Ty tells you how each NBA team can win the title: Hawks, Bucks, & Heat

Before I continue my NBA countdown I want to take a second to talk about two college football coaches. First, get the help you need Steve Sarkisian. You clearly have a problem and you need the rehab that you're reportedly going to get. Your AD, Pat Haden, is doing you a disservice, but get your life together before coming back to coaching. You can't be drunk and be around young college athletes, that's wrong. Secondly, have a great retirement Steven Spurrier. Your teams haven't been great lately, the Gamecocks are 2-4 right now, but you're one of the greatest college football coaches of all time, terrible NFL coach, but great college coach. You turned Florida into a powerhouse and South Carolina wasn't relevant until you took over that job. Enjoy retirement.

Now, back to my NBA countdown. Did I mention that I love basketball.

Today we have teams 12, 11 and 10. All three are East teams and that means that almost all of the Eastern Conference playoff spots will be filled. To give you a comparison, we've got, after today's blog, 7 playoff teams, and 6 are from the East. Clearly, the West is way better right now. On with the countdown.

At number 12, I have the Atlanta Hawks. Yes, the same Hawks team that played in the East Finals last year. They're going to take some steps back. They have a good roster, but last year was a total fluke. They played out of their minds and won 60 games, but they fell flat when it mattered most. I think the same sort of thing will happen this year, but it will come before the playoffs. I've got them going from the first seed in the East down to number four, which would pit them against the Wizards in round one, and that would be a great playoff matchup. They also lost their best defender in DeMarre Carroll. I know that I called him a one season wonder, but he is a great defender, the scoring output was surprising to me. The roster is good, but not good enough to push past the second round. The backcourt is led by Jeff Teague. He's a solid point guard. He can get to the rim, shoot a little bit and finds the open three point shooter more times than naught. Kyle Korver joins him in the backcourt, but, while he's one of the best three point shooters in the game, that's all he does. He doesn't play defense, reference to the playoffs last year when LeBron James exploded through the lane went up for a dunk and Korver literally ran away from the play, can't drive and isn't that good of a passer. They traded for Tim Hardaway Jr and while I think getting out of New York will benefit him, what does he do besides shoot for a low percentage and gripe at officials. I loved Hardaway Jr while he was at Michigan, but he wasn't the best player any of his three years there and he won't be the best player on any NBA team, except the 76ers. Dennis Schroder is a good player, but he's being under utilized in Atlanta. He doesn't get enough playing time, and in the right situation, he could be an All Star. Kent Bazemore and Thabo Sefolosha round out the backcourt. Bazemore is a fine player, but nothing special and Sefolosha has a huge criminal case, he was wrongly targeted and hurt by the NYPD because they're a bunch of racist assholes, and that will effect his play this year. He's a lock down defender, but provides nothing on offense. The Hawks frontcourt is their strength, led by guys like Al Horford and Paul Millsap. Horford, when healthy, is one of the best fours in all of basketball. He's got great low post skills, plays excellent interior defense and can step back and hit long jumpers. Paul Millsap is finally getting the credit he deserves, getting his first All Star appearance last year, and is a great player in the NBA. He's the better version of Horford, and Horford is pretty good. The Hawks got Tiago Splitter in free agency, but he reminds me a lot of Aaron Baynes, with the exception being that the Hawks coach was a Popovich understudy. The Hawks run the same system as the Spurs, but Splitter will struggle since there's no Tim Duncan to take the load off him. Mike Scott comes off the bench, but he's pretty blah. The Hawks are going to take a step back this season and while they'll win somewhere in the range of 45 to 48 games, they won't achieve the success of last season.

How the Hawks will win it all.

The Hawks will win the title if Al Horford and Paul Millsap can stay healthy all season and average 40 plus points and 25 plus rebounds combined, that could happen, Jeff Teague becomes an elite point guard, in the same class as Chris Paul or Russell Westbrook, Kyle Korver hits threes at a record level and the bench gives them big time production. This team was a conference finals away from playing for the title last year, but they are destined to take a step back.

Coming in at number 11, we have one of my new favorite teams to watch, the Milwaukee Bucks. First of all, while he may be a crummy person in his personal life, Jason Kidd is an excellent coach, much to my surprise. His team totally buys into defense and spacing on offense. The Bucks get Jabari Parker back after tearing his ACL during his rookie year. He looks to be a good scorer in the NBA, and under Kidd's tutelage, he will become a good defender. Joining Parker in the back court you have guys like Michael Carter-Williams and OJ Mayo. Carter-Williams isn't much of a shooter, but he's explosive going to the rim, plays good defense and usually finds the open man. OJ Mayo came into the NBA with huge expectations, struggled to score, play defense and stay in shape his first couple of seasons, but has found a good place for him in Milwaukee. He thrives coming off the bench, providing the Bucks with instant offense. In the frontcourt, they got one of the better offseason signings in Greg Monroe. Most people, including me, thought he was going to either New York or Los Angeles, but he surprised everyone and signed with the Bucks. He's an excellent rim protector and rebounder, and if he can get some skills in the post, he will be unstoppable. Khris Middleton is an emerging star. He hit some clutch shots last season and is becoming a legitimate 20 point a game type player. Next to Andrew Wiggins, the Bucks have my second favorite young player to watch in Giannis Antetokounmpo. His nickname is the "Greek Freak", so that's what I'll call him. Anyway, he is long and rangy, explosive to the rim, can shoot the midrange jumper and is pesky on defense. He is an All Star and All NBA player in waiting. He's awesome. John Henson and Miles Plumlee come off the bench in the frontcourt, and while I like Henson's game, he's a decent defender and a decent shooter, Plumlee provides nothing for this team. Other guys off the bench are Jerryd Bayless, a castoff from Memphis, Greivas Vasquez, who hasn't been that good since college, Chris Copeland, who's a fine three point shooter, but that's it and Tyler Ennis, a kid who should've stayed in college. The Bucks are getting better and better, but are still two or three years away from competing with the Cavs and Bulls in the East. They will win 48 or 49 games and be third or fourth in the East.

How the Bucks will win it all.

The Bucks will win the title if Greg Monroe becomes an MVP caliber type of player, Parker stays healthy and puts up huge numbers, Antetokounmpo puts everything together and is an All Star and the bench provides huge sparks every night. The Bucks are good, just not elite yet.

Finally, let's get into the top ten. Coming in at number 10, I have the Miami Heat. You've got to give it up to Pat Riley, the guy loses LeBron James, has one bad year, gets the best young player in the draft in Justise Winslow, gets Dwayne Wade to come back, and Chris Bosh is healthy. Also, he resigned Goran Dragic after trading for him last year. This team, if they can stay healthy, has the horses to compete with the Cavs and Bulls, and may actually be better than both. First, the back court is loaded. Dwayne Wade may be old and only plays half a season, but when he's healthy, he's one of the 15 best players in the league. He's also won three titles, so he knows how to perform in the clutch. Goran Dragic is an excellent point guard, and getting out of Phoenix was the best thing to happen to him. He's an All Star caliber player, and with the teammates he has in Miami, he will flourish. Like I said before, I like Justise Winslow a lot. The fact that he dropped to Miami at number 10 in the draft is appalling to me. He was the best player on the national title champion Duke Blue Devils that had guys like Jahlil Okafor and Tyus Jones. He is going to be great in the NBA. With the return of Chris Bosh and the emergence of Hassan Whiteside, the Heat's front court is ferocious. Bosh is one of the best shooting big men and while he may be a bit soft, he gets clutch rebounds and plays okay defense. Whiteside has the potential to get a double double every night. And I'm not talking points and rebounds, I mean blocks and rebounds. He loves playing defense and that's what the Heat need him to do. Loul Deng, A'Mare Stoudamire and Udonis Haslem, while pretty old and not as good as they once were, are capable back ups and provide the Heat what they need off the bench. Mario Chalmers and Chris Anderson are still there, but these guys are trade chips. The Heat are good and can be elite this year. If they stay healthy, I see a 50 win team, and competing all season long with the Bulls and the Cavs for the top spot in the East.

How the Heat can win it all.

The Heat will win the title, and they're the first team that I feel has a legitimate shot, if these guys can all stay healthy and produce like they've produced their whole careers. Getting Bosh back healthy is huge. He's the leader of this team, and gives them the leadership they need. I really, really like this Heat team, but they are no higher than tenth overall unless they can stay healthy and that's a big if.

So there you have numbers 12, 11 and 10. Come back tomorrow for numbers 9, 8 and 7. Things are starting to get real.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He made a bid to buy the Milwaukee Bucks, his offer of being awesome was turned down. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty tells you how each NBA team can win the title: Celtics, Raptors, & Wizards

I really like the NBA, but I love playoff caliber basketball.

A new week is upon us and that means we are back to my NBA countdown. We got our first playoff team at the end of last week, but this week, it's all playoff teams, ending on Friday with my number one overall team and my pick for the Finals, MVP of the season, Coach of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year. Let's get on with numbers 15, 14 and 13.

Coming in at number 15, we have the team that surprised me the most last season, the Boston Celtics. I was shocked and impressed how well they played the second half of last season. They finished with one of the best, if not the best, record after the All Star break and made the playoffs. They got swept out of the first round by the Cavs, but the fact they made the playoffs was a big surprise. I really like their coach, Brad Stevens, and I think he's on his way to becoming one of the best coaches in all of basketball. Their roster leaves much to be desired, but it's playoff caliber, especially in the East. Isiah Thomas is a great player. I like how fiercely competitive he plays and he's a threat to put up 40 on any given night. His back court mates are good, not great, at one specific skill. Avery Bradley is an elite defender and guards the oppositions best scorer every game. He is not that good of an offensive player though. Marcus Smart is also a very good defender, he was exceptional in college, but he's also lacking on offense. That puts all the pressure on Thomas to score and while he may be up to it, it won't happen night after night. Drafting RJ Hunter was a good move by the Celtics because this kid can flat out score. I didn't know much of him until the NCAA tournament last season, but when I watched him play, he made shot after shot. He has the tools to be a good bench scorer in the NBA. Evan Turner is a bust in every sense of the word. He can't score, he can't rebound and he gets dunked on with consistency. He's not that good of an NBA player. The frontcourt is just okay. Jared Sullinger is fine, but he's too small to guard fives and too slow to guard fours. Kelly Olynyk plays out of control. He hasn't brought the three point shooter and post scoring he had in college to the NBA, and his play on Kevin Love in the first round of the playoffs was dirty. There's no middle ground on it, it was flat out dirty, he meant to hurt Love. Tyler Zeller may be a fine NBA player, but I don't know, not a big enough sampling. They signed Jae Crowder and traded for David Lee and Perry Jones this offseason. Jae Crowder is a good big man that does the dirty work in the NBA. He rebounds, plays post defense and doesn't care about stats, only wins. I like Crowder to supplant Olynyk in the starting lineup by midseason. David Lee was, at one point, an All Star. He definitely helped the Warriors win a title, but he hasn't been an impact player in the NBA in a couple of seasons. His best days are behind him. Perry Jones is an enigma. He has loads of potential, but he couldn't get off the bench in OKC, and when he did get playing time, he didn't produce. He may be good, and getting out of OKC will be best for him, but we will have to see how he does with an expanded role. The rest of the roster is young and unproven. The Celtics will win anywhere from 42 to 45 games and are a lock for the playoffs.

How the Celtics can win it all.

The Celtics will win the title if, Thomas becomes an All Star, that may happen, RJ Hunter becomes a 20 point per game scorer, that won't happen and the frontcourt plays way beyond expectations. The Celtics are getting back to good basketball, but they still need a couple of years before they are on the same level with the elite teams from the East.

My number 14 team is the Toronto Raptors. this team is sliding back. They're still good enough to be the fifth or sixth team in the East, but they seem to get a little worse every year. Their roster is full of talent, but it doesn't seem to come together to put this team in the top of the East. Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan are two of the best young guards in the league, but DeRozan can't seem to stay healthy for a full season, and Lowry finally showed up this offseason in shape, but that should've happened last year when he signed his big extension. Jonas Valanciunas has been an okay player, but he hasn't lived up to the hype surrounding him when he was drafted. He looks afraid to take big shots or come up with big rebounds of defensive plays. He shies away from the big moment. James Johnson and Patrick Patterson are fine players, but they're nothing to write home about. They don't really affect the game too much. They did a lot this offseason, but it seems like too much and a bit desperate. DeMarre Carroll is a pretty decent NBA player, he proved that last year with the Hawks, but he's not worth the money the Raptors gave him. Corey Joseph finally gets his shot to play after spending his first couple of seasons on the Spurs bench, and he's looked good in the preseason, but is that smoke and mirrors, or a sign of things to come? Also, will he really steal minutes from DeRozan and Lowry? I don't think so. They signed Anthony Bennett after the Timberwolves bought him out, and while it may be nice for him to play in his home town, he's from Toronto, we are talking about one of the biggest, if not the biggest, busts of all time in the draft. I really like their pick of Delon Wright in the most recent draft. In fact, I think that was their best offseason move. The Raptors have gotten better every year under DeWayne Casey, but they seem to fall apart at critical and crucial times. Toronto seems like a 45 or 46 win team to me, good for the sixth spot in the East.

