Until next offseason when LMA gets max contract offers out the wazoo from every team with capspace....
I don't think the Heat will tank completely. Wade generally breaks down by the end of the season, so should still be good for most of the year, and I suspect they'll sign at least some useful stop-gap players like Deng. I think they'll be good enough to lose their top-ten protected draft pick to Cleveland. Remember, they're still in the East.
San Antonio, Okc, Golden State, Dallas all didn't change much. Rockets will be better with Bosh and like that transaction for them. LA got better with Hawes. It's hard to say if Portland got better because they lost a major scorer off their bench in Williams. In Portland's case and more Neil's case, it seems he is expecting a boom out of the young guys off the bench in McCollum, Robinson and Barton. And if that is the case, they will be improved. I wouldn't assume it though, especially by not addressing a major problem two of the last two years which is bench scoring. If the young guys don't grow. You have screwed the starters again. And that could be enough to run LA out of town.
Not if the Adam Silver and the NBA wants to change the playoff format like they said they wanted to do.
Keep in mind, character matters and yes if a deal goes through for Bosh. Houston is better. But I can't help but see them as a team full of individual corporations with guys running up and down the court with that attitude and mindset.. I think we saw it last year with them and I think it gets worse this year with Bosh. Without proper coaching, it doesn't matter who is on that squad when that mindset is in place. You don't have that and won't for Portland. That's a huge advantage and I think they will benefit from that again next year. Just a group of really good guys.
No they won't. They would not have gone anywhere last year without Patty and Ginobili. They are already old and they just got another year older.
Don't people say that every year? No, literally, every single year. The Spurs are just going to keep chugging along until Duncan and Pop retire.
While I agree with most of what you said, I still think that the situation is not that dire and the Blazers did improve, I would call the Blake/Mo change mostly a wash, Kaman is an upgrade over Freeland/Lenard - and even if the young ones do not prove themselves - the Blazers will likely go the trade route. We also saw a rather bad year from Wright, I would not be surprised to see him doing better next year as well.
This is how I see it and the big factor next year is going to be health because if any of the tier 2 teams are unhealthy a tier 3 team will be liking their chops ready supplant them in the playoff race.
