Summer is nearing its inevitable end. Within the next couple of months the leaves will begin to turn color, the evenings will turn darker earlier and a cool chill will return to the air. This is great news because that means the NBA season is fast approaching! There are many stories, teams and players to watch for this coming NBA season and today I look at five (or 6) players I find the most intriguing to watch as we approach the 2014-2015 season. These are the players that have an appealing story going into the season or a unique set of circumstances. These are the players facing either adversity or changes that may hinder or strengthen their success in the coming year. The one thing these players have in common is that they all have something to prove. The players listed below are in no particular order.
Kobe Bryant – Los Angeles Lakers
It’s been almost a year since Kobe Bryant, formerly the best player in the league, played in an NBA game. Coming off Achilles surgery and a knee fracture is one thing when you are in your 20’s; coming off an Achilles surgery and a knee fracture when you are 36 is a different story. What kind of player will we see in 2014-2015? For most NBA players you would see a noticeable decline in lift, speed and quickness and you will undoubtedly see that from Kobe this season. However, he has always been a freak of nature physically and his will to compete and win is still second to none in the NBA, a fact that may have contributed to his injury in the first place. But, no matter what German experiments he participated in this past summer the human body can only take so much wear and tear. Kobe is entering his 19th season with the Lakers; he has played in over 1,200 regular season games, 220 playoff games and a number of All-Star and Olympic appearances. That’s a hell of a lot of games and at some point your body just starts to wear down. It happens to every great athlete and it will happen to Kobe Bryant, it’s just a matter of when. Maybe it has already has. While he may be one of the best competitors the NBA has ever seen, even he cannot defeat Father Time’s hourglass. The Lakers will not be any good this year and I won’t lose any sleep because of it, in fact I may sleep better because of it. But, I will watch with great curiosity to see what Kobe Bryant brings to the court this NBA season.
Kevin Love – Cleveland Cavaliers
This is the year of no excuses for Kevin Love. He is finally on a decent team surrounded by decent teammates that just happens to include the best player in the NBA in Anderson Varejao’s hair LeBron James. Kevin Love should make the playoffs this year and he and his Cleveland Cavaliers are favored to go far into June. The debate on how good Kevin Love really is will be answered this season once and for all. Is he a decent player whose statistics swelled because he was on crappy teams? Or, is he a great player that was being held back because he was on crappy teams? This year we will know for sure. I, for one, expect Love to have a monster season. I expect LeBron James to make Love an even better player while releasing him of the burden of carrying a team. I’m looking forward to seeing Kevin Love in the playoffs and watching how he raises his game when something real is at stake, something he never experienced in the vast wildness that is the Minnesota Timberwolves. If this season isn’t the year of Love then he never was the player he was hyped to be and LeBron James will find bringing a title to Cleveland that much harder. On a side note, I’m also curious to see how Andrew Wiggins, the 2013 number one overall pick Cleveland gave up for Love, does in Minnesota. I hope Wiggins goes to the Timberwolves with a huge chip on his shoulder because players with a chip on their shoulder are so much fun to watch!
Klay Thompson – Golden State Warriors
This is the player the Golden State Warriors refused to give up for Kevin Love. This is the player the Golden State Warriors refused to give up for Kevin Love? Klay Thompson averaged 18.4 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game last season. Kevin Love averaged 26 points, 12.5 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game. I’m I missing something here? How do you not pull the trigger on that trade if you are the Warriors? It could be that there is one thing Thompson does much better than Love and that’s play defense. Where Love can be a defensive liability, Thompson plays solid defense and two-way players are hard to come by in the NBA and everyone knows, in theory, defense wins championships. Thompson has a lot to prove to the Warriors this coming season and the pressure on him to perform will be something new to him since Stephen Curry is usually under a bigger microscope. But the decision by the Warriors to keep Klay Thompson instead of including him in a deal for Kevin Love was a big decision by the franchise, especially where the smallest of moves could make the biggest of difference come playoff time in a stacked Western Conference. And this would have been far from a small move. Love could have been a major difference maker in Golden State, a shakeup that could have put them near the top of the conference elite. Instead, they will continue to rely on Thompson’s shooting and defensive strengths to help propel them further, something that hasn’t gotten them to the top yet. I will be most interested in seeing how he performs this year with the added amount of pressure on his shoulders.
Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade – Miami Heat
I’m cheating here and going for a two-for-one selection. Chris Bosh, who signed on has the third wheel to the Heatle’s Dwayne Wade and LeBron James in 2010, now becomes a main focal point offensively for the Miami Heat this year, a role he has not played since his days with the Toronto Raptors. As a Raptor, Chris Bosh was the main weapon, an All-Star averaging over 20 points per game and in his last two years over 10 rebounds a game. Since joining the Heat, he has averaged about 16 points and 7 rebounds per game, nothing to sneeze at but nowhere near his numbers while he was in Toronto. Now that James has left and the health of Dwayne Wade is in question, Bosh will have to play more like his Raptors days if the Heat want to stay in contention in the Eastern Conference, which remains weakened with loss of Paul George in Indiana and question marks surrounding the rest of the East including Cleveland. If Bosh is able to take the reins again as a fully fledged All-Star, the Heat could remain surprise contenders in the East.
And then there is Dwayne Wade. The big question is how healthy is Wade going to be? Will he go back to being the face of the franchise now that the King has left? Wade played in only 54 games last season due to injuries and the conservative decision to rest him one game during back-to- back games when he was active. But that was when they had luxury of having LeBron James. If Wade misses any significant time again this coming season the Heat will find it difficult placing themselves among the top 4 teams in the conference and having home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. He needs to be healthy this season and he needs to play. If Chris Bosh returns to 2009-2010 form and if Dwayne Wade comes back to near full strength, the Heat are still dangerous and talented enough to compete every night against any team. However, it doesn’t do him any favors having to pick up the slack for the departed James. More minutes means more opportunities for getting banged up and injured, something Wade couldn’t avoid even with LeBron as a teammate. For Wade, we will find out if he truly is on the downside of his career or if he has one more alpha-dog productive season inside him.
Thomas Robinson – Portland Trail Blazers
My homer pick for this coming year. The Blazers had a surprising season last year winning 54 games, reaching the playoffs and making it to the second round in a year everyone had them pegged as lottery bound. They have a core starting 5 that is has talented and competitive has any team in the league. Their weaknesses last year were defense and a thin bench. None of those improved much in the offseason. I like the addition of Chris Kaman, I think he will help defensively and fill a need in the middle but he is hardly a huge difference maker. People had their issues with Mo Williams last season and Steve Blake will improve little on those complaints. He is a solid backup point guard to be sure, but if you thought Mo Williams was a liability on defense last season then you forget about Blake’s most recent stint here in Portland, although Blake puts in more effort than Mo Williams defensively. Point guards, especially quicker point guards, will continue to salivate at Portland’s defense. However, there is one bright spot that could come from within, and that potential light is Thomas Robinson. When the Blazers traded for the former overall number 5 pick in 2013 I thought it was the steal of the year. However, Robinson has yet to fulfill my initial enthusiasm. Originally drafted in 2012 by the Sacramento Kings, a mess of a franchise, he was then traded to the Houston Rockets in 2013 where he wasn’t utilized or wanted before finally landing in Portland, a franchise that does have a need for him. Last season, Robinson showed flashes of brilliant athleticism and decent play. However, his shooting confidence was low all season and he was never a threat beyond 10 feet from the rim. My hopes are that Thomas Robinson will have a breakout season, becomes a key component off the Blazers’ bench and a genuine threat that teams will have to account for. If he doesn’t then Portland’s bench remains thin and I don’t see the team improving all that much. In fact, if any team in the West is primed for a regression year it could be Portland if their new pieces don’t pan out and nobody shows marked improvement from last year’s bench. The West is loaded and any scent of blood in the Conference water and teams will look to devour any other teams’ exposed weaknesses to reach the playoffs. Here’s hoping he can improve the Blazers chances of a deep playoff run.
Of course, there are other players to keep an eye on as well for the upcoming season. There is Derrick Rose returning again from injury. I’ll be interested to see how his teammate, Pau Gasol, does in Chicago as well. Is Kevin Garnett officially done? Does Dwight Howard decide to stop acting like an adolescent child and get serious about winning? These are all intriguing stories to watch. But I’ll be most interested in the players above. So, bring on the NBA season, the countdown to October 28th begins.
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