2008-09 NBA Team Preview – Orlando Magic

2008 Record: 52-30
Division Finish: 1st – Southeast
2008 Playoffs: Lost, 4-1, to the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference Semifinals

Head Coach: Stan Van Gundy
Season: Going into second season
Record At Orlando: 52-30
Career Record: 163-103

Offseason Acquisitions:
Signed Mike Wilks, G, 2.7 ppg, 1.3 rpg, Free Agent
Signed Jeremy Richardson, F, 1.6 ppg, 0.4 rpg, Atlanta Hawks
Signed Dwayne Jones, C, 1.4 ppg, 2.5 rpg, Cleveland Cavaliers
Signed Anthony Johnson, G, 5.6 ppg, 3.8 apg, Sacramento Kings
Signed Mickael Pietrus G-F, 7.2, ppg, 3.7 rpg, Golden State Warriors

Offseason Transactions:
Excersiced option on guard JJ Redick through 2009-10
Resigned center Adonal Foyle

Offseason Losses:
James Augustine, F, 1.6 ppg., 1.2, rpg, Waived
Carlos Arroyo, G, 6.9 ppg., 3.5, apg, Free Agent
Kenyon Dooling, G, 8.1 ppg, 1.8, apg, Traded to the New Jersey Nets
Maurice Williams, G-F, 9.3 ppg, 3.1 ppg., Signed with Atlanta Hawks
Pat Garrity, F, 2.1 ppg, 1.4 rpg., Retired
Bo Outlaw, F, 2.0 ppg, 0.0 rpg. , Wavied

Rookies:
Courtney Lee, G, 20.4 ppg, 4.9 rpg., Western Kentucky

The Skinny:
Outside of LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, no player in the NBA may be more exciting than Orlando’s Dwight Howard. I haven’t watched the Slam Dunk competition in I don’t know how many years, but I was tuned into last year’s competition based solely on the performance of Howard. He did some amazing things with the ball and along with James could be the new face of the NBA.

Prior to Howard’s arrival in O-Town the team was struggling. They finished seventh in the Atlantic division and as a result were able to take Howard with the No. 1 pick. Within three years he had the team back in the playoffs despite a sub-.500 record which just goes to show that the East is a very weak conference.

Last season the Magic won the Southeast Division with a 52-30 record and won their first playoff series since the 1995-96 campaign as they beat Toronto, 4-1, in the first round. Their record was their best since that 95-96 campaign when they lost to the Bulls in the conference finals and was 31 wins better than the year before Howard was drafted. They were subsequently tossed from the playoffs by Detroit, 4-1.

Despite not being the prototypical NBA center that you normally think of at only 265 pounds on a 6-foot-11 frame, Howard is one of the best in the league. He averaged 20.7 points per game and 14.2 rebounds per game. He led the NBA with 69 double doubles and his 14.2 rpg. was a full rebound better than the next closest player (Marcus Camby).

As good as Howard is, he obviously can’t do it all by himself. He’s got a pair of really good supporting cast members in guard Hedo Turkoglu and forward Rashard Lewis. Turkoglu was second on the team at 19.5 ppg while grabbing 5.7 rpg. and handing out 5.0 assists per game. Lewis was just a shade back at 18.2 ppg., 4.2 rpg. and 5.4 apg. Also doing a solid job was point guard Jameer Nelson as he produced 10.9 ppg. and handed out 5.6 apg.

The problem with the Magic isn’t a lack of production at the offensive end of the court, it’s at the defensive end, particularly during the playoffs. Orlando ranked sixth in the NBA last year at 104.4 ppg. and were pretty decent at 99.0 ppg. on defense, which surprisingly ranked 11th.

However, as anyone will tell you defense is what wins you championships. If you don’t believe me, the top three defensive teams in the NBA – Detroit (90.1 ppg.), Boston (90.3 ppg.) and San Antonio (90.6 ppg.) – all made the conference finals. The Phoenix Suns have been mentioned a lot the last few years as a potential champion, but their model of all-out offense has yet to come to fruition. Twice the Suns got to the Western Finals, only to be beaten 4-1 by San Antonio and 4-2 by Dallas. Last year they dropped another 4-1 series to the Spurs.

When going up against a great defensive team like the Pistons in the playoffs, Orlando scored a mere 91.6 ppg. This shows the flaws in the idea of just trying to outscore opponents and not putting much stock in playing defense. Nine times out of 10 the better defensive team will win. Also, because Orlando had to work harder to score, they didn’t have the energy to play the necessary defense – not that they do anyways – but Detroit was only 0.5 ppg. under its regular season average of 90.7 ppg.

The playoffs is all about who can stick to their game plan and go about business as usual. Unless you’ve got a serious injury, the playoffs is not the time to have to change approach. Detroit was able to follow its game plan better than Orlando and the Pistons were the one who were able advance.

Between Howard and Lewis the Magic seem to have the defensive end pretty well covered. Where they are struggling on defense is the back court. Richard Hamilton scored more than 30 against Orlando in the final two playoff games and Chauncey Billups tossed in 28 in game two.

Prediction:
Orlando is a pretty solid team, but they need to get Howard more help. San Antonio and Detroit have five great players on the floor while the Lakers have a super star and a great player in Pau Gasol to help out Bryant. While Lewis, Turkoglu and Nelson are all pretty solid, they’re not great. The Magic must make a decision to either get one big gun, kind of like a Scotty Pippen, or build up the four other guys to be pretty good.

They lost Maurice Wiliams, who averaged 9.3 ppg., to Atlanta and replaced him with Mickael Pietrus from Golden State and his 7.2 ppg. Shooting guard JJ Reddick was one of the best college players of all time, but he has been a dud as a pro. Maybe he’ll get better or maybe he’s just going to be another in a long string of Duke players that are great in college but a flop in the league. If he could ever rise to anything close to the level that he had in Durham he could be that great No. 2 guy.

Rookie guard CourtneyLee has some potential to be a good player. He scored 20.4 ppg. at Western Kentucky, which is a pretty solid program that you’ve probably never heard much about. Lee is a good start, but he’s not going to be enough. Orlando should have another good record so they’re not going to have a draft spot where they can really get an impact player. To move up to the Detroit, Boston and Clevelands of the world they’ll have to make a trade or sign a big free agent.

There might not be a worse division in the NBA than the Southeast so unless Howard gets hurt the Magic should have no problems winning the division again this year. Orlando should win a first round series again, but that’s as far as they are going to get. Unless Stan Van Gundy can get the Magic to play better defense in crunch time they’ll be watching the conference semifinals from home.

2008-09 NBA Team Preview – Cleveland Cavaliers

2008 Record: 45-37
Division Finish: 2nd – Central
2008 Playoffs: Lost, 4-3, to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Semifinals

Head Coach: Mike Brown
Season: Going into fourth season
Record At Cleveland: 245-101

Offseason Acquisitions:
Signed Ronald Dupree, F, 1.0 ppg, 2.0 rpg, from Seattle
Signed Tarence Kinsey, G, 3.6 ppg., 1.1 rpg from Memphis
Signed center Lorenzen Wright, F-C, 1.0 ppg, 2.8 rpg. from Sacramento
Traded Damon Jones to Milwaukee & Joe Smith to Oklahoma City Thunder. Got guard Maurice Williams, G, 10.2 ppg, 6.1 apg. from Milwaukee

Offseason Transactions:
Resigned guard Daniel Gibson
Resigned guard Delonte West

Offseason Losses:
Damon Jones, G, 6.5 ppg, 1.1 rpg., Free agent
Devin Brown, G, 7.5 ppg., 3.4 rpg., Signed with New Orleans Hornets
Dwayne Jones, C, 1.0 ppg., 2.0 ppg., Signed with Orlando Magic
Detemtris Nichols, F, 1.1 ppg, 0.4 rpg., Claimed off waivers by Chicago Bulls

Rookies:
JJ Hickson, F, 6-9, NC State, 14.8 ppg., 8.5 rpg.
Darnell Jackson, F, 6-8, Kansas, 11.2 ppg., 6.7 rpg.
Sasha Kaun, C, 6-11, Kansas, 7.1 ppg., 3.9 rpg.
Signed Jawad Williams, F

The Skinny:
If the Cleveland Cavaliers want to make that next step from a good team in the East to a great team in the NBA that has a chance to win a championship, they need look no farther than one of their Central Conference foes. The Chicago Bulls wrote the playbook on how to win with a superstar and Cleveland general manager Danny Ferry needs to not only read it, but take the necessary steps.

For my money, the Cavs have the best player in the league in LeBron James. He might not go out and score 50 points in a night like Kobe Bryant and may not play as much defense as Bryant, but he’s more consistent than Bryant. He can beat you in so many ways that I think he’s more versatile than Bryant. He also rebounds a lot better than Bryant and being around the basket creates scoring opportunities with second chance points.

Another reason that makes James a better player in my opinion is that he’s trying to get everyone involved and make them a better team. James’ idol was Jordan and he knows if he wants to be in the same company some day that he has to start winning championships. Jordan was a great player but his status was elevated even higher once he started winning titles. Karl Malone may be one of the 50 greatest players in the league’s history but he’ll start to fade into the background because he was never on a championship team.

James can score just about any time he wants. It’s not a matter of if he could; it’s a matter of does he want to. I’m sure a lot of team would like for him to just to try to score at will. Detroit will let James get 45 points, but hold the rest of the team to 30 and the Pistons will come out on top almost every time.

But LeBron is smarter than that. He knows he has to get them involved because there are going to be nights when he can’t score at will and has to rely on his teammates. He also knows that he needs them because he already gets all of the attention off the court and if that spreads to the floor they won’t be as likely to play as hard. Look at the Lakers for the last few years up until this year. It was the Kobe Show and he wasn’t doing anything to make friends so no one wanted to play hard or play with him and they lost. He became more of a leader, wasn’t a ball hog, shut his mouth some and they went to the Finals.

So the Cavaliers knew they needed help last year when the acquired the services of Ben Wallace in a big midseason trade. Along with Wallace, Cleveland picked up guard Delonte West from Seattle and guard Wally Szcerbiak from Chicago. In the process they got rid of a lot of dead weight as the traded sent six players packing, topped by Drew Gooden, Larry Hughes, Donyell Marshall and Shannon Brown.

Hughes and Marshall made sense. Both are getting long in the tooth and Marshall isn’t a great team player. Brown isn’t living up to the hype at Michigan State and he’s not doing it in the pros either. The one that surprised me is Gooden. He’s only been in the league six years and was averaging 11.3 ppg. and 8.3 ppg., but you have to give up something in those trades and they felt like Gooden was ready to go.

