Your NBA Champion...

...will once again be the san antonio spurs...there is no doubt in my mind and this just proves it: Utah vs. San Antonio Recap

the spurs beat a very good jazz team, a team that made the playoffs a year ago in the superior conference and have gotten better with the renaissance of AK-47 and his swinger wife...but here's the thing...they did it without tim duncan...duncan is unquestionably one of the best players of the last 20 years and arguably is the best power forward ever; he's already won 4 championships and as long as he, gregg popovich, and rc buford are in san antonio they'll win at least a couple more but once again the spurs are going unnoticed and will be until in june when they raise yet another championship trophy

the big stories in the nba this year have been the emergence of the magic as a powerhouse, jason kidd and lebron averaging close to a triple double a night, and stellar play of big three and the celtics...and while all these certainly deserve the attention they're getting...the players involved will tell you that none of it will matter when the top dog of the nba in SA brings home another championship (we might also be talking about a potential sixth championship in a row if it werent for derek fisher getting an assist from the good Lord himself in 2004 and manu's stupid foul in 2006...but that is heavy speculation...but this is half my blog so i can whatever i want)

the 4 biggest threats to the spurs would have to be phoenix, orlando, and boston...phoenix has been real good since steve nash came over but the one knock on them is and always has been that they dont play defense...this has not changed...nash, while he gives great effort, isnt a good defensive play and he cant guard tony parker for too long...amare? terrible defensive player who gets away with freakish athleticism...as a whole there is no way that the suns can get the defensive effort they need to beat a team that is not only offensively but defensively efficient as the spurs are...plus we've seen this already a couple times...come playoff time it always is the spurs coming out on top

orlando is a real good team that i like a lot (even if they wildly overpaid for rashard lewis, a personal favorite of mine)...they have one true stud (dwight howard) and a cast of great supporting players...jameer nelson plays the point o-so-very-well and runs their offense well, lewis and hedo turkoglu are good shooters, etc...but can they beat the spurs? howard is good but not yet duncan...and the rest of the team simply arent as good as the rest of the spurs

the celtics are getting the most hype of any team out there (although as folks are wondering if they can better the 72-10 of the '95-'96 bulls...it should be noted that the spurs have one less loss)...their big 3 is a great combo, no doubt, and they have steam-rolled the competition thus far but there are a couple of things that dont bode well for them...1) their coach is doc rivers...the man is one of the most incompetent coaches in the league...on the other hand the spurs have popovich, who is a hall-of-fame caliber coach and his career achievements have only been surpassed by phil jackson and pat reily amonst active coaches...2) they are playing the big 3 a buttload of minutes so far...part of the reason the big 3 is working so well together is that they're grizzled vets who are willing to sacrifice personal glory for the chance to win...unfortunately grizzled vet-hood means you're battlehardened and older...so why are these guys playing as many minutes as they are? all 3 are playing over 35 minutes in a game...which is fine late in the season...but this early is rediculous...by contrast not a single spur is playing over 35 per game and manu ginobili, one of the spurs' big 3, isnt even playing 30 a game...the minutes will add up...3) other than the big three...who do the celtics have? i see a total of only 7 useful players on the celtics (the big 3, rajon rondo, eddie house, kendrick perkins, and james posey)...these numbers may increase as some veterans will be released from their contracts and picked up later in the season, but until that time 7 is not enough to get by...we've seen it fail before for playoff teams such as detroit and phoenix...the spurs have 10 useful players (all their roster save for darius washington and ian mahinimi, who simply dont get enough minutes to contribute much)...so if the spurs and celtics meet up in the finals you'd have duncan and garnett canceling each other out, bruce bowen nullifying ray allen, and you're left with paul pierce and some extra parts (reminiscent of the celtics recently) trying to out play tony parker, manu ginobili, and the rest of the spurs great bench...that doesnt look good