Golden St. Warriors
Rob Mahoney: Upside and Motor

LA Clippers
ClipperSteve: Clips Nation

LA Lakers
Kurt: Forum Blue & Gold
Josh Tucker: Respect Kobe
Trevor Smith: HoopsAddict

Phoenix Suns
Phoenix Stan: Bright Side of the Sun

Sacramento Kings
Tom Ziller: Sactown Royalty

Also see links to all the previews at CelticsBlog.com

1. Lakers – I do give the nod to L.A., but just barely.  With a healthy Bynum and the duo of Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, there’s no reason for the Lakers to not be competing for the trophy again this season.  It won’t be so easy, though, because even though the Lakers should be better, their competition will also be better, and that brings us to #2.

2. Hornets – The Hornets got better this summer by bringing in James Posey from the world champion Celtics.  Posey gives New Orleans that defensive stopper they’ll need to get far in the post-season.  Chris Paul is still going to give other teams fits and now that the Hornets have some playoff experience, they’ve got a good shot to survive the West.

3. Rockets – The Rockets enter the season with a great upside, but also a great downside after their acquisition of Ron Artest.  Artest, a gritty defender and third scorer, looks to be exactly what Houston needs, but he could bring chemistry problems as well.  Not to mention, T-Mac and Yao will need to be healthy come playoff time.

4. Spurs – The Spurs are aging and, like the Rockets, they have some questions of their own.  They’ll need Manu Ginobili to recover from his ankle injury and come back at full strength.  The regular season is not San Antonio’s forte, but they do know how to win in May and June so don’t count them out.

Who do you think will win the West?

Also, check out the new poll which asks who will win the East!

Here are some games of interest:

• October 28th – The defending champion Celtics begin their title defense against Lebron James and the Cavs.
• October 29th – Not the most exciting way to start a franchise, but Oklahoma City starts their season hosting the Milwaukee Bucks.
• November 5th – Mark your calendars. Gilbert Arenas, who recently blogged, “Because every player hates Milwaukee. Nobody wants to live in Milwaukee. I’m sorry, Milwaukee, to come down hard on you, but no one in the NBA wants to play in Milwaukee,” takes his Wizards to Milwaukee to hear the boos.
• December 25th – The NBA is amping it up this season with five games on Christmas Day, highlighted by a Finals rematch between the Lakers and Celtics. The Wizards and Cavs will renew their rivalry as well.
• December 31st – Elton Brand returns to LA as the Sixers take on the Clippers.
• January 16th – Jermaine O’Neal makes his first trip back to Indiana as a member of the Raptors.

I’ll definitely be watching those games.

So, the Clippers, in their ongoing misery, manage to add Baron Davis and get the fanbase excited and then proceed to lose Corey Maggette and Elton Brand. And, now they tie their money up with an aging player? The sad thing is this is par for the course for the Clippers.

On the other side of the spectrum, the New Orleans Hornets are having a great free agency. They signed Chris Paul to an extension which basically guarantees the playoffs for the foreseeable future and they just picked up James Posey who was so important to the Celtics title run. So, the team that was 2nd in the West, just behind the Lakers with youth on their side, now picks up a championship level defender. The Lakers will have Andrew Bynum back next season, but it will be hard not to pick the Hornets to come out of the West. The Hornets definitely will be in the discussion when you talk about Western Conference contenders.

Re-signing with Washington would be the easy thing to do. Arenas has said he wants to stay in DC and just wanted to “test the market”, but plenty a player have “tested the market” and found a better contract elsewhere. Arenas has stated repeatedly he will only come back if the Wizards also re-sign Antawn Jamison this off-season and they just did re-sign Jamison for four more years so the odds look good for Washington. “He said he’d take less money if they got me, and they got me,” Jamison said. “So I think everything will get worked out with Gilbert.”

