Portland Trailblazers New Head Coach

 

It was announced this weekend that the Portland Trailblazers hired Los Angeles Clippers Assistant Coach, Chauncey Billups as their new Head Coach. The question that remains is this enough to get star Guard Damien Lillard to not consider asking for a trade request at some point during the season.

 

The Trailblazers have for the past five years a middle of the road team. A team that will make the playoffs in the Western Conference but would not make much noise in the playoffs.  There roster constructions the past few seasons has been riddled with injuries particularly to the Forward and Center positions. Also one of the things that has kept the Trailblazers from advancing is the teams lack of defense.  Portland was in the bottom of the league defensively this past season. They will need to address their roster likely through trades will not much cap space this summer. This means likely breaking up CJ McCollum and Lillard by trading McCollum who is your best trade asset.

 

I believe Lillard will give Coach Billups a chance to show him that the team will be going forward instead of staying stagnant as they have the past few years. Billups is a NBA Champion and played Point Guard at high level during his playing days. He will bring a great perspective of the game that Lillard will respect.

Eastern Conference Finals Preview

 The Eastern Conference Finals begins on Wednesday night.  It features the Milwaukee Bucks a team that many people expected to be contenders for the NBA title this season. The other team is the Atlanta Hawks a young up start team with tons of young talent. Both teams had a similar path to the conference finals with each team having a easy time in the first round. Each team is coming off of a great  7 game series in the second round.

The Hawks will be for a uphill battle as they face the Bucks who will have  players who can defend multiple positions especially on the perimeter.  In addition the Bucks have no one on their team who is afraid to shoot the ball. Lastly the Hawks just simply do not have an answer for Giannis  which will lead to unfortunately the Hawks being swept  in what I see as 4 very close games.

Western Conference Preview 2021

 

The Western Conference Finals is underway in a matchup that sees the young upstart Phoenix Suns against the Los Angeles Clippers. The road to the conference finals has been drastically different for both the teams. The Phoenix Suns beat the defending NBA Champions Los Angeles Lakers in 6 games in the first round. In the second round they swept the NBA MVP Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets in 4 games. The Los Angeles Clippers won their first round matchup in 7 games after trailing 2-0 initially against the Dallas Mavericks. In the second found they beat the Utah Jazz, who the best record in the NBA, in 6 games. This occurred after trailing 2-0 in this series as well. The Clippers become the first team in NBA history to come back from 2-0 twice in the same playoff season.

 

The Clippers will be without one of their star players Kawhi Leonard due to ACL sprain. Leonard availability is seen as a day by day situation. The Suns will be without their star player Chris Paul due to Health and Safety Protocol. This situation is also a day by day situation as well depending on any further information that is given out likely on Monday.

 

This will be a hard fought series with each having the ability to defend very well because most of their perimeter defenders are versatile. It will come down to a battle between Devin Booker of the Suns and Paul George of the Clippers. I predict that the Suns will win in 6 games with the X factor of the series being Deandre Ayton.

 

 

Takeaways from Eastern Conference Playoffs!!

 

The Eastern Conference has some intriguing match ups in the 2^nd round of the playoffs.

In this article I have listed my takeaways from both series currently going on.

 

Philadelphia 76ers vs Atlanta Hawks (Phi Leads 2-1)

 

The Philadelphia 76ers have won 2 straight games which include great contributions from their bench. The Atlanta Hawks do not have an answer for Joel Embiid on the inside and their only hope is hitting their 3’s and limiting their turnovers. The Hawks have committed at least 12 turnovers in every game this series. Turnovers combined with their poor 3-point shooting just 36 and 25% from 3 in the last two games. The Hawks will not win another game in this series if they cannot limit their turnovers.

Brooklyn Nets vs Milwaukee Bucks (BKN Leads 2-1)

 

The Brooklyn Nets are complete control of the series.

It took a very poor shooting night from the Nets for the Bucks to be able to win a game. The Bucks victory on Thursday came with themselves shooting just 19% from the 3 point Line. Joe Harris who shoot 1 for 11 in game 3 likely will not shoot like that again in this series. Until Giannis Learns to shoot from the perimeter the Bucks will not go to the Eastern Conference Finals let alone a NBA Finals.