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Deja vu anyone?

NBAThis time last year, NBA analysts and fans where debating just how a potential 50 win team could miss out on the playoffs in the Wild West. This year, the West aint so wild, but the East is just as interesting.

At this late stage, 3 teams could realistically claim that 8 seed and the opportunity to pull a Golden State. The Cavs are most likely to rip the potential playoff hopefuls apart in a 7 game series, but just for fun, let’s see who would match up the best with Cleveland.

Milwaukee

The hammer blow(s) of losing Andrew Bogut, who was finally living up to his number 1 pick expectations, and Michael Redd, who is still one of the purest scorers in the game, really hurt the Bucks. They’re surprisingly deep, with a terrific young point in Ramon Sessions and a great all round vet in Richard Jefferson. Scott Skiles has moved them away from the truly terrible play of last year (no defence and selfish offence), and they play decent, team basketball.

Chicago

Despite their minute 1.7% chance of winning the lottery, the Bulls managed to pull Derrick Rose out of the NCAA bag. While I’m not entirely sure Rose is a Chris Paul talent, he has really invigorated this stagnant roster, despite their complete and utter lack of a decent big man for the majority of the season. Since Tyrus Thomas is starting to look like Stromile Swift Volume 2, just how badly could the Bulls be doing with LaMarcus Aldridge right now?

New York

Mike D’Antoni’s teams may play matador defence, but they are fun to watch. Also, any coach that gets Larry Hughes to care about winning basketball games deserves some kind of medal. Tim Thomas isn’t quite Robert Horry, but he tends to come alive in big playoff games.

Mr.Kyrptonite himself, Nate Robinson, has been an absolute sparkplug for the Knicks this year. His role off the bench has really allowed him to focus on scoring, as starting him would force him into being a facilitator, which just isn’t in his DNA.

Honestly, none of these teams have a chance against the Cavs. James would most likely drop 50/10/10 averages against the Knicks and both the Bulls and Bucks would overreact to the King, leaving the rest of the Cavaliers roster to put them away.

You never know though, do you?

The Bucks could really tighten their defence and the rest of the Cavs could go AWOL.

The Bulls would probably need Derrick Rose to go absolutely crazy for the Bulls to have even the slightest of chances.

The Knicks probably have the biggest chance of pulling off an upset. If they get hot at the right time, the SSOL offence can pull off an upset whenever it wants.

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