For his size, 6-foot-9, Wallace has been one of the best rebounders in the league over the last half a decade. However, he is getting a bit old. With a dozen NBA seasons under his belt he is getting close to hanging it up. Szcerbiak is a solid role player who can help a ball team win if he can stay healthy.

I like the edition of West. He’s a younger version of Hughes who averaged 10.3 ppg., 4.5 assists per game and 3.7 rpg. They also picked up Maurice Williams in trade during the offseason. He averaged 10.2 ppg and 6.1 apg for the Milwaukee Bucks so it will be interesting to see what happens in the battle between he and Hughes.

Most of the Cavs offseason moves besides getting Williams weren’t that spectacular. They drafted a pair of pretty solid forwards in JJ Hickson from NC State and Kansas’ Darnell Jackson. With Wallace as a mentor they don’t have to jump right into the fold and be expected to contribute, though they may.

Prediction:
I still think the Cavaliers are a year or two from putting together a championships team though when you’ve got a player the caliber of James anything is possible. If this team sticks together for 2-to-3 more years and they can keep some key guys in place then they may be a contender in 2009-10 or the following year. They have to resign James, but that’s a whole other blog.

They’ve got a great center in Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who averaged 14.1 ppg and led the squad at 9.4 rpg., and he’s locked up until the 2010-11 season. As I stated before I’m also a fan of West and Williams. One of them may have to play the point and the other the off guard because that’s where they’ve got a hole.

The Cavs have a pair of holes in their off guard and power forward. I don’t know if Wallace can hold up through the whole season, though being on the floor with Ilgauskas  and James may take some of the focus away from him and let him be productive like Dennis Rodman was with the Lakers. Hickson and Jackson could be good down the road but it’s hard to tell.

Since I predicted Detroit to win the Central and the NBA title the best I can give Cleveland is a second-place showing in the Central. I’ll give them the upset of Boston in the Eastern Conference semifinals, but they’ll lose to Detroit in six.

2008 Record: 59-23
Division Finish: 1st – Central
2008 Playoffs: Lost, 4-2, to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals

Head Coach: Michael Curry
Season: First Season

Offseason Acquisitions:
Kwame Brown, C, 6-11, 5.7 ppg, 5.7 rpg, Signed from Memphis Grizzles

Offseason Transactions:
Resigned forward Walter Herrman

Offseason Losses:
Jarvis Hayes, F, 6-8, 6.7 ppg, 2.2 rpg, Signed with New Jersey Nets
Juan Dixon, G, 6-3, 6.5 ppg, 1.6, rpg, Signed with Washington Wizards

Rookies:
Walter Sharpe, F, 6-9, Alabama-Birmingham

The Skinny:
Teams have come and gone over the last six years in the Eastern Conference, but one constant has been the Detroit Pistons. With their core still in tact from last year’s conference finals there is no reason to believe that the team won’t be back in the Eastern Finals or beyond once again this year.

With a 59-23 record the Pistons had the second-best record in the NBA last season. The only team with a better mark was the Boston Celtics. A big reason for the two best records coming out of the same conference is that the East is pretty week. The number of really good teams in the East you can count with your ears and nose. There are only a handful of decent teams and then there are the dregs of the league.

The West is completely different. You’ve got a bunch of really good teams with no one really head and shoulders better than another. Few would have expected the Lakers to make the Finals, but really there is so much talent in the conference that who ever is hot in the West can make a run. The talent in the East is not that good. Even a really hot team will struggle to beat one of the top dogs.

Two teams have been as consistent as it comes. One is San Antonio and the other is the Pistons. They have seen very little turnover in their roster during the last six years and as a result they’ve been able to rule a mediocre Eastern Conference.

Five key players have been with the team for at least four years. Guards Richard “Rip” Hamilton and Chauncey Billups along with forward Tayshaun Prince have all been with the team for six years. Center Rasheed Wallace has been there five years and forward Antonio McDyess has been there the last four.

That’s a great group of talented players that have been with each other for a while now. They know how to anticipate everyone’s moves and they all know how to win it all as members of the Pistons’ 2004 World Championship team.

No team may have more of its team returning from last year than the Pistons. Detroit brings back its top seven scorers from last year’s squad that was on the doorstep of the NBA Finals. The starting five averaged 69.0 points per game last season and accounted for 386 starts out of a possible 410.

The biggest problem the Pistons have is their frontcourt. Not since the days of the Bad Boys has Detroit been big on the inside. Even when they had Ben Wallace they still weren’t dominant. Wallace was a tremendous rebounder, but he wasn’t much of a threat on offense. Rasheed Wallace has the size of a center, but the skills of a power forward and presents such a tough match-up at the offensive end of the floor, but just the opposite of Wallace he’s not much on defense.

In an effort to strengthen the inside, during the offseason the Pistons acquired the services of center Kwame Brown from the Memphis Grizzles. After averaging 5.7 ppg. and 5.7 rpg., Brown was shipped to Memphis as part of the Pau Gaol deal. They also drafted 6-9 forward Walter Sharpe from Alabama-Birmingham who was averaging 14.2 ppg. and 6.8 rpg. before he was declared academically ineligible for the spring semester. Second-year center Cheikh Samb from Senegal could pay benefits down the line. He’s 7-foot-1 and is pretty solid at 245.

Unlike some teams, the Pistons appear to be ahead of the curve when it comes time to replace their vets. General Manager Joe Dumars knows that Billups and Hamilton aren’t getting any younger, that’s why they drafted guard Arron Afflalo and Will Bynum. Both are pretty good college players and if they listen to what the vets have to say they could step in and keep the train rolling.

Prediction
Even though Detroit has much talent back across the board, the one big intangible is its new coach. With only one year of experience as an assistant, Michael Curry was handed the keys to the Pistons after Flip Saunders was fired.

Curry has long had the respect of Dumars when he was signed to a 10-day contract with the team a few years back. Now the question is will he have the respect of his players. At 39-years old he’s only about four years older that Wallace and McDyess.

With such a veteran team this maybe the perfect situation for Curry. Billups and Hamilton can pretty much run the team from the floor so all Curry really needs to be able to do is manage all the egos in the locker room. As a former member of the Players’ Association he knows how to deal with a lot of egos so he may be the perfect man for the job.

I think this will be the year that the Pistons get back to the NBA Finals. As good as Boston is, I think the Pistons will figure them out. I also think that Detroit is much deeper than the Celtics are and the combination of those two factors will give them the edge of Boston come playoff time.

Before he got traded to Memphis, Brown was finally starting to develop into a good role player on the inside. It also helped that it was able to get out of Los Angeles because he was starting to get into trouble off the court there. This could be a second life for him in Detroit. Sharpe and Samb could also give some help on the inside.

This could be their last hurrah, but I think the Pistons will win it all this year. No one in the East besides Boston will give them a run and I don’t think Boston has it this year. The West is better from top to bottom, but they’ll beat themselves up and only San Antonio is as good as Detroit 1-5 with any sort of bench.

2008-09 NBA Team Preview – Boston Celtics

2008 Record: 66-16
Division Finish: 1st – Atlanta
2008 Playoffs: Won the NBA Championship, 4-2, over the Los Angeles Lakers

Head Coach: Doc Rivers
Season: Going into his fifth
Record at Boston: 168-160

Offseason Acquisitions:
Forward Darius Miles
Center Patrick O’Bryant

Offseason Losses:
Center Scott Pollard, option was not picked up.
Small forward James Posey signed a free agent deal with the New Orleans Hornets.

Rookies:
JR Giddens, G, 6-5, New Mexico
Semih Erden, C, 6-11, Turkey
Bill Walker, G-F, 6-6, Kansas State

The Skinny:
Everything is right again in the world of old school NBA fans. The Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers played for the NBA Championship with the Celtics coming out on top for their 17th title. But the odds of those two teams meeting in the finals in two of the next three years like in the 80’s is pretty slim.

The Celtics had a great formula in place for last year. They’ve got a great core group of superstars that plays really well together in Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. Those three stir the drink and then they’ve got a great group of supporting players who know their role. This is pretty much the formula that will help you win a title.

While the formula works great, the ingredients are getting ready to expire. Those three, along with journeyman Sam Cassell have all played at least 10 years in the NBA. Now that all three have a title under their belts and they’re growing long in the tooth how hungry are they going to be to make a run like last year? It wasn’t easy as they didn’t win a road game until the Finals.

Another problem with the Celtics roster is that they seem to be at both ends of the spectrum. Fourteen out of the 17 players on their current roster have either played seven years or more or have only been in the league for two years or less. Those players that fall into that middle aren’t very good either.

Because of some of the deals they’ve made and the draft positions they’ve had, the young talent they haven’t isn’t very good either or needs a lot of work to keep this train going. The Celtics better strike while the iron is hot this year because after this season they could be back to being in the middle to the bottom of the pack in the Eastern Conference.

One problem the Celtics are going to have to figure out is how to fill the void left by the departure of James Posey. During the offseason he signed a four-year deal with the New Orleans Hornets. Posey did a great job picking up the opposing team’s best offensive player and was a good three-point shooter himself. Posey was the one responsible for D-ing up LeBron James and Kobe Bryant during the playoffs. He also had the intangible of being a winner after being a part of the Miami Heat’s NBA title run.

So how does Boston plan on filling that hole? During the offseason they signed free agent forward Darius Miles. In addition they drafted JR Giddens from New Mexico in the first round and wing Bill Walker from Kansas State in the second. These seem like more of the Danny Ainge trade that got rid of Tony Delk and Antoine Walker for Jiri Welsch, Chris Mills and Raef LeFrentz and not the ones last year that brought in Allen and Garnett and earned him NBA Executive of the Year.

Miles is just trouble, plan and simple. It’s probably an attribute of a rough childhood in East St. Louis, but he’s been trouble everywhere he’s gone. He’s going to miss the first 10 games of the season because of a drug suspension. Great first impression. Then there’s his lack of defense and problems staying health. Throw in a pension for alienating his teammates and you’ve got a great pick up. Maybe the vets can real him in, but I doubt it.

Giddens isn’t exactly a choir boy either. He had problems at Kansas and had to transfer to New Mexico. If he gets influenced by Miles you might as well write him off as well. I don’t know much about Bill Walker, but Kansas State isn’t exactly a hotbed for talent. He was recruiting there by Bob Huggins, but how many of his players have really panned out to be good NBA players?

One player who may pick up Posey’s slack is guard Tony Allen. The Celtics resigned the fourth-year player out of Oklahoma State during the offseason. He might be able to fill that role, but he’s got to stay healthy. No one is really sure of his potential because he’s been injured so much. If he can stay of the IR for the entire season he could be a great role player.

