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GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS

ADDITIONS: G Speedy Claxton, G Stephen Curry, F Devean George, G Acie Law

SUBTRACTIONS: G Marco Belinelli, G Jamal Crawford

STARTERS: PG – Monta Ellis, SG – Kelenna Azubuike, SF – Stephen Jackson, PF – Anthony Randolph, C – Andris Biedrins

ROTATION: G Stephen Curry, F Corey Maggette, F/C Mikki Moore, G Anthony Morrow, F/C Rony Turiaf

OUTLOOK: The loss of Baron Davis in free agency and a spate of injuries (154 games missed among the top eight scorers who were with the team for the full season) were responsible for the Warriors taking a significant step back from 48 wins to 29 last season. Oaktown’s finest rolled out 47 different starting lineups last season and that is not the worst thing to veil the franchise in bad vibes. Vice president Chris Mullin was not retained and Don Nelson’s pal Larry Riley was brought in as his replacement, then made a pair of lopsided trades, removing Jamal Crawford and Marco Belinelli from the team for spare parts. Oh well, they still hold the title as “most entertaining team to watch” in the league.
Monta Ellis will be around for the full season this time around instead of missing 70 percent of the season due to a moped injury. Ellis is one of the best guards in the league at getting to the rim when healthy, which is shown in his 19.0 point per game average and his career 48.8 percent field goal shooting mark. Ellis would be even more dangerous if teams had to respect him on the perimeter, as he made 30.8 percent of his shots from deep. Kelenna Azubuike should start next to Ellis after a season where he made 94 threes en route to a 14.4 point per game average in 74 contests. Azubuike came out of nowhere to win a role with the Warriors and tallied five double-doubles, including a 30-point, 15-board game against Sacramento late last season. Stephen Jackson got into a verbal war with Don Nelson already this preseason and voluntarily gave up his captain status. The most well-rounded player and emotional leader of the Warriors, Jackson averaged 20.7 points, 6.5 assists, 5.1 rebounds, 1.7 treys, and 1.5 steals per game. The team would be better off working things out with him, especially with his contract extension that kicks in after the season making it difficult to trade him, provided Golden State is going to end the “getting scraps back for assets” trade policy that has been in effect. Freak of nature Anthony Randolph should start at the four. Before turning 20 this summer, Randolph closed lat year with a dozen games of 13.5 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks per night in just under 32 minutes per game. Big things are expected, as he should team as a nice active post combo with Andris Biedrins. Biedrins may be the best garbageman in the NBA, averaging over eleven points and rebounds per game last year at center. Biedrins needs to improve his free-throw stroke, as his 57.8 percent mark from the floor is better than his 55.1 percent rate at the stripe.
Lottery pick Stephen Curry is expected to play a big role for the Warriors, probably moving Azubuike to the bench at some point. Curry has had problems adjusting to the NBA, making under 35 percent of his shots and a mere 19.0 percent from three in the preseason. Corey Maggette has been speculated to get minutes at the four as well as at the three. He fills the instant offense role off the bench, with his effective drives to the cup, as well as drawing fouls (8.1 free throw attempts/game) and making them cash in (82.4 percent rate). Anthony Morrow is a long bomber who will come of the bench at either swingman spot and open things up for Ellis or Maggette on the strength of 46.7 percent shooting from three. Morrow is explosive, having topped 24 points in a game five times as a rookie. Rony Turiaf will get minutes at both post positions and is the best shotblocker on the team, having hung 2.1 blocks per game last season. Turiaf gets a lot of opportunities, though, based on the wings playing passing lanes, looking for steals. Mikki Moore joins his ninth NBA franchise after splitting last season with Sacramento and Boston. Moore is a decent scorer and rebounder, but not good enough to merit more than a dozen minutes per night.

LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS

ADDITIONS: G/F Rasual Butler, F Blake Griffin, F Craig Smith, G Sebstian Telfair

SUBTRACTIONS: F Zach Randolph, G/F Quentin Richardson, G Mike Taylor

STARTERS: PG – Baron Davis, SG – Eric Gordon, SF – Rasual Butler, PF – Marcis Camby, C – Chris Kaman

ROTATION: G/F Mardy Collins, G/F Ricky Davis, F Blake Griffin, C DeAndre Jordan, G Sebastian Telfair, F Al Thornton

