Name that NBA Championship Contender…

indiana?

 LOLLLLLLLL

 Beat Celtics in Boston

Beat Magic in Orlando

Especially considering the number eight seed in the conference may be up for grabs this year, there are some notable teams to keep track of heading into the new season.

The Blazers finished last season 28-38 and out of the playoffs for the first time in four years. They dismissed head coach Nate McMillan and let go of some of their more veteran players, choosing to build around Aldridge and swingman Nicolas Batum.

One of the biggest clichés in sports is “I’m not complaining,” but when a player loses an opportunity because of an injury — or in this case, a medical condition — he should have every right to complain. Some opportunities won’t come around twice.

“It feels good (to play power forward),” Varejao said. “But to me it is kind of the same playing power forward or center, so whatever coach needs and whatever he wants me to do, I will do it.”

Cavaliers head coach Byron Scott has a very young team with a number of high draft picks that need a lot playing time in order to develop and when the team drafted Tyler Zeller in June, he finally got a true center to work with.

“It’s great man, it’s a family bond, everybody, everyday, just joking and talking, just enjoying each other’s company,” Waiters said. “It’s going to be a long year for us this year, as a young team we’ve got to stay together. We’ve got to play every game, every night real hard because that’s the type of team we have; we’re young. There’s going to be some games where we’re inexperienced for these type of games, you’ve seen how we can come together and got the stops when we need to, and that’s the biggest thing.”

Smart’s biggest challenge when he took over the Kings last year was to gain the trust of DeMarcus Cousins and help him grow into a player and a person who is a franchise cornerstone. That process got off to a great start last season, and Cousins seems to have taken the next step heading into the new season.'[8i[p0890870

“As we’re speaking, I’m getting ready to put together a tape from where we were last year, and how he performed defensively, to what he’s done in training camp,” Smart said. “The guy has shown that he wants to commit to that side of the ball. He came in camp in great shape, did a great job in everything we were doing and wants to take the next step. He’s got to be consistent in his play every night. I said to him that he should be an all-defensive player.t78676

The Kings aren’t getting much love as a playoff team this season, but if things come together the right way they could very well be knocking on the door come April.

Tracy McGrady Heads To China

According to reports out of China, it’s official. Tracy McGrady, having exhausted the possibility of returning to the NBA this season, will take his services to the Qingdao Double Star Eagles.54ewt5343

“We’re going to see if it gets any better these next couple of days before we do another decision,” Nowitzki said. “That’s really the only update we’ve got. There’s a little swelling in there. It makes no sense at this point of the preseason to play on a swollen knee, so we decided to see what’s going to happen here in the next couple of days.”wr23234

If being without him for the first five-to-six weeks of the regular season is the price they have to pay to have him to be completely healthy the rest of the year, it would be well worth it. If Nowitzki were to get surgery on Oct. 23, a week from today, a maximum recovery time of six weeks would have him back sometime in early December. That would keep him out roughly 20 games.lul7897

“We’ve always liked Eddy,” Nelson continued. “He’s got soft hands and he’s got a nice low-post game. He’s gone on some hard times at the age of 29 and, with a family, people grow up. He’s put in a lot of work this summer and put himself in a great position. I think it was a numbers thing down in San Antonio, but we’re going to take a good hard look at him.”