The annual NBA.com GM Survey, released Wednesday, says the Lakers are the team to beat, according to 63 percent of the 28 general managers who responded.
The Miami Heat, who picked up James and Chris Bosh to join Dwyane Wade during the offseason, were picked to win by 33 percent of the respondents.
The Boston Celtics were the pick of 4 percent.
In the MVP race, Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder was the overwhelming pick, getting 67 percent of the votes. Kobe Bryant of the Lakers was second with 26 percent.
James, last season’s league MVP, picked up just a single vote, as did Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic.
I suspect that with all the hullabaloo surrounding Miami’s new Super Friends, the Lakers are coming into the season very motivated. They are the two-time champs and are the team to beat, despite all the goings on in South Florida. I give them the edge for an NBA title, but if the two teams meet in the Finals, then it means that LeBron, D-Wade and Chris Bosh have worked out whatever kinks there were and managed to get out of what is shaping up to be a brutal Eastern Conference playoff draw.
The MVP race will be interesting, especially with LeBron and Wade sharing the stage in Miami. Unless LeBron averages a triple-double, either player would be hard-pressed to win the award because voters could make a strong case for the other guy. That leaves Durant and Kobe as the front-runners.
Henry Abbott of TrueHoop digs deeper into the GM survey.
The Cavs could very well finish with the worst record just one year after finishing 2009-10 with the best regular season record. This, of course, is all LeBron James’ fault. He wasn’t supposed to leave, but he did. Not only did he drag his feet during free agency and make it impossible for the franchise to make any other significant moves, he also broke up with the city of Cleveland in the most public way possible. (Hey, at least the Boys & Girls Club made some money off of the deal.) The Cavs are trying to look forward, but it’s tough when you’re planning to start Anthony Parker and Jamario Moon on the wing and are depending on a 34-year-old Antawn Jamison to be your go-to scorer. Jamison and Mo Williams do bring some offense, and Anderson Varejao and J.J. Hickson will keep the front line competitive, but this team is seriously lacking in talent, specifically at shooting guard and small forward. Byron Scott is a good coach, but he’s going to have a tough time winning more than 25 games with this group. The good news, if there is any, is that the team is not in salary cap hell. They project to have about $10 million in cap space next summer and nearly $30 million in the summer of 2012. But there’s more bad news — it’s going to be tough to attract free agents to Cleveland, especially after Dan Gilbert’s open letter to LeBron.