OUTLOOK: Hope springs again for the other tenant of Staples Center, as the Clippers won the NBA lottery and brought in consensus top pick Blake Griffin. The Clippers even went so far as to ship out Zach Randolph to open playing time for Griffin, who joins a talented cast that Mike Dunleavy must mold into a solid unit. “Solid” is a fair goal for this year, as the Clippers have regressed each year after 2005-06’s 47-win campaign.
Baron Davis had a miserable year in his homecoming, shooting 37.0 percent from the floor and 30.5 percent from beyond the arc. Davis also chafed under Dunleavy’s thumb, banging heads with his coach over the number of plays called and reliance on the halfcourt game instead of running in transition. Davis has lost weight in the offseason, so there is hope for a bounceback season. Rookie Eric Gordon played his way into the starting lineup and led the team in points and minutes. Gordon was also the team’s best perimeter defender and made 131 threes at a 38.9 percent rate. Rasual Butler came over from New Orleans this summer after making 140 treys as a Hornet. Both he and Gordon should open things up for the Clippers’ postmen. Marcus Camby was his usual self last year, averaging 10.3 points, 11.1 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks a game while missing 20 contests due to injury. However, Camby looked like an iron man compared to starting center Chris Kaman, who missed 51 games. Kaman averaged a dozen points and eight rebounds per game last season in spite of being sidelined for almost all of winter. The two bigs are a nice complement to one another on offense, Camby working the high post and out to eighteen feet while Kaman uses his post moves on the low block, and they both do a good job defending the rim and clearing the glass.
Blake Griffin will form the third man in the post rotation, playing at the four with Camby sliding to the middle when needed. Griffin was a monster at Oklahoma last season, ringing up 22.7 points and 14.4 rebounds per game with his relentless style. His athleticism and intensity should help him make a reasonable adjustment to the pro game. DeAndre Jordan, a project at center, should get sporadic minutes unless (until?) one of the starters goes down. Jordan showed promise in limited opportunities last year, mostly with his rebounding and shotblocking overshadowing his raw offensive game. Al Thornton will come off the bench at the three as an instant offense player after averaging 16.8 points per game last year. Thornton, however, is more of a volume scorer than anything else. Mardy Collins and Ricky Davis will compete for minutes at the swingman spots. Collins is a strong defender while Davis is a skilled offensive player. Davis may not adjust to a limited role and could present an attitude problem. Even at under $2.5 million dollars for the season, tightfisted owner Donald Sterling will likely not authorize a buyout. Sebastian Telfair is the only other point guard on the roster, so Davis’ health is more important than usual. A decent set-up man, Telfair has shooting and defensive deficiencies.

LOS ANGELES LAKERS

ADDITIONS: G/F Ron Artest,

SUBTRACTIONS: F Trevor Ariza

STARTERS: PG – Derek Fisher, SG – Kobe Bryant, SF – Ron Artest, PF – Pau Gasol, C – Andrew Bynum

ROTATION: G/F Shannon Brown, G Jordan Farmar, F Lamar Odom, G Sasha Vujacic, F Luke Walton

OUTLOOK: The 2009-2010 Los Angeles Lakers are not a basketball team, but rather a sociology and psychology experiment. You have an unusual head coach who uses nontraditional methods to get through to his teams in Phil Jackson, a new player who is one of the most fascinating personalities in the league in Ron Artest, an all-time great in Kobe Bryant, who Artest respects and admires almost to the point of idolatry, and a childhood friend of the wildcard in Lamar Odom. Oh, and they are defending champions with repeat expectations weighing on them. Throw it all in the second-largest media market in the country and blend.
Bryant leads the team back on the court in his quest for personal ring number five. Bryant proved last year that he can win a championship without being a second banana to anyone, but if you want to make him angry, point out that the Lakers did not have that tough a road to the championship (Utah, Houston, Denver, and Orlando). In any case, Bryant may see a further decrease in his scoring from 26.8 points per game to around 25 due to the obscene talent around him. Once again, Derek Fisher stands beside Bryant in the Laker backcourt, ready to provide veteran saavy, hard-nosed defense, and three-point range (Fisher had team highs of 120 treys and 39.1 percent shooting from three). Fisher is the steady hand who will need to keep level heads on the floor. Ron Artest comes over from Houston in a free agency swap for Trevor Ariza. Artest provides size at the two and three and can enable Kobe to defend the opponent’s lesser swingman and save his energy for offense. With a career-best season of marksmanship under his belt (153 triples on 39.9 percent shooting), Artest should prove to be an effective addition to the triangle offense, burying the corner threes that Ariza did last year. Pau Gasol proved to be one of the best bigs in the league, posting close to nineteen points and ten rebounds per night while working out of both post positions. Gasol proved a great fit for the triangle, dishing out 3.5 assists per game and burying 56.7 percent of his field goals. If youngster Andrew Bynum could stay healthy (he missed 32 contests last year), he could be the final ingredient in turning the Lakers into an all-time level great team. Bynum provides a major deterrent at the rim, solid rebounding, and a developing offensive game.
Lamar Odom is the league’s premier sixth man, using his multiple talents to help the team in whatever role is needed. An adept passer and defender who can also score when needed, Odom can fill in wherever needed on the floor and can replace Fisher to create a big lineup that is second to none in the league. The team lacks a true backup center in the rotation, but does not really need one. In a pinch, Luke Walton can slide up from the three and bang for a few minutes while it is not his strength. Walton is a proficient passer who flourishes in the Lakers’ system as a role player. Shannon Brown will get a few minutes at the swingman spots as a source of energy and defense while Sasha Vujacic fits in at the two as a shooter with Bryant sliding to the point, as well as a defensive pest who gets under the skin of opposing players. Vujacic did slide from 43.7 percent to 36.3 percent behind the arc last year, so a bounceback year would give opponents even more concerns. Jordan Farmar is still trying to carve out a role as a backup point guard. An erratic jump shot is holding him back, but simply playing consistently would help him earn minutes.