How the Raptors can win  it all.

The Raptors will win the title if DeRozan can stay healthy all season and play at an extremely high rate, Lowry and Valanciunas play to the level of their contract, DeMarre Carroll proves he's not a one season wonder and the supporting cast plays much, much better than expected. The Raptors stink of a team that will start hot, fade late and shit the bed in the playoffs, basically what they've done the past two years.

My number 13 team is also from the East, the Washington Wizards. I really like the Wizards, but I just don't think they have enough talent on their roster to be better than fourth or fifth in the East, probably fifth. Now, the starters are where all the talent lies. John Wall is one of the best point guards in all of basketball (what would Colin Cowherd say?). He's the fastest basketball player I've ever seen, he lays really good defense, finds the open man all the time and is becoming a pretty good shooter. Bradley Beal is one of the best young scorers. Otto Porter JR is going to have a huge season. He's been on the verge of breaking out, and I think that happens this season. He will finally live up to being the third overall pick. Nene Hilario is one of my favorite players to watch. He's a throwback in every season of the word. He plays awesome defense, rebounds at a very high rate, has excellent post moves and does all the dirty work. Marcin Gortat is a good scorer, and he pairs well with Nene in the frontcourt. Gortat is a scorer and Nene does everything else. The bench is the problem for me. First of all, they lost Paul Pierce. While he's a million years old, he hit big shot after big shot and gave this team a swagger they didn't have before. The Wizards will miss him. The bench has guys like Drew Gooden, DaJuan Blair, Kris Humphries and Ramon Sessions. Not world beaters and past their primes, if they had one. I do like their pick of Kelly Oubre JR. He's another one and done, and who knows with these kids, but being on a veteran team and not having to have an immediate impact will benefit him. He's going to be good. The Wizards will win close to 50 games, probably 48 and be the fifth seed in the East.

How the Wizards can win it all.

The Wizards will win the title if the starters can play all 48 minutes in every regular season game and playoff game and not have to rely on their bench. The starters are great, but the bench is very weak and will be their undoing. Another second round exit is in the cards for the Wizards.

So, there's my 15, 14 and 13 ranked teams. Tomorrow we get into the top 10 and things will become very interesting.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. His NBA League Pass is mostly for the OKC Thunder, but he enjoys some low tier eastern conference playoff teams. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik

Ty tells you how each NBA team could win the title: Pistons, Mavericks, & Jazz

I love the NBA, and I really love playoff caliber basketball.

Continuing my NBA countdown, I'll be giving you teams 18, 17 and 16. Today we get our first playoff team. This team will actually replace a team from last seasons playoffs. The three teams I'll be talking about today are right on the verge, or missed their window. They have decent enough rosters, but are just on the outside of the playoffs, with one exception. My first playoff team may surprise you, but that's the fun of making preseason predictions. On with the countdown.

Coming in at number 18 is the Detroit Pistons. There are things I really like about this team, but there's just as much that I dislike. They might surprise, but probably not. First, the dislikes. For one, they completely over paid to keep Reggie Jackson. Being an Oklahoma City fan, I watched Jackson grow into a quality NBA starter, but I also saw how he reacted when he didn't get his way. One year, he'd have a huge impact during OKC's playoff runs, but last season, with Durant and Westbrook out for extended periods of time, he did not respond to the challenge. Instead of being the leader they needed, he became a ball hog, so far as to veterans icing him out and not passing him the ball. He then complained that he wasn't getting the touches or minutes he thought he deserved when Westbrook returned, and basically demanded a trade. His wish was granted much to my delight. Now, GM Stan Van Gundy gave him a max contract and that's insane. He's not a max player, and if he doesn't get his way, he'll openly complain. Another reason the contract baffles me is, the Pistons have a much better point guard in Brandon Jennings. I know he's coming off a torn ACL, but he's ten times the player Reggie Jackson is. He's also a lefty, and lefties are very tough to guard. Jennings can shoot okay enough, and he's really good at finding the open man. Unfortunately, for him and the Pistons, I think he's trade bait since they gave Jackson so much money. Some team will greatly benefit if Jennings is traded, and the Pistons will suffer. I'd take Jennings over Jackson 10 times out of 10.Now, a player I like. Andre Drummond is a good big man to have, but his front court mate, Greg Monroe, left and signed with Milwaukee. That will be tough on Drummond. Drummond is a great rebounder and defender though, and he may strive being the focal point of the Pistons half court offense. They drafted Stanley Johnson, who I like a lot, but he's only 19 or 20 years old. He's another one and done, and it takes time for these guys to develop before they become a true threat. Besides Marcus Morris, who I think is a really good, really underrated player, they "beefed" up their bench with guys like Steve Blake, way too old, Danny Granger, way too old and oft injured, Aaron Baynes, won't succeed outside of the Spurs organization and Ersan Ilyasova, just not that good of an NBA player. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is a good shooter, but he hasn't figured out the NBA game just yet. The overpaying of Reggie Jackson and signing or trading for veterans that are ten years past their prime make the Pistons a 35 to 37 win team. That may get you in the playoffs in the East, but probably not.

How the Pistons will win it all.

The Pistons will win the title if Reggie Jackson and Brandon Jennings find a way to mesh together and play high level basketball, that won't happen, they both think they're alphas, but only one of them is(Jennings), Drummond becomes a 20 point a game scorer, Stanley Johnson becomes a key contributor right away and the old vets find the fountain of youth and play like they did in their primes. Sorry Detroit, that's not happening.

Number 17 on my list is the Dallas Mavericks. What a crummy, terrible, horrible, asinine way to lose your top free agent this summer. I wrote about how cowardly this all made DeAndre Jordan look, and it was a huge blow to the Mavericks hopes of making the playoffs. Now, as I wrote in my piece, Jordan wouldn't have made them an NBA championship contender, but he would've kept them in the playoffs at least. I feel bad for Dirk Nowitzki as well. How many other legitimate superstars have left as much money on the table to help the team get better. Nowitzki will go down as one of the best big men shooters of all time, but the end of his career is going to be tough because the Mavericks aren't going to be as good as they've been lately. Not only did they miss out on DeAndre Jordan, but they let Tyson Chandler walk without trying to sign him, Monta Ellis left in free agency and their "big" offseason additions were Wes Matthews, coming off a torn ACL, Deron Williams, who hasn't been an impact player in about 6 years and JaVale McGee, who is the most out of control player in all of basketball. Go google some JaVale McGee "highlights" and watch with amazement at how absurd some of the stuff he does is. They still have Chandler Parsons, but is he truly a quality starter in the NBA? I haven't seen it since his third year in Houston, and he gets injured all the time. He may have been a one season wonder. Devin Harris is still around, but all he's any good for anymore is shooting the three. JJ Barea is still there, but he's just getting older and older. Samuel Dalembert may end up being a good defensive center, but he will not help this team on offense. I want to touch on the Wes Matthews signing again for a minute. They ended up giving him a max contract after the whole DeAndre Jordan thing, and while that was a poor decision, Wes Matthews is a really good NBA player. He led the league in three point percentage last year. That's right, Wes Matthews and not Steph Curry hit threes at the highest rate. He also plays excellent defense. He is a very, very good basketball player. The Mavericks are going to step back this season. The question is, how far of a slide back will they take? Will they be a mid 30 win team, or will they tank? I'd guess they will end up in the mid 30 win column. Dirk has too much pride to give up at this point in his career and Wes Matthews will want to show people he's worth the big contract. Unfortunately, the rest of the roster is average.

How the Mavericks will win it all.

The Mavericks will win the title if they can get the Steve Nash from ten years ago to come back and play for them, Dirk finds the fountain of youth, Matthews becomes an MVP candidate, Parsons proves he's not a one season wonder and the bench highly exceeds expectations. This will be a rough year for the Mavericks, Mark Cuban and, most importantly, Dirk. They will struggle in the West and Dirk may call it quits after this season. We will have to wait and see.

Finally, my first playoff team. Coming in at number 16 is the Utah Jazz. I thought that I'd never say this, but Quinn Snyder may be a competent coach (ed note: That sentence makes me angry). He has a young team that's buying into playing team basketball and being stout on defense. Gordon Hayward is becoming a really good NBA player. He's playing like a max contract guy and I didn't expect that. He looks likes he's going to be good for a long time. Trey Burke has had a rough start to his young career, but the Jazz have tempered that problem by drafting Dante Exum last season. He got hurt, but he's a 6'6 point guard, and he looks to be really good. Burke is more of a bench player anyway, but it pains me to say that because he was a star when he played for Michigan, and you all know I'm a huge Michigan fan, both football and basketball. Derrick Favors is a pretty good NBA player and forward. He's a good post player and very good rebounder. Alec Burks is quietly becoming a pretty good scorer in the NBA. He's instant offense for the Jazz. Rodney Hood is a lefty sharp shooter, and he's playing good basketball right now in his young career. Rudy Gobert is an upgrade from Enes Kanter, especially on defense. He's not the scorer that Kanter was, but his imposing presence in the post made it an easy decision for the Jazz to trade Kanter to OKC last season. The issue with the Jazz is the rest of their bench. They took a shot, it may end up working out for them, by drafting Trey Lyles in the lottery this past draft. He barely saw the floor in his one season at Kentucky, and no one knows how good he really is. He has a ton of potential, but he's extremely raw. He is the definition of a prospect. And, other than Hood and Trevor Booker, the rest of the bench is question marks. Is Jeff Withey really worthy of an NBA roster spot? Trevor Booker is okay, but will he take the next step? The rest of the bench, literally, who are these guys? I don't know much about them. Like I said, the Jazz will make the playoffs, taking the Mavericks spot from last season, in the hyper competitive West, but they will get swept out of the first round. They will win either 44 or 45 games this season.

How the Jazz will win it all.

The Jazz will win the title, now they're the first team in my countdown that has a "shot" simply because they will be in the playoffs, if they catch fire at the exact right time and run off a series of monumental upsets. They will be the eight seed in the West and they will have to go through a murderers row of opponents. That won't happen this year. they'll be a nice story and Jazz basketball is on it's way back, but they're not elite. Not yet.

So, there are my 18, 17 and 16 teams in the NBA. Come back next week and we will get into the upper echelon of teams in the NBA. All the teams next week will be playoff teams and you will get my Finals prediction and my pick to win the Finals next Friday.

It will feel good to write about teams that are actually good.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. We all watch sports here at SeedSing, but Ty is the only one that really knows what he is talking about. Follow him on twitter @tykulik.

Ty tells you how each NBA team can win the title: Magic, Pacers, & Hornets

I love basketball.

Continuing my NBA countdown, today you'll be getting my number 21, 20 and 19 teams. We are just on the outside of the playoffs. These teams are okay, have been good recently but are in a downswing or they are rising, but there just not a playoff team yet. I like these teams, but they're a year or two away, or past their prime. On with the countdown.

My number 21 team is the Orlando Magic. I really like what they are doing in Orlando right now. They are building a strong, youthful team that's full of potential. They drafted my favorite player from last years draft, Elfrid Payton. First of all, he has the best hairdo in the league, but aside from that, he's a really good, really young point guard. He's going to be a star in this league and he will continue to get better and better. Victor Oladipo is a fantastic defender and he's one of the most athletic players I've seen in a long time. He may have been the best overall player in his draft class from three years ago. Nikola Vucevic looks like a really strong player. He made a huge leap last season and he should continue to get better each season. Aaron Gordon is extremely athletic, but he needs to stay healthy if he wants to become a consistent starter in the NBA. They resigned Tobias Harris last season after many, many teams tried to get him. I think he's one of the most underrated players in basketball. He's an all around great player. He's more than just a scorer now. They drafted foreign prospect Mario Herzonja, and while I don't know how good of a player he is, he's extremely confident in himself and his abilities. That's half the battle. The problem with the Magic is their bench. It's pretty thin, filled with unproven players. Guys like Shabazz Napier and CJ Watson and Evan Fournier have shown me very little in their early careers. Everyone else on the bench is average at best. They have a decent, but very young roster. They remind me a lot of the Timberwolves. They'll struggle to win 30 games this year, but if they stay together, this team will be really good in three years.

