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Since the San Antonio Spurs hoisted Lebron's Cavs by their briefs over a flagpole to win their 4th NBA championship in 8 seasons an off-season chalked full of more trade demands, requests, acquisitions and unintentional comedy than Eddie Murphy and Dan Ackroyd's characters in Trading Places, has altered the NBA's landscape more drastically than continental drift to the primordial continent of Pangea.

With the exception of one team, the Western Conference's power scale has remained intact while the Eastern Conference power struggle fluctuated dramatically with each monumental transaction. The Western Conference's elite made no changes as the East trotted out Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen to Beantown, Zach Randolph to the Knicks, Jason Richardson to Charlotte, and Rashard Lewis adjusted from the damp climate and microbrews of the Northwest to the warm, balmy climate, and palm trees of Orlando, Florida.

At first glance, the Orlando Magic's $126 million signing of Rashard Lewis should improve the Magic short term, but in the long term the deal is a detriment to the Orlando Magic. Lewis may be a productive shooter but he has never been a lights out scorer. By outbidding themselves for Lewis' services at such an exorbitant price tag they've restricted themselves from making improvements along the rest of the roster.  I could be wrong but with Lewis and Dwight Howard charged with leading this team in the lng term, wouldn't they be the first franchise who's two proven commodities skipped college entirely?  I harken back to Al Harrington and Jonathan Bender in Indiana but neither lived up to their lofty expectations.  The Eddy Curry- Tyson Chandler experiment was scrapped in Chicago before either reached their 23rd birthdays.

Considering his production its hard to believe Lewis deserves to earn as much as Kevin Garnett or Shaquille O'Neal's last contract or $27 million dollars more than the contract Jason Kidd signed in 2001. If he's going to live up to his contract's expectations, Lewis will have to become a more dynamic scorer than he was in Seattle. If he desn't Dwight Howard culd be staring at a bleak future.  The Magic Conundrum continues...

  

However, the trade winds don't cease blowing just because the season is underway. There are still several dispirited stars requesting or expected to be dealt. Andre Kirilenko and Shawn Marion have both taken issue with their perceived under utilization and under appreciation on their respective title contending teams.  The Lakers owner Jerry Buss has promised to Buss Kobe out of L.A. and

In a quick draft of nostalgia, the wild off-season also rekindled the flames of two burnt out 90's headliners. Penny Hardaway and Allan Houston who've been away from the game for over a year after stints with the New York Knicks. Allen Houston will abandon his shiny gig at ESPN for a familiar spot in the Knicks lineup.


After his prime was cut short by microfracture surgery, Hardaway bounced around the league from Phoenix to New York before finally retiring in 2005.  Now he has chosen to reunite with Shaq in Miami to finish what they started 12 years ago in Orlando, albeit in a smaller role.

 

The Original Michigan Fab 5 has fallen on tough times in the past two seasons.  Juwan Howard has withstood a steep decline since his glory days with the 90's Washington Bullets alongside Chris Webber. of the Timberwolves arrived in Minnesota via trade from the Rockets with the explicit intention of pairing with Kevin Garnett. Since Garnett was whisked away to Boston, the Wolves have been openly shopping an unhappy but amicable Howard.

 

Meanwhile with 2 weeks remaining until the season kicks off, Chris Webber remains a basketball vagabond without shelter. Until now he has had a sunny outlook towards his options but even Roger Clemens is now getting impatient.

 

Former Fab 5 point guard sensation Jalen Rose was unhappy with his getting buried alive on the Suns bench and in the off-season has old wounds reopened after the acquisition of Grant Hill, the last pound of dirt was tossed on Rose's spot in the rotation. In a bit of cruel irony Hill was a member of the first Duke basketball team to win an NCAA basketball championship which happened to come against Michigan's Fab Five 15 years ago.

The NBA is stocked full of story lines galore and in two weeks, the plot for the 2007-2008 NBA season will begin to unravel. New stars will emerge, teams will surprise and in the end a new champion will emerge from the rubble.