PHOENIX SUNS

ADDITIONS: F Earl Clark, F/C Channing Frye

SUBTRACTIONS: G/F Matt Barnes, C Shaquille O’Neal, F/C Ben Wallace

STARTERS: PG – Steve Nash, SG – Jason Richardson, SF – Grant Hill, PF – Channing Frye, C – Amar’e Stoudemire

ROTATION: G Leandro Barbosa, F Earl Clark, G Goran Dragic, F Jared Dudley, F/C Robin Lopez

OUTLOOK: What Mike D’Antoni hath built, let Terry Porter tear apart. Terry Porter lasted a grand total of 51 games as the head man of the Suns and, in the interest of trying to integrate Shaquille O’Neal into the team, shifted the team to a halfcourt offense, thinking it was the O’Neal of five years ago instead of the aging superstar that he is. That’s not entirely fair, however, as the front office made the attempt to swing for the fences by trading for the Big Cactus. In any case, Alvin Gentry, a holdover assistant coach from the D’Antoni days, looks to rev things back up. Gentry was only 18-13 after replacing Porter, but was missing Amar’e Stoudemire for all but two of those contests. The return of a healthy Stoudemire should make a major difference.
Former two-time Most Valuable Player Steve Nash should welcome the return of uptempo basketball, as Nash was the man who made everything click. Nash is perhaps the premier shooter in the NBA, making the “50-40-90 Club” last season with a little wiggle room. Re-energized by the return to the fastbreak offense after the All-Star break, Nash closed strong last year with 18.7 points per game on 54.8 percent shooting from the floor and lifting his assist-to-turnover ratio from 2.58-to-1 to 3.62-to-1. Jason Richardson should threaten the three-point shooting title, which he won two seasons ago after making 243 treys as a Bobcat. Like Nash, Richardson will also clean up in transition, having improved his shooting percentage from 45.7 to 50.8 percent after the coaching change. As he did two years ago, Grant Hill will pick up some of the ballhandling duties when Nash rests while slotted in the small forward spot. Hill remains an efficient scorer with the ability to drive and finish as well as provide fair defense on the wing. Channing Frye gets a shot at winning a starting spot for the season with an injury to Robin Lopez to start the season. Frye is a finesse player, but has developed his shooting touch nicely, including leading the Suns in three-point buckets and three-point percentage in the preseason. His range will offset Hill’s lack of the same and enable the team to spread things out to leave the key open for Amar’e Stoudemire. Coming off surgery on his eye, Stoudemire will have the challenge of not only returning to health (and adjusting to wearing goggles full-time on the court), but the opportunity to return to being a dominant force. Stoudemire’s game took a step back while sharing the interior with Shaquille O’Neal and a return to the prior season’s 25-per-game scoring average is possible in the lightning quick offense.
Robin Lopez broke a bone in his foot early this month, opening the lineup spot for Frye. Upon his return in December, Lopez will have to earn his way back into the lineup, hopefully building on the promise he showed in extended minutes in the final week of last season. Rookie Earl Clark will have a crack at minutes from the jump as the primary big man off the bench early in the season. The 6’9” rookie showed the ability to do a little bit of everything in an uptempo style at Louisville and the Suns are hoping for a fairly quick transition to the NBA game. Jared Dudley will get a shot at bigger minutes this season after getting a chance to show what he is capable of doing after coming over from Charlotte with Richardson last year. His per-minute rates went up last year with Phoenix, likely due in major part due to the breakneck pace of the Suns, but he also showed an ability to hit the three consistently to complement the glue guy skills he exhibited in college. Leandro Barbosa should enjoy the return to running and gunning, as befitting his “Brazilian Blur” moniker. Barbosa is one of the best transition scorers in the league and also uses his footspeed to pluck steals from careless foes. Goran Dragic will back up Nash again after showing improvement under Gentry. While not ready for major minutes, Dragic illustrated the value in easy buckets and confidence, showing significant statistical gains, but needs to take care of the ball better to keep his job and not let Barbosa get the minutes at the point when Nash rests.

