Shuffle Up and Deal

This past year in the NBA was one of the most exciting seasons I can remember in recent history.  While my Washington Wizards displayed a variety of dismal performances, there were a conglomerate of new energetic teams that emerged as dominant forces and made for an extremely competitive playoff race.  Among the surprising ball clubs last year were the Cavaliers, Hawks, Bulls, Magic, Nuggets and the Trailblazers.  Each of the above teams improved their win/loss records from the previous season and made impressive displays of talent throughout the regular and post seasons.

Since that time there have been an extraordinary amount of player dealings and trades between teams that have changed the entire make up of the NBA.  Unlike previous off seasons these moves involved an unusual number of big name players suiting up in new uniforms.  As a big fan of the NBA I can usually name at least the starting 5 players of each of the 30 teams, however because of all the shuffling of players going on I find myself surprised to see some of the rosters coming into the new season.  Here are just a few of the teams that make my jaw drop and my mouth water for the opening game:

Spurs: Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli, Richard Jefferson, Antonio McDyess, and Tim Duncan. Geez. Watch out for these guys.

Hawks: Mike Bibby, Joe Johnson, Marvin Williams, Josh Smith, Al Horford and Jamal Crawford coming off the bench!

Magic: Jameer Nelson, Vince Carter, Rashard Lewis, Brandon Bass, and Dwight Howard.  I don’t know how the ball is going to make it around to all of those guys, but it should be exciting to see.

Mavericks: Jason Kidd, Josh Howard, Shawn Marion, Dirk Nowitzki, Erick Dampier and Jason Terry off the bench.  This is scary; its like a fantasy team in Dallas.

Pistons: Rodney Stuckey, Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Charlie Villanueva, Ben Wallace and Ben Gordon of the bench…scratching my head on this one, but it should still be interesting.

In addition to these crazy teams we also have Shaq joining up with King James himself, Artest going to the champion Lakers, Tyson Chandler and Emeka Okafor switching places, and Hedo Turkoglu going to the Raptors. Wow, that’s a mouthful.

With all of these off-season moves it’s hard to predict who will come out on top this year, but I would put my money on the Spurs, the addition of a consistent veteran shooter in Jefferson will add an offensive spark to their already stacked team.  I’m also excited to see how the acquisitions of Mike Miller and Randy Foye will pan out for the Wizards who should have a healthy roster coming into the start of the season.