Dallas, Memphis, but no Phoenix

Well Saturday marks the beginning of the NBA playoffs and the final spots have been determined. The Knicks will not be making the playoffs and Phil Jackson will have some serious decisions to make this offseason. The Hawks will be the eight seed in the East and face off against the Pacers in the first round. The Mavericks (whoop whoop) defeated Phoenix on Saturday to clinch their playoff seed. Phoenix had another chance to make the playoffs at home last night against the Grizzlies, but fell short in a close game at US Airways arena. So those are the final playoff positions for the NBA playoffs.

I am disappointed phoenix did not make the playoffs. They had a terrific season and several bright spots on their team. Dragic, Eric Bledose, Gerald Green, Miles Plumlee, Channing Frye, and the Morris brothers all played extremely well all season; not to mention that they are a much more exciting team to watch than the super boring Memphis Grizzlies. For the Suns to do what they did without a major star in the Western Conference is remarkable. Phoenix nearly had 50 wins this season. I just can't say enough about the hard work and determination this team exhibited throughout the season in such a difficult conference. I am disheartened not to see those hard working young men rewarded for their constant fight. I also can't stand the Grizzlies. I don't like the Spurs either. I guess you can tell I'm a true Mavericks fan; I don't like any other team in the southwest conference. However, the Grizzlies do match up better against the spurs than the suns do. If Randolph and Gasol are dominant they could take the spurs to six games.

Overall, I'm just excited to see the playoffs begin. It will be an interesting finish to the regular season.

The post-championship Dallas Mavericks

Yes, you know it was coming. Lets about my hometown team the Dallas Mavericks. I've moved to different places around the U.S. and found out that their is nothing like hometown pride. People give you a certain respect when you take pride in your team. Considering we were the last team other than the Miami Heat to win the NBA Finals makes me proud of my blue and white Mavericks. Not to mention we are the only team to beat the Heat in a seven game series in the playoffs, and we did it in six games!

Anyway, lets focus on this season. I'm excited that the Mavericks will probably make the playoffs this year. Despite the fact the Western Conference will probably have 9 teams that will win fifty games or more; the Mavericks have persevered and look poised for a first round exit. Yes a first round exit! I'm a Mavericks fan but lets be honest; San Antonio, Oklahoma City or the Clippers is not a favorable match-up for them. The Mavericks best bet is to play the rockets; they have successfully beat the rockets all season and match-up well against them. What I'm saying may seem grim but let me explain.

The Mavericks have been wavering since they won the title about whether they should tank, and grab talent from the NBA Draft. However, Mark Cuban signed O.J. Mayo to a one year contract which didn't work out. Now he signed Monta Ellis to a 3-year contract. Although, O.J. Mayo did not work out, people forgot Dirk has never played with another dominant player at the two position. I believe another dominant player at the two position makes the game easier for Dirk, especially on the pick and roll. Monta Ellis has proved to be the yin to Dirk's Yang. Not only have they been successful but they are vying for a six seed in the extremely competitive Western Conference. The key here is that Cuban has stayed loyal to Dirk, and not traded him. He also has kept the Mavericks competitive through free agency, which etches out another 3 to 4 year window for the 10th all time leading scorer.

The Mavericks are essentially competing in the west with two key players. If they are competitive with those two player, another big time free agent is more inclined to sign with the Mavericks. Considering the big free agency year coming up including: Carmelo, Luol Deng, Greg Monore, and Rudy Gay.

This season was a revival for Dallas, this is the first time they have a chance to get out of the first round since they beat the Heat. It is unlikely they will upset a higher seed, but considering how competitive the west was this season an upset is bound to occur. In the bigger picture the Mavericks have poised themselves to be a contender for big time free agents this off-season's, and give Dirk hope of putting another ring around his finger.

The playoff picture 2014

There are approximately 6 to 8 games left for every team in the NBA. As march madness come to a close with UCONN and Kentucky fighting for a national championship tomorrow, the NBA playoffs will soon begin. In my last post I told you why I'm so excited to see the playoffs this year and now I want to expand to look into some of the potential match ups and who is going to win.

First they Pacers have been on a terrible skid since the All star break and Miami looks to claim the number one spot from them. With only a handful of games left Miami looks poised to take over the number one spot. Does that mean Indiana can't beat Miami? Well even if Indiana did have home court Miami would beat them in six games. The funny part is now that they lost home court, Miami is going to be favored to win and have a home court advantage for game 7. The funniest part to me though is Indiana believed they needed home court to beat Miami and now that they don't have it their moral is destroyed. They still have problems incorporating Evan Turner and Andrew Buynum into the lineup, while Danny Granger is thriving with the Clippers. The fact that Indiana believed they needed home court to beat Miami only shows me that they never had the potential to beat them in the first place. The Eastern Conference is already decided in my opinion. The Heat vs Pacers series will only go 5 to 6 games. However, the second round matchup between Toronto and the Pacers will be interesting, I believe the Pacers will have difficulty guarding the dynamic guards of the Raptors. The Heat vs Brooklyn or the Bulls in the second round should be slightly entertaining as well. Both teams have played well going into the playoffs and could potentially take the series 6 games.

