The Atlanta Hawks will be one of the most intriguing teams to watch next season. Trae Young will look to solidify his case as a top 5 point guard in the league, and a full season with a healthy Clint Capela could catapult the Hawks to playoff contention.
The Washington Wizards will enter the 2020 NBA Draft armed with the 9th selection. It’s not a glamorous pick, but it’s not like there is a large gap between the Top 5 and the lottery prospects this year.
But assuming that the Knicks will keep their 8th pick, here’s a couple of names that the team should target, particularly in providing steady reinforcement to their shaky backcourt.
During a recent episode of The Lowe Podcast, Bill Simmons joined pod host Zach Lowe to speculate about potential game-changing trade deals for next season. Simmons suggested that the Golden State Warriors could make a deal for Blake Griffin and the 7th pick in this year’s draft, then send Andrew Wiggins, Jordan Poole, and their 2nd overall draft pick to the Detroit Pistons.
Behind one of their best games the whole year, the Los Angeles Lakers clobbered the Miami Heat in Game 6 of the Finals, bringing back the Larry O’Brien trophy to Los Angeles. LeBron James bagged his fourth Finals MVP award, and Anthony Davis took home his first NBA championship.
The 2019-20 Heat squad will go down as one of the best storylines of their storied franchise. Erik Spoelstra has made the most out of a bunch of “misfits,” and turned them into a relentless group of tough, gritty personalities on and off the court.
As Jimmy Butler leaned over the barricade to get some quick ten seconds of rest before he gets to the free throw line again, we immediately realized that the Miami Heat star just emptied the tank. He logged in 47 minutes of play, put up a triple-double, and guarded the best player of the other team.
Now facing a glaring 1-3 hole against the Los Angeles Lakers, the Miami Heat has to pull out every trick in their bag to extend the series. The Lakers made the biggest adjustment in Game 4, putting the hulking but mobile Anthony Davis as the primary defender on Jimmy Butler.
After losing Game 3 to the “Butlerball” Miami Heat, it’s now the Lakers’ turn to regroup and adjust. It doesn’t mean that they have to hit the panic button and retool their overall strategy, especially considering the fact that the Lakers even had the lead early in the fourth quarter of that Game 3 loss.
Their core of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Marcus Smart have been through the conference finals twice in the last three years, and there’s no reason to doubt that they will come back stronger next season.
The Boston Celtics have made it to the Eastern Conference Finals twice in the last three years. Despite fielding in a relatively young group of uber-talented players, the Celtics banked on their growing chemistry and the brilliance of head coach Brad Stevens.
Amidst the brilliance of Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic during the Nuggets’ magical run in the playoffs, defensive-minded combo forward Jerami Grant grew into a key cog for the young squad. Known primarily for his tremendous work on defense, Grant also showed vastly-improved marksmanship from the three-point line.
In what should be a Finals match-up brimming with interesting storylines, the Los Angeles Lakers will be facing a tough-minded, gritty squad from South Beach. The fifth-ranked Miami Heat, led by Jimmy Butler and their brilliant coach Erik Spoelstra, has overcome the odds, beating the more favored teams in the Eastern Conference.
As Mike D’Antoni makes himself a free agent in the coaching circle, it spells an end to an era of Houston Rockets basketball. It may be premature to assume that the team will try its hand on a possible rebuilding, especially with James Harden still in the peak of his elite abilities.