Prediction:
Too many things just don’t seem right for the Celtics to repeat. After so many years of not having a championships ring, how hungry are the aging Garnett, Allen and Pierce going to be? Maybe they know this is there last chance and they’ll throw everything and the kitchen sink at winning again.

It’s always tougher to repeat than to win the first one and the Celtics just don’t have enough of the pieces to maintain a run like this. San Antonio built such a strong core group of players that all fit into their system so if one was missing the other could pick up the slack. If Pierce or Garnett go down for a long period of time the Celtics are in trouble. They need to have a full squad healthy for the entire year to keep the home court advantage in the playoffs. If they didn’t have home court advantage for every Eastern Conference playoff series and the Finals the title might be in LA or Detroit.

Posey is going to be a bigger loss than most people realize. Maybe not over the course of an 82-game schedule, but come playoff time when defense is so crucial – that was the basis of Boston’s championship run last year – it will show. I don’t think Miles will turn his act around and Giddons won’t amount to much. There are too many question marks around Tony Allen’s health to count on him for the whole year.

Boston will go 55-27 during the regular season and win the Atlantic Division because it’s pretty weak. They will, however, get bounced in the second round of the playoffs.

Probably not since the San Antonio Spurs had to wait two years for David Robinson has a rookie’s debut been a longer wait than that of Greg Oden. After a year away from the game, Oden made his first appearance in a Portland Trailblazers’ uniform and so far he’s off to a good start.

Of course there is a big difference between Robinson and Oden. As a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Robinson had to fulfill his duty to the country and serve two years in the Navy before he could join San Antonio in 1989. Oden, on the other hand, injured himself after just his second summer league game and missed the entire 2006-07 season.

Now if the wait for Oden has the same dividends as the one for Robinson had, the Blazers surely won’t mind waiting an extra year for his services. But those are big expectations.

Two years ago Portland literally hit the lottery when it got the number one draft in 2007 NBA Draft. They made the wise decision, in my opinion, and drafted Oden over Texas forward Kevin Durant. It’s pretty rare that you get a big man with the potential of Oden so you have to take the chance when he’s available.

With the exception of maybe Detroit the last few years, I dare you to find me a championship team that doesn’t have a great presence in the middle. If the Lakers had someone like that they beat Boston last year. Same goes for Cleveland. LeBron and the Cavs will never win a title until he’s got someone in the paint. Mark my words.

Even without Oden in the line-up last year the Trailblazers were a pretty solid team. They managed to post a 41-41 record, which was nine games better than the year before and 20 games better than the 2005-06 season. Imagine if they had Oden, you’re looking at a team that would have been in the playoffs. It was their first season of .500 or better since 2003-04 when they also went 41-41.

So the big fella made his debut on Monday night against a very, very bad Sacramento Kings team. They’ve traded away pretty much everyone and are starting from scratch. They are still a year, maybe two away from sniffing the playoffs. Oden had a solid outing in his first NBA game, scoring 13 points and grabbing five rebounds in just a tad under 20 minutes of play. He came back out last night to post 14 points and grab a game-high nine rebounds versus Golden State.

With Oden in the middle, Portland can be a very dangerous team, but that’s only if he stays health. The knock on Oden is that he’s always had problems staying in the line-up. Throughout most of his freshman season at Ohio State he was plagued by an injury to his right wrist. It hurt so much he had to shoot free throws left handed, which wouldn’t be an issue except that he’s a right-handed shooter.

So even before he got into the league, Oden had a rep for being a little fragile. Getting hurt two games into the summer league last year didn’t help either. He missed the entire 2007-08 season with a microfracture to his right knee. As much abuse as big men take in the NBA, I hope this isn’t a sign of things to come for Oden. He could have more of a Bill Walton career than a David Robinson one.

If you’re Portland you had to be excited about last year. Known of late as being a haven of moronic players, the franchise has not had a good reputation since the days of Clyde Drexler. With the likes of Darius Miles, Steve Francis and Sebastian Telfair gone from the team, it looked like Portland had put a strong roster of good, young talent together and Oden was going to be the missing piece. He still may be.

The team has made big strides in the last two seasons. Their team president Steve Patterson resigned during the spring of 2007 – probably way overdue – and that summer the organization brought in former Nike executive Larry Miller to replace him. Smart move to bring in someone who knows a thing or two about being successful. In addition, owner Paul Allen agreed to purchase the Rose Garden, Portland’s home floor, which assures that the team will be there for some time and not take off like Seattle did.

Also during the last three drafts the Trailblazers have done a much better job of selecting talent. The year before Oden was drafted, Portland made a pair of draft day deals to LaMarcus Aldridge from Texas and Brandon Roy from Washington. Roy was an All-Star last year and 2006-07 NBA Rookie of the Year. Last season Aldridge averaged 17.8 points per game and 7.6 rebounds per game.

The same year as they drafted Oden, Portland also picked up Josh McRoberts from Duke and Taurean Green from Florida. McRoberts never saw the floor for the Trailblazers and Green was traded last year. The one thing that I like about these two players – though I’m not a big fan of Duke and Florida in general – as well as Oden, Aldridge and Roy is that they played on winning college teams at a high level. You want guys who are used to winning and expect it. They’ll work their asses off in order to win.

This year I think the team missed the mark in its drafting. Originally they went with Brandon Rush from the National Champion Kansas Jayhawks, but then they traded him to Indiana for Jerryd Bayless of Arizona. If this was Arizona 2-5 years ago, great pick, but the team struggled last year. They also got Frenchman Nicholas Batum.

Now I’m not a big fan of drafting foreign players. If you look at the Celtics, they are all American players. The game is just different in the NBA than it is overseas. Yes I know that San Antonio has been successful with a lot of foreign players, but they play a different brand of basketball than 90 percent of the league. And yes I know up until last year that the USA has been getting its ass handed to it by foreign teams, but that’s a whole group of players used to a particular style, not one or two guys trying to fit in with the rest of a team that plays a different way.

It does appear that they may have found a good-to-great foreign player in Rudy Fernandez. The Spaniard was drafted by Phoenix last year, but was traded to Portland for cash. Fernandez played last year in Spain, but decided to join Portland after he finished the Olympics.

Reports have Fernandez putting on a heck of a show during his debut, almost overshadowing Oden. Two reasons why I think Fernandez might work out is A) he plays for a winning team. Spain has been one of the best international teams of late and they took the silver at the Olympics. B) He’s a guard. I think it is much easier for guards to play well in the NBA than post players.

Portland could have the pieces of a good team in the works. I think they’ll make the playoffs this year, but the West is still too loaded for them to do more than a first round exit.

Probably not since the San Antonio Spurs had to wait two years for David Robinson has a rookie’s debut been a longer wait than that of Greg Oden. After a year away from the game, Oden made his first appearance in a Portland Trailblazers’ uniform and so far he’s off to a good start.

Of course there is a big difference between Robinson and Oden. As a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Robinson had to fulfill his duty to the country and serve two years in the Navy before he could join San Antonio in 1989. Oden, on the other hand, injured himself after just his second summer league game and missed the entire 2006-07 season.

Now if the wait for Oden has the same dividends as the one for Robinson had, the Blazers surely won’t mind waiting an extra year for his services. But those are big expectations.

Two years ago Portland literally hit the lottery when it got the number one draft in 2007 NBA Draft. They made the wise decision, in my opinion, and drafted Oden over Texas forward Kevin Durant. It’s pretty rare that you get a big man with the potential of Oden so you have to take the chance when he’s available.

With the exception of maybe Detroit the last few years, I dare you to find me a championship team that doesn’t have a great presence in the middle. If the Lakers had someone like that they beat Boston last year. Same goes for Cleveland. LeBron and the Cavs will never win a title until he’s got someone in the paint. Mark my words.

Even without Oden in the line-up last year the Trailblazers were a pretty solid team. They managed to post a 41-41 record, which was nine games better than the year before and 20 games better than the 2005-06 season. Imagine if they had Oden, you’re looking at a team that would have been in the playoffs. It was their first season of .500 or better since 2003-04 when they also went 41-41.

So the big fella made his debut on Monday night against a very, very bad Sacramento Kings team. They’ve traded away pretty much everyone and are starting from scratch. They are still a year, maybe two away from sniffing the playoffs. Oden had a solid outing in his first NBA game, scoring 13 points and grabbing five rebounds in just a tad under 20 minutes of play. He came back out last night to post 14 points and grab a game-high nine rebounds versus Golden State.

With Oden in the middle, Portland can be a very dangerous team, but that’s only if he stays health. The knock on Oden is that he’s always had problems staying in the line-up. Throughout most of his freshman season at Ohio State he was plagued by an injury to his right wrist. It hurt so much he had to shoot free throws left handed, which wouldn’t be an issue except that he’s a right-handed shooter.

So even before he got into the league, Oden had a rep for being a little fragile. Getting hurt two games into the summer league last year didn’t help either. He missed the entire 2007-08 season with a microfracture to his right knee. As much abuse as big men take in the NBA, I hope this isn’t a sign of things to come for Oden. He could have more of a Bill Walton career than a David Robinson one.

If you’re Portland you had to be excited about last year. Known of late as being a haven of moronic players, the franchise has not had a good reputation since the days of Clyde Drexler. With the likes of Darius Miles, Steve Francis and Sebastian Telfair gone from the team, it looked like Portland had put a strong roster of good, young talent together and Oden was going to be the missing piece. He still may be.

The team has made big strides in the last two seasons. Their team president Steve Patterson resigned during the spring of 2007 – probably way overdue – and that summer the organization brought in former Nike executive Larry Miller to replace him. Smart move to bring in someone who knows a thing or two about being successful. In addition, owner Paul Allen agreed to purchase the Rose Garden, Portland’s home floor, which assures that the team will be there for some time and not take off like Seattle did.

Also during the last three drafts the Trailblazers have done a much better job of selecting talent. The year before Oden was drafted, Portland made a pair of draft day deals to LaMarcus Aldridge from Texas and Brandon Roy from Washington. Roy was an All-Star last year and 2006-07 NBA Rookie of the Year. Last season Aldridge averaged 17.8 points per game and 7.6 rebounds per game.

The same year as they drafted Oden, Portland also picked up Josh McRoberts from Duke and Taurean Green from Florida. McRoberts never saw the floor for the Trailblazers and Green was traded last year. The one thing that I like about these two players – though I’m not a big fan of Duke and Florida in general – as well as Oden, Aldridge and Roy is that they played on winning college teams at a high level. You want guys who are used to winning and expect it. They’ll work their asses off in order to win.

