NBA Betting: Offseason of Questions Surrounds Trio of Marquee Franchises
by Bovada Sportsbook Staff | April 14, 2014
It’s fair to say that the NBA is a more interesting league when its marquee franchises are all championship contenders. That’s not the case this season as the New York Knicks, Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers all have missed the playoffs for the first time ever in the same year. Not only that, they will all finish with a losing record.
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That’s not to say there’s no drama surrounding those clubs in the regular season’s final few days.The Knicks finish the year at Brooklyn on Tuesday – which is a national TV game on TNT and will feature Live Betting at Bovada – and home to Toronto on Wednesday.
Will these be the last games with Carmelo Anthony in a Knicks uniform? New team president Phil Jackson says he wants Melo back, and the Knicks can pay him some $30 million more than any other team. However, Anthony wants to win a championship ring and the Knicks are too snug up against the cap to make any major additions this offseason. They also don’t have their own first-round pick in the 2014 draft. Will Anthony have the patience to wait through one more potentially non-playoff season in New York? There are rumors he could choose to take less and join the Chicago Bulls.
It would also be an upset if this isn’t the final week of Coach Mike Woodson’s tenure with the Knicks. Jackson isn’t going to coach the team, but he will want to hand-pick his
own guy, possibly one of his former Chicago Bulls players Steve Kerr, currently a TNT analyst.
The Celtics won’t be making a coaching change as Brad Stevens knew what he was getting into when he was hired away from Butler. The Celtics never expected to contend this season as they are in full rebuilding mode. The Celtics are going to get a high draft pick and could choose to trade Rajon Rondo this offseason to get even younger players. Rondo missed a large chunk of the season as he recovered from ACL surgery but has looked pretty solid in limited action and certainly would have value around the NBA. The Houston Rockets have been mentioned as a possible landing spot if Houston struggles in the playoffs. Boston is probably a good two years away from even thinking about contention in the Eastern Conference.
Perhaps no team will look more different in the NBA next season than the Lakers. Los Angeles is going to set a franchise record for losses and has missed the playoffs for only the second time in 20 years. Coach Mike D’Antoni almost certainly won’t be back – could Kentucky’s John Calipari be his replacement? The Lakers will have Kobe Bryant back next season, but what will he have left in the tank at age 36 and off two serious injuries? Pau Gasol is a free agent and isn’t likely to return. Fellow future Hall of Famer Steve Nash might be forced to retire because of injuries.
The Lakers will have a high draft pick and a ton of cap room to spend. They will call Anthony, for one, but he’s not considered likely to want to play in the shadow of Kobe. What LA seems likely to do is save its money for the 2015 offseason. That’s when Minnesota power forward Kevin Love can become a free agent, and it’s no secret around the NBA that the Lakers think they can sign Love, who is from that area and starred for one season at UCLA. The Lakers have an inherent advantage over all other teams in that the biggest stars want to play in the Hollywood limelight. That’s not something Boston or New York can claim.
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