On
paper, the Los Angeles Lakers have it all: incredible scorer in Kobe Bryant,
gifted facilitating point guard in Steve Nash, and the league's best center in
Dwight Howard.
Add
MWP, one of the league’s premier defenders and a still capable forward in Pau
Gasol and the Lakers may rightfully be favorites to win the western conference.
But
a closer look at the top two teams in the West shows that the reigning
champions (of the conference) are still set-up to repeat.
First,
a look at the run that the Oklahoma City Thunder made last season shows that
they are an elite team. Although they didn’t win the NBA Finals, their playoff
run was one for the ages. 10 of the past 14 NBA champions were one of the Los
Angeles Lakers, San Antonio Spurs or the Dallas Mavericks.
Oklahoma
City beat each of those teams in one playoff run—not to mention they beat a
Spurs team that was riding a 20-game winning streak.
In
those three playoff series until the Finals, the Thunder had a combined record
of 12-3. OKC more than held their own against some of the league’s most playoff-savvy
teams.
It
should not come as a surprise that the Miami Heat were able to demolish a
worn-out Thunder team. Miami only had to defeat the New York Knicks and Indiana
Pacers in the first two rounds. While that’s not meant to discredit Miami’s run
in any way—they were deserving champions—Oklahoma City’s run was impressive in
its own right.
With
the Big Three in OKC still young and hungry for a title, they will come to
play. Dwight Howard in Los Angeles will not intimidate them. Add on the fact that
it is a contract year for James Harden and Serge Ibaka (both have team options
for next season), and the youth in OKC will continue to show that they are at
the top of the NBA.
Kevin
Durant’s name hasn’t even been mentioned yet.
The
three-time scoring champion is a quiet, lead-by-example player who has ice in
his veins (as he showed in the playoffs against MWP and
the Lakers) and is only 23 years old. His
personality allows Russell Westbrook to take the shots that he does.
Think
of it this way: in Kobe Bryant’s heyday (or even now), could a Westbrook and
Kobe duo work?
The
answer to that question is a self-evident, resounding no.
Kevin
Durant is as unselfish a scorer as possible, maybe with the exception of LeBron
James. He is the ideal teammate for those precise reasons—he is talented,
unselfish and hungry.
Now
let’s have a look at the new-look Lakers, whose lineup presumably will look
something like this: Steve Nash (PG), Kobe Bryant (SG), MWP (SF), Pau Gasol
(PF) and Dwight Howard (C).
As
great as Bryant and Howard were on their own, they were both big fish in the
pond. Remember how the Bryant-Shaq pairing turned out?
Kobe
Bryant may say that he is all about
winning, and the media does encourage those thoughts, but he relishes the comparisons to Michael Jordan. He wants to be the greatest individual player
of all time.
Add
on the fact that Kobe will not be the primary ball-handler with Steve Nash
running point and it will be easy to see Kobe complaining that the Lakers early
season struggles are not his fault. Remember how he railed Pau Gasol in
the playoffs last season?
With
age comes impatience for a waning superstar and Kobe only has a couple years
left (at least according to his word). If he
does not perform like he expects to, Bryant will find a teammate or coach to
place the blame on.
Moreover,
Andrew Bynum’s three-pointer, among other occurrences last year, showed that
Mike Brown didn’t have the respect of his players. Following in the path of
Laker legend Phil Jackson isn’t (and won’t be) easy.
Scott
Brooks, on the other hand, has already proven that his players say and do the right things both on and off the
court.
OKC
defeated Tim Duncan, Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol last year. Overcoming Dwight
Howard won’t be much more difficult.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Add your thoughts or opinion.