This year I think the team missed the mark in its drafting. Originally they went with Brandon Rush from the National Champion Kansas Jayhawks, but then they traded him to Indiana for Jerryd Bayless of Arizona. If this was Arizona 2-5 years ago, great pick, but the team struggled last year. They also got Frenchman Nicholas Batum.

Now I’m not a big fan of drafting foreign players. If you look at the Celtics, they are all American players. The game is just different in the NBA than it is overseas. Yes I know that San Antonio has been successful with a lot of foreign players, but they play a different brand of basketball than 90 percent of the league. And yes I know up until last year that the USA has been getting its ass handed to it by foreign teams, but that’s a whole group of players used to a particular style, not one or two guys trying to fit in with the rest of a team that plays a different way.

It does appear that they may have found a good-to-great foreign player in Rudy Fernandez. The Spaniard was drafted by Phoenix last year, but was traded to Portland for cash. Fernandez played last year in Spain, but decided to join Portland after he finished the Olympics.

Reports have Fernandez putting on a heck of a show during his debut, almost overshadowing Oden. Two reasons why I think Fernandez might work out is A) he plays for a winning team. Spain has been one of the best international teams of late and they took the silver at the Olympics. B) He’s a guard. I think it is much easier for guards to play well in the NBA than post players.

Portland could have the pieces of a good team in the works. I think they’ll make the playoffs this year, but the West is still too loaded for them to do more than a first round exit.

As the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, the Detroit Pistons were a member team of the old National Basketball League (NBL) and the Basketball Association of America (BAA) before joining the NBA in 1949 and becoming the Detroit Pistons in 1957.

Today, the three-time champion Detroit Pistons play their home games at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Their head coach is the newly-hired Michael Curry, and their general manager is Joe Dumars, who played on the back-to-back title winning Pistons of 1989 and 1990.

Early Years in Detroit

When the Pistons first moved to Detroit in 1957, they immediately established themselves as a tough team to beat. They made the playoffs in each of their firsts six seasons in Detroit, though they didn’t get past the division finals.

The 1960s and 1970s were far from kind to the Pistons, who boasted some big names of the era but could not translate that into winning seasons. Between 1963 and 1973, the team only appeared in the playoffs once, despite having high-profile players like Bob Lanier, Dave DeBusschere, Dave Bing, and Jimmy Walker.

Despite a few playoff berths in the mid-1970s, the Detroit Pistons did not begin to establish themselves as an NBA contender until they drafted an Indiana point guard named Isiah Thomas in 1981.

Isiah and the Bad Boys

The Pistons continued to build after drafting Thomas. They acquired guard Vinnie Johnson and center Bill Laimbeer in 1982. This paid quick dividends for the team, as they returned to the playoffs in the 1983-84 season. They lost in the first round to the New York Knicks, but things were beginning to look up for Detroit.

The Pistons picked little-known shooting guard Joe Dumars in 1985, and they picked up forward Rick Mahorn in a trade that same year. Thomas, Dumars, Mahorn, Laimbeer and Dennis Rodman would form the core of the team that would earn the nickname “Bad Boys.”

The Detroit teams of the late 1980s and early 1990s had a rough, physical style of play that earned them the nickname. Rodman, Mahorn, and Laimbeer were well-known for their ability to get under the skin of opposing players. The team, under the leadership of head coach Chuck Daly, had a defense-first mentality that cast them as the polar opposite of flashier teams like the L.A. Lakers.

Championships

In the 1987-88 season, after amassing 54 regular season wins, the Pistons established themselves as the class of the Eastern Conference, beating the Washington Bullets, the Chicago Bulls and the Boston Celtics on their way to their first NBA Finals appearance since 1956 (when they were the Fort Wayne Pistons). They battled hard with the Western champion Lakers, but they eventually fell in seven games.

The following season, the Pistons won 63 games and returned to the NBA Finals bent on revenge against the Lakers. They got their revenge, sweeping the Lakers in four games.

The following year, the defending champion Pistons won 59 games and returned to the NBA Finals, this time against the Portland Trail Blazers. The opponent was different, but the result was the same. Detroit beat the Blazers in five games, making the “Bad Boys” back-to-back champions.

By the 1993-94 season, most of the core players had either retired or been traded, and the Bad Boy era came to an end.

Joe Dumars, the last holdover from the championship era, retired in 1999 and was named Detroit’s general manager in 2000. From the bottom up, he built a team that would eventually consist of Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Ben Wallace, and Rasheed Wallace, among others. With these players, and the guiding hand of head coach Larry Brown (hired in 2003), Dumars constructed a team that would give him a third championship ring, and the team defeated the Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant-led Lakers in the 2004 Finals. That Finals victory had at least an indirect impact on the fate of the Lakers, who, until then, were considered the first NBA dynasty of the new millennium.

2007-08 Season

With much of the championship core still in place (Ben Wallace left for the Chicago Bulls in 2006), the 2007-08 Pistons racked up 59 regular season wins and looked to be a favorite to win the East. They beat the Philadelphia 76ers in six games and the Orlando Magic in five games before falling to the eventual champion Boston Celtics in six games.

At the end of the 2008 season, head coach Flip Saunders left the team and was replaced by assistant coach Michael Curry.

2008-09 Outlook

Rasheed Wallace, Billups, Prince and Hamilton return, though they are a year older. Young players like Jason Maxiell and Rodney Stuckey will be expected to take on additional minutes and relieve some of the pressure off the older players. If they can do that, the Pistons will be a contender to win the East.

Greatest Players

Dave Bing, Chauncey Billups, Joe Dumars, Richard “Rip” Hamilton, Grant Hill, Dennis Rodman, Isiah Thomas

The Toronto Raptors are the NBA’s only Canada-based team. There were two, but the Vancouver Grizzlies were relocated to Memphis, Tenn., in 2001. The Raptors play their home games at the Air Canada Centre. Their head coach is former NBA player Sam Mitchell.

Early Years

The Toronto Raptors were established in 1993 and played their first NBA games in the 1995-96 season. They were named after the velociraptor, a character made popular by the movie Jurassic Park. The team’s first General Manager was former point guard Isiah Thomas. Their first head coach was Brendan Malone. The team’s first draft pick was point guard Damon Stoudamire out of Arizona.

The team’s first season was typical for an expansion club. The Raptors won 21 games in the 1995-96 season, the main bright spot being Stoudamire’s selection as Rookie of the Year.

The Raptors averaged just over 22 wins in their first four seasons, failing to make the playoffs until the 1999-2000 campaign.

Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady

The Raptors drafted Tracy McGrady straight out of high school in 1997. The 6-foot-8, smooth shooting swingman averaged only seven points per game his rookie year, but his potential was apparent to coaches and fans alike.

The Raptors traded their 1998 top pick, forward Antawn Jamison, to the Golden State Warriors for Vince Carter, a high-flying swingman out of North Carolina who happened to be McGrady’s third cousin.

Carter was named Rookie of the Year for the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season.

Playoff appearances

Under the leadership of Carter and McGrady, the Raptors made the playoffs for the first time in franchise history in the 1999-2000 season. They were promptly swept in three games by the New York Knicks.

During the 2000 offseason, the Raptors traded McGrady to the Orlando Magic for a first round draft pick.

In the 2000-01 season, the team posted a franchise-best 47-35 regular season record and made the playoffs a second straight season. They faced the Knicks in the first round again, but this time the story ended differently. The Raptors beat the Knicks, 3-2, in a highly competitive series.

The team had a tight second round series against the Philadelphia 76ers, losing four games to three.

The following year, the Raptors made the playoffs yet again, facing the Detroit Pistons in the first round. They lost that series in three games, and did not make the playoffs again until the 2006-07 season (in which they lost in the first round to a New Jersey Nets team led by the departed Vince Carter).

2007-08 Season

The Raptors posted a .500 season in 2007-08, led by 2003 draftee Chris Bosh. They made the playoffs and faced the Orlando Magic. The Magic beat the Raptors, four games to one.

2008-09 Outlook

The Raptors have made some offseason moves with the hopes of bolstering the team’s frontline play. They acquired center-forward Jermaine O’Neal from the Indiana Pacers and they drafted center Roy Hibbert from Georgetown. Coach Mitchell and the Raptors hope the extra big bodies will help keep Bosh from absorbing a lot of punishment down low. A successful season for the Raptors would be 45 to 50 wins.

Greatest Players

Vince Carter, Doug Christie, Antonio Davis, Tracy McGrady

The New York Knicks, one of the NBA’s most storied franchises, has fallen upon hard times of late. Poor personnel moves, unfulfilled draft picks and in-house controversy have turned this once-proud franchise into a perpetual cellar-dweller. The Knicks have not made the playoffs in four seasons and haven’t posted a .500 record in seven years.

The Knicks play their home games at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Their head coach is former Phoenix coach Mike D’Antoni.

Early Years

The New York Knicks are one of the NBA’s original franchises, established in 1946. They quickly established themselves as one of the NBA’s best teams, making the NBA Finals (albeit losing) three straight seasons.

The late 1950s and early 1960s were not as kind to the Knicks. From 1957 to 1966, the team only made the playoffs once. They finished dead last in the Eastern Division from 1960 to 1966.

The Knicks began to rebuild through the draft, beginning with Willis Reed in 1964 and Bill Bradley in 1965.

Championships

The Knicks slowly but surely put together a top-flight squad, led by Reed, Bradley and Walt “Clyde” Frazier. In the 1969-70 season, the Knicks posted 60 wins and blew through the playoffs, beating the Baltimore Bullets and the Milwaukee Bucks before defeating the Lakers for the championship.

In 1972, the Knicks made it to the Finals again. Newly-added Earl “The Pearl” Monroe led the team past the Bullets and the Boston Celtics to face the Lakers again. This time the story had a different ending, with the Lakers beating the Knicks four games to one.

The following year, after a 57-25 regular season, the Knicks made the Finals yet again. This time, they exacted revenge against the Lakers, beating them in five games.

The following season was another successful one for the Knickerbockers, but they fell to the Celtics in the conference Finals. Willis Reed retired after that season.

Years later, the Knicks would return to the Finals twice, but would lose both times. Bolstered by 1985 draftee Patrick Ewing and shooting guard John Starks, the Knicks posted 57 wins in 1993-94 and advanced to the Finals, where they lost a hotly-contested series to the Houston Rockets, four games to three.

In the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season, the Knicks made the Finals again, only to be beaten by the San Antonio Spurs in five games.

