2015 NBA Playoff Preview

The 2014-2015 NBA season has come to a close and we've seen the biggest markets teams with the Knicks and Lakers were some of the worst teams of the season. Some of the biggest stars in Paul George, Derrick Rose, Kevin Durant and Dwight Howard saw long injuries that kept them out of the game. We saw young players take over the league in Steph Curry, James Harden, Anthony Davis and rookies Andrew Wiggins, Nerlens Noel and Zach LaVine. It was a great season that saw the titans of the past, Kobe and the Heat fell off and passed the torch to younger guys and has led to the tightest MVP race in recent years with it being between at least 4 players (Curry, Harden, LeBron, Westbrook).

The playoffs start Saturday in what is sure to be another great year, especially in the Western Conference. Below is my playoff prediction for how I think things will go down.

First Roung:

EAST:

1ATL<6> in 6
8BKN

4TOR in 5
5WAS

3CHI in 5
6MIL

2CLE in 4
7BOS



WEST:


1GS in 5
8NO

4POR in 6
5MEM

3LAC
6SA in 7

2HOU in 5
7DAL

Conference Semifinals:

1ATL in 6
4TOR

3CHI
2CLE in 6

1GS in 6
4POR

6SA 6
2HOU

Conference Finals:

1ATL
2CLE in 6

1GS in 7
6SA

NBA FINALS: 1GS vs 2CLE

FINALS WINNER Golden State Warriors in 7.

FINALS MVP: Stephen Curry

The Allure of Opening Day

What is it about Opening Day? 

It's the first game in a 162 game season that stretches from April to September. In the long run, the Opening Day game means absolutely nothing but every year we look forward to it like it's Christmas Day in April. 

Opening Day is by far the best timed start of the season of all of the big four sports. Once football starts, school starts up, summer's ending, it's starting to get cold and you start to realize you'll be shoveling a foot of snow in a month, football season sucks. Contrast that with baseball season and it's getting warmer, you can go outside without being in pain because of the cold, summer and vacations are on the way, baseball season is great. 

But nevermind the weather, the one thing that Opening Day brings year after year is: Hope. 

During the NFL preseason I point out everything the Giants are doing wrong and what they need to improve on, during Spring Training I look into everything the Yankees are doing well and ignore the bad and then when Opening Day comes, I could almost convince myself that a 162-0 season is possible. 

April 6, 2015: The day is here and as I watched the Yankees announce their lineups and the players run on to the field in transported back to the days of being a child and looking at these guys as being giants and gods amongst men. While football may have become the most popular sport in America, it's moments like this that show that baseball really is America's pastime and isn't going anywhere. 

Yesterday the Yankees took a beating from the Blue Jays and Tanaka got lit up in the third inning and the Yankees couldn't hit water if they fell out of boat. The Mets on the other hand took down the much praised Nationals in an early division matchup. 

Even with the Yankees poor first game I'm still extremely optimistic about this season and the first thing I said after the game was that we're going 161-1; jokingly of course. 

That's the allure of Opening Day, believing the impossible is not out of reach. 

The Case for the 2015 New York Yankees

The New York Yankees are a historically great team that growing up I was able to watch the Core Four dominate for nearly 20 years and that came full circle and ended last year in 2014. It was Derek Jeter's farewell tour and the season itself and more importantly the team was hidden away by Derek Jeter's tour. The team ended with an 84-78 record that left them 4 games out of the Wild Card. Looking at how the individual players performed and how the team was riddled with injury, 84-78 was a pretty solid record. It's easy to tell that the Yankees are in a rebuilding stage which is something they really haven't done in my lifetime (since 1993) so the team is in relative new world. 2014 was the beginning of this stage and now that Jeter has retired they are officially rebuilding.

Now to 2015: there are quite a few questions left with this team, who's the face of the team? Is anyone gonna stay healthy? Is there hope for this season? Obviously Derek Jeter was The Captain and the face of the Yankees since 2003. After his departure the Yankees made a trade for Arizona Diamondbacks shortstop Didi Gregorious, a 25 year old player out of the Netherlands. While this is hard to say because Jeter is my favorite player of all time, I believe we've upgraded at the position. Didi's defense is much better than Jeter's and while Didi's hitting isn't spectacular he can still be effective in the batter's box.

The Face of the 2015 New York Yankees: I would love to say Brett Gardner, he's been my favorite player behind Jeter the past few years but he doesn't have that leadership role like Jeter did. The first person I think most people would think of when they think of this team is probably Alex Rodriguez or maybe Mark Texeira. If pitcher Masahiro Tanaka can stay healthy all year and plays to level he did last year, he could definitely become the face of the franchise moving forward.

Is Anyone Gonna Stay Healthy?: Probably not. While the team as a whole has gotten younger, much of the Yankees key players are pretty up there in age. CC is 34, Tex is 34, A-Rod is 39, Beltran is 37 and McCann is 31 and these guys aren't getting any younger. The team seems to be almost more injury prone than anyone else, losing Tanaka and Nova last year for the season. If the team can stay healthy overall, they can do big things.

Is There Hope for This Season?: Most of the forecasts and projections have the Yankees ending 4th in the division and well out of the playoff race. I have a bit more hope for the season. The team has a lot of question marks, whether anyone can stay healthy, whether Tanaka can pitch at the level he did last year, and most importantly can anyone hit well. I think the young guys can really bring a lot to the team and if the pitching rotation stays healthy I think the team can do pretty well.

Prediction: Las Vegas has the Yankees win total at 81.5 which is just above .500, considering the team clocked in at .519 last year and the fact that I believe the team got better instead of worse I'm putting their record at 85-77 and in the hunt for second place in the division and just a few games out of the Wild Card. I think the Orioles will win the division again and while the Red Sox got better, I think the hype will outweigh their performance on the field. 2nd place and having a better record than last year is a good season in my mind, if players get injured to the extent of last year the team could suffer quite a bit but if everyone stays healthy, the outlook is good.