Feb 8, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) celebrates on the court in the second quarter against the Los Angeles Lakers at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
After more than half the season, has your NBA Finals preseason pick changed?
Saenz — My preseason pick was the Chicago Bulls vs Oklahoma City Thunder. I’ve already been on record saying that I’ve flopped. I’m now picking the Memphis Grizzlies and the Cleveland Cavaliers to make the NBA Finals. Weird season this is, y’all.
McQuiston — Preseason pick was Thunder-Cavs, however I am going to change that to the Warriors vs the Cavs due to the injuries, setbacks, and poor coaching that has plagued the Thunder as of late.
Pelosi — Chicago Bulls vs San Antonio Spurs. Not sure if the Bulls will overcome the Hawks in the East. But I still like the Spurs.
West — My preseason picks to make the Finals were the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors. The brand of team basketball that the Hawks are playing is just too much for anyone else in the East to handle right now. Rebounding could be an issue in the playoffs against teams like the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards, but ultimately they have talent at every position and the depth to make it to the Finals.
Mohamed — My preseason pick from the East were the Bulls. I was foolish enough to believe that they would be healthy, but Thibs continues to run his players into the ground. I’m still sticking with them, but that’s if their healthy.
From the West, it was the Spurs, and that certainly hasn’t changed. The Spurs with a healthy Kawhi Leanord are still a threat, and the team will forsure be at full health come April.
Veiga — Chicago vs Memphis was my preseason pick. Both teams are still my pick because they have the right amount of depth from starters to bench. (Chicago wins)
Armstrong — It certainly has. I begrudgingly came into this season betting on the champs to return to the finals. I no longer feel the same way. I understand that San Antonio’s record doesn’t tell the whole story. They’ve been hit hard with injuries and have rarely had their core team all playing together, so them falling to the seventh seed should be taken with a grain of salt. However, I don’t believe them to be a viable deep threat in this season’s crop of Western Conference talent. That’s not to say they’re not good. Teams don’t make the playoffs in the West being ‘not good’. But when comparing them side by side to other teams in the conference, I’m not liking how they stack up. I don’t see them even coming out of the first round, assuming they play Memphis. It’s up to Kawhi Leonard to change my mind because he’s their next big thing; Detractors have been saying for half a decade that the Spurs are ‘getting old’ but as far as their big trio is concerned, Father Time is finally catching up.
Cleveland has changed my mind multiple times. I knew not to write them off because of their early struggles because they had to learn how to play together. Since the acquisitions of Timofey Mozgov, J.R. Smith, and Iman Shumpert, the Cavs have kicked into gear and have looked like, in one way or another, the team we expected they’d become. I believe in LeBron. But there are still kinks that need to be worked out and as great as LeBron has been and still is, it’s been proven that the team around him has to make sure they live up to their duties as well. We’ve seen what happens when a team folds under the pressure. Naturally, this isn’t remotely close to the same team it was in 2007 or even Miami last year. Still, as much as this team has grown, they’re not battle tested and that will come in the playoffs. I need to see more from Kevin Love; Yes, they’ve been winning for now, but they’ll need his contributions in the postseason. Long story short, the Cavaliers are a team still getting it together. There are other teams in the East that have it together and are focusing now on improving on what they’ve established. That’s why I have a difficult time envisioning them in the NBA Finals. I could, however, easily envision them making the Eastern Conference Finals.
Memphis, for years, has been that team nobody wants to see early in the playoffs and they’ve pulled off some underdog victories. Well now, they’re no longer the underdog. Other than Golden State, Memphis has been the most impressive Western Conference team this season. They’ve retained their ‘Grit n Grind’ mantra, and they’ve improved offensively. Marc Gasol’s game has taken another step up and he’s legitimately elite. Zach Randolph, in his 14th season, is still a bully on the blocks and Mike Conley is a 4th quarter assassin. They recently added Jeff Green and he’s filled in a tertiary scoring role that they needed to be a complete team. Memphis is deadly and they’re the only team that I see as a threat to Golden State.
I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t see Atlanta’s success coming. In fact, they started the season 1-3, and then 5-5, but they’ve only lost five more times since then and have thoroughly dominated the league, East and West. This may sound cliche, but they’ve mastered the team game. They’re going to be represented by four All Stars in this Sunday’s 2015 NBA All Star Game, and that’s not only a testament to how good they are as a team, but also to the fact that they don’t have a singular star player. Each player knows his role and stays in his lane, and they play with an efficient unselfishness that’s just beautiful to watch. They’re deep and they shoot from deep. The only knock on them is that they’re not the most physical, which may be why they’ve lost at the hands of New Orleans, Memphis and Toronto twice. That may hurt them in the playoffs, but they’re my pick to represent the East.
Memphis, Atlanta.
Hughes — Coming into the season I was completely sold on a Chicago Bulls vs. Los Angeles Clippers matchup for the NBA Finals. The progression of Jimmy Butler, the acquisitions of guys like Pau Gasol and Mike Dunleavy, and the return of Derrick Rose all just seemed too good to be true. As it has turned out for the Bulls, it has in deed been too good to be true. The Los Angeles Clippers coming into the year have been so close yet so far for the past 3 seasons, and it seemed like the timing was just so right with the injuries that plagued the Oklahoma City Thunder. Since then though they’ve proved to have very little depth and their stars are carrying seemingly too much of the load. Now, my prediction has turned over completely. I’m buying in on the Cavs making it to the Finals out of the East but getting beaten by the Golden State Warriors hailing from the West.
Julius Lasin, Staff Writer — My preseason picks to make the NBA Finals were the Clippers and Bulls. And as scintillating as it might be to change my picks to Memphis/Portland and Washington, I will stick with those picks because I believe that both teams will hit their strides at the right time. Although the Clips and the Bulls have not played championship basketball at a consistent level, they have shown flashes of it. And who wants to peak at the midway point of the season anyway? Even though they have been a bit of a JekylI and Hyde team, I believe that the Clippers will get right once all the pieces are together and accustomed to each other. And I know it isn’t ideal, but I think they can get by with using Matt Barnes, Dahntay Jones and Hedo Turkoglu at the 3. As for the Bulls, they are still gelling and once Derrick Rose learns to dial it back a bit on the shooting and work off of his teammates, the Bulls look to be dangerous on both sides of the court.