How the Magic will win it all.

The Magic will win the title if every single player takes a huge step forward and become All NBA caliber players. That won't happen this season, but Oladipo and Payton are destined to be stars. Give them three years.

My number 20 team is the Indiana Pacers. Yes, the same team that was in the east finals two years ago. They really struggled without Paul George for almost all of last season. Their roster is pretty thin as well, with a lot of cast offs from other NBA teams. George Hill is s good point guard, but he's not an All Star and he's only getting older. Paul George is back and he's a top 20 NBA player. The only problem, they'll regret playing him at the four this season, and that won't work for him on defense. Fours are too big and strong for him to guard. They'll beat him up. He'll get his on offense, but defense will punish him. They signed Monta Ellis, but I feel like his best days are behind him. He doesn't really care to play defense. Usually a rookie wouldn't be an upgrade, but Myles Turner, right now, is a better player than Roy Hibbert. That sentiment would have been crazy two years ago, but Hibbert is pretty rough to watch now a days. I think Turner can be a competent center in about three or four years. He does run awkwardly, but he has decent post skills and can rebound and be a rim protector. Their bench, with the exceptions of Jordan Hill and Rodney Stuckey, is either rookies or second and third year players, aka, my buzzword, unproven. I do like Stuckey and Hill though. Stuckey is instant offense and Hill is a good player that got out of LA(he was a Laker) so he can blossom. The Pacers are destined to take a step back. I see 34 or 35 wins this season and they will win ugly.

How the Pacers will win it all.

The Pacers will win the title if George is somehow, some way, able to handle fours on defense, George Hill plays the best basketball of his life, Myles Turner becomes all NBA defense and averages double figures, Monta Ellis contributes on both ends and Stuckey and Hill become starter quality players. I like their roster, but all that stuff isn't happening. Sorry Pacer fans. How they handle this season and offseason will say a lot about the direction the Pacers are going in.

My number 19 team is the Charlotte Hornets. With the injury to Michael Kidd-Gilchrist you may think 19 is too high, but that injury, in my opinion, doesn't change too much about this team. MKG will be hard to replace though, that's for sure. He was definitely coming into his own and his injury will be a tough pill to swallow for the Hornets. The rest of the roster is decent, but not great. They also drafted Frank Kaminsky way too early. He has bust written all over him. Another poor GM decision by Michael Jordan. Kemba Walker is an All Star in waiting. I love the intensity and passion he plays with. He's a really good basketball player. Walker is almost good enough to make the MKG injury a moot point. Almost. Al Jefferson is a good big man that's finally getting the credit he deserves. He plays the game with a mix of old and new school moves. He's an awesome basketball player. He should be a perennial All Star. They traded for Nic Batum before the draft, but I don't know how he fits. He's a good shooter, but there's no Damien Lillard to help take the pressure off. Kemba Walker is good, like I said before, but he's not on Lillard's level yet. They also traded for Jeremy Lamb, who couldn't get off the bench in Oklahoma City and signed Jeremy Lin. I think it's fair and reasonable to stop the hype on Jeremy Lin. He hasn't been very good since he left the Knicks, and he was only good for about 25 games with the Knicks. I like Jeremy Lin the person, I love the pranks he plays on people, but I don't like Jeremy Lin the basketball player. He's not that good. PJ Hairston has a lot of promise, but he can't seem to stay out of trouble. His problems will doom his career. The rest of the roster is not very good. You're grasping for straws if your ninth player off the bench is Tyler Hansborough and your tenth player is rookie Aaron Harrison. Hansborough was a college star, but his game doesn't translate to the NBA and he's an extremely dirty player. Harrison regressed in his sophomore year of college and I don't see him getting much better in the pros. The Hornets may flirt with a .500 record, but are more likely to win 35 games.

How the Hornets will win it all.

The Hornets will win the title if MKG has a miraculous recovery, Walker scores 40 points a game, Jeremy Lin finds the form he had during "Linsanity" and plays like that all season and Nic Batum becomes an All Star. Al Jefferson will be great because he's a great player, but he's in a similar situation as Boogie Cousins. At least Jefferson has a teammate almost as good as him in Kemba Walker.

So, there you have it, teams 21, 20 and 19. Come back tomorrow for teams 18, 17 and 16. We get our first playoff team tomorrow.

Ty 

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He enjoys writing about basketball, but is looking forward to writing about good basketball. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty tells you how each NBA team can win the title: Timberwolves, Suns, & Kings

I love basketball.

Continuing my NBA countdown, today I will be giving you my number 24,23, and 22 teams. We are getting to teams that are just on the outside of a playoff push. These teams are either too young, or have veterans that are too old. They may have been in the playoffs recently, but haven't been in awhile. They are still in the lottery, but in the later half of the lottery. Hell, the Heat picked in the late lottery last season. These teams are one or two players away from becoming competitive.

My number 24 team is the Minnesota Timberwolves. Yes, they had the worst record in the NBA last season, but they were fun to watch at times. They have young players throughout their entire roster. First, they traded Kevin Love last season to the Cavs in exchange for Anthony Bennett, who they just bought out, and Andrew Wiggins. Wiggins was excellent as a rookie. He showed his lock down defensive ability last season, and he found a jump shot midway through the season and he can jump out of the gym. He's probably my favorite young player to watch. Zach Lavine is a mystery to me. He has incredible hops, but can he shoot the ball? Can he play strong defense? Is he ready to take the next step? I don't know, but he's in year three, so he's either going to take a step forward, or slide back. Ricky Rubio cannot shoot the ball, doesn't want to either, but he's a wizard passing the ball. He plays out of control sometimes, and he seems to be on the trading block every year. Nikola Pecovic is not living up to his big contract. I think he's the only player on the Timberwolves that misses Kevin Love. He's been a disappointment. I think their first pick, and overall number one in the 2015 draft, Karl Anthony-Towns can slide into Pecovic's place. It's going to take time for him to develop because he's so young, but he has the look of a perennial All Star. The bench is okay, but nothing to write home about. Shabazz Muhammed has surprised me with how well he's adjusted to the pro game. He looked like a head case in college and part of his rookie year, but something must have clicked for him, and he looks like a decent bench player in the NBA. Unfortunately, for himself and the Timberwolves, they start him out of necessity. They also have Gorgui Dieng and Kevin Garnett come off the bench. Dieng was expected to make a leap last year, but it never really came together for him. He seemed nervous being the focal point of the second unit. I love Kevin Garnett, and him being back with the Timberwolves is strictly nostalgic, but he should've retired three years ago. He's going to be an excellent coach. Other than that, it's slim picking for the Timberwolves. This team is way too young to fight for any playoff spot, but give them three more years, they could be a powerhouse.

How the Timberwolves will win it all.

The Timberwolves will win the title if Wiggins becomes the elite player he will be in three years this season, Lavine becomes more than just a dunker, Pecovic regains his form from two seasons ago, and plays ten times better than that and Karl Anthony-Towns is an immediate All Star. That's not happening. The Timberwolves will be improved, but they will only get somewhere in the 20 win column. They'll be fun to watch, but give them time, about three years, they'll be legitimate playoff contenders.

My number 23 team is the Phoenix Suns. This is another team that seems to be falling apart at the seams, a la the Denver Nuggets. They were legit playoff contenders the last year and a half, but quit midway through last season. They had way too many point guards and traded Goran Dragic and Isiah Thomas for little to nothing. They did get Brandon Knight out of these trades, but I feel like they overpaid him this offseason. Who knows if he'll live up to that contract. They did sign Tyson Chandler, but that was in hopes of luring LaMarcus Aldridge, and that obviously didn't happen. Chandler is good, but who will throw him the alley oops he needs? Not Eric Bledsoe or Archie Goodwin. Bledsoe needs the ball in his hands at all times to be effective. He's really good, but not franchise player good. Archie Goodwin is young and inexperienced. He's a one and done kid, from Kentucky, so who knows what his future in the NBA holds. They did draft Devin Booker, another one and done from Kentucky, who looks to be a lock down perimeter shooter, but what else can he do? And he's not going to take shooting guard minutes away from Brandon Knight. Alex Len hasn't panned out like they hoped. He was the big man of the future, but he's been a disappointment so far. He can't guard any fives, and gets beat up by most when they're guarding him. They completely botched the Marcus Morris trade to the Pistons, pissing off his twin, Markieff in the process. I don't believe his talk of being happy now, after claiming he'd never suit up for the Suns again this summer. Other than these guys, the bench is another group of question marks. I don't understand what management is trying to do with this team. Are they going to try and make the playoffs, or are they going to tank? Who knows, but management hasn't made many good decisions the last half of this year.

How the Suns will win it all.

The Suns will win the title if Bledsoe gets the whole team involved, Knight becomes the star that they hope he will be, Tyson Chandler gets a time machine and goes back to his form during his first go around with the Mavericks, Alex Len suddenly becomes good at basketball and Booker hits 70% of his threes. They also need to trade Marcus Morris to achieve any success. The Suns are a 32 or 33 win team at best. Management needs to get their act together before this team is highly competitive again.

My number 22 team is the Sacramento Kings. Talk about a problem at the top. First of all, the coach, George Karl, doesn't like the star player, and one of the best centers in all of the NBA, DeMarcus Cousins. Their owner is out of his mind, going so far as to suggest playing 4 on 5 defense so they'll always be running fast breaks because it worked for his child's little league basketball team. And players can't wait to get out of there. They did sign Rajon Rondo, but he's not elite anymore, and he's a tough teammate. He's an extremely smart player and expects everyone on the court to be as smart as him. That's not happening, a lot of his new teammates are really athletic, and that's how they play the game, they use their athleticism. They drafted Wille Cauley-Stein number seven overall. That's way too high for a guy that only plays defense. He has no offensive ability. Ben McLemore and Rudy Gay are fine players, but not thriving within this offense. They also have Darren Collison, but what are they doing with two starting point guards. You can't play them at the same time, that won't work. They also signed Seth Curry, Steph's little brother, but he may have just been a summer league star. Who knows. The rest of the roster is not good, but not terrible. All this being said, they do have Boogie Cousins. He's a legitimate MVP candidate, and if he get his head on straight, who knows what this team's ceiling is. Unfortunately, I don't think that's happening with this team, especially after all the offseason drama. The Kings are going to win in the mid thirties once again.

How the Kings will win it all.

The Kings will win the title if Cousins becomes the newer, younger , better version of Shaq. It's possible people. They also need McLemore to continue to get better and for Rudy Gay to become a veteran leader. Cauley-Stein would have to become a double digit scorer, not happening, he's so bad at offense and Rajon Rondo somehow, some way returns to his Celtic days. That's a tall, tall order. Cousins is so good, but this team isn't ready to make the leap, especially in the West. It's just too tough. But, things can get better in Sacramento, Boogie Cousins just has to be the dominant force that he's capable of being.

There you have it, teams 24, 23 and 22. Come back tomorrow for 21, 20, 19. We are starting to get to the better teams in the NBA.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He doubled up his dependents today and all wish him the best. I said he could take a break, but NBA rankings keep him sane. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty tells you how each NBA team can win the title: Knicks, Nuggets, & Nets

I love NBA basketball.

Another day, another basketball preview. Today I will give you my next three teams. These teams are better than the 76ers, Lakers and Trail Blazers, but not by that much. They're a step up, but they're still going to be picking in the lottery in next year's draft.