SACRAMENTO KINGS

ADDITIONS: F Jon Brockman, F Omri Casspi, G Tyreke Evans, G/F Desmond Mason, F Sean May

SUBTRACTIONS: F Ike Diogu

STARTERS: PG – Tyreke Evans, SG – Kevin Martin, SF – Andres Nocioni, PF – Jason Thompson, C – Spencer Hawes

ROTATION: F Omri Casspi, G/F Francisco Garcia, F Donte Greene, G/F Desmond Mason, F Sean May, G Sergio Rodriguez, G Beno Udrih

OUTLOOK: Simply put, things went terribly for the Sacramento Kings last year. After suffering through a pair of eight-game losing streaks and a nine-game skid on their way to winning a mere 17 games, they managed to do as poorly as possible after getting the most ping-pong balls in the lottery, ending up with the number four pick. Hey, at least they have Paul Westphal as their head coach.
With that fourth pick, the Kings selected Tyreke Evans out of Memphis. While not a true point, Evans has very good size, strength, and quickness, which should enable him to contribute on forays to the bucket while learning the point guard craft, such as going to his left. Evans also needs to extend his consistent shooting range. Kevin Martin will join Evans in the backcourt after missing a couple months last season. One of the most effective scorers in the league, Martin averaged 24.6 points per game last season, netting nine points per game at the line. His all-around game is not at the same level as his offense, but his long-distance shooting certainly is after hitting a team-high 115 triples in a short season. Andres Nocioni should start at small forward and provide some attitude to the team. After coming over from Chicago last year, Nocioni got a bigger role and he responded with a small uptick in his play. The Kings have a young pair of post players who have major potential, but still need to work out the rough spots in their games. As a rookie, Jason Thompson was the only King to appear in every game and led the league in fouls committed with 314. His play was not all bad, though, as Thompson started the final 46 games of the season, averaging 12.6 points and 7.9 rebounds in that span. Spencer Hawes saw action in 77 contests as a sophomore, getting the starting nod 51 times. Like his fellow frontcourt mate, Hawes was a strong closer, as well, averaging 13.2 points, 8.1 rebounds and 1.0 blocks per night from the beginning of February to the close of the season. Hawes also adds some shooting range, as he buried 40 three-pointers on the season.
Beno Udrih started last season at the point and will likely see minutes there with Evans and Martin sliding to the wings. Udrih was a decent point guard, but nothing special, thus leading to Evans’ selection. Sergio Rodriguez comes south from Portland and will get a chance to beat out Udrih. Rodriguez, sometimes called “Spanish Chocolate due to his flashy play, is an excellent passer, but an indifferent defender and poor shooter. Francisco Garcia suffered an injury while working out before the season that will put him on the shelf until roughly the All-Star Break, so Desmond Mason will get minutes at the swingman spots. Mason is no longer the high-flyer he was during his younger days and lacks the shooting range to be a multi-faceted offensive threat. This year’s first-round pick Omri Casspi and last year’s first-round pick Donte Greene will compete for minutes at both forward spots. Casspi is more of a three with his shooting range, having made ten treys in his first seven preseason contests, but also plays a hard-nosed style of defense. Greene combines height with length and a scorer’s mentality, but did not show much last season other than difficulty adjusting to the NBA game. Greene made only 32.6 percent of his shots and 26.0 percent from three, so he needs to pick up the other facets of his game to make up for these weaknesses. Sean May comes over from Charlotte after appearing in 82 games… in his first four seasons. A solid rebounder and efficient low-post scorer when available his first two seasons, May will get a chance to contribute as an undersized reserve center.

PROJECTED DIVISION STANDINGS:
1. Los Angeles Lakers
2. Phoenix Suns
3. Los Angeles Clippers
4. Golden State Warriors
5. Sacramento Kings

The Lakers have much higher goals than Pacific Division Champions and will hardly notice when they cruise to that feat. Phoenix should be able to run and gun again with Nash and a revitalized Stoudemire and will be in the hunt for a postseason berth, as well as a likely comfortable second-place finish. The improved Clippers should be able to threaten for a postseason berth if they are healthy and Baron Davis is in shape and focused. The Warriors will be an entertaining, dysfunctional squad throughout the campaign. The Kings have the worst assemblage of talent in the league outside of the teams from the upper midwest.