The Lakers and Clippers have also been reportedly interested in Arenas at one time or another, but both situations don’t seem likely anymore. The Lakers would have to make some pretty big changes to make the money available for Arenas which they are unlikely to want to do considering they are coming off a Finals appearance. The Clippers, on the other hand, would want to work a sign-and-trade most likely involving Elton Brand, but now that the Wizards have re-signed Jamison, Washington is in a much better position to win in Gilbert’s eyes. Don’t hold your breath, LA fans.

Where do you think Agent Zero will wind up?

Should he? No, probably not.

The biggest reason is that Jordan never really had an Achilles heel. His biggest weakness was probably that he was not a good three point shooter, but he always found other ways to score no matter who was guarding him. And, his intangibles were always in a league of their own. Kobe, on the other hand, has at least two Achilles heels: his inconsistency in inspiring his teammates and bad timing when it comes to taking over the game.

Let’s look at the cold hard facts. Kobe and the Lakers have now lost two consecutive Finals series and both times his team didn’t even show up for half the series. In 2004, it was Kobe’s selfishness and the Lakers’ overall lack of respect for the Pistons (the Malone injury didn’t help either) that did them in. Now, in 2008, Kobe has matured a bit, but you still have to question his leadership when a team falls flat on its face in the most important games of its season. No, it is not all Kobe’s fault, not by a long shot, but ask yourself if Michael Jordan would ever lose a Finals game by 30+ points. He never did. The most a Jordan-led Bulls team ever lost by in the Finals was by 21 to Seattle in 1996. Oh, and that was a Game 4 with the Bulls up 3-0.

With all that said, Kobe is still the best player in the game. You can make good arguments for a few other players (Pierce is creeping up there), but I would still put Kobe at the top of the list. He’s now got a good supporting cast and has a good chance to return to the Finals next season, but we’ve seen that he doesn’t quite have the it factor that Jordan did. Jordan would take over a game before it got out of hand. Kobe should have done that last night, but he didn’t. He should have never allowed himself to get so out of rhythm in Game 4 either despite the big lead. We know Kobe has the ability to take over, but his timing just seems off sometimes. Jordan seemed to know when to take over a game. He understood the idea of momentum a lot better than Kobe does. Last night I got the feeling that Kobe never really got worried until it was too late. I don’t think he gave up, but he had the memory of coming back from 24 down in Game 4 in the back of his head and by the time he felt a sense of urgency, there was no way to stop the Celtic onslaught. He underestimated the determination of KG, Pierce, and company. This was simply not a game you were going to overcome a big deficit.

Kobe might become a better leader and he might get a better feel for when to take over a game, but after last night, his legacy simply cannot live up to Jordan’s. Even if he wins six titles, three of them would have been with Shaq. That, plus the black scars on his legacy from 2004 and 2008 preclude him from being mentioned alongside Jordan as the Greatest Ever. He may be Jordan’s equal as far as talent, but Jordan had that innate intangible that Kobe is still learning on the job.

Oh, and what happened last night? Ray Allen fouled out. Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett picked up five fouls and Kobe got away with a foul on the game turning steal. Now, I don’t think there were any officiating improprieties last night (but I’m sure you could easily find a different perspective on another blog), but why would the Commish set himself up for this scenario? It’s as if he enjoys playing this cat and mouse game with his conspiracy theorists. Nah nah na nah nah, you can’t prove it. Maybe not yet, but is your stubbornness really good for the game?

As for the series, I don’t know how the Lakers are still alive. Perhaps the only reason they were able to win last night is they were so motivated by the potential embarassment of blowing another huge lead that they did just enough to win or maybe the Celts let them win so they can win a title on their home floor. Oh, and did anyone recognize the defense they were playing on Paul Pierce? It wasn’t zone or man, I think they call it let-him-score defense. I’d never count a team with Kobe on it out, but the odds look long for L.A. Then again, this team has been so hard to figure out this series that maybe they have some magic left (although the actual Magic in his prime would be preferable).