From the West: Out of the Lakers, Thunder, and Mavericks, I'm actually leaning towards the Mavs. But the Thunder have a lot of talent too. While I want to talk about age, Dirk Nowitzki's game does not require a lot of athleticism and he's smart too so he'll be able to keep up being one of the best power forwards in the league. And Dirk still has a nice group of players around him. It could work if they can re-sign some players.
Yet, one of the things that was beat on the Thunder was the lack of aggressiveness of Kevin Durant or the over aggressiveness of Russell Westbrook. If those two can find a better way to co-exist they have the better chance. And Kendrick Perkins needs to stay healthy and out of foul trouble too.
It's a tough one but I'm going with the Mavericks again.
And for the East: Magic, Heat, Bulls. Heat will make it to the Finals unless the Magic become the team I said they could be in my preview for them.
Ok so my final choice is for the Heat.
Now it's a rematch. But this time, I see the Heat winning in 6 games. Lebron James is going to have to have better 4th quarters than he did last time around. And, the Big three's supporting class may need to be upgraded a bit. I mentioned Samuel Dalembert. He'd be great if the Heat can afford him or if Sammy decides to take a small contract in order to fit in the cap (I doubt he'll take the small salary).
It looks more and more likely that the season will not start in time. There may not even be a season. But I made all my predictions as if there will be an 82 game season.
