Inaugural Power Rankings!

In honor of one of my favorite sports writers, Peter King, let me introduce to you my Fine 15 NBA teams!

1. Los Angeles Lakers: The Lakers are one of several teams whose success depends on their health. It is a given that Pau Gasol and Derek Fisher will do what needs to be done, and that Artest will fluctuate between brilliant and insane. The two catalysts for a third ring in a row are Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum. If those two can be healthy come playoff time, Kobe’s sixth ring should be well within his grasp.

2. Miami Heat: Health is also an issue here. Mike Miller could be out for almost 2 months with a broken hand, and Dwayne Wade is a constant injury risk. However, I think the additions will limit Dwayne’s crazy forays into the paint, where he takes numerous lumps per season. Mark my words, and the words of every sportswriter in the world, a healthy Heat can win the Championship.

3. Boston Celtics: This year, if the Celtics meet the Lakers in the Finals again, the Celtics have plenty of bigs to throw at Gasol and Bynum. If Doc Rivers continues to be conservative with minutes for his aged stars during the regular season, this team will be fine.

4. Orlando Magic: Hakeem the Dream, meet Dwight the Fright. Like every sports enthusiast, I saw the video of Dwight Howard working with Hakeem Olajuwon during the summer. I hope that pushes his game to another level. I would love to see Dwight Howard put up a pump fake that the defense actually had to react. A jumper would be an amazing sight. Even without the jumper, the Magic will blitz through the regular season again this year.

5. San Antonio Spurs: I think the addition of Dejuan Blair to the starting lineup is a stroke of…something. I want it to be genius, but I am afraid that the undersized Blair will still require Tim Duncan to play defense on centers for 20-25 minutes a game. That is not good for this team because it is not good for Duncan’s health. However, when Tiago Splitter is ready to go, he will help give Duncan time away from the center position, which will allow Duncan some rest.

6. Oklahoma City Thunder: Best scorer in the league in Kevin Durant, a rising star in Russell Westbrook, and an intentionally crafted supporting cast of players make the Thunder one of the most exciting young teams in the league. They will challenge for a top 4 playoff seed in the west, and should win at least one series this season. Still a center/power forward away from being an elite team.

7. Dallas Mavericks: I can’t remember the last time the Mavericks were not ranked in the top 10 in a Power Rankings Poll. They, along with the Spurs, seem to be the old faithful of the NBA. Dirk Nowitski + 12-14 other players = playoff team. That just seems to be the way it works. Of course, all writers are interested to see what Mark Cuban inevitably does in the middle of the season when his team is in 3rd of 4th place in the West. He loves to shake things up.

8. Portland Trailblazers: For as much grief as people give Greg Oden, he is one of only three players who makes this team watchable, with Brandon Roy and Rudy Fernandez being the other two. The Blazers are solid at every position, and if healthy, can roll out a platoon of rim-watchers to anchor the defensive end.

9. Utah Jazz: I love Deron Williams. I think he is the best point guard in the league, and I think that he will carry the Jazz to another 50 win season this year. Al Jefferson should average 20-10 without breaking a sweat in the Jazz offense, and I have high hopes for rookie Gordon Hayward (Indiana bias)

10. Chicago Bulls: As often as I see him play, Derrick Rose scares me. He scares me because he can penetrate on the entire world at once, but he scares me because I am afraid he is going to stay a scoring point guard his whole career. Nevertheless, the Bulls will be a team that no one wants to face in the playoffs if Carlos Boozer is running on all cylinders, and Kyle Korver has found his place on the perimeter, nailing threes alllllllll day.

11. Denver Nuggets: Denver has no chance at all of winning a championship at this point. On paper (when healthy) this team is awesome. A facilitating point guard with range in Chauncey Billups, a defending 2-guard with developing range in Arron Afflolo, the smoothest scorer in the game in Carmelo Anthony, a brute of a power forward who is a great post defender in Kenyon Martin, and an athletic center with a decent jump shot in Nene. However, paper doesn’t factor in that Nene is a softie who doesn’t block enough shots, or that Anthony takes waaaaay too many contested jumpers, or that the bench is a 50-50 bet to go insane (JR Smith) every night. This team just has too many unreliable factors to win a championship.

12. Phoenix Suns: Never bet against Steve Nash leading his team to the playoffs. He will find a way. I also love Hakeem Warrick in the pick and pop with Nash. Just don’t expect them to score any, literally any, points in the paint.