Without further ado, here is my predictions for the NBA Finals participants.

 

Celtics Too Green? 

"Larry Bird is not walking through that door, fans. Kevin McHale is not walking through that door, and Robert Parish is not walking through that door And if you expect them to walk through that door, they're going to be gray and old." Fortunately for Boston fans and a decade too late for poor Rick Pitino, Kevin Garbett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce have arrived in their glorious youth and all.

I'd sold myself on the Celtics trio but I never appreciated the extent of their celebrity until I saw the paparazzi-like aura surrounding the Celtics during their Europe(as in the continent) tour. The odds in my book are 60-40 that the Celtics get a spread in People Magazine before Sports Illustrated grants them a cover.

They've become Basketball's Beatle's expected to make harmonious music together on the hardwood. However, their supporting cast is going to need more cowbell if their gonna hold the rythm for their lead singers. ( Celtics fans got a fever...and the only prescription...is more cowbell!)

If the Celts were a super-band, their role players require a flyer in the classifieds for the rest of NBANation to learn their identities. Unfortunately, Bostonians don't have the luxury and are extremely cognizant of their pedestrian role players. The rest of the starting lineup is manned by an unexperienced point guard Rajon Rondo and the unspectacular Kendrick Perkins at center.  Nimble 285 pound rookie forward Glen Davis could develop into the rookie du jour as a second round surprise but the rest of the bench could use an introduction.

I find it absolutely amazing how ESPN managed to photoshop every single highlight to feature Boston's Big Three as the only players on the court, or on the bench. I'm starting to wonder if the Celtics Trinity were the only players to tour through Europe.

My opinion of the Celtics Trinity is that year one will offer plenty of promise, sate the appetite of the Celtic faithful to the tune of 55 wins but will inevitably be ousted in the NBA Finals by their Western Conference foe. In historical context, this team compares favorably to a slightly younger adaption of the pre-Y2K, late 90's experimentation of the Hakeem Olajuwon, Scottie Pippen, and Charles Barkley trio. Unfortunately, a lockout shortened season was not enough for the Hall-Of-Fame ensemble to gel and they were cast out in the first round of the playoffs. They never survived to a second season, before Scottie Pippen left for the latter stages of his career with the Portland Trailblazers, The Dream faded into obscurity with the Raptors and Barkley ballooned into George Foreman's stunt double.

Year 2 will provide an opportunistic off-season for the Celts to shop the free agent market for point guards(White Chocolate anyone?)and an adequate center. Though rumors have swirled regarding a swap of guards Kobe Bryant and Paul Pierce, it simply won't happen out of loyalty to Pierce who has stood by the Celtics brass through thick and thin. However, there is something intriguing about the trade which whisked their 5th overall pick, Jeff Green to Seattle in exchange Ray Allen.

Prior to his career at Georgetown, Green was a standout at Northwestern High in Hyattsville, Maryland the alma mater of the late Len Bias whose death just two days after he was drafted 2nd overall by the Celtics is attributed to the downfall of the Celtics dynasty along with the death of Reggie Lewis 7 years later. (Lewis also from Maryland attended Northeastern University.) It was the trade of Green that allowed the Celtics to lure Garnett to Boston.


Houston Rising




Yes, I said it-- In the Finals, Garnett's Celtics will collide with the player, whose inherited his crippling 'First Round Jinx'.  I'll catch a lot of flack for this but the Pheonix Suns will once again stumble in the Western Conference Finals to a surprising opponent.  The Houston Rockets may have subtly made the most profound leap into contender status with the addition of Argentinian power forward Luis Scola, a new head coach, who brings along a more up-tempo offensive philosophy, point guard Mike James as well as the return of former Franchise point guard Stevie Francis and Bonzi Wells' psyche.

This is a season on the brink for the Houston Rockets. Dikembe Mutumbo, the NBA's second most prolific career shot blocker behind Hakeem Olajuwon, a 4 time Defensive Player of the Year and an 8 time All-Star, a should be motivated after committing to one final season in search of the elusive championship at age 42. Tracy McGrady will be bent upon retribution after another disappointing 1st round playoff exit, and if Yao Ming can remain relatively healthy for an entire season, he may improve upon another career season thus extending his margin as the best center in the NBA.