My number 27 team is the New York Knicks. The Knicks are this low you're asking me? Absolutely. Sure, they have Carmelo Anthony, one of the most overrated "superstars" in the NBA today. Sure, Phil Jackson is running the show as the GM now. Sure they had a lottery pick, they took Kristpas Porzingis, and who knows with him. He's either the new Dirk Nowitzki, or in his GM's terms, the next Shawn Bradley. There's no middle ground for Porzingis. Time will tell how well of a GM Phil Jackson truly is. I don't think he's done a good job so far, but he is a basketball genius, so he may know something we don't know. But, you trade away Iman Shumpert and JR Smith and the team gets worse? How in the hell does that happen? They didn't get much of anything in return as well. Bad move by Phil Jackson. Carmelo Anthony is a shell of the player he was in Denver and his first couple seasons in New York. He gets hurt constantly, argues with the front office, i.e. takes a max contract from the Knicks and now, according to rumors, he wants to be traded to the Bulls who tried really hard to get him last offseason and he has ZERO interest in passing the ball, or playing defense. He fought so much with Tim Hardaway Jr last season, they traded Hardaway to the Hawks for next to nothing just to make Anthony happy. At this point in his career, he's a worse version of Kobe Bryant. Instead of leading and helping this team, he bitches and complains. It's never his fault, it's everyone else around him. He's past his prime, and he's never been to the Finals in his career. Do you remember when he and LeBron James were rookies and people actually thought that Anthony may be a better pro than James? You were all wrong. James is ten times the player that Anthony is on his best day. The rest of their roster is pretty weak. They signed Aaron Affalo this offseason to an eight million dollar contract. That's crazy. Affalo is a good defender, but that's it. He is not the player he was with the Nuggets and he is only getting older. They signed Robin Lopez, and while he's a good NBA center, he is not the answer for the Knicks. They have the aging corpse of Jose Calderon and they signed Derrick Williams. You don't remember him? He was a lottery pick four years ago and he couldn't find the court in Minnesota or Sacramento. He will struggle in New York. Langston Galloway was a "pleasant" surprise. He looks like he could end up being a good bench player in his career. But, the Knicks start him. Other than that, there's really not much to like about the Knicks and I don't like much about who I mentioned. They're a 26 or 27 win team, at best, this year.

How the Knicks will win it all.

They will win the title if Carmelo finds his form from 8 years ago, Porzingis becomes a beast immediately, Affalo travels back in time to 5 years ago and Derrick Williams suddenly becomes an All Star. That's not happening. This team is a mess and they will be for the next two or three years.

My number 26 team is the Denver Nuggets. What in the world happened to this team? They were in the playoffs two years ago and had one of the best home court advantages in all of the NBA. Then, out of nowhere, they imploded. They've traded away a ton of good players, fired a decent coach and gave up midway through last season. During last year they traded away Aaron Affalo, Timofey Mozgov and Ty Lawson. They did have Lawson all of last season, but when they drafted Emmanuel Mudiay, the writing was on the wall. They have likable NBA players, guys like Kenneth Faried, Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari. They also drafted Mudiay, and I like him a lot. I think he's going to end up being a really good NBA point guard. Kenneth Faried is a hustle and rebounding machine. This guy goes 100mph and plays with reckless abandon. Wilson Chandler is long and rangy, he's a solid defender and a pretty good three point shooter. And Gallinari, if he can stay healthy, is a good all around player. But, these guys don't mesh well together. When they play, it's like a mishmash of solid players and not so solid players. It doesn't help that everyone one of these guys, Mudiay being the exception, is always on the trading block. It's hard to play hard for a team that is always in discussions to trade you. There's some good young talent, but those guys aren't ready yet. The veterans are too old and they can't help in any phase of the game. This team signed Mike Miller for Christ sakes. He hasn't been helpful in 8 years.

How the Nuggets will win it all.

The Nuggets will win the Finals if Mudiay becomes elite immediately, not happening, Faried becomes not only a rebounding machine, but a 25 point per game player, not happening, Chandler and Gallinari put in 60 combined points a night, not happening, and Mike Miller and Gary Harris come off the bench with some instant offense, not happening. This team is too far behind almost every team in the West, minus the Lakers and Trail Blazers, and they will need some time to get back to where they were two years ago. Sorry Nuggets fans, you'll be lucky to win 30 games this season.

My number 25 team is the Brooklyn Nets. They were in the playoffs last year, barely, and they got worse in the offseason. Sure, they bought out Deron Williams, who hasn't been good in five years, but they replaced him with Jarret Jack and Shane Larkin. Those two are hardly world beaters. Larkin is inexperienced and Jack, when the Warriors traded him, they got immediately better. Joe Johnson clearly doesn't want to be on this team anymore but, his contract is so bad, no one will trade for him. He's stuck. They resigned Brook Lopez, but he's a foot injury waiting to happen. The guy can barely stay on the court as it is, and now the Nets just gave him big money.  They signed Andrea Bargnani and Thomas Robinson this offseason. Those are two lottery busts. Bargnani has been on four different teams now, and Robinson can't seem to find the court on any team he's been with. They drafted Ryan Boatright, and while he was a great college scorer, he'll find it to be much tougher sledding in the NBA. Rondae-Hollis Jefferson, their other draft pick may be good, but I don't have a big enough sampling since he was a one and done player from Arizona. The rest of the roster is filled with question marks. It's gotten so weird with their crazy owner recently, that NBA TV showed him running drills in camp, and these drills were asinine. Go look it up on Google, it's insane.

How the Nets will win it all.

The Nets will win the title if everyone, including Joe Johnson, buys into this crazy owner, believes their own hype and somehow wins games they shouldn't. That won't happen. As I said before, their best player, Joe Johnson, doesn't want to be there, Brook Lopez is one foot injury away from being done for good and everyone else on the roster is unproven. The Nets are a 30 win team. No ifs ands or buts about it. So, there are my 27, 26 and 25 teams for you. Come back tomorrow for 24, 23, and 22.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is enjoying one more day of one kid and one money. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty tells you how each NBA team can win the title: 76ers, Lakers, & Trailblazers

I love the NBA.

So, for the next two weeks, I'm going to do an NBA season preview. There's 30 teams in the NBA and I will select three teams a day and point out why they won't win the title, and why they just might. I will rank these teams from worst to best, in my personal opinion. Not to worry, I will keep up with some other blogs, like Greatest American Bands and Irrational Hatred for Sports Teams, but this NBA preview will be my prime focus for the next two weeks. I'm also going to be a dad for the second time in two days, so these blogs may seem a little bit shorter, but they'll be packed with pertinent information. Everything will be as informative as before, but the NBA will take up the majority of my time, as well as the new baby, and will be the focus of my blogs. So, on with teams 30, 29, 28.

First, number 30. They've been the worst team in the NBA for the past three years, you may have read my previous blog about how they're the worst run franchise in all of professional sports, the Philadelphia 76ers. The 76ers roster reads like the exact difference of a who's who. They do have some players that could be decent, but this is a team of "potential". I put that in quotes because, when they get a player that looks like a decent NBA player with potential, a la KJ McDaniels or Michael Carter Williams, they trade him for "assets". That means draft picks. They've had top three picks the last couple of years and taken players like Nerlens Noel, he looks like he can be decent, but only on the defensive side of the ball, he plays zero offense unless it's a put back dunk. Two years ago they took Joel Embiid, and he has yet to play a single NBA game due to two different foot surgeries. This past season they drafted Jahlil Okafor and while he's a beast on offense, he doesn't play defense, so far as to not even hustle back because he's out of shape. Other potential starters include Tony Wroten, Nik Stauskas and Isaiah Canaan. Wroten is okay, but he's a bowling ball that looks out of control 90% of the time. Stauskas cannot play defense on the NBA level, and he hasn't shown his ability to drive to the basket like he did in college, he's relegated himself to being a corner three shooter. And Canaan is a great fantasy pickup only because he shoots almost 25 times a game. He puts up useless points for a team that's going nowhere. The rest of the roster is filled with has beens and never was players. This team is going to be bad once again. They'll be lucky to win 20 games.

How the 76ers will win it all.

I did say I'd give a reason that each team could win the title, so here goes for the 76ers. They will win the title if Daryl Dawkins and Moses Malone rise up from their graves and Charles Barkley goes back in time to his twenties, and they'd still be hard pressed to make the playoffs, let alone win the title. The 76ers are an embarrassment to the NBA and basketball in general. They stink.

My number 29 team is the Los Angeles Lakers. This is a team that thinks it's still the early 2000's. They don't shoot the three because their coach says it won't win games, they play no defense because they want to be a fast break team, but they don't have the horses to run fast breaks, and they're still led by Kobe Bryant. Sure, he's one of the greatest scorers of all time, but he doesn't pass the ball, he plays no defense, and instead of helping this young roster, what a veteran of his caliber should do, he berates them and calls them soft. His contract has crippled this team too. Not only that, but his attitude as well. They tried and tried to lure big time free agents, most notably LaMarcus Aldridge, but they all balked at the Lakers offer because they didn't like the "direction" of the team. They also questioned their leadership. If that's not attacking Bryant, I don't know what is. You may say, but they signed Lou Williams and traded for Roy Hibbert and Brandon Bass. So what is my response to that. First of all, there's only one basketball being used during game play and they have three guys that want to shoot 30 times each in Kobe Bryant, Nick Young and Lou Williams. Roy Hibbert hasn't been good in three years. The Lakers got him five years too late. And Brandon Bass, he couldn't crack the Celtics starting five. They have a really good, young player in Jordan Clarkson, but until Bryant either retires or goes to another team, he won't be able to develop his game, Bryant won't allow that. Julius Randle can become a very good player, but he won't get enough touches in the post, and he's coming off a horrific leg injury. D'Angelo Russell may end up being a good point guard, but he only played one year of college basketball and he disappeared at times. He didn't look too great in the summer league games either. But, he's young and will grow after Bryant leaves. The rest of the roster is either young, or veterans with little NBA playing time or experience. Until Kobe Bryant leaves, the Lakers will be, at best, a 25 win team.

How the Lakers will win it all

The only way this team has a shot at the Finals or even the playoffs is if everyone on every team in the West gets hurt and they have to bring in players from the developmental league. The Lakers are only slightly better than the 76ers and I never thought that two of the NBA's most distinguished franchises would be this bad this early in the 21st century. Like I said, Kobe is crippling this team with his contract, his need to shoot the ball and his unwillingness to help out the younger players. They will be bad until Kobe leaves.

My number 28 team is the Portland Trail Blazers. This team may have had the worst offseason of any team in recent NBA history. First, the night before the draft, they traded Nic Batum to the Hornets for two young, inexperienced players. Then, Wes Matthews and Brook Lopez signed with different teams, Matthews to the Mavericks and Lopez to the Knicks. They did some good in retaining Damien Lillard with a max contract, but their efforts to retain LaMarcus Aldridge were not good. No one expected him to resign with Portland, and of course, he didn't. I'll talk about his new team at some point next week. The Trail Blazers lost four of their five starters from a playoff team. That's brutal. They did retain Lillard, like I said, and he's a really good offensive player. He's unguardable at times and can put up close to 50 points any night. His weakness lies on defense. His weakness is, he doesn't care to play defense. He shows no effort and they didn't need him to with guys like Lopez and Aldridge clogging the lane. Now though, he's the franchise, and they need him to do All Star work on both offense and defense. A lot will be asked of Lillard, and while he may live up to expectations, who else do they have? Guys like Meyers Leonard, Mason Plumlee and Noah Vonleh don't make up the greatest front court in basketball. Meyers Leonard is an okay offensive player, but for a 7 footer, he's a pretty crummy defender and rebounder. Plumlee is sub par at offense and defense. The fact that this guy made a USA basketball team is laughable. And is he supposed to be Brook Lopez's replacement? I'd take Lopez any day over Plumlee, any day. Vonleh may be good, but he's a young, unproven player. One year of college basketball and one year spent mostly injured or on the bench in Charlotte does not make for a good start to your professional basketball career. Time will tell with Vonleh. The new back court consists of Lillard and younger, unproven players. Guys like CJ McCollum and Phil Pressey and Gerald Henderson will try to help Lillard out, but it won't work. Phil Pressey had little to nothing to do with the Celtics run to the playoffs last year, and he just doesn't seem like an NBA player to me. Gerald Henderson is a great dunker, a decent shooter and an average three point shooter, but he doesn't play defense. Damien Lillard is the better version of Henderson. I don't understand the signing of Henderson since he's a worse version of Lillard, but I'm not a GM. CJ McCollum has the tools to be a good NBA player, but he needs more time to develop and he won't help this team that much right now. In three years a back court of Lillard and McCollum could be great, but will the Trail Blazers have the patience? I don't think so. They did sign Al Farouq-Aminu, in what might be quietly one of the better offseason signings, but he seems to only thrive when he's a role player. We will see how well he plays as a starter.

How the Trailblazers will win it all.

As I said before, every other player is too young or past their prime. It was a very, very rough offseason for Portland. The only way they win the Finals is if Damien Lillard averages close to 60 points a game, McCollum becomes an elite point guard in one season, and the front court of Aminu/Leonard/Plumlee/Vonleh all become All Stars. Does that sound totally possible? It doesn't? No duh. Portland should go into full rebuild mode and try to get this team ready to be good again in about three years. They did the right thing in locking up Lillard, but they didn't put up much of a fight for Aldridge and lost three other starters and didn't get much to replace them. Portland seems like a 25 to 30 win team at best.

So, those are the first three NBA teams. Come back tomorrow for numbers 27, 26 and 25.