2007-08 Season

Under head coach (and general manager) Isiah Thomas, the Knicks posted only 23 wins, tying a franchise low. Thomas had become exceedingly unpopular in New York because of dubious personnel moves, multiple losing seasons and a sexual harassment suit filed by a former Knicks employee. In April 2008, the Knicks signed Donnie Walsh to take over Thomas’ GM duties. Walsh immediately fired Thomas as head coach, hiring former Phoenix Suns head coach Mike D’Antoni.

2008-09 Outlook

The Knicks selected Italian forward Danilo Gallinari with the 6th pick in the NBA Draft. They also signed former Bulls guard Chris Duhon. Despite swirling rumors of a contract buyout, the Knicks have held on to point guard Stephon Marbury to this point. D’Antoni will have a hard time putting these pieces together, but in the East, the Knicks have a chance to make the playoffs.

Greatest Players

Walt Bellamy, Bill Bradley, Dave DeBusschere, Patrick Ewing, Walt Frazier, Bernard King, Jerry Lucas, Earl Monroe, Willis Reed

Much like the Sacramento Kings, the Atlanta Hawks have traveled around the country, starting in the Midwest in 1946 and moving until finally finding a home in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1968. They play their home games in Philips Arena in Atlanta. Their head coach is Mike Woodson.

Tri-Cities Blackhawks

The Hawks were originally known as the Tri-Cities Blackhawks. They were part of the old National Basketball League and became one of the original members of the National Basketball Association.

After two years in the NBA (they made the playoffs one year and missed the next) the Blackhawks moved to Milwaukee and became the Hawks.

Milwaukee Hawks

The Milwaukee franchise struggled in its four seasons in Wisconsin. From 1951 to 1955, they averaged around 23 wins and failed to make the playoffs.

In 1955 the team moved to St. Louis, Missouri.

St. Louis Hawks

The move to St. Louis seemed to agree with the Hawks. They made the playoffs their first year there, and made it all the way to the division finals, where they fell to the Fort Wayne Pistons.

Two years later, the St. Louis Hawks won the first and only championship in the history of the franchise. Led by coach Alex Hannum, the team beat the Boston Celtics in six games.

The team continued to enjoy success in St. Louis, missing the playoffs only once between 1955 and 1968. Wanting a new arena but rebuffed by the city, the Hawks moved to Atlanta in 1968.

Atlanta Hawks

The Atlanta Hawks made the playoffs their first five seasons in Georgia, then suffered a four-year drought. Returning to the playoffs in 1978, the Hawks enjoyed moderate success. But their fortunes changed in 1982.

The Human Highlight Film

In 1982 the Hawks acquired high-flying forward Dominique Wilkins from the Utah Jazz, who drafted Wilkins earlier that year. Wilkins, known as the “Human Highlight Film” for his acrobatic, flashy dunks, led the Hawks to four 50-win seasons, but they never made it to the conference finals during his tenure with the Hawks.

Midway through the 1993-94 season, the Hawks traded Dominique Wilkins to the Los Angeles Clippers for Danny Manning, who left shortly thereafter via free agency.

The team had a couple of 50-win seasons after Dominique, but they suffered a long, slow slide to the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings, from which they have only begun to recover.

2007-08 Season

In the Western Conference, the Hawks never would have made the playoffs with a 37-45 record. But in the East, that was good enough for a Number Eight seeding in the postseason. Led by Joe Johnson, Al Horford, and point guard Mike Bibby (acquired midseason in a trade with the Sacramento Kings), the Hawks took the eventual-champion Boston Celtics to seven games before losing in the first round.

2008-09 Outlook

Under the leadership of coach Woodson, and with a young nucleus consisting of Horford and Johnson, things could be looking up for the Atlanta Hawks. Bolstered by how well they played the Celtics, their confidence could translate into their first .500-plus season since 1997.

Greatest Players

Bob Petit, Connie Hawkins, Moses Malone, Pete Maravich, Lenny Wilkens, Dominique Wilkins

The Charlotte Bobcats are the NBA’s newest team, founded in 2004. The team was established after the city’s previous NBA team, the Charlotte Hornets, departed the city for New Orleans, La., and the Western Conference.

The Bobcats play their home games at Time Warner Cable Arena. Their head coach is Larry Brown, and their general manager is Rod Higgins. Michael Jordan is part of the ownership group.

Birth of a team

When the Bobcats were established in place of the departed Hornets, several ownership groups bid for the team. The franchise was awarded to a group led by Robert L. Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET). Michael Jordan, former All-American guard at the University of North Carolina, became a majority owner and head of basketball operations in 2006.

Early Years

Since the Bobcats have only played four seasons, one could argue that they are still in their early years. Their first season was 2004-05. After drafting Connecticut forward-center Emeka Okafor, the Bobcats went 18-64. Okafor was one of the few bright spots, averaging 15 points and nearly 11 rebounds per game and earning the Rookie of the Year Award.

In the offseason, the Bobcats drafted guard Raymond Felton and forward Sean May, who were both North Carolina Tar Heel standouts. The team improved to 26-56, and Felton made the All-Rookie Second Team.

The Bobcats picked Gonzaga scoring machine Adam Morrison with the third pick in the 2006 draft. Morrison averaged nearly 12 points a game and made the All-Rookie Second Team as the Bobcats went 33-49.

In 2007, head coach Bernie Bickerstaff was fired and Sam Vincent was tapped to take his place. The team drafted another Tar Heel, Brandan Wright, but traded him to the Golden State Warriors for Jason Richardson.

2007-08 Season

Disaster struck the Bobcats during preseason when Morrison tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, ending his 2007-08 season. Head coach Vincent began his first season without one of his top scorers, which may have led to his early and abrupt downfall. Expansion teams are generally expected to make a climb from the division basement in the third or fourth year of their existence, and when this doesn’t happen, everyone, from the fan base to the front office, begins to lose patience.

The Bobcats struggled yet again in 2007-08, winning only 32 games and placing 11th in the East. Vincent was fired in April, and legendary coach Larry Brown (himself a former UNC Tar Heel) was hired. He is the third head coach in the four-year history of the franchise.

2008-09 Outlook

Larry Brown is famous for immediately improving his teams (with the ignominious exception of the New York Knicks, a team not even a consummate teacher like Brown could improve). Brown has a solid young nucleus to work with. Morrison is expected to make a full recovery from last season’s knee injury. Felton is a steadily improving point guard. Gerald Wallace and Jason Richardson add scoring punch. Texas standout D.J. Augustin was picked 9th in the 2008 draft. These ingredients, in the hands of Brown the master chef, could make for an interesting 2008-09 campaign. A forty-win season would be considered a success — and would comprise a franchise record.

The Orlando Magic is one of the fastest rising teams in the NBA’s Eastern Conference. They boast one of the league’s best big men in Slam Dunk champion Dwight Howard, and they are coming fresh off a 52-win season.

The Magic play their home games at the Amway Arena. Their head coach is Stan Van Gundy, and their general manager is former Magic player Otis Smith.

Early Years

The Magic entered the NBA in 1989 as part of a four-team expansion effort with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Miami Heat and the Charlotte Hornets. Their first coach was Matt Guokas, and their first draft pick was shooting guard Nick Anderson. The expansion draft, which allowed certain players to be chosen from each team in the league, brought players like Reggie Theus and Scott Skiles (who would later set a league record for assists in a game with 30). The first team went 18-64.

After drafting forward Dennis Scott out of Georgia Tech in 1990, the Magic improved rapidly. In their second season, they put up 31 wins and served notice as a promising young team.

Between 1989 and 1992, the Magic averaged 23 wins. But thing were about to change.

The Shaq Draft

In 1992, the Magic won the first pick in the draft lottery and selected seven-foot center Shaquille O’Neal out of Louisiana State University. O’Neal, a powerful, agile center, paid immediate dividends, and the Magic improved from 21 wins to 41 wins. Shaq was named an All-Star starter as a rookie, the first player in NBA history to be so honored.

Picking up a Penny

The Magic lucked out again the following year, winning the first pick in the lottery in spite of a .500 record. They selected forward Chris Webber out of Michigan, and traded him to the Golden State Warriors for Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway.

The combination of a dynamic point guard and a bruising center turned the Magic into one of the NBA’s best teams nearly overnight. They won 50 games in the 1993-94 season and placed second in the division, losing to the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the playoffs.

The following season, the Orlando Magic were considered a contender for the title. They placed first in the Atlantic Division with 57 wins and beat the Boston Celtics and the Chicago Bulls (minus the retired Michael Jordan) before exacting revenge against the Pacers in the conference finals.

In the NBA Finals, the Orlando Magic faced Hakeem Olajuwon and the Houston Rockets. Shaq was no match for the wily veteran center, and the Magic were no match for the Rockets, who swept Orlando in four games.

The 1995 season saw the championship window begin to close for the Magic. The team was intact, but Jordan was back from his first retirement. Despite 60 wins and another division title, the Magic lost to the Bulls in the conference finals, 4-0.

Thus ended the dynamic duo of Shaq and Penny.

Shaq leaves for La-La Land

In 1996, Shaquille O’Neal left the Magic as a free agent and joined the L. A. Lakers. The Magic were still a playoff team even without O’Neal, but they were no longer a title contender. The team traded Hardaway to the Phoenix Suns in 1999.

2007-08 Season

The Orlando Magic have re-established themselves as one of the most dangerous teams in the East. Led by high school phenom Dwight Howard, the team won 52 games and the Southeast Division title. They beat the Toronto Raptors in the first round before falling to the Detroit Pistons in five games.

2008-09 Outlook

With Howard, point guard Jameer Nelson, Hedo Turkoglu and J.J. Redick, the Magic have a talented young nucleus and figure to be a favorite to repeat as Southeast Division champs. Whether or not that translates to a deep playoff run remains to be seen.

Greatest Players

Nick Anderson, Grant Hill, Dwight Howard, Penny Hardaway, Tracy McGrady, Shaquille O’Neal

Given the Miami Heat’s recent struggles, it’s difficult to believe the team won an NBA championship just two seasons ago. Since then, a shoulder injury to star guard Dwayne Wade and the Shaquille O’Neal trade have helped turn a champion into a lottery team.

The Miami Heat play their home games at the American Airlines Arena. Their head coach is Erik Spoelstra, and their general manager is former head coach (and former NBA player) Pat Riley.

Early Years

The Miami Heat joined the NBA (along with the Charlotte Hornets) in 1988. A ragtag group of rookies and veteran castoffs, they did what new expansion teams do — they lost, to the tune of 17 straight to begin the 1988-89 season.

In their first three seasons, the Heat averaged 19 wins, but their win totals grew steadily each year. In the 1991-92 season, they won 38 games and made the playoffs. The Heat had the misfortune of drawing the Chicago Bulls, and fell to them in a three-game sweep.

