The Millennium NBA Preview: Lakers

Tweet With NBA previews and predictions up seemingly everywhere, it seems redundant to rehash the same old questions: Who will be the MVP, who will win the title, who will make the playoffs etc. There is a lot more to an NBA season's stories than just numbers, awards, and predictions. So in the coming weeks, as the NBA picture begins to unfold, we will examine some of the more interesting teams and story lines associated with them.In the first part of what will be many features about the 2012/2013 NBA season, we will examine the overhauled Los Angeles Lakers and a potential change in mentality of Kobe Bryant.

When the news that Kobe plans to retire at the end of the 2014 season came out, I was genuinely surprised. Like many, I thought that Kobe would attempt to break the all-time scoring record before he hung it up, but it seems that he wants to try and accomplish what so few in the NBA have done: go out both as the leader of your team and as a winner (Bill Russell is the only one I can think of that did this, Jordan did too until he ruined the perfect end to a career by playing with the Wizards). Think about it, Magic, Bird, Shaq, Isiah, Hakeem, Barkley, Miller, Stockton, Malone, Payton, Ewing, and many others, how did their careers end? Some said "F*ck it, I gave it my all, I am happy with what I've accomplished and wont resort to latching onto a contender to try and win a ring" - Stockton, Reggie, Barkley, Ewing. Some just realized that their run was over and that they would never be the main guy on a title team, so they too called it quits - Bird, Magic, Isiah, Hakeem, Shaq (who actually managed to try and latch on to every contender he could in a sad attempt to tie Kobe). While the rest shamelessly pursued a ring, regardless of their role on the team and in some cases succeeded (Gary Payton) or failed (Malone). If the Lakers manage to capture the title in Kobe's last season, it would be a truly unique accomplishment that very few NBA players can say they achieved. You can make the argument that Kobe wont be the best player on the team, but this is still very much 'his' team as far as anyone is concerned. You don't associate Dwight Howard with the Lakers, you do associate Kobe Bryant with them.

The Millennium NBA preview

Tweet With the NBA serving up an incredible Christmas day slate doubling as the opening day we at Millennium could not be more excited. So without further ado here are some of our thoughts on the upcoming season. I will lead off.

Daki:

The thing I am most glad about is the fact that the NBA will keep the momentum from last year's wonderful season going. Last year was the first time in a long time that both the regular and post seasons truly mattered. We had a star breaking out in Derick Rose, we had a true villain (Lebron and the heat), and we had some major surprises (Pacers, Grizzlies). Best of all, we had a group of guys who all won the ring that had eluded them for their entire careers (Kidd, Peja, Marion, Dirk, Terry, Mark Cuban). This year the only thing we know for sure is that Miami and Lebron are still very much the villains but we have no idea what teams will surprise us, what teams will emerge as contenders, or which player will emerge as the next star. Finding out these unknowns is what excites me the most about this season, along with an exciting Kings roster that should be fun to watch its really all I could ask for. Luka and Igor will cover most of the major story lines so I will explain my picks for MVP, the champion and rookie of the year awards. ROY: Brandon Knight (just a hunch). MVP: Kobe Bryant (I will wait for you to stop laughing). Phil Jackson has said numerous times that Kobe knows how to achieve and embrace being the perfect team mate, but chooses not to due to the pursuit of selfish accolades such as scoring titles. I firmly believe that Kobe is aware of his declining abilities and as much as he wants to pass Kareem on the all-time scoring list, I think he cares about winning just a bit more. This season the Lakers are a really popular pick to be a disaster and the only thing that will prevent that is if Kobe finally chooses to play the right way (making team mates better, passing to open team mates for game winners, rebounding, taking smarter shots). If he does decide to play the right way, look for a slew of stories around February about how Kobe "finally gets it" as well as a few "Kobe may not be the best player anymore, but you can argue he has been the most valuable" (I fully expect someone like Skip Bayless to do this). If Kobe instead chooses to keep doing things the way he always has we can safely assume that he desires to pass Kareem (in points) rather than Jordan (in titles). As for my title pick, I am taking Chicago over Memphis in 6.

MVP: Kobe Bryant
ROY: Brandon Knight
Champion: Bulls (with Rose winning Finals MVP)

Igor:

It doesn’t seem real that the NBA season is actually going to start soon since I pretty much convinced myself that it wasn’t going to happen. There are a few key things that I’m really looking forward to watching this coming season.

In the East the biggest story will be whether the Heat can “redeem” themselves from losing in the finals after everyone (including themselves) considered them the champions before the season started. One year of chemistry building between the big 3 (or 2.5) is crucial and I doubt that they will start the season off 9-8 like last year. The only problem is that they haven’t really added many pieces other than Battier, but he does not fix their lack of a center and point guard. Regardless they are still the favourites to come out on top of the East. The Knicks will be very fun to watch this year and could give the Heat some problems during the season. The additions of Chandler and Davis (once he heals) are important for their improvement from last year. As a Bulls fan, I’m interested in seeing how much Hamilton will help the team out and if Boozer can put together a solid year. Rose should maintain his great performance from his MVP year and with offensive help from Boozer and Hamilton, the Bulls look like a team that will go deep in the playoffs. After giving the Bulls a run for their money in the first round last year, Indiana should be the dark horse of the East especially after the addition of West. As crap as I think the Raptors will be this year, I will be closely watching Casey’s coaching and hoping to see some improvement on defense (already seen some glimpses of it during pre-season). Also keep an eye out for my friend Jan Vesely on the Wizards. Playing with John Wall will only be beneficial to his career.

