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With smart drafting, wise acquisitions, and the genius puppetmaster Gregg Popovich pulling the strings; the San Antonio Spurs’ dynasty of being NBA title contenders continued this past season. They face one major objection this summer; re-sign Tim Duncan.
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Your 2012 NBA Champion, Miami Heat. That’s really all that needs to be said. LeBron James got the monkey off his back and took the first step in their promise to win several rings upon his joining powers with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in South Beach. In order for the Heat to repeat next year, they still need to make a few moves this off-season.
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Winning 50 games in the lockout shortened season of 2011-12 was a major accomplishment for the Chicago Bulls. However, all that excitement and hopefulness of re-claiming the Larry O’Brien Trophy came crashing down with one injury to Derrick Rose. Unfortunately, that’s how the Bulls 2011-12 season will be remembered. Being the best regular season team in the NBA went all for not, as the Bulls suffered that very rare #8 over #1 upset to the Philadelphia 76ers.
And that ACL injury to Rose that cost them the first round playoff series also has major consequence on what happens next season; meaning it’s the number point to center around what they do in the offseason, and on NBA Draft night.
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With Derrick Rose’s health condition up in the air for the 2012-13 season after tearing his ACL in the playoffs, the Chicago Bulls enter the off-season with a ton of uncertainty. Luol Deng’s name has already popped up in numerous trade rumors as the team tries to deal with the fallout from losing their star power.
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As the eight seed in the Eastern Conference, the Philadelphia 76ers nearly pulled off consecutive upsets to advance to the league finals. Despite that post-season run, the Sixers enter the off-season with several off-season questions as they hope to build towards next year.
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Mediocrity just doesn’t cut it in the NBA anymore. The Houston Rockets are entering a pivotal off-season in which they have the flexibility and assets to make some major moves, and possibly turn their franchise from one that has narrowly missed out on the playoffs the past few years, to becoming a major player in the Western Conference.
On paper, the Golden State Warriors don’t appear to be that far off from competing for a spot in the Western Conference Playoffs. Adding a couple pieces this off-season and getting Stephen Curry, Andrew Bogut, and David Lee 100% healthy will certainly be crucial if Mark Jackson‘s team is going to take that next step.
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One of the topics expected to be discussed during the NBA Lockout is the possible revival of The Allan Houston Rule. When a new CBA was agreed upon in 2005, it allowed NBA teams a one time opportunity to waive a player and not have his contract count against the luxury tax teams have to pay if their team salary exceeds a pre-determined amount set by the league. The released player becomes a free agent but his salary still gets paid and counts against his former team’s salary cap. Ironically enough, Allan Houston was not a victim of The Allan Houston. The Knicks instead decided to waive Jerome Williams.
If the new CBA once again invokes this clause, most teams will probably take advantage since it would save them possibly tens of millions of dollars. To keep up with the times, we will change the name of this from “The Allan Houston Rule” to the “Rashard Arenas Rule” since Rashard Lewis and Gilbert Arenas easily have the two worst contracts in the league. Allow me to break down each team and who would end up being the casualties of this rule. Here is the Southwest Division.
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Like we are currently seeing in the NFL, the 2011 NBA off-season is up in the air with a lockout looming. Free agency could be delayed and completely restructured depending on the new agreement reached by the owners and players. Still, The Sports Bank continues to break down all thirty NBA teams to see what areas they need to address in the off-season.
After the San Antonio Spurs were upset by the Memphis Grizzlies in the opening round of the playoffs, Tony Parker implied the window has closed on the Spurs being a championship contender. Parker quickly back-pedaled saying that was not what he meant, but the Spurs are dangerously close to being over the hill. A few off-season moves could help keep that window open for another season.
By: David Kay
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