It is almost time for the NBA season to start!  There are several sleeper teams who should do pretty well this season.  One team is the Indiana Pacers.  They suffered a serious heart break when Paul George had that nasty leg injury.  But now that he is back they will be playoff contenders again.  Another team that will do well is the Toronto Raptors.  For the past couple seasons, they have been on the border of making the playoffs and not.  Some seasons they have and others they have just missed it.  Or they would start out the season hot and start to lose some of their momentum half way through the season.  We all know that the Cavs and Warriors will both be playoff contenders.  The real question is whether or not Steph Curry will have the MVP season that he had last year.  One thing that led to his success last season was the fact that he was able to remain healthy throughout the entire season.  From the year that he was drafted, he had some form of injury that affected his play and held him back year after year.  Last year, he was able to remain healthy throughout the entire season which caused him to lead the Warriors to the best record in the NBA and a championship, it also allowed him to take home the MVP trophy.  Other teams that we need to be on the lookout for are the Pelicans led by Anthony Davis.  Davis has led all teams that he has been on to greatness.  When he was in college playing with the Kentucky Wildcats, this superstar brought them an amazing season with under five losses and a March Madness championship.  When he was drafted, it became clear that he would bring whatever team he was on out of the ashes and make them playoff contenders.  Davis is without a doubt the NBA’s next superstar.  I believe that in the next five years, he will have won the MVP, and with the right coach and general manager, an NBA championship.  When talking about teams in the NBA who have potential to make the playoffs, we can’t leave out the Rockets, Thunder, or Bulls.  All three of these teams have superstar power, and great supporting roles.  One thing that has held these teams back are injuries.  Between Derrick Rose’s knees and Kevin Durant’s injuries, the Bulls and Thunder have missed several opportunities. One thing that has been a major problem with the three of these teams is selfishness.  Russell Westbrook shuts down Durant like nobody else in the NBA can and Dwight Howard is the laziest center in the NBA.  We can’t forget how much Joakim Noah hates Cleveland for no reason which brings unwanted attention to his team.  Another team that has firepower is the LA Clippers.  They have an all-star point guard and power forward which is a deadly combination and spreads out the floor for the rest of their players.  Between all of these teams, it would seem that there won’t be any available spots in the playoffs for other teams.  But one thing that I love about the NBA is that anything can happen.  With injuries an ever-present factor, any “bad” team could rise up and shock us all.    

With the new NBA season exactly one month away, we can only assume that everyone is getting very excited.  Me personally, I cant wait to see how the Cavs are going to be looking this season after resigning Tristan Thompson for a 3 year 53 million dollar contract.  We should be looking at the new season with some very high standards.  Especially when we will be having all of our players back from injuries.  Kyrie Irving will be good to go for the start of the season and we all know that he is hungry for the title that we would have won if he didn't get hurt.  Also Kevin Love will be back in action after he suffered a torn laberum at the hands of Kelly Olynyk.  I am also very happy to see Anderson Verajao back and ready to play.  I know for a fact that he is ready to finally get that championship ring for the city that he has been with through thick and thin.  Another player that is coming back and we are all very happy to be seeing in the Cleveland jersey again is Mo "Money" Williams.  We all remember when we were thinking about trading him and he begged us to let him stay.  Well we welcome you back to Cleveland with open arms Mo, and we know that you are going to be a crucial asset in this upcoming season.  Other players that need we need to be looking at this season on the Cavaliers roster are JR Smith and Iman Shumpert.  Both had a sub-par performance in the finals last season and they are both going to be key players this season.  JR and Kyrie will both be helping to extend the range this season causing the floor to be more spread out allowing players like LeBron and Mozgov to post up.  When we are talking about the Cleveland defense we all know that Shumpert will be there locking up some of the NBA's best.  But how can we talk about Cleveland defense without bringing up Matthew Dellevadova.  He is without a doubt the most hardworking, toughest, scrappiest, player in the NBA.  We all remember how he SHUT DOWN Steph Curry in the finals.  Delly single-handed took the MVP and neutralized the threat in the finals.  What more can you ask of a back up point guard....... except for him to score twenty points as well.  And leading the charge for this hungry and healthy team will be LeBron James.  This one man turned around Cleveland basketball and made it something that this city could be proud of.  With this healthy roster, we will be looking for a great season and hopefully Cleveland's first championship.

Basketball is, in mine and many others opinions, the greatest sport to ever be played.  It is also one of the toughest sports to be played at any level.  Some might say that hitting a baseball is much harder but I would disagree.  The thing that makes basketball such a challenging game to be played is the fact that it requires an individual to be quick, fast, powerful, tough, have finesse, great vision, have an unbelievable amount of hand-eye coordination, and to be able to work as a small part of a larger group.  It requires five individuals to have all of these qualities and for those five individuals to be able to play as one flawless unit that executes every play with precision, speed, accuracy.  It also requires the team to put aside their own personal agendas and to do things for the team that nobody would want to do.  It requires all players to exhibit an amount of hustle that is unparalleled by any other sport.  In order for a team to be good, they have to spend countless hours conditioning, working on their shot, and going over several plays that will be used at any point throughout the game until the team can execute them in their sleep.  If one player on the team isn't able to execute a single play, it brings the entire team to their knees and forces them to completely regroup.  This is one thing that makes basketball a game that is significantly harder to play than something like baseball or football.  If a person is not working like a clock, then the team will still be able to get by because the play might not be in their general direction.  But with basketball, if one player has a mental lapse for even one second on the defensive end, it can lead to disaster. And if that mental lapse happens on the offensive end, then it forces the team to regroup giving the defense the upper hand for that possession and possibly on the other end of the floor.  In short, basketball requires each individual player to be a much more diverse athlete than any other sport, while requiring to have the same kind of skills and athleticism that all other sports require.  It forces them to take all of the hardest parts of other sports and roll them into one player.  It is impossible to be a "specialist" in basketball because if you cant perform all of the required traits of a basketball player, then you won't see the floor.