Ty 

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He is looking forward to watching some west coast basketball this season while he is up with a crying baby. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty remembers the greatness of Moses Malone

Another legend lost

Last week I wrote about the surprise passing of NBA legend Daryl Dawkins, AKA "Chocolate Thunder". Today, I come bearing more bad news on the NBA legend front.

As most of you know by now, Moses Malone unexpectedly passed away yesterday at the age of 60. This one hit me just as hard as Daryl Dawkins. I even mentioned Moses Malone in my article about Dawkins. If you remember, Malone was who the 76ers traded Dawkins for, and they won the title that year. Moses Malone was the first professional basketball player to make the jump from high school to the pros. He led his high school team to two straight, undefeated championship seasons. He signed to play at the University of Maryland, but gave up his college career when he was drafted in the third round by the Utah Stars of the ABA. He signed a five year contract, but spent only three seasons in the ABA. The Utah Stars folded after his rookie season and he caught on with the St. Louis Spirits for the next two years. He put up pretty good numbers while playing in the ABA, averaging 17 points and grabbing 13 rebounds a game. When the ABA and NBA merged, Malone was drafted by the Portland Trailblazers, but never played a regular season game for them. He was traded to the Buffalo Braves, but only played two games with the team. He finally found a semi permanent home after being traded to the Houston Rockets.

During Moses Malone's first full season in the NBA, he put up decent numbers again. Malone averaged 13 points a game, but where he shined was rebounding, and more specifically, offensive rebounding. He finished third in the league in total rebounding at 13 a game, but he set a new offensive rebounding record, grabbing 437 total offensive boards. He would later break that record. He was also a stalwart on the defensive side of the court, blocking almost three shots a game. Malone led the Rockets to the Eastern Conference Finals, the Rockets were once in the East, only to lose to his eventual team, the 76ers in six games. During that playoff, Malone set a record with 15 offensive rebounds in one game. The 78-79 season was peak Moses Malone. He averaged 24 points and 17 rebounds a game on his way to winning the league MVP at the tender age of 23. This was the season he broke his own offensive rebounding record, grabbing 587 of them. Once again though, the Rockets were swept in the Eastern Conference Finals, this time by the Boston Celtics. Malone and the Rockets couldn't seem to get over the hump. The Rockets finally made the NBA Finals in 1981, Malone coming off another MVP season, but they were beat by the Sonics.

During the 1983 season, Malone was traded to the 76ers for Daryl Dawkins, as I mentioned before. New ownership wanted new players and Malone fit in perfectly with what the 76ers wanted to do. During the 83 season, Malone led the league in rebounding for the third straight season, collecting 15 boards a game. He also averaged 25 points per game as well. During the 83 playoffs, the 76ers only lost one game and swept the Lakers in the Finals. Malone won NBA Finals MVP and got his first, and only, NBA title. A couple more seasons and a couple more runs in the playoffs with the 76ers followed, but in the 85-86 season, the 76ers traded Malone to the Washington Bullets. His first season with the Bullets had Malone making the All Star team for the tenth consecutive season and putting up 24 points and 11 rebounds. Ultimately though, despite Malone's big numbers, the Bullets were swept in the first round by the Pistons. The same thing happened the very next season. Malone put up big numbers, but the Bullets were swept again by the Pistons in the first round.

Moses Malone played for three more teams, the Buck, Spurs and the Hawks. He put up okay numbers, but he was starting to get hurt more and he played a lot of basketball by this time in his life. He was even brought back by the 76ers to help tutor Shawn Bradley. He had a long, successful NBA career. He was such a good rebounder, he was dubbed "Chairman of the Boards" by his fellow players.

What drew me to Moses Malone was his tenacity and love for basketball. Sure, he was a great scorer, but he seemed to love playing defense and his rebounding is unmatched. He took more pride in rebounding than anything else. As a kid, I wanted to be Michael Jordan or Charles Barkley. As a I got older, into my twenties, I studied players like Daryl Dawkins and Moses Malone, and that's who I try to model my game after. Yes, I like to put the ball in the hoop, but I'd rather start a fast break with a defensive rebound, or get an offensive rebound for a put back. That's more satisfying for me.

It's a shame that Moses Malone passed away yesterday. In the past two weeks, we've lost two basketball legends that a lot of my generation, the Millenials, have little to no knowledge of. That's depressing to me. Instead of watching Blake Griffin or Kevin Love and saying that they're some of the best big men rebounders(they are not), go watch old games of Moses Malone. He's the best rebounder of all time. You will be missed "Chairman of the Boards". I hope you and Daryl Dawkins are playing one on one wherever you are now.

Rest in Peace.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and co-host of the X Millennial Man podcast. Follow him on twitter @tykulik.

Ty remembers the greatness of Daryl Dawkins, Chocolate Thunder

We found one backboard spared by Chocolate Thunder

Last week, Daryl Dawkins, a true basketball legend unexpectedly passed away.

Daryl Dawkins was only 58 years old and died of an apparent heart attack. I didn't quite know how to digest this news. It's a real bummer that he passed away, but why was I letting it effect me? I didn't know him personally, I was just a big fan of his. I took the weekend to let it all sink in. I've come to the conclusion that, it upset me so much because he was one of the primary reasons I got into to basketball. I can remember being a young kid, maybe 8 or 9 years old, and starting to get heavily into basketball. This was right around the time that one of my all time favorite players, Shawn Kemp, was at the peak of his game. He was leading the Sonics to 50 plus win seasons and deep runs in the playoffs. What I liked so much about Kemp was how ferociously he dunked a basketball. He attacked the rim with fervor. That rim was going to bear the brunt of Kemp's anger. I loved it. My father, who was my basketball coach all the way up to high school, told me that if I liked Shawn Kemp and dunking so much, I needed to watch this former player, Daryl Dawkins. At that time, I thought, oh, this is just some old player my dad likes and he will show me how fundamentally sound he was as a player, and while he may be able to dunk, there's no way he'd be on Shawn Kemp's level. I couldn't have been more wrong. With my dad being the coolest person I know, he showed me videos of Daryl Dawkins shattering backboards. There was no fundamental talk, or coach speak coming from him, he wanted to show me who the first, true ferocious dunker they had in the NBA. For all the power Kemp brought to dunking, he was not on Daryl Dawkins level. I'd never seen a backboard shatter before. I had heard about it, but seeing it on a taped VHS video was insanely awesome. I couldn't believe that a player could do that.

Not only did my father want to show me videotapes of Daryl Dawkins, but I also learned from him that, Dawkins went straight to the NBA out of high school, much like Shawn Kemp did. This was way before the Kevin Garnett's, Kobe Bryant's and LeBron James of the world were doing it. Going to the pros straight from high school was a very foreign concept until about 15 years ago. The fact that Daryl Dawkins was ABA and NBA ready at the age of 18 is incredible. Basketball back then was rough and a grown mans game. Some 18 year old punk kid didn't belong in the league. Well, Dawkins and Moses Malone changed that idea. Instead of playing in the ABA, Dawkins renounced his NCAA eligibility and declared for the 1975 NBA draft. He was the fifth overall pick to the Philadelphia 76ers(this was when they weren't a joke of a franchise). He was so big and grown looking, that Walt Frazier, according to Wikipedia, said that he bets his high school teachers called him, "Mr. Daryl". That's insane. His first two years in the league were tough because he was so raw. He had huge expectations, but it takes players, especially 18 year old kids, to develop. Remember, Kobe and Garnett weren't stars right away either. But, by his third season, he was getting regular minutes and earned respect from former NBA legends like, Julius Erving, Doug Collins and World B Free. They were all on the same team too. The following season, Dawkins was part of a nucleus that led the 76ers to the Finals, which they lost in 6 games to the Lakers. He averaged 14 points, and almost 9 rebounds a game. That may not sound like a lot, but when you remember who his teammates were, that's pretty damn impressive. This was also the season that saw him shatter his first backboard. It was so amazing and had never been seen before, that he earned what might be the coolest nickname of all time in any sport. Teammates and opponents began to call him, "Chocolate Thunder". Damn, that's a kick ass nickname. He shattered another backboard that same season and the NBA made a rule that if you shatter the board, you'd be fined and suspended. That was a stupid rule.

Dawkins became so famous for his dunks, he started naming them. Some of the names were, "The Rim Wrecker" and the "Look Out Below". He was so innovative and cool. If he had played in today's NBA, he'd be ultra famous. Unfortunately for him and the 76ers, their postseasons were met with facing hall of famers. They lost to a Laker team led by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and they consistently faced the famous Larry Bird led Celtic teams. It was never easy for them. Dawkins was eventually traded to the Houston Rockets for Moses Malone. The year he was traded, the 76ers won the title, led by Moses Malone. After half a season in Houston, Dawkins joined the Nets. He played well for two seasons, but then injuries crept up on his body. He tried to make several comebacks, but he was never the electric player that he was while on the 76ers. He even played for the Harlem Globetrotters, spent time overseas and coached for awhile, but all us basketball fans remember him shattering backboards while playing in Philadelphia. So, when the news came of his death, as I said earlier, I was upset. I had heard him just recently on Bill Simmons former podcast, "The BS Report" during All Star Weekend and he sounded like he was in good health. I guess it goes to show, you never know what is going to happen.

Daryl Dawkins was a great, legendary basketball player and dunker. He was eccentric, smart and a star in his short career. I love that my father showed me those videos and I'm so happy that I got to see him shatter those backboards. He had the coolest nickname of all time too. You will be missed "Chocolate Thunder", and I hope you're shattering backboards wherever you are right now.

Rest In Peace.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and co host of the X Millennial Man. He named his biggest dunk The Duece. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Let me respectfully explain why your team stinks: Ty really dislikes the LA Clippers

It is never to early too think about basketball

Today I'm going to talk about my irrational hatred for the god awful franchise known as the Los Angeles Clippers.

I HATE THE CLIPPERS.

There's no amount of any love in my sports heart or brain for the Clippers. First of all, this is a franchise that's NEVER been to the Western Conference Finals. Not the Finals, they've never made it to their conference finals. They were mired in mediocrity for the majority of the 80's and 90's. They've become a playoff team in the 21st century, but they are best known for collapsing or flat out losing to teams that, on paper, they're better than. But, games are won on the court and not on paper. No matter what the people at ESPN say. I swear to you, when the Lakers were the best team in LA, everyone at ESPN loved them. Now that the Lakers are irrelevant and the Clippers are decent, all the ESPN employees have taken the Clippers as their "team". They all love the Clippers, but that will change as soon as the Lakers are relevant again. Bunch of sheep at ESPN.