Now in the West I believe it is open season for any team to make a run at the Western Conference Championship. Strangely I don't believe the Spurs or the Thunder are going to make it to the NBA Finals this year. I don't think the Spurs have enough legs to make it to the Finals because last year they had a rather easy road to the Finals; A depleted Lakers team, injured Golden State Team and an inexperienced Grizzlies team. This year even if they got out of the West I doubt they would have the 11 games of rest like they did agains the Heat in game 1 last year. In the Thunder's case they don't have enough firepower to get through the western conference playoffs. I think its one thing to beat teams in the regular season on a consistent basis, but going head to head against the top teams in the west with no real inside presence and a team that relies on jump shots will not produce a Western Conference Champion. Even if they got out of the West I give them no chance against the Heat especially without James Harden. As for the rest of the West teams, I think the winner out of the west will be a surprise this year. Houston, The Clippers, Golden State, and Portland look poised to become the dark horses of this year's western conference playoffs. The key to me that all these teams have in common is an inside/outside presence and a core of young talent. This is the key to success in the long term but I believe this year there is an opportunity to overtake the Thunder and the Spurs. If one of these four teams is able to beat the Thunder or the Spurs it will make it easier for someone else on this dark horse list to sneak by. The key to the west is match ups and its hard to tell who is going to win right now because most of the teams are jostling for positions. The only cog in this equation could be that these teams could all take 3 through 6 positions in the West, which means they will all play each other in the first round.

Overall, The west playoff picture is far more interesting and captivating. I expect the Heat to come out of the East and win another title for the three-peat, becoming the first team in a long time to go to 4 straight NBA Finals. I don't believe the Thunder or the Spurs will beat the Heat but if one of these dark horse teams out of the west does, I think they will give the Heat a real challenge. No matter what these playoffs will be the best I've seen in a while and should be very interesting.

The New NBA

 Another day in the NBA and we are one more day closer to the 2014 playoffs. The sad part is currently the Dallas Mavericks are not in the playoffs. That's another article though, today I want to focus on the climate of the approaching playoffs. It looks like the Spurs hold a firm grasp on the number 1 spot in the West and, Miami and Indiana will be fighting for first place in the East. The West will have many interesting match ups in the first round an I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple upsets of the higher seeds. The East will be pretty dull until the second round where a Toronto-Indiana matchup would be fun to watch and whether Miami plays Chicago or Brooklyn it should be at least 5 to 6 games.

Overall, this season the youth of the NBA is taking over. During the All-Star game you had the youngest MVP, youngest average age of an all-star, and the youngest all-star. This youth is reflected in NBA playoff seeds, especially in the Western conference. Golden State, Houston, Portland, Phoenix, Oklahoma City and the L.A. Clippers all have key stars under the age of 28.

Personally I believe this is one of the best times to watch the NBA and this new crop of talent. After the Jordan era the NBA was not as competitive. The Nets never challenged the Lakers in either finals of 2002 or 2003. Most of the Spurs finals were pretty boring, especially the sweep of the Cavaliers in 2007, the Lakers and Magic in 2009 nearly put me to sleep. But, there were good NBA Finals during that period as well, the Spurs and Pistons in 2005, Mavericks and Miami Heat in 2006, the rematch in 2011, and Boston and L.A. in 2008 were some of the best series I watched after the Jordan era.

From 2000 to 2010 I say about 50 percent of the NBA Finals were very entertaining. However from 2010 to 2014 the NBA Finals have been pretty interesting; Heat vs Mavericks, Heat vs Oklahoma City, Heat vs San Antonio Spurs. Especially the last one in 2014, probably one of the greatest NBA Finals I have ever seen including the Jordan area. The level of talent (especially young talent) has vastly increased in the NBA since the Jordan era. The West will probably end up having 9 teams win at least 50 games and the East will have two Finals contenders, which they haven't had in a really long time. During the Jordan era not only did the Eastern Conference have a strong 4 to 5 contenders every year; Indiana, Chicago, New York, Orlando, Detroit. The Western Conference was strong as well. This new generation of talent and skill in the NBA is raising the level of competition exponentially in the overall basketball spectrum. The more competitive the league becomes the more entertaining it becomes for a true fan. (Not the fair weather fans who just turn on the TV to watch Kobe) There is no better time to watch the NBA, post-Jordan, then now.