This year the playoff format will be different. The NBA revised the playoff seeding system for this season. Since there are only 3 divisions in both the East and West, the three division winners and top non-division winner are the recipients of the top four seeds. The seeds will be based on record and will have nothing to do with the conference. This avoids having the two best records in the same division meeting in the 2nd round - like last year when Dallas beat San Antonio in the semi-finals.
The Mavs and Spurs had the two best records in the NBA last season, but because they are both in the Southwest division, San Antonio was given the #1 seed and by default Dallas was shafted with the 4th seed. If Dallas and San Antonio finish with the two best records this season, the team with the 2nd best record will get the 2nd best seed. Thanks David Stern!
On March 30th, Cleveland looked like they were about to lock up the 2nd seed and today they don't even have home court advantage in the first round. It appears that things might even change more in the final games of the season.
Regardless of seeding, a first round upset could occur and vault an unsuspecting roster into the ProTrade spotlight. It is obvious that you should have already purchased players on Dallas, San Antonio, Phoenix, Detroit, Chicago, and Cleveland. But what happens if one of these teams is taken to the limit and gets knocked out in the first round ala Mutombo's Nuggets over Kemp's Sonics of 1994???
This year I doubt we will see a #8 beat a #1, but because of how evenly matched the Eastern conference is, we could see upsets. So far 10 teams have clinched a spot in the NBA playoffs:
Eastern Conference
1. Detroit
2. Chicago
3. Toronto
4. Miami
5. Cleveland
Western Conference
1. Dallas
2. Phoenix
3. San Antonio
4. Utah
5. Houston
These teams will likely enter the playoffs with the tag of favorite in the first round. What about the rest? Which team, if any, is capable of pulling the first round upset?
Here are the best of the rest:
Western Conference
6. LA Lakers
7. Denver
8. LA Clippers
9. Golden State
10. New Orl/OKC
Eastern Conference
6. Washington
7. New Jersey
8. Orlando
9. Indiana
10. New York
In the West, the last 3 teams in will likely be the Nuggets, Lakers and Clippers. Both the Lakers and Nuggets could compete with Phoenix and San Antonio. The Nuggets and Lakers have pretty much no shot at catching Houston for the 6th spot, so they are going to have to pull an upset of a lifetime in order to make it out of round 1. If San Antonio is too old to handle Kobe and the younger Lakers roster, LAL could take down SAS. Last season, the Lakers took Phoenix to the limit and can use that experience to knock out San Antonio.
The Eastern Conference is the conference we are more likely to see a "Denver over Seattle" type upset. The Pacers have great potential to turn out to be full of good buys. Indiana is 1.5 games behind the Magic for the last playoff spot in the East. Indiana has been playing much better than Orlando as of late. The Magic have lost 3 out of their last 4 games. After tonight's win at Charlotte, Indiana has 4 road games and 3 home games remaining, the same situation as Orlando.
If the Pacers get the 8th spot, they might not make it to the second round, but they have a couple good players that you might want to consider purchasing now:
- Danny Granger is on pace to make $132 and he is selling for $123.
- Mike Dunleavy has already earned $113 this season and is selling for $122.
- Jaamal Tinsley has already made $116 and is only selling for $119 - overlooked by many.
New Jersey and Washington have pretty much locked up playoff spots. Washington is an interesting team. It is time for players like DeShawn Stevenson - out of High School, and Antonio Daniels - out of Bowling Green, to step up. They could turn out to produce more money than they are currently projected to. Washington might play Cleveland in a first round playoff re-match of last year, so don't expect them to get past LeBron with no Gilbert Arenas or Caron Butler.
I realize that teams like Dallas, Phoenix and Detroit are the best bets to make it to the NBA Finals. It is important to remember that there are upsets in round 1. Just because every team that has won 60 games as fast as Dallas has went on to win the title doesn't mean it will happen. The lowest seed to ever win it all was Hakeem's defending champion Rockets who were the 6th seed.
SOME NBA FINALS TRIVIA:
- Shaquille O'Neal's teams (the Orlando Magic, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Miami Heat) are a collective 25-0 in all NBA playoff series when his teams have won the first game of a series (Wikipedia).
- Boston Celtics great Bill Russell won a record 11 championships.
- Michael Jordan has the highest career post-season scoring average (33.4).
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has play the most post-season games (237) and minutes (8,851).
No comments:
Post a Comment