Let's get back to why I hate the Clippers so much. Let's look at the players on the team. First, the starters. You have Chris Paul at point guard. He's a great basketball player, but I think he's extremely overrated. People always say that he is the smartest player in the game and runs his team to perfection. So, perfection to these pundits is, having a good regular season, only to crap out in the first or second round of the playoffs. I thought to be considered one of the greats, you have to at least make the Finals once and if you're lucky win the Finals. Not only has he never led his team to the Finals, they've never been to the conference finals, like I said earlier. He didn't do it with the Hornets and he sure as shit hasn't done it with the Clippers. He's also a whiny, crybaby on the court. He's constantly complaining to officials about calls or no calls. When he's not crying to the refs, he's yelling at his teammates for not doing what he told them to do. It's never his fault, it's always someone else's fault. That's not a leader, that's a whiner. He's also the dirtiest player I've seen since John Stockton. I swear. he punches someone in the balls at least 3 to 5 times a season. That's a punk move by a dirty player. Screw you Chris Paul. Shooting guard is manned by JJ Redick. This douchebag is a pile of garbage. First of all, he played at Duke, so if you're a fan of his, you're probably a rich, white privileged asshole that's never had to work for anything ever. Redick seems more concerned with how his hair looks during the game than actually playing the game. He's only good at shooting the three and, while the folks at ESPN will try to make you believe different, he's a terrible defender. He's constantly fouling people and James Harden made him his bitch in the final two games of the Western Conference Semis last season. Harden, who chokes on the biggest stage, destroyed Redick when he had the ball. Personally, I loved watching Harden own him in the playoffs. Redick is a subpar NBA player at best, but he has somehow managed to start for the Clippers the past couple of seasons. He's a glorified Jimmer Fredette. At small forward, they have a platoon of guys like Jamal Crawford or the rotting corpse of Paul Pierce or the newly acquired Lance Stephenson. Jamal Crawford is all but out the door. And good for him for getting out of that situation. This dude can shoot and, while he's a liability on defense, that's not how he's made his career. He's supposed to be instant offense off the bench. He shouldn't be a starter in the NBA. The Clippers signed both Pierce and Stephenson this offseason. While Pierce played very well for the Wizards last season, he's about 900 years old and he's played a lot of minutes in the NBA. He brings championship pedigree to this garbage franchise, but that was 7 years ago, and he had Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett on his team. I think he's well past his prime and he won't give the Clippers what they need. He's too old and has played way too much. I believe he used anything he had left in last years playoffs. The Wizards were beaten by the Hawks in 6 games during his run by the way. Lance Stephenson is a cancer and becoming a joke in the NBA. He is best known for blowing in LeBron James' ear during the playoffs two years ago. He can't shoot, he's not the defender he was three years ago and he doesn't get along with his teammates. The Pacers couldn't wait to unload him and the Hornets were more than happy to trade him one year after signing him to a three year deal. At power forward, they have probably one of the most overrated "superstars" in the league in Blake Griffin. This effin guy, I have a big problem with. First of all, the comparisons to LeBron James need to stop immediately. On his best day, Griffin isn't 1/100th the player James is. He's not even in Karl Malone's or Moses Malone's league. Those guys were all around good players. All Blake Griffin is good for is dunking. And, no matter how fancy it looks, it's still worth two points. He has gotten better at his jump shot, but he shoots it on a straight line and it's a disgusting looking shot. He plays little to no defense, he can only manage to get 5 or 6 rebounds a game and he's on the same whiner level with Chris Paul. He complains just as much, if not more, than Paul does to the refs. He's such a douche, he poured water on a Warriors fan two years ago during a playoff game. Did people call him out for this move of supreme asshole? Nope, everyone thought it was a funny joke by him. Not me. That's a bitch move of the highest caliber. He also seems more interested in his commercial acting than improving his game. He does have plenty of time to do commercials, because this team is always out of the playoffs early every year. I HATE Blake Griffin the player. He may be a good dude, but I can't stand him as a basketball player. Center position is manned by DeAndre Jordan. You know him, the guy who gave his word to the Mavericks, then changed his mind and instead of talking to the Mavericks and Mark Cuban like a grown man, he wouldn't so much as send a text message to them to tell them he changed his mind and wanted to stay in LA. I'd have no problem with his decision if he owned up to it properly, but nope, his "apology" was posted on twitter for crissakes. What have we come to in society if this is tolerated? This is what a child does, not a man making millions of dollars. But, in his "defense", he's never going to be a player to build your franchise around unless you want a team that can only win 20 to 25 games a season. All he does is dunk and rebound. He's a decent shot blocker too. Other than those things, he does nothing else good at all. People may read this and say, he's a new version of Shaq. Bull shit, Shaq was one of the best passing big men of all time and Shaq is a billion times better than DeAndre Jordan will ever be. If I were an opposing coach, I'd foul him on EVERY SINGLE POSSESION. I don't care if he shoots 100 free throws a game and the game lasts six hours long. I'd love to slow down their offensive tempo and make this joke of a free throw shooter beat me at the line. He's NEVER going to be better than a 40% shooter from the line. Never. I also hope he's happy with being Chris Paul and Blake Griffin's scapegoat for the rest of his career. It will never be their fault, it will always, somehow, be Jordan's fault. Congrats on having to deal with that for the rest of your basketball life. The bench is made up of guys like coaches son Austin Rivers, Jason Segel look alike Spencer Hawes and hotel trashing, girlfriend cheating Glen "Big Baby" Davis. Austin Rivers recently said that he was better than the majority of the guys participating in the recent Team USA scrimmage. He claimed to better than guys like Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, John Wall and Steph Curry. Um, Austin Rivers, you wouldn't be the best player on the current 76ers team, so get your head out of you ass you stupid moron. The only reason he's still in the NBA is because his dad coaches the Clippers and, as any father would, wants his son to succeed. Too bad your son is a shitty basketball player Doc Rivers. Spencer Hawes is a terrible NBA player. He can't rebound, play defense, block shots or shoot. He's a bum that the Clippers overpaid last offseason and then under utilized him when he started to play poorly. He played poorly all season, but got worse as the season progressed. Glen "Big Baby" Davis is a joke and his nick name tells you everything you need to know about him. He looks like a grown up baby and complains like one too.

The coach is Doc Rivers, another one of the most overrated people in basketball. He's won a championship, but what people forget, the year before that title, he was almost fired. The Celtics wanted to get rid of him, but instead they traded for Allen and Garnett and won a title. After that team disbanded, Rivers was traded to the Clippers to be not only the coach, but the GM too. His coaching philosphy is, complain about officiating, call out reporters that bad mouth his team and to not worry about the defensive end of the floor. He's an average NBA coach that lucked into getting two of the top 100 players of all time in their prime and win one championship. As a GM, he's terrible. He's made bad decisions left and right. He may be the worst GM in all of sports.

The last thing I want to touch on, as to why I hate the Clippers, is their ownership. First of all, they were owned by HUGE racist and all around horrible monster of a human breath, Donald Sterling. He is a worse version of Donald Trump and I loathe Donald Trump. Now, they're owned by eccentric billionaire Steve Ballmer. Every time I see this weirdo jumping up and down and screaming into a microphone on TV, I want to punch him right in the chest. He has no idea what he's doing, but if he continues to show enthusiasm, the chuckle heads at ESPN will continue to say how great he is for the game of basketball. He's the opposite of that. He's a thorn in the side of basketball, and he has forever inflated the actual worth of a team by buying the Clippers for 2 billion dollars. He's ruined it for every other potential buyer or current owner in the league. Every team that's purchased from here on out will be bought for way more than they're worth. Lots of people are going to end up losing a lot of money.

This team, while it may not seem on the surface, is still in as much turmoil as they were when Sterling owned the team. It's a different turmoil. And, if you don't agree with me, look at what season ticket holder Bill Simmons has been saying on social media about the Clippers. He believes that they may be in worse shape. These are the many reasons I hate the Clippers. They're a franchise that hasn't won anything of importance ever, yet act like they're the best team in the NBA.

I hate you Los Angeles Clippers, and I'll always hate you.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the co-host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He did not get to talk about the Clippers, but hear Ty go over a few more overrated teams. When you are done listening throw Ty a follow on twitter @tykulik.

NBA offseason part III: Honor and DeAndre Jordan.

With the reported news that DeAndre Jordan is going back to the Clippers, I just want to talk about how cowardly and childish of a move this is.

When you become an adult in the professional world, your word should be as good as gold. What you say and promise and verbally agree too should be what you do. But, when your a child, you back out of situations that may be scary or different for you. You, DeAndre Jordan are a cowardly child. I hope you like being the fourth banana on your team. That's right, crybaby Chris Paul is number one, the highly overrated Blake Griffin is two and JJ Redick, the guy who does his hair before games, is the third option on the team. All you are good for to the Clippers is your rebounding and rim protection. I'm sure they told you that you'll get more touches. Guess what, they're liars just like you are. This team doesn't trust you, especially late in games since your free throw shooting is so embarrassingly bad. I wish Adam Silver would step in and do something to stop this nonsense. Up to now, Silver has done the right thing for the most part. This one week moratorium before players actually sign has to be fixed. You also managed to make Mark Cuban look like a good guy who was wronged. MARK CUBAN! I can't believe how much of a chump move you've made this evening. You wouldn't even let Cuban talk to you. You literally boarded your front door and won't even talk to him like an adult. DeAndre Jordan, I hope you're happy with your stupid, stupid decision. Chris Paul is never going to lighten up on you, even when you make the tiniest of mistake. He's a prima donna and you are about to sign up to play with him for the next five years. At least you've said you will sign, who knows, maybe at 11:59eastern time you will sign with the Knicks or something. Who knows what's going on in your mind right now. For all we know, it's something idiotic and childish. Oh and congrats Doc Rivers on getting more people to dislike you with this move. Other people may have forgotten, but when you took the job, you tried desperately to trade DeAndre Jordan for Kevin Garnett. You wanted to get rid of Jordan so badly, that you'd rather had an aging, injury riddled Garnett on your team. This whole situation stinks and the Clippers are the whiniest, most annoying franchise that's never done ANYTHING EVER. Oh, and have fun being bounced in the second round of the playoffs again. The Thunder will be at full strength next season, Houston already beat you guys during your collapse in last years playoffs and the Spurs signed LaMarcus Aldridge and got David West to take the veterans minimum. So good luck with all that. DeAndre Jordan, Blake Griifin, Chris Paul and Doc Rivers, you all deserve each other because you're all snakes.

A bunch of lying, back stabbing, conniving snakes.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for Seed Sing. He is a man of his word, and his word is the Clippers stink. Follow him on twitter @tykulik.

NBA offseason part II: Sorry Cleveland, you will again be the runner up.

LaMarcus Aldridge has made the best basketball decision for himself and has, reportedly, signed a four year eighty million dollar deal with the Spurs.

This makes the Spurs the top contender for the title next season, in my opinion. Putting Aldridge in the starting lineup next to Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Danny Green and Kwahi Leonard will make this a very difficult team to beat. The main contenders coming out of the Western Conference to the Spurs will be, the reigning champs, Golden State and, if they're at full health, Oklahoma City. It's those three teams and everyone else. Memphis continues to get older and they still have yet to sign Marc Gasol, but that seems like a formality at this point. The Clippers lost their best rebounder and rim protector and I don't think Paul Pierce or Lance Stephenson are going to make that much of a difference. Portland is going to take a huge step back now that Damien Lilliard is the only remaining starter from last season still on the team(Wes Matthews signed with Dallas, Aldidge to the Spurs, Robin Lopez to the Knicks and they traded Nic Batum to the Hornets). The Pelicans will be good again, but Anthony Davis is going to need help from his other teammates. He also needs them to be healthy for an entire season. Houston will be fine, but they'll need Harden to play defense like he did this past season if they want to make the conference finals again. I think it would really help to have Dwight Howard healthy for a full season. Dallas signed some big names like DeAndre Jordan and Wes Matthews, but they also lost Monta Ellis and Tyson Chandler. And if OKC can stay healthy, Phoenix will still be on the outside looking in. So, that leaves OKC and Golden State as the Spurs biggest competition. Golden State is the reigning champ, and until they get beat, will still be champs. They return just about everyone from last year. The lone exception is David Lee and, while he played an integral part in the finals, I don't think he'll be missed all that much. The Warriors are lethal offensively and great on defense. I just think they'll be hard pressed to match up against a huge and very skilled Spurs front court and, as good as a defender Draymond Green is, he can't keep pace with Kwahi Leonard. For the Warriors to beat the Spurs in the playoffs, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson will have to shoot about 70% from the field and about 65% from three. Which is pretty impossible. Which brings me to the wild card team, the Thunder. Before last season started, almost every writer picked the Thunder to win the title, but then the injury bug crushed that dream. Westbrook and Ibaka missed extended time and Kevin Durant only played in 27 games all season. They were able to get rid of Reggie Jackson and traded for Enes Kanter and DJ Augustin. It remains to be seen if they'll resign Kanter, he's asking for way too much in my opinion. They drafted Cameron Payne to back up Westbrook. I think Payne is in the perfect situation for him. He will run the second unit with a lot of confidence and the young man can shoot and find the open guy. But, put their lineup against the Spurs and I think they matchup the best with them. Westbrook is better than Danny Green and Ibaka can immobilize an aging Duncan. The best matchup will be Kwahi Leonard and Kevin Durant. These two almost cancel each other out since Leonard is so good on defense and Durant is so good on offense. I think the Spurs just have too much firepower for the Thunder to beat them in a seven game series. As I said before, Aldridge made the best decision for himself and he may just wind up with a title next season.

As for the east (Cleveland), better luck in 2017.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for Seed Sing.  He does not know if LaMarcus Aldridge and his girlfriend will go back to Portland and visit Women and Women First bookstore. Follow him on twitter @tykulik

The good teams get better and the bad teams stay the same. The early story of the 2015 NBA offseason.

With NBA free agency officially underway, we've finally gotten our first bit of big news and a new team for a, some might say, not me, big time player. DeAndre Jordan will be a member of the Dallas Mavericks next season after, reportedly, agreeing to a four year, eighty million dollar deal. He turned down a bigger offer from the Clippers to move closer to home and wants to be "the man". I think this is a great deal for him, but in the long run might not be so good for Dallas. Jordan is a unique player who is probably the best rebounder in the game right now and an excellent rim protector. The problem lies with his offense. Yeah he's an electric dunker, but he's 6'10. I should hope he'd be a good dunker. But, that's all he can really do on offense. He can't stretch defenses because he can't shoot and his free throw shooting is among the leagues worst. But, good for you DeAndre, now you don't have to get thrown under the bus by Chris Paul and Blake Griffin.

