy Williams, Wesley Johnson, guards Ian Clark and E’Twuan Moore as role players, these are not the kind of moves so make your superstar want to stick around. His two best teammates on this roster are PG Jrue Holiday and F Nikola Mirotic who both have their own limitations or health issues. This team will be fighting for one of the last three playoff spots since they have Davis but the West is too difficult to make it with just one player. How can the San Antonio Spurs be the same team without Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Khawi Leonard? Parker left for Charlotte, they traded Leonard to the Raptors and Ginobili retired. Their best players are 38 year old Pau Gasol who is a PF but has to play center since 33 year old LaMarcus Aldridge is under contract for four more years and they brought back 32 year old F Rudy Gay plus they got G DeMar DeRozan in return for Leonard. 

This might be the greatest test for supposedly the best coach in the NBA since his hall of fame core is gone and his team is full of players exiting their prime or in their prime. Plus he lost his first round pick Lonnie Walker to a meniscus tear and his young exciting PG Dejounte Murray also just tore his ACL which means his season is probably over. They still have PG Patty Mills to start and have F Marco Belinelli to come off the bench but they will miss not just Leonard’s defense but also Danny Green’s three point shooting and defense. They will be a competitive team based on their starting lineup but in the strong West they might actually miss the playoffs for the 1^st time in 21 years. The Memphis Grizzlies still have two All-Stars on their team but again will PG Mike Conley get hurt again since he missed most of the season due an Achilles injury and a surgery to smooth a small bone protrusion in his left heel. While C Marc Gasol had battles with the head coach which led to a new coach this year but also they drafted a center in Jaren Jackson Jr with the 4^th pick in the draft to replace him.

They should look to trade both as they should be in a total rebuild after finishing 14^th in the West, so with Jackson and a nice young forward they poached from the divisional rival Spurs in Kyle Anderson it’s a nice start but they should go all in. They should try to get someone to take F Chandler Parson’s huge contract so Anderson can get those minutes and PG Mario Chalmers to a contender needing a backup PG. If you didn’t know, guards Garret Temple, Marquis Teague, Shelvin Mack and F Omri Casspi are also on this roster which sums up another losing season if you have them on their roster. The Dallas Mavericks are building a nice young core around last year’s 1^st round pick PG Dennis Smith Jr and this year’s first round pick F Luka Doncic a decorated player in the Euro-Leauge with an MVP award and won the championship this year. Also they finally got center DeAndre Jordan after failing to get him three summers ago after he verbally agreed to a deal but the whole Clippers players locking doors incident happened and he stayed in LA. Now if they got him a few years ago when he was 27 along with those two young players and F Harrison Barnes they would be in championship contenders with future hall of famer F Dirk Nowitzki. 

Getting him now is an accomplishment after failing to get him but he 30, Dirk is 40 and G Wesley Matthews is 31 so those guys are on the wrong end of their careers to compete for a championship with those three young players. Plus they have great backups in guards Devin Harris and JJ Barea and it looks like F Dwight Powell who is in entering his 5^th season will start over Dirk. They might finish better then the Grizzlies if Memphis trades their veterans since this team is going to be a lot better than their record last year due to their talent. 

Northwest Division: The Oklahoma City Thunder are the only team in this division that is a lock to make the playoffs as a top 6 seed since they have PG Russell Westbrook and SFPaul George which means they have two All Stars which is more than most teams in the West. They even made the playoffs with just Westbrook two years ago.

They realized the Melo experiment didn’t work so they dumped his salary to Atlanta who also wanted to dump a player’s contract in PG Dennis Schroder who we all saw isn’t a starter but will compete for 6^th man of the year. They hope to get G Andre Roberson back healthy to pair with C Steven Adams to have a great defensive starting lineup. They also added C Nerlens Noel and F Abdel Nader to bolster the bench that has G Raymond Felton and forwards Patrick Patterson and Jerami Grant. The Minnesota Timberwolves if they have G Jimmy Butler all year they can be a top 5 seed since they were the 4^th seed until he got hurt and barley made the playoffs last year.

If they trade him they will fall out of the playoff race since F Andrew Wiggins and C Karl Anthony Towns both didn’t player well last year but only Towns has had good seasons so they hope he return to form. They also still have former All Stars in PGs Jeff Teauge and Derrick Rose but will the GM tell head coach Tom Thibodeau to stop getting former Bulls players it’s not 2008 ok. He has PF Taj Gibson to go with Rose, Butler and they even added F Luol Deng. Not be confused with their young big man Gorgui Dieng and they also have a 3^rd PG in Tyus Jones who is only 22 years old that should be playing over Rose who isn’t good anymore.  The West is too deep for this young team that is full of former Bulls for them to make the playoffs if Jimmy finally gets traded. The Utah Jazz have a nice young core of G Donovan Mitchell and C Rudy Gobert but beware of the sophomore slump for Mitchell.

This team has lots of good role players in PF Derrick Favors, PG Ricky Rubio, forwards Thabo Sefolosha, Joe Ingles, Jae Crowder, guards Alec Burks and Dante Exum. They also drafted G Grayson Allen who had a good college career at Duke. This team is talented/deep enough to compete for the 5^th seed but is team nowhere near the top two teams in the West. The Portland Trailblazers finished with the 3^rd seed but got upset in the playoffs by Anthony Davis and the math in the NBA now is the more All Star players the better chance you have to win. They like the Wizards have a great backcourt in guards Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum but should have traded one of them for a better frontcourt player since both of them are 6’3 so it’s an undersized backcourt.

They have a good center in Jusuf Nurkic but they are weak at forward even with them bring back Al-Farouq Aminu who they took away from Houston and will play PF when he is a SF. They also have too many below average NBA players on this team like G Seth Curry, forwards Maurice Harkless, Evan Turner, C Meyers Leonard, and G Nik Stauskas competing for minutes. They might miss the playoffs in the strong West because of the lack of good forwards they have leading to Lillad wanting to be traded because he deserves better. The Denver Nuggets just missed the playoffs by one game but this year they are making the playoffs based on their young talent and by getting former All Star/a top 5 finisher in the MVP race two years ago PG Isaiah Thomas.

Another year of development for C Nikola Jokic, guards Jamal Murray and Gary Harris along with a healthy season of former All Star PF Paul Millsap and now Thomas they have enough talent to overtake Portland, San Antonio, and Minnesota if Butler is traded. They also still have G Will Barton, C Mason Plumlee, PF Trey Lyles and when 1^st round pick SF Michael Porter Jr returns from injury this will be a team you don’t want to face in the playoffs.