
* '15 record versus '14 record is the parenthetical info
* The Eastern Conference wrestles a little strength back from the West. I shifted 21 wins over to the East. It's very slight with the West still holding a 653 to 577 wins advantage over the East.
* There are three distinct team groupings to me:
8 "Lotto Locks"- PHL, MLW, BOS, ORL, DET, UTA, SAC & MIN. They simply can't escape a lottery fate.
7 "Title Tribes"- LAC, OKC, SAS, GSW, DAL, CLE & CHI. The Warriors would need some serious magic, but it wouldn't shock me if the Mavs pulled it off like '11 once again. Any one of the rest have realistic championship scenarios.
15 "Parity Party-ers"- IND, ATL, WSH, NYK, TOR, BRK, CHA, MIA, DEN, LAL, PHX, MEM, NOL, HOU & POR. 50% of the league is in this bulging middle ground. "Ok" to "good" teams, but none going anywhere special this season. The Grizz or the Hornets might break free from this group and do some playoff damage if the wind blows right for them.
*MVP-
Lebron James*COTY-
Doc Rivers*6th Man-
Ryan Anderson*DPOY-
Joakim Noah* Bulls uber-defense frustrates the uncalloused Cavs out of the playoffs. In the end, it's the Spurs again. They finally get their repeat. I'm good with that.
Some reasoning for where I put the Suns...-All-in-All the Suns are probably just as strong talent-wise as last year, though the center of that talent's balance has shifted even more to the smaller side, and that's a negative. TJ Warren seems a good pick, but unless he's crazy good and gets significant minutes...minutes where he's clearly more effective on both ends than Mook, PJ or Green, he's not winning us any games. Maybe down the road, but not this season.
-If somehow the Suns could roll out exactly the same team as last year...had the exact same injuries...they'd win less games. There wasn't a "book" on Hornacek & the Suns for a good chunk of last season. 5 or 6 or more Suns wins were likely fallout from this "newness". The surprise factor is gone this year.
-A season long healthy Bledsoe should get back most if not all of those victories lost to the
Suns are now respected and prepped for better line of thinking.
-I think the Suns are going to be involved in (what'll seem like) a thousand nail-biters this year. This is where the departure of Frye is going to hurt the most. It's tough to win a high percentage of the close games if you're too dependent on guard play. Hopefully the combined frontline players will step up and be clutch, but right now I just don't feel they'll be up to it. It'll be interesting to see how the Suns do this season in close games as compared to last year. Bottomline for me is, I think the win total takes a significant hit due to this department.
-And then there's Len. Yep! If he stays healthy, can stay on the court out of foul trouble and not clog up the offense for 20+ minutes a game? Sure, that could mean several more wins to the total. I'm just guessing no he won't/can't for the most part. Like TJ, I can see it happening down the road, but not really this year.
-In the end, another very exciting (yet somewhat frustrating) year of promise. 44 wins is still good for the 2nd year of the rebuilding-from-the-bottom plan. Next year and forward should be great.