With phenoms Greg Oden and Kevin Durant assuredly headed into the NBA’s Northwest division, it bears discussing how the 2007 NBA Draft Lottery has changed the landscape of the NBA. A division-by-division analysis will work best.
Pacific Division
Winners: None
The Pacific is really the pretender division of the NBA, so unless the Kings got super-lucky and got one of the top two picks, nothing was really going to change.
We all knew that Phoenix couldn’t win a title with Steve Nash spearheading their defense in the clutch (which is really the one time when defense matters). Oden and Durant are the exact kind of players who can neutralize Amare and Shawn Marion.
The Clippers’ future hopes were discombobulated the moment Shaun Livingston went down.
Golden State has zero post presence and are banking on my man Baron’s health… both of which are bad situations to be in. By the way, how are they going to afford Monta and Andris with the current core in place?
And LA, well, even healthy they’d be done in the second round because of their point guard situation. Kobe can only do so much. Even if they bring in Camby and/or Jermaine O’Neal, the window is pretty small.
Sacramento is going nowhere.
Indifferent: Phoenix, LAL, LAC and G State
The Suns will only go as far as Shawn Marion and Amare can carry them, because a conference finals quality PG will always light Steve Nash up. D’Antoni should start running a structured offense to get these two some shots on the block, first because it’s stupid to run an offense where only one of your three all-stars is allowed to create plays, second because turning Nash into a catch-and-shoot player will extend his career a couple years and also to simplify a PG job that shouldn’t be that hard given the talent on Phoenix. Leandro can throw an entry pass, run a backdoor cut and then camp out at the three point line if he doesn’t get the ball back. This transition could keep Phoenix relevant when Portland starts balling.
The Lakers, Clippers and Warriors – despite their late-season run – need to do some serious re-examination of their present and future rosters if they want to even think about progressing. The entire Northwest, save Minnesota, is improving. The Southwest, save Minnesota, is murderous.
Loser: Sacramento
Getting either of the kids would have fast-tracked what is going to be a painful rebuilding process. Even some ping-pong ball luck could have moved them into position to get Conley to create a super-fast backcourt. As things stand today, teams are going to begin circling this trip again.
Next up: The Southwest division
sacremento still has a run at noah, who fits their brand of game/team pretty well. they just need to deal artest. as much as i love the guy’s game, he hurts his team too much.
you’re still COMPLETELY wrong about steve nash. how you can equally undervalue the guy who should have been mvp for the third straight year whilst overvaluing shawn marion, who still doesn’t have an offensive game oustide of fast breaks or offensive rebounding. nash is an under-rated defender on a very bad defensive team. he consistently has to leave his man to play help defense to make up for the lapses caused by everyone not named raja bell or marion. nash leads his team to continually over achieve, when, appart from he and amare, they don’t really have a top tiered player.
the warriors are getting younger, and also have enough valuable parts that they could make a run at kobe. i think it took them a year to learn to play together. if stephen jackson could turn into just an idiot (instead of being an other-wordly baffoon), this team could be the one on the rise.
and the lakers have kwame brown. who they traded an allstar for. that’s why they’re not going anywhere. 3rd graders could take the ball away from kwame.
the clips over-achieved last year. this year it caught up with them. they could turn it around, but they need to make some deals.
minnesota keeps finding new and creative ways to surround kg with bad players. this could be the year of the kg deal.
Shawn Marion’s game has been reduced to what it is because of the system that makes Nash an MVP candidate.
Shawn was putting up the same numbers with Jason Kidd and Marbury, the former another fast-break team while the latter a half-court team. You don’t become an all-star forward in the West with a limited offensive game.
Nash’s entire defensive game consists of running under players who would normally have a clear path to the basket for a charge. He can afford to leave his man because he regularly defends the weakest offensive player on the opposing team.
Even Jordan Farmar made him look below average defensively.