Other than Jordan moving to Dallas, the only other "big" named players that have left for new teams are, Greg Monroe to Milwaukee, Tyson Chandler to Phoenix and Monta Ellis to Indiana. Some may say what about Wes Matthews to Dallas, but he's coming off a torn ACL, so that's a wait and see for me. Other than the six players I've mentioned, everyone else of importance has resigned with their current teams. Dwayne Wade and Goran Dragic are back with the Heat. Kevin Love and Iman Shumpert and soon to be Tristan Thompson are back with the Cavs. Damien Lilliard is back in Portland. Draymond Green is back with the Warriors. Kwahi Leonard is still a Spur and Anthony Davis got paid and then some to remain a Pelican. I'm sure I'm missing some other players, but these are the notable ones and I think NBA fans will agree with me.

The next two dominoes to fall will be David West and the biggest name of all this offseason, LaMarcus Aldridge. David West will be a good get for whoever signs him. But Aldridge, now he's a team changer, depending on where he signs. It looks to be down to three teams, the Lakers, Suns and Spurs. He'd be foolish to sign with the Lakers because that team is going nowhere. Phoenix is still a year or three away from contending. The Spurs seem like the best fit for him and how awesome would it be to have Tim Duncan "pass the torch" to Aldridge and start a new era of dominant Spurs basketball. If Aldridge truly only cares about winning titles, the Spurs are the team for him to go to. If he wants the money, it will be the Lakers. Make the right choice Mr Aldridge and sign with the Spurs. I guarantee you won't regret it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for Seed Sing.  He is skeptical of any players desire to win on the Lakers, including Kobe. Follow him on twitter @tykulik.

NBA Draft Part 2: The disappointment that is the 76'ers

Last week I talked about the NBA draft and left out one team, today I will be talking about what I believe to be the worst franchise in all of professional sports right now, the Philadelphia 76ers.

The Philadelphia 76'ers were at one time a very proud, very efficiently and well run team. They've had stars like Wilt Chamberlin, Julius Erving, Moses Malone, Charles Barkley, Allen Iverson and most recently, Andre Iguodala. They've had coaches like Doug Collins and Larry Brown. They've had multiple All Stars, former MVP's, many playoff appearances and three NBA Championships, the last one coming in 1983. But recently, something stinks in the "City of Brotherly Love". Sure, one year of tanking in the modern NBA seems to have some sort of rhyme or reason. You can get a transformative player that will turn your team from also ran to playoffs, a la the New Orleans Pelicans and Anthony Davis. But, what the 76ers are doing is disgusting and a travesty to the NBA. It's embarrassing for their fans too. Most 76er fans that I know are diehard and these last 5 seasons have been unwatchable. They're putting a product out on the court that would be hard pressed to beat a D League team and they're charging top dollar for their tickets. Maybe that's why the arena is almost empty when I happen to see them on League Pass. Sam Hinkie, the GM and President, is a disgrace to his job. He needs to be stripped of all management duties and GM responsibilities. He is single handily running this team into the toilet. They're painful to watch. They're so bad. This all points directly to the players that the GM signs and drafts and trades. He is the one putting the roster together. He is the one making all the decisions and his recent history is atrocious. His draft choices are mind boggling. Three years ago he took Nerlens Noel in the lottery. At the time you thought, okay he's coming off a torn ACL, but at the end of his Freshman season he was coming on as a scorer and he was an excellent rim protector. But, there was the torn ACL, whoever took him in the draft had to have known that he would miss the entire season. Hinkie had to know he wouldn't be available to play until the 2014-2015 season. How much of a bummer is that for a fan? You have to wait an entire season to see, what you hope to be, is your future star at the center position. That sucks.

All was not lost though in that draft. They selected eventual Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams. The next season, after tanking hard, hoping to get the number one pick in the draft, Andrew Wiggins, they lost the lottery and  got the third overall pick. So, they miss out on Wiggins, but they drafted his college teammate, Joel Embiid. Only a couple problems with that lottery pick, he plays the same position as Noel and he too was coming off a serious foot injury. Picking him to pair with Noel sounded like a decent strategy at the time, who wouldn't want two great rim protectors that you could mold into offensive stars? But, Embiid was another red flag because of the foot injury. No one really knew how serious it was, but he too ended up missing his entire rookie season and new reports say he may have to miss this upcoming season. So, two high lottery picks in two years that have to miss entire seasons before they hit an NBA floor. What a disgrace to the fans and the team. Also, during the 2014-15 season Hinkie traded reigning Rookie of the Year, Michael Carter-Williams, to the Milwaukee Bucks for draft picks. He traded away the only viable NBA player on his roster so he could acquire more draft picks. AKA, you fans just have to trust in Hinkie's foolish process, because one day, long after he will be fired, this team may resemble something that, at the very least, looks like an actual NBA team. Hinkie is a complete MORON.

Last week's draft takes the crap cake. The 76ers were in the lottery again, because that's the only place this team can get a win, and they ended up getting the third overall pick again. Sounds good, because they need Guards and Wings, and there was a plethora of them in this draft. Pick one was Town's, the center from Kentucky and pick two was Russel, the guard from Ohio State. Okay, one guard is off the board, but you still have Mudiay(China), Winslow(Duke), or a real reach at third overall, but a guard nonetheless, Booker(Kentucky). So, with at least three really good guards still on the board, who do the 76ers take, a 6'10 power forward/center from Duke, Jahlil Okafor. It's hard for me to say this, but I actually feel sorry for a kid from Duke. What a terrible situation to get drafted into. Okafor was tops on a lot of people's pre draft lists, some making him the consensus number one overall prospect. But, the 76ers were the one team in the lottery that didn't need a big man. They drafted two in the last two drafts! What do they need another big man for?! Did I miss something watching the entire NBA turn into a space and pace league this season, that all of the sudden, you need three lumbering big men, two who can't score and one that doesn't play defense and treats conditioning as a volunteer choice? This league is turning into a fast paced, helter skelter type game and slow, oft injured big men isn't going to win you any championships. Hell, you'd be lucky to win 35 to 40 games a season with three centers on the court at one time. And, if you don't think Okafor is unhappy with his new situation, watch their most recent press conference where he throws his jersey down in disgust after the interview is over. Hinkie's late first round and the majority of his second round picks are foreign prospects that Fran Fraschilla says are "two years away from being two years away". That's depressing. I feel for you Philadelphia 76er fans. You have the WORST GM in sports, and until the powers that be get rid of him, you will have to continue to "trust the process".

That's a frightening proposition in my opinion.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for Seed Sing.  He plays the bigman role in pickup games at the local rec center. Looks like he will be drafted by the 76'ers in 2016.

Follow him on twitter @tykulik.

The true lottery of the NBA Draft

Last night was the 2015 NBA Draft and 60 players were selected.

In my younger years I used to relish watching the draft. It was a big deal for me to see which college superstars were selected and which NBA team they would be playing for. These guys, for the most part were college graduates or, at the very least, played three years of college basketball. As a fan of the college game is was great to see these players blossom from skinny, baby faced freshman to grown upperclassmen. They were ready for the NBA.

That's the problem I had with the draft last night and the draft for the past 15 years. The picks, especially the first overall pick, have been freshman, sophomores or played zero college basketball. You get no time to know these players. They spend one or two years tops in college or overseas and some GM's risk the next four years of their franchise on teenagers or kids that just turned 20. I wouldn't hire a 20 year old to do my laundry, let alone lead an NBA franchise. Granted, most of these kids are extremely athletically gifted basketball players, but more times than not, a lot of them flame out quick or get injured because their bodies aren't physically ready for the rigors of the NBA. It's a full time job, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. You have to be in shape constantly, there's no rest and no nights off. I imagine it's extremely tough.

Now, I'm not saying there's no underclassmen or players with no college experience that haven't thrived in the league. Lebron James is going to go down as one of the greatest players in NBA history. But, for every Lebron James there's a Kwame Brown. A kid straight out of high school, picked number one overall in the draft and now, he's out of the league. No All Star games, no championships. He's an afterthought. Imagine what, at least, three years of college would have done for him. Andrew Bogut was taken number one in 2005. He played three years of college ball at Utah. He's by no stretch of the imagination a star, but he's been an all NBA player, on the all NBA defensive team and just this past season won a championship. Wouldn't you rather have that than the 2006 and 2007 number one picks. The 2006 number one was Andrea Bargnani. He was a sure fire, can't miss foreign prospect. He played fine while with the Raptors, but the team never really took off like they hoped they would when they drafted Bargnani. He was eventually traded to the Knicks and has suffered a plethora of injuries. Then, in 2007 there's Greg Oden. He was supposed to be a non stop offensive superstar and one of the best defenders in the league coming out of Ohio State after his sophomore season. There was another underclassman in that same draft that every scout and GM said was too skinny and his game wouldn't translate to the pros. That guy was Kevin Durant out of Texas. Well, Oden kept injuring his feet and knees and legs over and over again. He never made any impact in the NBA and he is now considered one of the biggest "busts" of all time. I'd take Bogut's career over Oden's or Bargnani's in a heartbeat. Never an All Star, but a consistent starter and contributor in the NBA. Sounds good to me. Then there's the case for Derrick Rose. A slashing point guard that played with reckless abandon and would risk life and limb to get to the hoop. The point guard of the future they said after two seasons at the University of Memphis. In his first couple of seasons he was living up to hype, going as high as MVP of the league. Then, he tears one ACL, then the other and now, he's a shell of his former self, playing with fear of getting hurt again. Imagine what one or two more years of strength and conditioning training in college would have done for him. In comparison, Tim Duncan stayed at Wake Forest for four years and has won multiple MVP awards and five championships, Oh, and he'll be returning for his 19th season next year. Staying in college didn't hurt him at all.

Which brings me to last nights draft. Thirteen Freshman, four players from overseas(one being Emmanuel Mudiay who instead of playing one year at SMU, took a million dollar contract to play in China), five sophomores and the eight juniors or seniors rounded out the first round. That's appalling to me. Only one senior was taken in the lottery and that was the plodding big man that thinks he's a three point shooter and plays no defense, Frank Kaminsky. Four of the fourteen lottery players played for John Calipari at Kentucky. These four, with the exception being Devin Booker, are really going to have to figure it out when they get in the league. Devin Booker already is a pretty good lock down defender and a lethal three point shooter. That will work in today's NBA. But, Willey Cauley Stein is an aberration on the offensive side of the ball and can't rebound, but, he's an excellent shot blocker and that was good enough for the Sacramento Kings to take him sixth overall. Trey Lyles went twelfth overall to Utah, but he's the definition of a project. I didn't see him or even hear about him until the NCAA Tournament. Karl Anthiny Towns was the number one overall pick and he didn't really start to dominate until late in the season. When they first started playing he thought he was a perimeter player. He just learned how to play the low post and he's going to going against much stronger, older veterans. D'Angelo Russel played one year at Ohio State and while he's an excellent passer and scorer, he plays no defense and he has to play with the rotting corpse that is Kobe Bryant. The fourth pick Kristaps Porzingis and the fifth pick Mario Hezonja only had grainy video highlights that I saw for the first time during the draft last night. They are on the same level as Trey Lyles for me. I know nothing about them. Stanley Johnson from Arizona is a tank, but he also moped when he was put on the bench during his one college season. Myles Turner is a great shot blocker and could shoot the three for a big guy, but he has the most awkward running motion I've ever seen. It's jarring. The last two lottery pick, while being young, I do think will be good players because of where they were picked. Emmauel Mudiay was taken seventh overall by Denver. He plays the exact way that new head coach Mike Malone wants him to. He plays fast and he's a slasher. He also spent his one year away from the league playing in a pro league in China. He played with grown men, some that even played in the NBA, so he knows what he's getting into. He reminds me a lot of Brandon Jennings, who I love and think is very underrated. Then there's Justise Winslow from Duke. He's a great defender and rebounder and a lights out three point shooter. He was taken tenth overall by Miami. If they're able to keep their core together from last season, it's a perfect situation for him. He's the next Dwayne Wade, and hopefully for his sake, he will be mentored by Wade. Winslow is my pick for Rookie of the Year. But, I still yearn for the days of the draft consisting of mostly upperclassmen, because like I said before, they were ready for the league. They essentially played four years of semi pro ball and were able to easily transition into the NBA. Let's hope that's one thing that Adam Silver tries to bring back, because basketball is becoming popular again, but it won't be fun to watch a bunch of nineteen and twenty year old kids ruin this beautiful game because of their lack of preparation.

Fix this please.

