Tuesday night kicked off the start of the 2013-14 NBA season, and with the season tip off comes plenty of questions for the upcoming season.
Of course, any road to the championship must go through LeBron James and the mighty Miami Heat. The two-time defending championship squad returns for a three-peat attempt, largely with its championship roster still intact.
While there’s no question the Heat will once again be a key ingredient in the championship mix, there are several unanswered questions around the league that may affect who, if anyone, can get in the way of their quest to Glory Road.
1. Is Derrick Rose back – for real?
The short answer is yes.
The Chicago Bulls’ all-world point guard is finally back after a long, agonizing wait for Chi-town faithful. Rose went down with an ACL injury April 28, 2012 and missed the entire 2012-13 campaign while rehabbing his injured knee. The wait would have been less painful for fans had the star, or the team, declared the former MVP out for the entire 2012-13 campaign early into the season. Instead, they dangled his possible return in front of fans like a carrot on a stick.
Ultimately, his knee was never strong enough to hop back in the lineup and, despite a fairly strong season without its star player, the Bulls were bounced by the eventual champs rather easily in the conference semifinals.
Rose’s confidence in his refurbished knee will go a long way in determining how much of a dogfight the Bulls put in up a surprisingly competitive Eastern Conference. The Nets, Knicks and Pacers have joined the Bulls in the arms race to unseat the Heat in the East. But don’t forget that Rose is the only player besides James to win an MVP award in the past five seasons. He has looked solid in the pre-season, like a slightly less-explosive version of his old self with a better jumper.
If D-Rose returns to MVP form, the Heat may have a problem.
2. Is Brooklyn for real?
No team has made more noise in the offseason than the Brooklyn Nets. By acquiring Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Jason Terry and Andrei Kirilenko the Nets have tremendously updated its team in talent – and in AARP points. Garnett, Pierce and Terry are all north of 35 years old. Besides Pierce, all the newbies missed a fair amount of time last season due to injuries.
Of course, the Heat fielded one of the oldest teams in the league the past two seasons and has championship bling to show for it. Then again, the Heat has a prime King James to balance out its age issues. Brooklyn doesn’t have the best player in the game, but it does field prime-aged All-Stars in Deron Williams and Brook Lopez to help take the pressure off the old fogies.
If rookie coach Jason Kidd can find a way to balance the minutes of Pierce and Garnett and keep them away from the IR, the Nets could return a banner to the Burroughs.
3. Can Kobe come back to make an impact?
ESPN set the water coolers on fire this offseason by ranking the Los Angeles Lakers as the 12th best team in the Western Conference and rating Kobe Bryant as the 25th best player in the NBA. Sure, the 35-year old superstar suffered a devastating torn Achilles to end his season, but if anyone can overcome such an injury in his mid-30s it’s the success-obsessed Bryant.
When Bryant learned of ESPN’s lowball rankings, he responded as we expected he might. The Black Mamba changed his Twitter avatar to “1225” as inspiration to come back at the top of the totem pole.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Bryant is still a top-five player if completely healthy. Still, it will be a long road back to respectability for Bryant and the Lakers. Number 24 probably has another great season left, but I’m not so sure this will be the one.
4. Which other injured stars will return to form?
The 2012-13 season was seemingly the year of the injured star. In addition to Rose and Bryant, perennial All-Stars such as Russell Westbrook, Rajon Rondo, Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash and Kevin Love missed significant time or suffered season-ending injuries.
Of those players listed, only Westbrook’s Thunder is considered to be legitimate threats to the crown. Much of that potential will fall on Westbrook’s broad shoulders and delicate knees. Since he has already suffered a few setbacks, expect Oklahoma City to take its sweet time to ensure he’s ready before returning to the court.
Nowitzki and Love could power surprising turnarounds for their teams. Both sweet-shooting power forwards missed significant time last season as their teams watched the playoffs at home like the rest of us. Both teams made modest upgrades in the offseason and (if healthy) could push each other to reach the lower rungs of the playoff ladder out West.
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