The Heat made the playoffs twice more in the next four seasons, but could not get out of the first round, losing to the Atlanta Hawks in 1994 and the Bulls again in 1996. The Heat got to the Eastern Conference finals in 1997, only to lose to the Bulls once again.

The Shaq Acquisition

In 2004, buoyed by the success of 2003 draftee Dwyane Wade, the Heat made a move destined to make or break the team. They traded Lamar Odom, Brian Grant, and Caron Butler to the Los Angeles Lakers for center Shaquille O’Neal. The superstar big man was given a huge public welcome, during which he promised to deliver a championship to the city of Miami. (He will probably be remembered as delivering on his promise, but Shaq had more than a little help.)

The Heat responded immediately. They won 59 games in 2004-05 and made it to the conference finals, where they lost to the Detroit Pistons in seven games. Pat Riley, who had resigned his coaching post to concentrate on his GM role, resumed his coaching duties in 2005. It has been speculated that Riley, intrigued with the prospect of coaching O’Neal, engineered the departure of coach Stan Van Gundy and took Van Gundy’s place on the floor.

The Championship Season

The 2005-06 season saw a slight decrease in regular season wins — from 59 to 52 — but the Heat were finally able to get over the hump. After beating the Bulls, the New Jersey Nets, and the Detroit Pistons, respectively, the Heat went to their first-ever NBA Finals, where they met Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks (who were also in their first Finals).

Dallas took the first two games at home and were winning Game 3 in the fourth quarter when Wade took over. The Heat came back to win Game 3 and never lost another game in the series, winning the NBA title, four games to two. Dwyane Wade was named the Finals Most Valuable Player.

It was a fourth championship ring for O’Neal, and the first ring for veterans like Alonzo Mourning, Antoine Walker, and Gary Payton.

2007-08 Season

Injuries hit the 2007-08 Heat. Wade had badly injured his left shoulder the season before, and wasn’t back to his dominant self yet. Mourning suffered a season-ending knee injury. Shaq was in and out of the lineup with chronic hip problems. In February of 2008, Shaq was traded to the Phoenix Suns for forward Shawn Marion. The Heat won only 15 games.

2008-09 Outlook

The Heat drafted power forward Michael Beasley and NCAA title game hero Mario Chalmers in 2008, and moved assistant coach Erik Spoelstra up to head coach after Riley decided to return to the front office.

Spoelstra has his work cut out for him, but Wade has returned to form. If he can get a contribution from Beasley, plus some unexpected help, the Heat may begin the long return to playoff contention.

Greatest Players

Alonzo Mourning, Shaquille O’Neal, Glen Rice, Dwayne Wade

Technically speaking, the Oklahoma City Thunder are the newest team in the NBA. Until 2008, they were known as the Seattle SuperSonics. In a hotly contested move, owner Clay Bennett bought out the SuperSonics’ lease with Seattle’s Key Arena, and moved the team to Oklahoma City. The Thunder will play their home games at the Ford Center. Their head coach is P.J. Carlesimo.

Early Years in Seattle

The Seattle SuperSonics were born in 1967. They suffered the typical growing pains of an NBA expansion franchise, winning only 23 games in their inaugural year. Led by future Hall of Fame point guard Lenny Wilkens, the team averaged 33 wins in its first seven seasons. Their best season during that stretch was the 1971-72 season, in which they won 47 games but failed to make the playoffs.

The Seattle SuperSonics made their first playoff appearance in the 1974-75 season, Bill Russell’s first as head coach. They beat Detroit in the first round before losing to the Golden State Warriors in the second round.

Championship

The Seattle SuperSonics posted a 52-30 record in the 1978-79 season. Led by Gus Williams, Dennis Johnson and center Jack Sikma, they beat the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the playoffs, four games to one. In the Western Conference finals, they beat the Phoenix Suns in seven games, advancing to the NBA Finals. The Sonics faced the Washington Bullets (now known as the Wizards) in the Finals, defeating them four games to one. It is, so far, the franchise’s only championship.

Karl, and Payton, and Kemp — oh, my!

After enjoying moderate success during the 1980s the Seattle SuperSonics developed into one of the NBA’s best teams for much of the 1990s. Three factors are largely credited for this development: the drafting of forward Shawn Kemp in 1989, the drafting of point guard Gary Payton in 1990, and the hiring of head coach George Karl in 1992.

Karl’s hiring boosted the Sonics from a playoff contender to a Western Conference powerhouse. In the 1992-93 season, the team posted 55 regular season wins and made it to the conference finals, where they lost to the Phoenix Suns, four games to three.

After first round losses in the following two seasons, the Sonics came roaring back. In 1995-96, the team won 64 regular season games. In the playoffs, they beat the Sacramento Kings, the Houston Rockets, and the Utah Jazz en route to their first NBA Finals appearance since the 1978-79 season.

Like the Utah Jazz and the Portland Trail Blazers, the Sonics had the misfortune of going against the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls. The Bulls won the series, four games to two, and despite continued success, the Sonics never made it to another Finals.

Shawn Kemp was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1997, George Karl left after the 1997-98 season, and Payton was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks in the middle of the 2002-03 season.

2007-08 Season

In 2007, Sonics star shooting guard Ray Allen was traded to the Boston Celtics for three minor players. The Sonics drafted Texas scoring machine Kevin Durant the same year. Led by Durant, the Sonics won only 20 games in their last season in Seattle.

2008-09 Outlook

The Oklahoma City Thunder may have moved east, but they are still a member of the Western Conference. As such, a playoff berth is not a feasible goal for the Thunder. Rather, a 30- to 35-win season would be considered a successful campaign for the former Seattle SuperSonics.

Greatest Players

Fred Brown, Tom Chambers, Spencer Haywood,  Shawn Kemp, Gary Payton, Jack Sikma, Lenny Wilkens, Gus Williams

The Portland Trail Blazers joined the National Basketball Association in 1970.  They play their home games at the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon, and are the state’s only major professional sports franchise. Their head coach is former NBA player Nate McMillan, and their owner is Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

Early Years

The early years of the Portland basketball franchise were painful, even for an expansion team. Although their two best players, Sidney Wicks and Geoff Petrie, were decent NBA professionals, the team posted dismal records during their first six years of existence. Of those seasons, their worst was 1971-72, when they went 18-64 (the lowest win total in team history). The best of those early seasons was 1974-75, when the Blazers went 38-44. During that time, they went through three head coaches.

Although the team (and its fans) suffered during those early seasons, better times were ahead.

That Championship Season

In 1976, the Trail Blazers hired Jack Ramsay as their head coach and acquired Maurice Lucas. Lucas and young center Bill Walton led Portland to a 49-33 regular season record (the team’s first winning record) and a playoff berth.

The Trail Blazers beat the Chicago Bulls in the first round, the Denver Nuggets in the second round, and swept the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals. In the NBA Finals, they played the Philadelphia 76ers and won, four games to two. It remains the only NBA championship in team history.

The following season, the team’s fortunes took a downturn when Walton suffered a season-ending foot injury. They would not appear in the NBA Finals again until 1990.

The Curse of Sam Bowie

In the 1984 Draft, the Trail Blazers had the #2 pick. This was a deep draft, and the Blazers had the opportunity to use it to fortify their team and possibly return to championship glory. Instead, they made what is widely considered the worst draft mistake in NBA history.

The Houston Rockets selected University of Houston center Akeem Olajuwon (who later added an “H” to his first name), giving the Blazers the chance to draft North Carolina shooting guard Michael Jordan. Because they had drafted a shooting guard the year before (Olajuwon’s college teammate Clyde Drexler), the Trail Blazers addressed their need for front-line size and picked center Sam Bowie. Jordan turned out to be an NBA great (perhaps the premier NBA great), while the injury-prone Bowie never fulfilled his promise.

1990s Finals appearances

The Trail Blazers, led by Drexler and point guard Terry Porter, were a playoff regular in the late 1980s. In the 1989-90 season, they made it to the NBA Finals but lost to the Detroit Pistons in five games.

Two season later, the Blazers found themselves in the Finals again, but ironically, they faced Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls won, four games to two.

2007-08 Season

After suffering a playoff drought (no playoff appearances since 2003), the Blazers were looking to return to the postseason. Their 2006 draft pick, Brandon Roy, was Rookie of the Year, and their 2007 pick, center Greg Oden (#1 overall), evoked memories of defensive stalwarts like Patrick Ewing and Bill Russell. However, Oden underwent microfracture surgery and did not play in the 2007-08 season.

Even without their center, the Blazers went 41-41.

2008-09 Season Outlook

With some smart personnel moves, the Blazers have been able to shed the “Jail Blazers” moniker they earned in the early part of this decade. The Trail Blazers now look forward to the return of center Greg Oden, who appears to be recovered. If Oden can provide tough defense and some inside scoring, and Roy continues to excel, the Trail Blazers have a chance to make some noise in the Western Conference.

Greatest Players

Bill Walton, Clyde Drexler, Terry Porter, Maurice Lucas, Rasheed Wallace

The Denver Nuggets first existed in the American Basketball Association, as the Denver Rockets. The ABA went under in 1976, and Denver was one of the four teams assimilated into the NBA. The Denver team name was changed to the Nuggets because Houston already had the Rockets.

The team now plays its home games at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colo. Their head coach is George Karl.

Early NBA Years

The Denver Nuggets had a successful beginning in the NBA, finishing with a regular season record of 50-32 and making the playoffs. They lost to the Portland Trail Blazers in six games, but they had quickly established themselves as a team to reckon with.

The 1977-78 season saw 48 regular season wins and another trip to the playoffs. This time they got all the way to the conference finals before bowing to the Seattle Supersonics, four games to two.

The Nuggets made the playoffs again in 1978-79, only to fall to the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round. The Nuggets failed to make the playoffs the following two seasons, but made it back in 1981-82, losing to the Phoenix Suns in the first round.

More playoff appearances

The Nuggets were a perennial playoff team in the 1980s, but rarely got past the second round. In 1984-85 they got past the Utah Jazz in the second round, only to run into the Lakers in the Conference Finals. The Lakers beat the Nuggets in five games.

The Nuggets played a part in playoff history in the 1993-94 season. As the 8th seed, they drew the Seattle Supersonics in the first round of the playoffs. The Sonics were heavily favored, with some “experts” predicting a sweep. When Seattle won the first two games in the five-game series, it looked like the “experts” might be right. But the Nuggets, led by a young Dikembe Mutombo and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (formerly Chris Jackson), tied the series at two apiece by winning both home games. That set up a finale in Seattle.