13. Houston Rockets: To me, the Rockets should be the deepest team in the league. They have a very good starting lineup, and then bring in players who can impact a game like Kyle Lowery, Chase Buddinger, Chuck Hayes, Jordan Hill, Courtney Lee, and Patrick Patterson. However, as we all know, the success of this team is going to be gained one half at a time. Mostly during the half per game that Yao is allowed to play. As a coach, how do you manage Yao Ming’s 24 allowed minutes per game? Do you play him the 1st and 3rd quarters? 6 minutes per quarter? It is going to be an interesting situation on a very good Rockets team.

14. New Orleans Hornets: I will be the first to admit that I loved when the NBA best point guard debate shifted Chris Paul to 2nd place behind Deron Williams. I have had a grudge against Paul ever since I saw him hit Julius Hodge in the groin during the 2005 ACC MBB tournament. I thought it was a low blow, and I never recovered. However, he is a dang good point guard, and he should be able to carry a team with plenty of outside shooting to at least the 7th seed in the West.

15. Milwaukee Bucks: I am a huge Andrew Bogut fan. He was playing the best basketball of his career when he broke his arm last season. If he can continue to play at the level of his 2009-2010 season, then that coupled with the natural progression of his younger teammates should push this team into position to win at least a series in the playoffs. Corey Maggette and Chris Douglas-Roberts should provide this team with two factors they didn’t have last year: dynamic scorers, and possible locker room cancers.

Big vs. Little

There has been a lot of talk in the basketball blogosphere the last few days about whether it is better to start a team with a center or a guard. Good question. If you are starting a franchise, do you want a dominating center, or an electrifying guard? To me, the question is: why are you starting a team?

It seems, if you are getting involved in the business to win an NBA championship, you need a dominating center. The last 12 years go Lakers, Lakers, Celtics, Spurs, Heat, Spurs, Pistons, Spurs, Lakers, Lakers, Lakers, Spurs. Of those 12 teams, It can be argued that the best, or most important players on each team were enormous, or at least really big:

• For the first Laker's dynasty and Miami's single dip, Shaq.
  
• For the Spurs three championships, Tim Duncan was the common factor.
  
• For the most recent three of Lakers and Celtics, Pau Gasol and Kevin Garnett were (arguably) the most important players on those teams.
  
• Even the Pistons got over the hump by the mid-season pickup of Rasheed Wallace.

On the other side of the page, if you want to make money in the NBA, I would argue that a flashy and mesmerizing guard is your best bet. Think of the most exciting players in the NBA today. My top 1- most likely to make you shake your head in disbelief players: Bryant, James, Wade, Durant, Paul, Howard, Williams, Wall (give me a break. Child is fast), Rose, Westbrook. Only one of these players is a center. As a GM, I would have to think a lot about the potential of drawing more fans over 41 games in my arena versus the potential of winning more playoff games over a six to ten year period.

Obviously, your team is going to make a lot of money if you win an NBA championship. However, what are the chances that you win an O'Brien trophy if you are drafting a potential star? At least in the short term, not good. So does it make more sense to make money with an exciting young athlete while you try to build your team? These are the kinds of questions that haunt me as a wannabe GM. I think the most important lesson has to be: as a General Manager, it's never all about the basketball, as much as you may like it to be.

Colt's Roster

It has come to my attention, as a longtime Colts fan and native of Indiana, that the Colts roster has been absolutely decimated by injury through 5 weeks. Let me list the important ones:

• Bob Sanders (out forever and ever)
• Anthony Gonzales (valuable part of passing game, but replaceable)
• Donald Brown (good at picking up rushers)
• Joseph Addai (Questionable for week 6)
• Pierre Garcon (Should be good to go, not 100%)
• Antione Bethea (Also running at about 85%)
• Melvin Bullit (Out for the forseeable future)
  

You can see that the majority of those issues are on the offensive side of the ball, but they are not the injuries that I am worried about. I am very concerned with the injuries at safety. If you look around the National Football League, you can see that dynamic safeties make a big difference for any defense. Troy Polamalu, Laron Landry, Ed Reed, Bernard Pollard, Antoine Bethea, Louis Delmas (in a few years along with Jairus Bird) just to name a few.

As a GM, I don't see any feasible way that Bill Polian can address this issue during the regular season. The Colt's D, already suspect in so many ways, now may become suspect against the deep ball, and be even worse against the run with the potential loss of Bethea. As the leader of this team, I suppose the best a GM can do is hope for health and a stout front 7, which Indianapolis kind of has and kind of doesn't.

This coming off season, depth is definitely something that needs to be addressed in the secondary, both through the draft and through free agency, although free agents is not the Colts way. Here's hoping for another playoff year!