New forward, Scola is the best big outside of the NBA by a fair margin. He was the Spanish League MVP this year, a former Euroleague MVP and he was a huge part of Argentina's 2004 gold in Athens. He's an absolute stud by all accounts, he's 27, and he's going to be cheap for a few seasons.  After being drafted by the San Antonio Spurs in the 2002 NBA Draft, Scola pulled a Fran Vasquez and remained overseas to gain more seasoning.  After a lenghty contract squabble reached it's boiling point, the Rockets acquired Scola from the Spurs for less than the price of gas.

This team is primed for a deep playoff run in the loaded Western Conference. The shift in coaching axioms from the defensive minded Jeff Van Gundy to the offensive oriented Rick Adelman will be beneficial to the Rockets and Tracy McGrady in particular. Prior to his arrival in Houston, Tracy McGrady was a two time scoring champion. However, his scoring average dipped considerably under Jeff Van Gundy, who has been notorious for taming high profile scorers-- on his own team. The meltdown against Utah in the first round occurred after the weak supporting cast around Yao Ming and T-Mac careened straight into a proverbial wall.  During Van Gundy's tenure, the Rockets were constantly among the league leaders in scoring defense but at the expense of their offense.  

However, The Rockets have what most teams, including the Mavs, Cavs, Pistons, Bulls and Suns lack in this modern age of smaller quicker lineups-- a true post up center teamed with a transcendent scorer.  Under Rick Adelman who was the architecht behind the Sacramento Kings, and the Portland Trailblazers of the early 90's the offense will now take precedent in Houston.

After the Shane Battier for Rashard Lewis trade, I extolled in June never fell into place, it will be interesting to observe how Shane Battier assumes his role in a revamped offense and improved overall roster. He has not exhibited the offensive explosiveness he displayed as a former National Player of the Year at Duke but Battier has been the anchor of the defense playing small forward.  Off the bench, scrappy, and offensively challenged forward Chuck Hayes will presumably provide backup for Scola, as their defensive stopper.  

Hayes may just be the closest NBA equivalent of college walk-on who somehow has remained in the league despite being undersized, not particularly strong or athletic.  At Kentucky, he was the defensive leader for the Wildcats but scoring in double digits on a daily basis was even a struggle for him.  Guess that speaks to good old fashioned, fundamental basktball hasn't died out yet in the professional ranks.

Meanwhile, the Rockets are hemorrhaging point guards with Mike James, Steve Francis, Rafer Alston, Luther Head and diminutive rookie Aaron Brooks drafted out of Oregon all on the roster. Steve Francis is looking to recapture his former glory which wasn't that long ago and reunite successfully with Yao Ming.

Aaron Brooks is unproven in the regular season, however, he was possibly the most spectacular player in Summer League competition.  After a brilliant career at Oregon, Brooks slipped only because of his undersized frame.  The rotation of Francis, and Alston will provide a scoring punch from the point guard position while Mike James and Rafer Alston( who will likely be traded) will supply the services of pass first point guards.    

The impact of their will be subtle yet extensive.  Adelman has experimented with using dual point guards during stretches with their depth and differing styles at the position.  Even if someone is designated the point guard, the duties of both guards in the halfcourt sets are usually interchangeable. In the open floor, either could receive an outlet pass and direct the offense.  This will also relieve the pressure off of guard Tracy McGrady who handled point guard duties averaging a career best 6.5 assists per game last season, and created the majority of his own scoring opportunities in Jeff Van Gundy's stagnant half court offense.  After averaging under 25 points a game, the past few seasons, you can expect McGrady to return to his usual 30 points per game game average.

I may be shooting for the stars but I'll stick with my June proclamation and expect the Houston Rockets will be celebrating their 3rd franchise championship after emerging victorious in the 2008 NBA Finals.

        --D.J. Dunson Jr.