The Nuggets were on a mission, and they won the final game in overtime, 98-94, beating the Sonics three games to two. It was the first time in league history that an 8th seeded team defeated a number one seed.

Denver went seven games with the Utah Jazz in the following round, losing 4-3.

2007-08 Season

The Nuggets won 50 games in 2007-08, guided by smooth-shooting small forward Carmelo Anthony (drafted out of Syracuse in 2003) and high-scoring Allen Iverson (acquired via trade in 2006). The 8th-seeded Nuggets took on the eventual Western Conference champion L.A. Lakers, who swept the Nuggets in four games.

2008-09 Outlook

The Denver Nuggets find themselves looking up at the higher-tier teams in the West (Lakers, Spurs, Hornets, Suns, Mavericks). However, Anthony and Iverson are such great scorers that they are rarely out of games. If they can acquire a reliable third scoring option (preferably a big man), the Nuggets could open some eyes in the West this season.

Greatest Players

Mahmoud Abdul Rauf (Chris Jackson), Michael Adams, Carmelo Anthony, Alex English, Allen Iverson, Lafayette “Fat” Lever, Dikembe Mutombo, David Thompson, Kiki Vandeweghe

For a team that always seems to be around at playoff time, the Phoenix Suns have precious little to show for it. Despite being one of the NBA’s most successful regular-season teams (and one of the most entertaining to watch), the Suns have yet to win an NBA title.

The Suns, who play their home games at the US Airways Center, enter the 2008-09 season with a new coach (Terry Porter) and renewed hopes for that ever-elusive championship ring.

Early Years

The Phoenix Suns were born in 1968 as an NBA expansion franchise. They only won 16 games in their first season, but expansion teams are expected to struggle, and fans of new teams tend to be patient with them — as long as they show steady improvement.

In their second season, led by coach Cotton Fitzsimmons,they made their first playoff appearance by posting a 39-43 record. The Suns lost to the L.A. Lakers in seven games.

The next few years were up and down for the Suns; they didn’t make the playoffs again until the 1975-76 season. That year, they made a spectacular run.

NBA Finals Appearances

Although they were only two games above .500 in the 1975-76 season, the Phoenix Suns hit the ground running in the playoffs. They beat the Seattle Supersonics and the defending champion Golden State Warriors before losing to the Boston Celtics in six games.

In spite of their perennial playoff status, the Finals would elude the Suns until 1993 — the season of Charles Barkley.

Barkley was in his prime at the time of his trade from the Philadelphia 76ers. He had arguably the best season of his career, garnering his first and only Most Valuable Player Award.

Guided by Barkley, the Suns won 62 regular-season games before beating the Lakers, the San Antonio Spurs, and the Supersonics to win the Western Conference title. But they ran into Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls, who beat the Suns, four games to two.

2007-08 Season

The 2007-08 season was marked by blockbuster midseason trades in the Western Conference, starting with the Lakers’ acquisition of Pau Gasol. The Gasol trade immediately made the Lakers title contenders, and other teams made trades in an attempt to put themselves back on the map. This is how the Suns ended up trading forward Shawn Marion to the Miami Heat for Shaquille O’Neal.

In his prime, O’Neal was the most unstoppable big man in the league and one of the most dominant in NBA history. At 36, though, Shaq is far from his “Superman” incarnation. Still, general manager Steve Kerr was convinced that Shaq made them title contenders.

While trying to work Shaq into the team framework, the Suns went 55-27 and drew the San Antonio Spurs in the first round. The Spurs beat the Suns handily, four games to one.

Head coach Mike D’Antoni left the Suns after the season, signing with the New York Knicks. Terry Porter was named the Suns’ head coach in June.

2008-09 Season Outlook

The Phoenix Suns are built to win now. Their best player — point guard Steve Nash — is 34 years old. Shaq is 36. Grant Hill, too, is 36. The Suns look ready to win, but their window is closing rapidly. In fact, by trading away their best defender in Marion, the window may be shut. But if Nash and Shaq can remain healthy, and the team can play cohesively under new coach Porter, the Suns should be around at playoff time, as usual.

Greatest Players

Charles Barkley, Tom Chambers, Connie Hawkins, Dennis Johnson, Kevin Johnson, Jason Kidd, Dan Majerle, Shawn Marion, Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire, Paul Westphal

The Memphis Grizzlies were born in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1995. They, along with the Toronto Raptors, were part of both a National Basketball Association (NBA) expansion effort and an endeavor to spread professional hoops past its U.S. borders. While basketball seems to have taken hold in Toronto, it did not succeed in Vancover, and the Grizzlies moved to Memphis, Tenn., in 2001. They play their home games at the FedEx Forum. The team’s head coach is former NBA player Marc Iavaroni.

Early Years

The Vancouver Grizzlies entered the league at the same time as their brethren to the east (Toronto Raptors), but have never found similar success. As is the case with expansion teams, the Grizzlies were put together using two processes: the expansion draft (where players are chosen from various teams in the league) and the standard draft. The team’s first pick was Bryant “Big Country” Reeves, a big, classic back-to-the-basket center out of Oklahoma State. Although Reeves was a star in college, he was never better than average as a pro, and retired from the game in 2001. The Vancouver Grizzlies first season was typical for an expansion franchise; their 15-67 record was the worst in the NBA for the 1995-1996 season. They actually fared worse the following year, posting a 14-68 record. Things appeared to be looking up in 1997-98, when the team won 19 games, but the Vancouver Grizzlies only won eight games in the following lockout-shortened season. The Grizzlies drafted Maryland point guard Steve Francis in 1999, despite Francis repeatedly saying he would not go there. The guard forced the Grizzlies to make a three-team deal that sent Francis to the Houston Rockets. The team’s popularity dropped after the lockout, and this led to the Vancouver Grizzlies being moved to Memphis, Tenn., in 2001.

The Memphis Grizzlies

Several factors helped change the fortunes of the Memphis Grizzlies. First was the acquisition of star Spanish forward Pau Gasol, who had been drafted by the Atlanta Hawks. Next was the hiring of general manager Jerry West. A Hall-of-Fame player for the L.A. Lakers (the NBA logo bears his silhouette), West went on to enjoy a highly successful career as a personnel man for the Lakers. He was considered one of the league’s smartest judges of talent and a major coup for the Grizzlies, who were still seeking their first playoff appearance. Gasol’s acquisition and West’s hiring paid almost immediate dividends. In the 2002-03 season, the Memphis Grizzlies racked up 28 wins, the highest total in franchise history. They destroyed that record in the following campaign, winning 50 games and making their first playoff appearance. Had they been moved to the Eastern Conference, they might have had a better chance at advancing. But they faced the San Antonio Spurs in the first round and lost in four games. The following season, the Grizzlies posted a 45-37 record, good enough to make it to the playoffs again. This time they lost to the Phoenix Suns, in another four-game sweep. In the 2005-06 season, the Memphis Grizzlies won 49 games en route to a third straight playoff appearance. However, they ran into the Dallas Mavericks, who sent the Grizz to a third straight first round sweep. The Grizzlies finished 22-60 the following season, after which Jerry West resigned as general manager. Not only have the Memphis Grizzlies yet to win a first-round series, they have yet to win a single first round game.

2007-08 Season

The Trade That Shook The West took place during the 2007-08 season. Pau Gasol, the only All-Star in the history of the Memphis Grizzlies, was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers for center Kwame Brown (considered a bust by most NBA personnel people) and other lower-tier players. While other Western Conference contenders scrambled to make trades of their own, the Grizzlies limped along to another 22-win season.

2008-09 Outlook

With so many competitive teams in the West, a successful season for the Grizzlies would be a record at or near .500. Without their best player, even 42 wins seems beyond their reach. The Grizzlies hope some high-flying offense from rookie O.J. Mayo will bring fans to the FedEx forum and add some wins to their record.

The Houston Rockets got their start in 1967, when they joined the NBA as an expansion team. The club was originally based in San Diego, Calif., but moved to Houston in 1971. The team’s first coach was Jack McMahon, and the team’s first draft pick, in 1967, was Pat Riley (who went on to play for the L.A. Lakers before enjoying a Hall of Fame career as a coach).

The Rockets’ first playoff appearance came in 1969. Led by Elvin Hayes, the team made it to the Western Conference semifinals before being eliminated by the Atlanta Hawks in six games. The following year, the team drafted Calvin Hayes and Rudy Tomjanovich (who would later coach the team).

The Early Years

The 1970s started off roughly for the Rockets, perhaps because they were essentially homeless during their early years in Houston. They had no home arena, so they played in the Astrodome and other venues.
In 1975 the team moved to The Summit. Having their own home court may have helped the team’s cohesiveness; in the 1975-76 season, the Rockets made the playoffs for the first time since moving to Houston. They made it to the semifinals before losing to the Boston Celtics.

The Rockets didn’t make the playoffs in 1975-76, but their fortunes took a turn for the better when they acquired former ABA star Moses Malone. Malone led the team in rebounding and led the league in offensive rebounds as the Rockets posted a franchise-high 49 wins and made the playoffs. This time they made it to the conference final before falling to the Philadelphia 76ers in six games.

Championships

The Rockets were the beneficiaries of Michael Jordan’s first retirement, in 1993. Led by center Hakeem Olajuwon (and coach Rudy Tomjanovich), Houston won its first 15 games on their way to a playoff appearance and a championship showdown with the Patrick Ewing-led New York Knicks. The Rockets came back from a 3-2 deficit to win the NBA title in seven games.

The following year, the team acquired shooting guard Clyde Drexler. Drexler, who was Olajuwon’s college teammate at University of Houston, had reached the NBA Finals with the Portland Trail Blazers, but never got over the hump. Houston was Drexler’s last and best shot at a title.

After playing their way to a sixth seed in the playoffs, the Rockets beat the Utah Jazz, Phoenix Suns and the San Antonio Spurs to earn a Finals appearance against the Orlando Magic. The Magic were led by center Shaquille O’Neal and point guard Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway, and they were expected to give the Rockets a run for their money. But the Rockets won four consecutive games and swept the Magic for a second straight title.

2007-2008 season

This past season, the Rockets were expected to make a deep run in the playoffs. An injury to their star center, Yao Ming, appeared to derail those hopes. Without their best player, the team turned to shooting guard Tracy McGrady to help salvage the season. He did more than that. The team ripped off a 22-game winning streak (12 of which were won with Yao Ming), the second-longest in NBA history, and finished the season with a 55-27 record.

The Rockets lost in the first round of the 2007-08 playoffs, four games to two, to the Utah Jazz.