(ed note: Ty left the 76'ers pick of Jahlil Okafor off of this commentary because he is preparing a column next week where the entire 76'ers franchise will be put under the microscope.) 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for Seed Sing.  He does not want you to know that Kevin Garnett is one of his favorite players ever. Follow him on twitter @tykulik.

The NBA Finals are over, but what did it all mean?

Now that the NBA Finals are over and the Golden State Warriors are champs, let's look back at the series and how my prediction turned out.

Initially I picked the Warriors to win in five games, stating that the Cavs have Lebron James, so he will get them at least one game, but Golden State was so much more well rounded. After game one, when Kyrie Irving went down, I was certain, a little too certain, that the Warriors would sweep. I didn't see the Cavs being able to overcome two huge injuries to their team and the remaining players left were going to cripple them, no matter how well James played. Games two and three proved me wrong. The guy I crushed, Matthew Dellavedova, played excellent defense on Steph Curry, and he was coming up with improbable basket after improbable basket. Tristan Thompson and Timofy Mozgov were killing them on the boards and their defense was suffocating. Things were looking great for the Cavs after game three, leading the series 2-1.

Then game four happened.

The Warriors backs were against the wall and it was a must win. With this much at stake, Steve Kerr made a big change in his starting lineup which ended up being very crucial for the Warriors, he inserted Andre Iguodala into the lineup over Andrew Bogut. Iguodala was the only player who seemed to annoy Lebron on defense, forcing him into contested jumpers. That's how you beat a team led by Lebron James, you turn him into a jump shooter. As great as Lebron is, he's, at best, an average jump shooter. This isn't meant to take anything away from Lebron. He was dominate in this series, seeming un-guardable at times. He led both teams in points per game, rebounds and assists per game. That's never happened in the finals before. With the Finals being all said and done, Lebron deserved the MVP of the series, even in a losing effort. He was the best player on the court by far. Kudos to Lebron James. But, let's get back to game four. The Warriors, using this smaller lineup, ran up and down the court on a very tired, poor shooting Cavs team. This was how I expected the Warriors to play the whole series. They crushed Cleveland in Cleveland. They won the game by twenty one points and it wasn't even that close. Three days later, back at Oracle in Oakland, game five was played and Steph Curry decided it was time to go off. This was a very competitive game for three and a half quarters, with what seemed like a hundred lead changes. Then Steph started to do Steph Curry type things. I'm sure he was tired of hearing that Dellavedova, who on his best day is a good tenth or eleventh guy off the bench in the NBA, was shutting him down. His wizardry as a ball handler and supreme scorer was on full display for the last twelve minutes of game five. He would dribble himself open and he seemed to bury almost every three he took, defended or guarded, it didn't matter. This was the Steph Curry I expected all series long. He schooled Dellavedova and I've got to say, I enjoyed watching him abuse Dellavedova's pride and ankles. He was on skates. Needless to say, the Warriors pulled away late and won game five by double digits, despite Lebron's forty plus points and triple double. Then last night was game six, the potential close out game. The Cavs and the self proclaimed "best player in the world" Lebron James came out with a purpose. They tried, and succeeded for about a quarter, to turn this into a slow, low scoring game. But, the Warriors and specially Andre Igoudala and Draymond Green would not be denied. Igoudala scored a season high 23 points and Green recorded a triple double. Two role players coming up huge once again for the Warriors. That's what Lebron lacked in the series. His "role" players did next to nothing for him, and when he needed them the most, they didn't show up. Dellavedova was afraid to shoot the ball and kept throwing his terrible lob passes. Iman Shumpert is way more injured than he's letting on and JR Smith checked out of this series a long time ago. The only guys he could count on were Thompson and Mozgov, and that's not going to win you rings. Curry on the other hand, got help from everyone on the team except for, shockingly, Klay Thompson. He had no impact on this series whatsoever. Andre Igoudala was so impressive in this series he ended up winning MVP, deservedly so if they weren't going to give it to Lebron. He's the first player to win MVP of the finals that didn't start every game. Lebron played out of his mind and proved that he's the best player in basketball at the current moment, but you need a whole team of, at the very least, half way decent players and the Warriors have that. So, I was only off by one game from my initial preview. I also hope that Steph continues to bring his daughter to press conferences so assholes like Skip Bayless and Brian Windhorst have to deal with it. Those two are smug, arrogant buttheads that deserve to be "annoyed" by someone's child being at their so called "job". Almost nothing else would make me jump for joy like having to watch those two be put in uncomfortable situations for them. They're the worst. But I digress.

Congrats Golden State, you earned and deserve this title.

(Ed note: This is why Ty picks the sports, once again I was wrong with my Cavs in 6 pick)

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for Seed Sing. There is not enough internet to say how much Skip Bayless annoys him. Follow him on twitter @tykulik

Cleveland once again will need to wait for next year.

Well there goes my hope for a great NBA Finals.

Now that its been reported that Kyrie Irving has a fractured knee cap and requires surgery and he will be out 3 to 4 months, I need to make a change to my NBA Finals prediction. In my previous blog, I picked the Warriors to win in five games. Now, with Irving out and Matthew Dellavedova, the guy that the team left at the arena the other night and he had to take an Uber to the team hotel, will be starting, I'm changing my pick from Warriors in five, to a sweep by the Warriors. This is a huge blow to an already hobbled Cavaliers team. If the game on Thursday night showed us anything, no matter how well Lebron James plays, the Warriors have a complete team that plays great defense and offense. Way too many iso plays by the Cavs, with the only two being able to score Lebron and Irving, the Cavs are in serious trouble. They have to feel even worse, because both Klay Thompson and Steph Curry didn't play anywhere close to where they normally do. They threw up some air balls and they were throwing bad passes that turned into turnovers. I don't see the two of them playing any worse than they did on Thursday night and that is doom for Cleveland. Now with Dellavedova being the point guard and having to guard Steph Curry. That simply means Curry is going to light Dellavedova up. It might be embarrassing for the Saint Mary's grad. Unfortunately for all of us watching the Finals, after how great Game One was, this is going to be a stomping for the Warriors. Lebron can carry the Cavs only so far. Even if he goes for 60 points in each of the next three games, it won't be enough. JR Smith's jumper looks broken, and Shumpert and Dellavedova can only make threes when they are wide open. That won't happen against the Warriors. And, Tristan Thompson and Timofy Mozgov can only give a little help on offense. I think they had a combined 20 to 25 points on Thursday and that was a great night from the two of them.

Sorry, GM, coach and player, Lebron, you'll have to wait until next season to have a shot at another ring.

(Ed note: I originally disagreed with Ty and said Cavs in 6.  I am a wrong person and agree with Ty on this one. Warriors in 4).

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor at Seed Sing.  He was all church league first team three years in a row.  Follow him on twitter@tykulik.

Ty takes a close look at the NBA Finals.

Tomorrow, June 4th, marks the start of the NBA Finals, maybe one of the greatest finals match ups, between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors. The Cavs came out of the Eastern conference with relative ease. The only team that beat them in any series were the Chicago Bulls, who only got two games out of them. They swept the Boston Celtics and the Atlanta Hawks. Golden State didn't have much trouble in the Western Conference either. They swept the New Orleans Pelicans, beat the Memphis Grizzlies in six and beat the Houston Rockets in the conference finals in five games. Both teams should be very well rested since they cake walked to the finals and have had nine days off.

The Cavs have been bitten by the injury bug in the playoffs, losing Kevin Love for the playoffs in their first round series and Kyrie Irving is at about, I'd say, thirty percent tops. Lebron James has/had one or both ankles sprained, but he should be 100% by the time the Finals start tomorrow night. Golden State on the other hand have had some close calls, with that scary fall from Stephen Curry in the conference finals and the concussion suffered by Klay Thompson, also in the conference finals, but they have stayed pretty healthy for the most part. Klay Thompson was cleared yesterday to play in Game One of the Finals.

Now, let's breakdown the rosters of each team. Cleveland boasts the best player in the world, Lebron James. They also have former All Star Game MVP Kyrie Irving, but as I said, he's very injured right now. With Kevin Love out, after those three, the Cavs have, at best, a rag tag bunch of players. Some are fringe All Stars like JR Smith and Iman Shumpert. They have a decent rim protector in Timofy Mozgov. A relentless rebounder in Tristan Thompson, although his offense leaves something to be desired. After these six guys, they only have a few other players who see any type of real minutes in the NBA. Their next guy in line is probably Matthew Dellavedova, who's a relentless hustler, but may also be the dirtiest player in the playoffs.(just ask Kyle Korver, Al Horford, and Taj Gibson). After him no one besides James Jones or Shawn Marion really see the floor at all and that's just for their shooting abilities since they're liabilities on defense, then can guard no one. Mike Miller, Brendan Haywood, Joe Harris and Kendrick Perkins round out the rest of the roster, but the four of them only get in during garbage time. What this team does have though, is Finals experience. Lebron James has played in five straight NBA finals(a record). Along with James, Mike Miller and James Jones played with him while they were on the Miami Heat when they were regulars in the Finals and Brendan Haywood was on the Dallas Mavericks when they won the 2011 NBA Championship. Golden State on the other hand has a roster with no NBA Finals experience, but it's loaded with talented players all over the floor. They also go way deeper than seven players like the Cavs do. Golden State is led by 2015 NBA MVP, and best shooter and ball handler in the league, Stephen Curry. The rest of their starting five consists of, the other Splash Brother, Klay Thompson, Defensive Player of the Year runner up, Draymond Green, supreme rim protector and rebounding monster Andrew Bogut and lock down defender and all around great athlete, Harrison Barnes. The bench has some pretty key components as well. First off the bench for Golden State is Andre Iguodala who they still run some parts of their offense through and he's still a pretty good defender. After Iguodala, they have 6'7 point guard Shaun Livingston, instant offense in Leandro Barbosa, one defensive minded big in Festus Ezeli and one offensive minded big in Mareese Speights. David Lee has not seen much time in the playoffs since he's such a liability on defense, but he was once an All Star. The rest of the bench is rounded out with guys that barely play at all. Guys like, Justin Holiday, Brandon Rush and Ongjen Kuzmic. I'd have to say that Golden State has the better, deeper roster overall. But, like I said, the Cavs have the experience. Both coaches are rookie coaches, so this is their first Finals as head coaches, obviously. Comparing the two is pretty easy in my opinion though. David Blatt is basically a substitute teacher. He looks like he's in charge, but you, me and the rest of the basketball watching world knows that Lebron is not only the Cavs best player, but he's also the coach and the GM. Hell, bench coach Tyronn Lue gets more respect from the players than Blatt does. Steve Kerr on the other hand, took a pretty decent Golden State team and turned them into a 67 win team. This team already played very good defense, but since Kerr has instituted his offense, they went up into a whole new level. This team fires on all cylinders and a lot of that has to do with their head coach. Once again, advantage Golden State. As far as Golden State guarding Lebron, that's a toss up to me. If I had to guess, I'd say they will start with Harrison Barnes on him and if he can't cut it, they will put Draymond Green on him. But let's face it, Lebron will get his. He's a beast. The rest of the matchups are much more of a toss up. A banged up Kyrie Irving won't be able to keep up with Steph Curry. I don't think a fully healthy Irving would be able to stop Curry.Shumpert and Klay Thompson is a wash. Both are excellent defenders, but Klay Thompson is so much better on offense than Shumpert, so I'll give this one to Golden State. The Warrior tasked with guarding Tristan Thompson, be it Harrison Barnes or Draymond Green, better dust off the hard hat and get ready for a rebounding battle. Thompson is relentless on the glass, especially on the offensive glass. Advantage Cavs. Bogut and Mozgov are pretty much equals when it comes to rim protecting and rebounding, but Mozgov is a touch better on offense, so I will give the Cavs the advantage here. The benches are so different. Golden State's bench is about a thousand times better than Cleveland's. A thousand times better. No contest, advantage Golden State. Wth all this being said, even with the starters being pretty even, and Cleveland having the best player in the world, Golden State's team is so much better, their bench and their coach are light years ahead of Cleveland's that I don't see how Golden State doesn't win the championship this season. Lebron will get at least one win because he's Lebron James, but I only see Cleveland getting one game. The Oracle Arena is almost impossible for a road team to win there and Golden State has home court advantage.

I'm picking Golden State to win in five games and Curry will cap off his MVP season with an NBA finals MVP.

(Ed. note:  I cannot compete with Ty's breakdown, but I will make my own prediction.  We will see Lebron James complete the greatest season a player has ever accomplished and will this Cleveland team to a championship.  Cavs in 6.)

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor at Seed Sing.  He was all church league first team three years in a row.  Follow him on twitter @tykulik.