This might be the year that Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns take the next step towards winning the NBA Championship. (Source: Getty Images)

This is an easy one. The NBA is playing their all-star game in Las Vegas for the first time. GMs and coaches already hate the all-star game for the most part because they’d rather see their players get an extra few days off in the middle of the season to gear up for the playoffs so just imagine how much they’ll hate this year’s game when it’s played in Las Vegas. Sending unsupervised NBA players to Las Vegas for a three day array of partying is like trusting Isiah Thomas’ judgment in free agency. You know how MLB has fans vote in the last players for each team, well I think the NBA needs to do something similar but instead of having the most worthy players they should come up with a ballot of players most likely to slip-up. Off the top of my head my ballot would include Stephen Jackson, Bonzi Wells, Damon Stoudamire, Zach Randolph and Jamal Tinsley.

Who is this year’s sleeper team? 

In order to qualify as a ‘sleeper’ the selection needs to be a non-playoff team from last year and a team that hasn’t already received a ton of positive write-ups. The Toronto Raptors would fit the bill but too many people are picking them as a sleeper team which of course disqualifies them from the running. Instead the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets are my pick. Even though the Hornets are playing all but four of their home games in Oklahoma City I feel this team is in for a big dose of positive karma, ala the New Orleans Saints. Any discussion of the Hornets’ present or future success starts with point guard Chris Paul. He was a near unanimous rookie-of-the year winner last season averaging 16.1 points and 7.8 assists. To give you a sense of how good he is, he’s already being counted on as an important piece for team USA at the 2008 Olympics. In addition to Paul, the Hornets have a strong PF in David West and have rounded out their roster with a couple of strong acquisitions in gunner Peja Stojakovic and defensive frontline stopper Tyson Chandler. Mix in Bobby Jackson, and a couple of rookies in Hilton Armstrong and Cedric Simmons and you’ve got a team that will surprise many.

What’s more surprising that Dikembe Mutombo is still in the league or that Carmelo Anthony was one of the best basketball players at this summer’s World FIBA Championships in Japan?

After the disaster of the 2004 Greece Olympics when he was dismissed by coach Larry Brown as nothing more than a spoiled youngster who was unwilling to accept a diminished role, Carmelo Anthony had an about face turnaround for the US national program this summer. Despite the overshadowing presence of D-Wade and LeBron James, Melo was the biggest factor in helping the US capture a medal of any colour. He finished the tournament as the 5th ranked scorer, was selected to the all-tourney team and provided several clutch performances for the team.

I suppose Melo’s performance shouldn’t have been such a surprise since he’s already proven himself to be the NBA’s best clutch shooter. Over the last three years Anthony has hit 11 out of 17 game winning shots; that’s a .647 shooting percentage. The next closest clutch shooter is Ray Allen who has hit on 8 out of 18 attempts. To put Anthony’s clutch performance stats into perspective Kobe Bryant is 7 for 32, D-Wade is 6 for 17 and shockingly LeBron is only 4 for 19 on game winning shots.

With all that being said I think Carmelo is in for a monster season in this his fourth NBA campaign.

What’s in a number?

A: Jersey sales dollars.

Kobe Bryant and Amare Stoudemire, two of the NBA’s biggest stars have changed their jersey numbers in preparation for a new season. Kobe has changed his number 8 for 24; Amare has gone from 32 to 1. It’s still unclear what’s behind the motivation of the moves but one thing’s for certain, the jersey sales of both players will surely go up. Kobe had a strong bounce back season PR-wise last year which most notably included an 81-point performance – the second highest point total in NBA history. Amare is looking for a big comeback performance after last year’s microfracture knee surgery.   Fans of both players who want to stay current are essentially forced to follow suit and pick up the new jersey. Who knows, this trend of players switching jersey numbers may become the new third jersey approach to spiking a team’s jersey sales.

Who is this year’s rookie of the year?

Adam Morrison.  There are plenty of doubters who can’t see the former Gonzaga star being able to make the transition to the pros. I’m not one of them. I can’t picture Morrison not being able to score at least 16-17 PPG right off the bat. The guy is a gutsy competitor who thrives in the clutch and most importantly doesn’t fear having the ball in his hands in big situations – kinda the anti-playoff version of Peyton Manning. As an aside does it surprise anyone else that the Charlotte Bobcats are the only team in recent memory to build an all-college team as an NBA franchise in the pros just to see if the school success could carry over to the NBA? Look at their roster: ex-Tar heels Raymond Felton and Sean May, Morrison, Emeka Okafor from UConn. It’s an interesting case study.

How will the Toronto Raptors fare?

What a difference a year and the hiring of a quality basketball mind can make. At this same time last year the Raps GM Rob Babcock publicly acknowledged prior to the onset of a new season that the team had little to no chance of making the playoffs – what a way to rally the fan support! Babcock is now gone and in his place is former Phoenix Suns architect Bryan Colangelo. It’s not often that an executive hire can create such a positive buzz for a team but the flurry of summer moves conducted by Colangelo has done just that. By acquiring TJ Ford, Anthony Parker, Jorge Garbajosa and a slew of others not to mention ridding the team of colossal failure Rafael Araujo, Colangelo once again has the team thinking playoffs.

As much as I admire the turnaround of the franchise I can’t help but think how much better they would be if they had opted to draft Adam Morrison instead of Andrea Bargnani.  I think that will be one decision the team will greatly regret.

Can Steve Nash three-peat as NBA MVP?

As good as Nash is, his value and impact on the Suns has plateaued. He can’t possibly contribute more to his team’s success than he has over the last two years. So, if everything holds true I see the NBA’s MVP coming down to a three man race between Dwyane Wade, Tim Duncan and LeBron James.

Duncan will undoubtedly have a big bounce back season with a very good team after labouring through last season with an assortment of injuries. Wade is a natural choice for MVP after his tour de force finals series performance against the Mavs but because of his reckless-Allen Iverson-banging style of play and the aging of that Heat roster I could see a couple of injuries/rough patches.

As expected LeBron James’ career has followed a nice level of progression; he’s gone from 20.9 to 27.2 to 31.4 PPG and increased his FG% in his three seasons. Perhaps the most astonishing thing about LeBron is that he’s still very young - only 21 years old. At 21 years of age I still think we haven’t come close to seeing the full impact of LeBron but I think this will be the year where he officially cements his status as the best player in the league.  Big year ahead for Bron-Bron.

Who will win the Larry O’Brien trophy?

The Phoenix Suns over the Chicago Bulls. This pick is fully contingent on Amare Stoudmire’s successful return from microfracture surgery. When healthy, Amare is virtually un-guardable. Very few teams have the ability to match and/or keep pace with the Suns’ and their free-wheeling offensive style of play.  Barring injuries they have enough depth to provide fits for other teams when they field their unconventional lineups (i.e. Boris Diaw at C, two PGs (Barbosa and Nash) in the back court together). Plus this is a team that was only two wins away from reaching the NBA finals last season without Amare.

The Bulls are a rising power in the Eastern Conference. They don’t have an established go-to scorer; rather they’ll have to rely on strong defensive play from Andres Nocioni and former Piston and free agent acquisition Ben Wallace and scoring by committee from the likes of Ben Gordon, Krik Hinrich, Tyrus Thomas and Luol Deng. The Bulls are kind of a default pick out of the Eastern Conference due to a lack of contenders. The Heat are primed for a letdown season, the Cavs don’t have enough support for LeBron, the Pistons have just lost their heart-and-soul to a team within the conference and the Nets have to contend with the distraction of Vince Carter in a contract year.