The West is loaded with great teams and it will get very competitive down the stretch of the season. Here are a few questions to think about this season. Is there a new best team in L.A.? Will Rubio live up to the hype? Can Portland put it together after losing Roy? Will Memphis come out as a top 3 team in the West? Can the Mavs maintain their championship form? Most teams are interesting in the West, but my two favourite teams are the Warriors and the Thunder. Despite the Warriors’ struggles in the past few years, they are my favourite team to watch in all of sports due to their unpredictability and high pace. They can beat the best teams and lose to the worst teams on any given night. This is the year that Mark Jackson steps into the head coaching position and shows the league how to play “hand down man down” defense. Jokes aside I think he will be great for Ellis and Curry (since he was a great point guard during his career) who are probably the most talented backcourt in the NBA. If you’re bored at 10:30 any night you can’t go wrong with watching a Warriors game. With the addition of Perkins, improvement of Ibaka and Harden, and Durant and Westbrook entering their primes, this is the year of the Thunder. They have it all from lockdown defense to great offense and will be at the top of the NBA. Watch for them to storm through the West and win it all.

MVP: Durant                  

ROY: Kemba Walker

Finals: Bulls vs. Thunder

Winner: Thunder in 6 (Durant finals MVP)

Luka:

The NBA will finally make its long-awaited return tomorrow with 5 great games. During the lockout I always thought that the season would be cancelled since both sides seemed like they did not care about losing a season. It made me think that I would not care as much about the upcoming season. And yet, when the season was announced I immediately forgot about the whole lockout, and even stranger was the fact that I did not care. All I wanted to do was watch. It felt as if David Stern and Billy Hunter did their best men in black impression on me and the rest of the NBA's fans. And now with the opening less then 24 hours away there are a countless number of things in my head that I cant wait to see how they will play out.

Here are some of my thoughts/questions/things to look forward to about the upcoming NBA season (some of these are jokes).

The Dallas Mavericks trying to win back-to-back titles without their 2nd and 6th best players from last years run. The Heat being the only great team with seemingly no other teams at their level at this point. Hating the Miami Heat again. Watching Lebron's headband increase in size as the season progresses. People realizing that Shane Battier is old. Vince Carter and Tracy Mcgrady trying to out-suck each other in Dallas and Atlanta respectively (my money is on T-mac because I think he died 2 years ago). The Raptors being absolutely awful. Relictantly watching every Raptors game in the hope that they are not absolutely awful. My grades dropping because each team plays 66 games in 120 days!!! Kobe buying Vanessa a 4-million dollar ring for each women he cheated on her with. Kobe going bankrupt in 3 days. Baron Davis' rejuvination in New York. Brian "the custodian" Cardinal. Wondering how Calderon is making 10 million dollars this year. The Durant/Westbrook relationship. The Phil Jackson to the Knicks rumours that wont stop. Dwight Howard trade talks. The battle for L.A. The Indiana Pacers being a sneaky-good basketball team. Whether or not Memphis will be able to surprise people again (I think yes). Will anyone watch a Bobcats game? (Only if MJ suits up). Shaq recording a "tell me how my ass tastes" remix with Vanessa Bryant, Karl Malone, and Ruben Patterson. The Celtics relying on Keyon Dooling. Gregg Popovich ruining fantasy leagues everywhere by resting Parker, Duncan, and Manu more then people think he will. Lastly, seeing if this season can top last season.

Champion: Heat over Mavs in 6 

MVP: Carmelo Anthony

ROY: Kemba Walker

Gearing up for the NBAs nuclear winter

Tweet Here at Millennium (sande) we decided collectively not to write anything about the NBA lockout.  This was due to it being reported heavily and with great detail elsewhere and us adding our opinions would not have been a very interesting read.  Now that it looks like the season will truly be lost the time for silence is over and although other writers of this blog may not have much to say I do.  However, what I am about to write has nothing to do with talking about the lockout, if you want to hear an excellent, well thought out conversation about it, just listen to Bill Simmons's podcast.  What I am going to talk about is the big picture winners and losers of the lockout.  Lets get right to it

The Biggest Losers

There is only one group in this category and that is us the fans.  I'm not just talking about casual fans who will wait it out, I'm talking about guys like me who are watching classic games on YouTube and typing in 'NBA lockout' into Google news hoping something comes up that will save the season, no such luck yet.

The Losers

Apart from the players, David Strern, several owners whose franchises actually make money, and all of the other employees who are job-less as a result of billionaires and millionaires fighting over a few million dollars, here are some teams and players who will also be affected negatively by the lock-out in my opinion.

The Heat-If the season is lost that is one more year without these guys winning but more importantly they wont win anything while also not having an opportunity to build on last years success.  The longer this thing drags on the longer the chemistry the Heat managed to build up disappears and will have to be re-built again.

