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The Miami Heat and the Philadelphia 76ers have two very different goals entering the 2013-14 NBA season. Miami is looking to win its third straight championship, while the Sixers are hoping to obtain the first pick in the 2014 draft.
The season-opening matchup between the Portland Trail Blazers and Phoenix Suns won’t garner much national attention, but each respective fanbase has its own reason to tune in on Wednesday, Oct. 30.
The Nets are going for broke this season with the addition of aging veterans Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. When they are at their best they will add to a nice core that could make the Nets the top challengers in the East.
The Los Angeles Lakers will open the 2013 NBA regular season campaign on Tuesday night at the Staples Center, when they host cross-town rivals, the Los Angeles Clippers.
The Chicago Bulls season is going to hinge on whether dynamic point guard Derrick Rose is back. He hasn’t played a game that matters in 18 months so all eyes this evening will be focused on him, hopefully he showcases the extra three inches he said he has gained on his vertical leap.
After making it to the Finals the year before the Thunder came up short last year. For some they are still the team of the future but they are more than ready to win big now. As good as they are it is still about consistency. Some nights they look great and others they look average.
The San Antonio Spurs made it to the Finals last year, again, though it appears the changing of the guard may have begun. That is what they do, transition players in and out and keep winning. You hate to use the word model franchise but what else would you call it at this point.
There is going to be a different flavour to things in Denver this season with George Karl out at coach. In is Brian Shaw, who has been well schooled in the Phil Jackson way of the force but has no head coaching experience.
The Toronto Raptors enter the 2013-14 season with plenty of optimism after some big time additions, and the loss of a player viewed as dead weight. With plenty of Eastern Conference teams, particularly Atlantic Division teams, tanking in hopes of a top draft pick, a playoff spot seems well within the team’s grasp.
The Indiana Pacers gave the Miami Heat a run for their money in the postseason last year, coming within a single win of the NBA Finals, and are now the sexy pick to make it to the NBA Finals out of the East this year.
The New York Knicks took a major step forward last season, and after running into a buzzsaw in the postseason last year, the team reloaded in the offseason and looks to make another run toward the NBA Finals this year.
Coming off a trip to the Western Conference Finals, the Memphis Grizzlies look to continue their upward trend with a roster that remains largely intact and a new head coach.
Utah has been a decent team for the last few years, but they haven’t been a real contender since the days of Stockton and Malone. Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap were the faces of the franchise last season, but neither of them is on this year’s roster. Utah is rebuilding, but they aren’t necessarily going to be short on talent either.
The Boston Celtics went just 41-40 last year, and they were dispatched of pretty quickly in the first round of the NBA playoffs. Danny Ainge decided in the offseason to speed up the rebuilding process and ship off a couple long-time Celtics stars. It wasn’t necessarily a popular move at first, but I think it ends up being a big boost to the Celtics hopes in the long run.
The Houston Rockets made as a big of a splash in the free agent market this season as anyone. There were several bidders in the Dwight Howard free agency contest, but the Rockets ended up winning out. Houston put up a nice fight in last year’s playoffs, and expectations are now much higher for this year’s team.
The Miami Heat are the odds on favourite to win the NBA Championship again this season. I like the moves they have made during the offseason making this year’s version maybe better than last year’s.
