Very quietly over the weekend the NBA announced they would end the lockout and begin a 66-game season beginning on Christmas day. I would never claim to be the biggest NBA fan but I do enjoy basketball and the league. I am excited for the return of the NBA and here are the reasons why.
1. The Return of the Sacramento Kings: The one team that represents where I grew up is finally returning to action. Now the wildly optimistic part of me thinks the Kings could sneak into the bottom part of the western conference playoffs. They have young players who can withstand the rigorous 66-game schedule (more on that later). The only part of me looks at the Kings roster and thinks they're going to flame out in spectacular fashion. Cousins, Evans, Thornton, Hickson, Salmons on the same team! Who's going to pass the ball? And I haven't even gotten to the fact that the Tim Tebow of basketball, Jimmer, is on the Kings.
2. How Ugly Will This Season Be?: The 50-game schedule of the lockout shortened year of 1999 produced some of the most dreadful basketball you'll ever see. My Sacramento Kings that season where the only team to average over 100 points a game. Will this season be as dreadful as the 99 season? Well every team will have to play at least one back-to-back-to-back series this year but no more than three. Also with a compressed training camp and only two preseason games I'm going to guess it's most likely the games in the first part of the season are going to be ugly. How the entire rest of the season shakes out is a different story but I wouldn't be surprised if this is a ugly season on the court though.
3. The Amnesty Clause: The big buzzword coming out of the lockout is the new amnesty clause. Basically a team can get rid of a player by simply paying him what is left on his contract and not take a cap hit. This has been needed badly in the NBA for a long time to help teams get out of some horrendous contracts. As of right now Brandon Roy of the Portland Trailblazers is the biggest name expected to be amnesty'd. Who else will get amnesty'd is a different question and who will pick those guys up as free agents will be the interesting part.
4. How Many Dumb Contracts Will Be Signed?: We just had a lockout where the owners cried poor. Now watch how many of them will sign dumb contracts for role players and end up right where they left off. This is going to be the best part of free agency.
5. Shaquille O'Neal, NBA Analyst: Yes Shaq will join Charles Barkley on the TNT set. This has a recipe for disaster. There's too much alpha dog on that set. I can see these two getting in arguments every Thursday about little stuff along with Shaq acting like his usual petty self and giving Barkley crap about not winning a championship and then Sir Charles dropping a couple of F-bombs. You know it's coming.
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