All of the up-and-coming talented players that essentially waste a year of their development because of this.

Dallas-apart from being a franchise that makes money, they do not get to defend their title or give their fans a ring ceremony, it wont feel the same in a year.

Dirk Nowitzki, Kobe Bryant, KG, Pierce, Allen, Nash, etc.-all of these older starts who waste a valuable year of productivity.  The counter-argument here is that the rest might do them some good who knows?  But some of these guys I listed are approaching some important milestones which, in a historical context, would have benefited them greatly.

The Rookies-Imagine finally achieving your dream and having to sit through this shit and they are not even allowed to go back for another year of NCAA hoops, this is just sad.

The players who actually wanted to play and didn't even get a chance to have their say in the NBA's latest proposal, so much for democracy.

The In-between group

Lakers-On one hand their window for contending closes, on the other Dwight Howard could join this team as a free agent!  They also shed a year off of some truly awful contracts that they have and also hold off on the Mike Brown experiment for a while.

Spurs-A year off might be exactly what they need to re-fuel and make one final run with this group before blowing it all up.

The 'Winners'

Raptors-shed some brutal contracts and allow their first round pick to develop and start as an actual rookie instead of playing overseas for a year.

The owners who wanted to miss a season so they could save some money...lets move one

The Lawyers-some law firms stand to make a ridiculous amount of money from the amount of suing and counter-suing that is about to happen, expect at least a million articles trying to simplify and explain the process to the 73 fans that will still be around in January.

All players with long-term serious injuries that get to heal and rehabilitate.

The biggest Winner

Billy Hunter, who somehow gets to keep his 2-million dollar-plus salary even if desertification happens and makes all the headlines.  So he will be making money while the majority of the union he represents is losing it and this is fair how?  Shane Battier was right to ask Hunter if he was willing to forfeit his salary if it came to this so why are more players not demanding this of Hunter now that he has failed to negotiate a season for them?  That is all the complaining about this I will do.

Biggest potential story no one is talking about yet

Do you realize that desertification means that ALL contracts are void?  Do you realize that if the players follow through with their threats to dissolve the union that we are going to have an all-out free agent war whenever this is resolved?  You think the heat are a dream team?  How about the Lakers (and the money they have) getting the Heat's big 3 and matching it with Kobe, and Dwight Howard?  I need a drink.

“Wait since when do you cheer for them?" The band-wagon analysis

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 I really feel awful for true LA fans...Even their franchise knows that 90% of its fan-base are band wagon specialists.

If you follow sports actively and passionately no doubt you’ve experienced some pretty good highs and awful (and I mean AWFUL) lows as a sports fan.  Here are examples of my high (most shocking thing about that clip was Peja's rebound) and low... very, very low I did not watch the whole thing, just enough to make sure it was the right clip. These occurred within 3 days of each other and I was 10 at the time, but I can tell you every emotion that I went through, and where I watched these happen.  We can all agree that the highs are great, but the lows really do suck.  What makes the lows suck even more is when fans of the other team let you know what just happened, but this is fine, it’s a part of sports.  The thing that has the distinction of pissing me off and making the low even worse are special types of fans: band-wagon fans.  You know who this guy is, he was the first in line to buy a Lebron Miami heat jersey, he thinks Kobe is better than Jordan (I can’t even type that with a straight face)  His favourite NFL teams are the Colts, Saints, Patriots, Packers or who ever won the Super Bowl last.  He is quick to point out that he is a weird combination of a Barcelona and a Manchester United fan, and has been forever (or since 2007).  Lastly he was a Lakers fan in the early 2000’s (go re-watch some of their games; I do not think a more un-likable team ever existed).  In today’s world which is dominated by social media and you can get your opinion out pretty easily, it is very easy to spot the guy I just described.  During the NBA playoffs a guy who I have on Facebook went from cheering for the Celtics, to the Bulls, to the Heat to neutral (“I don’t mind Dallas!”).  Did anyone call him out on it?  Of course not, everyone else was a band-wagon specialist, and in this age, very few people born after 1990 are true sports fans.  When I say ‘true’ I mean you have a favourite team, you know about them and you actively follow them as best you can.  Personally, the teams I like have not had the best of times, Sacramento has not been relevant in the NBA for 7 years, the 49ers are an abomination, the Jays suck, and I do not really follow Hockey (but will, starting this year).  So when these teams are out of the playoff running right away; am I a band-wagon jumper for following another team?  Well, Yeah, but there are some key differences.  In this article I will outline what those differences are, as well as talk about the different types of band-wagon fans.  Now, before I get into it, I am well aware that Bill Simmons has written some pieces about this topic and I am sure many other writers have as well.  If anything here resembles other works on the Internet it is purely by accident (I can’t say I have read everything about this topic, therefore I don’t know what’s out there) and Full credit goes to those writers.  Now that we’ve avoided potential “You Copied sports writer/blog X” let’s get to it.  Starting in order from ‘acceptable’ all the way to ‘outrageous’.  Note: you can be more than one type of band-wagon jumper, it depends on the situation.