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2012-13 NBA Sleepers: Washington Wizards

5. Washington Wizards (Southeast Division)

Division Rivals: Miami Heat, Orlando Magic, Atlanta Hawks and Charlotte Bobcats

Before I start I would like us to be honest with ourselves. Most of us did not know coming into the 2011-12 NBA season whether John Wall or Blake Griffin would win the Rookie of the Year award. We may have secretly had a favorite but wouldn’t go out on a limb and make an outright prediction. Griffin did have the advantage of being around the game for a full year although he did not play, but would be able to get his mind adjusted to the pro game at the very least. On the other hand, John Wall was still very active coming off a stellar 2-year college career with Kentucky and more achievements than I would like to list.

In Wall’s third game as a pro he earned his first career triple-double with 19 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists with 6 steals to top it off. My mind was made up. The ROY award was his if he continued playing at that level. Then came the injuries followed by the human highlight reel, Blake Griffin, and the rest was history. Although Wall missed a total of 13 games, he was still able to average 16 points and 8 assists, but it wouldn’t be enough to beat Griffin’s 22 points and 12 rebounds per game for the ROY award.

But hey, that’s old news. Since then Blake Griffin has made the playoffs and the Wizards were one of the worst Eastern Conference teams last year with only 20 wins out of the lockout shortened 66 game season. Only the Charlotte Bobcats, who had the worst record in the NBA with 7 wins, outdid Washington.

So why do I have the Wizards as my #5 sleeper? For one, regardless of his team’s losing record last year, John Wall is still one of the best Point Guards in the NBA, hands down. His speed and ability to go from scorer to passer is seamless and he shows no signs of being intimidated when facing defenders. He is comfortable driving to the basket or shooting midrange jumpers with consistency, and if he can stay healthy, I believe he can wind up back in the headlines for his improved play even if the Wizards have what will likely be a losing record.

Secondly, it’s mainly due to Center Nene and Guard Jordan Crawford. I feel confidant John Wall’s game will improve, thus improving the team’s performance once he is able divert some of the defenses attention away from him onto Crawford, Nene and hopefully an active Omeka Okafor. Omeka Okafor showed signs of life a little while back in New Orleans and if he can bring back that type of hustle, they could have themselves a decent offense. As long as Nene can keep up or improve on his average of 7 rebounds, coupled with Okafor’s average of 10 rebounds per game, a lot of good can happen which would move them out of the Eastern Conference basement they were in last year.

Do I believe the Wizards will make the playoffs this year? No. And if you take a look at their division rivals it’s clear they have an uphill battle ahead of them. Miami, Atlanta and even the Dwight Howardless Orlando Magic are still capable of delivering average and below average teams a lot of damage. I still feel that they will have a much better season and have a lot more to be proud about than last year and I expect John Wall and Nene’s averages improve.

2012-13 NBA Sleepers: Houston Rockets

Looking ahead to the upcoming 2012-13 NBA season, there is no shortage of talk about teams expected to do well. The Heat, Thunder, Lakers and now the Brooklyn Nets have all eyes on them and considering their rosters, the expectations are reasonable. With Champions, MVPs, All-Stars, Defensive Players of the Year, 6^th Man award winners and Scoring Champions among the starters, predicting that these teams will do well doesn’t take much effort.

The tough part will be spotting the sleepers that could make top tier teams think twice about walking into an arena with no game plan and simply hoping for a blow out win. If they’re not careful, games that were previously marked as a win when the schedule was released or even a playoff game or two could have them red in the face.

Over the next few weeks I will go through the 6 teams I feel that could make some noise in their division and some that could sneak into the 7^th or 8^th playoff spot in their respective conference.

6. Houston Rockets (Southwest Division)

Division Rivals: San Antonio Spurs, Memphis Grizzlies, Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Hornets

Jeremy Lin, Jeremy Lamb, and Kevin Martin are sadly pretty much all this team has going for them. Likely to remain at the bottom of the division throughout the entire season just below the New Orleans Hornets, my hope for them lies with their youth and speed.  With only Lin and Martin averaging more than 10 points, this team is sure to have a really rough year relying purely on their guards. Regardless of coach Kevin McHale’s preference in offensive strategies, this team will need to try and run opponents out of the building and make sure their supporting cast like Asik and Morris perform inside the paint and Delfino finally becomes more of a consistent threat from the outside.

Honestly, this is not one of the teams on my list that I see making the playoffs but, I still feel that if they can find a run and gun style of play that keeps opponents back pedaling, they can perhaps avoid having the worst record in the NBA coupled with a few major upsets, which would actually be a great accomplishment. No doubt with Linsanity still quite a big part of the NBA, you will be surely kept up to date with all the winning, and mostly losing of the emerging international star. The only difference now is that the losing can’t be blamed on Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire, which I’m sure Lin will miss dearly.

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