2008-2009 Outlook
Assuming Yao Ming fully recovers, things look good for the Rockets. Steve Francis returns after an injury-plagued season, and the Rockets acquired Ron Artest from the Sacramento Kings. If McGrady and Yao can stay healthy, and Artest can blend into the team’s framework, the Rockets could be a threat to the Western Conference champion L.A. Lakers.

Longtime fans of the NBA may still think of the Dallas Mavericks as an expansion franchise, but in fact, they have been a part of the league for nearly 30 years now.
Donald Carter petitioned the NBA for a new basketball team in 1979, and the other league owners approved the move over the 1980 All-Star weekend. The Mavericks’ name was the result of a radio station Name the Team contest. The winner was the name “Mavericks,” after the TV western from the 1950’s and 1960’s starring James Garner.

The first head coach in the history of the Dallas Mavericks was Dick Motta. The first draft pick was Kiki Vandeweghe (number 11 overall) in the 1980 Draft.

Like nearly all expansion teams, the Mavericks had a tough first season. Unlike most expansion teams, the Mavs won their first game ever, a 103-92 stunner over the San Antonio Spurs. The young team’s euphoria soon faded, though, as they went on to finish the season at 15-67.

In 1981, the Mavs drafted the bedrock of their team when they picked up Mark Aguirre, Jay Vincent and Rolando Blackman. Guided by these young stars, the Mavericks steadily improved over the next two seasons, winning 28 and 38 games, respectively.

The Mavs drafted point guard Derek Harper in 1983, and in the following season Dallas posted their first winning season (43-39) and first-ever playoff berth. The fledgling playoff team from the Lone Star State won a five-game series with the Seattle Supersonics before falling to the Los Angeles Lakers in five.
The 1980s saw the Mavericks score points by the bucketload, and they always seemed to be in the playoff picture, but something always caused them to fall short. Despite the performances of players like Sam Perkins and Detlef Schrempf, they couldn’t to get past the Lakers, who owned the Western Conference in the ‘80s.

In 1988, the Mavericks finished second in the Midwest Division and charged into the playoffs with a vengeance. They swept the Houston Rockets in four games and dispatched the Denver Nuggets, four games to two. Then they faced the dreaded Lakers. Determined to beat their arch-nemesis, they took the Lakers to seven games, but lost the seventh.

The following season was a messy one for the Mavs, and after a 38-44 record they sat out the playoffs. Roy Tarpley, a talented but troubled forward, violated the league’s substance abuse policy and was suspended. This would be a pattern for Tarpley throughout his career. Other internal problems did little to help the team’s situation, and it was obvious some changes needed to be made.

In the 1989-90 season, Dallas returned with a new look, having traded away Aguirre for Adrian Dantley and Schrempf for Herb Williams. The revamped team went 47-35 and returned to the playoffs, but was swept in the first round by the eventual Western Champion Portland Trail Blazers.

The 1990-91 and 91-92 seasons saw the Mavericks return to the bottom of the NBA barrel. In 1992 the team drafted Jim Jackson, a highly-regarded scorer out of Ohio State. The following year, they picked Kentucky forward Jamal Mashburn, and in 1994 they drafted point guard Jason Kidd out of California. The arrival of Kidd began a new era in Dallas – the ill-fated Three J’s era.

Kidd led the league in triple doubles in the 1994-95 season and helped the Mavs post 36 wins – a 23-game improvement over the previous season. Things were looking up.

But in the 1995-96 season, Mashburn suffered a season-ending knee injury, Tarpley was suspended (again) and Jackson and Kidd refused to get along. Despite some individual successes, the Mavs finished 26-56, and Dick Motta was fired.

The 1996-97 season saw a compete revamping of the team. The Three J’s all went their separate ways, and Don Nelson took over as head coach.

The Mavs continued to struggle in the late 90s, but guard Michael Finley was excelling individually, and would play a part in the team’s future fortunes. Mark Cuban, who purchased the team in 2000, would also figure prominently.

Finley and Dirk Nowitzki led the team to a 53-29 record in 2000-01.

In the 2000-01 playoffs, the Mavs came back from an 0-2 deficit to beat the Utah Jazz in five games. The San Antonio Spurs were the class of the West by then, though, and they beat the Mavs in five games.
In 2001-02, the Mavericks moved from Reunion Arena to the new American Airlines Center. The team enjoyed much regular-season success, but little playoff success, in the ensuing three seasons. In 2004-05, the Mavs added new pieces, bringing in Jason Terry and Jerry Stackhouse and drafting point guard Devin Harris. This nucleus (led by Avery Johnson, Don Nelson’s hand-picked successor) advanced to the NBA Finals in 2006, where they seemed to have victory in hand. But after winning the first two games against the Miami Heat, they lost the next four.

The Mavericks began the following season on a mission to prove that they, not the Heat, were the league’s best team. They posted a scorching 67-15 record, and Nowitzki was named the league’s MVP. However, by the time NBA commissioner David Stern gave Nowitzki the award, the star and his team had been eliminated in the first round by the 8^th-seeded Golden State Warriors.

Still convinced that they were capable of a title run, the Mavericks traded Devin Harris for former Mavs’ draft pick Jason Kidd in the 2007-08 season. But even Kidd couldn’t help them advance, as they were beaten four games to one by the upstart New Orleans Hornets. Coach Avery Johnson was fired after the season, to be replaced by Rick Carlisle.

With a team built to win now, and an owner who wants to win now, the time for the 2008-09 Dallas Mavericks seems to be…now.

When James Naismith invented the game of basketball at the Springfield, Mass. YMCA in 1891, he was simply looking for a distraction for his rowdy young charges, who were often stuck indoors due to the harshly cold Massachusetts winters. Little did he know that his creation would one day evolve into a globalized, multi-billion-dollar sensation known as the National Basketball Association.

What follows is a brief history of the NBA, from its inception just after World War II to its gold medal winning Redeem Team, which recently won the gold in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

It was 1946. WWII was over and America was still basking in the glow of victory. Americans once again had entertainment dollars to spend, and in June, a group of sports arena owners got together with an idea on how to get people to spend some of that money on sports. A professional basketball league, with ten teams, comprising an East division and a West division. By June 6, the Basketball Association of America, or the BAA, was born.

The first game in BAA history was played on November 1, 1946, in Toronto, between the Toronto Huskies and the visiting New York Knickerbockers. The Knickerbockers won that game, 68-66.
The BAA owners had a distinct advantage over the competing National Basketball League, or NBL. They owned large arenas in the nation’s major cities and could command large crowds, thereby making more money. Though the NBL was probably the BAA’s equal when it came to quality of play, in the end the BAA had the superior dollars. In August 1949, the BAA and the NBL merged together, forming the National Basketball Association, or the NBA.

With the merger, the league now had seventeen teams, in cities large and small, across the United States. The league trimmed this number down to a record-low eight teams in 1954. The Kings, Celtics, Warriors, Lakers, Hawks, 76ers, Pistons, and the Knickerbockers are all still part of today’s NBA.

The quality of basketball back then was, understandably, not quite like what we see today. One of the reasons for this discrepancy was that, in the 1940s, African-American players were not allowed to compete in the NBA. That changed in 1950, when the NBA broke the color barrier by introducing several black players, including Earl Lloyd, Chuck Cooper, and Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton. Clifton was the first black player to sign an NBA contract, while Lloyd was the first to play in an NBA game.

Another change that positively affected the league was the advent of the 24-second shot clock in 1954. Before then, teams could use stall tactics against superior opponents to keep the score down. It was a tactically sound strategy, but it made for boring basketball. With the shot clock, a team had 24 seconds to attempt a shot. If no shot was taken (or if the ball hadn’t touched the rim) before time expired, the team lost possession.

The 1960s saw an expansion of the league from nine teams to fourteen. The decade also saw the inception of the NBA’s most formidable competitor, the American Basketball Association, or ABA.

The two leagues competed fiercely for spectators as well as top players. The NBA had the advantage of being in most major cities, while the ABA allowed undergraduates to join. That’s how Julius Erving, known as Dr. J., ended up in the upstart ABA. Rick Barry, the NBA’s leading scorer, also left for the ABA.

The NBA continued to expand and finally won the bidding war with the ABA. The two leagues agreed to a limited merger in 1976. This increased the number of NBA teams to 22.

In 1979, in an effort to further increase scoring and excitement, the NBA added the three-point shot, which was actually an ABA innovation.

The 1980s was arguably the most important decade in league history. This decade saw the epic rivalry between Larry Bird’s Boston Celtics and Earvin “Magic” Johnson’s Los Angeles Lakers. Johnson and the Lakers won five titles; Bird won three with the Celtics.

The 1980s also introduced the world to Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest player in the history of the NBA. He was drafted by the Chicago Bulls in 1984. Together with Scottie Pippen, Jordan’s Bulls won six NBA championships in the 1990s.

Jordan, Bird and Johnson helped form the 1992 Olympic basketball team, popularly known as the Dream Team. It was the first U.S. Olympic team to use NBA All-Stars. The team cruised to an easy gold medal. Since then, the NBA has been closely associated with USA Basketball.

The Chicago Bulls dynasty was broken up in 1998. Since then, the Western Conference has won the majority of the league championships. The San Antonio Spurs, led by Tim Duncan, have won four titles in that time span, while the Los Angeles Lakers, led by Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, won three. O’Neal was traded to the Miami Heat after the 2004 season, and after promising to deliver a championship to Florida, he and Dwyane Wade did exactly that in 2006, when they beat the Dallas Mavericks, four games to two, in the NBA Finals.

The most recent NBA champions are the Boston Celtics, who beat the resurgent Los Angeles Lakers four games to two. It was the Celtics’ first championship since 1986 and the Lakers’ first Finals’ appearance since Bryant and O’Neal fell to the Detroit Pistons in 2004.

After a subpar showing in the 2004 Olympics that resulted in a bronze medal, the NBA’s best players fielded a different team for the 2008 Games. Known popularity as the “Redeem Team,” the U.S. men’s basketball team was designed to bring the Olympic gold back to the country where the game was invented. Duke University coach Mike Krzyzewski led a team made up of the following players: Carmelo Anthony, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Jason Kidd, Chris Paul, Tayshaun Prince, Michael Redd, Dwyane Wade, and Deron Williams.

The “Redeem Team” accomplished its mission in the Beijing Games, beating Spain in the gold medal game, 118-107.

During the tenure of the current NBA commissioner, David Stern, the league has begun to expand its reach beyond the United States. Several players from foreign countries have become prominent players in the NBA (including Yao Ming, Manu Ginobili and 2007 league MYP Dirk Nowitzki), and the league’s games are currently televised in more than 200 countries.