Blake Griffin to declare draft eligibility this week?

After Oklahoma went out of the NCAA tournament against North Carolina, college star player Blake Griffin is expected to declare himself eligible for this year’s NBA draft class. 

Averaging 22.7 points and 14.4 rebounds this season, he looks like a potential NBA star if his development continuously progresses. By many regarded as the next No. 1 draft pick he certainly has shown lots of potential during his time in college.

Nonetheless, Oklahoma head coach Jeff Capel is going to meet with Blake and his parents to discuss a further year in Oklahoma. However, it seems rather unlikely that the 6’10” forward will pass on the opportunity to go pro…

Can the Bobcats make the playoffs?

For the first time in the history of the young Bobcats franchise the team has a shot at making it into the NBA Playoffs. As of now, they are in the 9th spot of the Eastern Conference, 2.5 games behind Detroit and Chicago. After a number of trades the Bobcats really seem to have found the right chemistry bringing in players like Raja Bell, Boris Diaw and veteran Radmanovich. Rookie D.J. Augustin also proved to be an excellent investment for future seasons to come.

There are still nine more games and a lot of basketball to be played, so lets take a look at the schedule: Charlotte has only three more home games but six on the road. More specifically, the last four games off the season are all on the road. The Bobcats are playing five teams above .500 (Boston, LA Lakers, Miami, Philadelphia and Orlando) and four under .500 (Detroit, Oklahoma, Chicago, New Jersey). A tough schedule to finish the season. Taking into consideration that the Pistons and Bulls have an easier schedule to finish the season and given the fact that they are 2.5 games ahead, Charlotte definitely is the underdog to make it into the playoffs.

However, they get to play both Chicago and the Pistons so be ready for some intense games on the 5th (Pistons) and 11th (Bulls) of April!

Wallace & AI set to return for struggling Pistons

It certainly has been a terrible season for the Detroit Pistons. In fact they may very well be in the race for the title of the most disappointing team this season a long with the Toronto Raptors. Since 2003-04 they have made it every season to at least the Eastern Conference Finals. 

This year they are fighting for the 8th playoff seed. Trading Chauncey Billups for Allen Iverson turned out to be massive failure. On top of all that, they suffered crucial injuries in the deciding part of the regular season. Rick Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace and AI all went down injured.

With Rick Hamilton making his comeback in the clutch win in Washington on Saturday, Sheed (calf strain) and AI (back problems) are expected to make their comeback at latest on Tuesday against Philly. It remains to be seen whether Iverson can help the Pistons or continues to be a major rotation problem.

Playoff Hopes: The case of the Dallas Mavericks

Dirk Nowitzki frequently mentions the Mavs’ ambitions to finally win a championship. But does the Texan team even have any chance of making it through the first NBA playoff round?

Right now, the Mavs are sitting at the 8th spot in the Western Conference with a record of 43-30. They still have 9 more games to play and are only 3 games behind Utah, Portland and New Orleans (which they will play two more times). However, it looks like a justified assumptions that they will end up staying where they are right now which would mean that Dallas would face the L.A. Lakers and Kobe Bryant in the first round.

Over the course of the regular season the Mavs lost all three games against the Lakers which pretty much says it all. Dallas is not the same basketball team anymore that made it to the NBA Finals in 2006. Jerry Stackhouse is getting older and not even in the rotation anymore, while Josh Howard turned from a former All-Star into a ghost who rarely plays because of his ankle problems. Dirk is still an excellent shooter, but can barely defend a mailbox.

So what would it mean for the franchise to lose in the first playoff round for the third time in a row? 

Nothing good, that’s for sure. Dirk pointed out that he’d be willing to stay in Dallas and even take a paycut after the 2009-10 season if he feels that the team could win a championship. But given the aforementioned circumstances it doesn’t seem very likely… 

Agent Zero’s comeback

There has been much speculation about whether Gilbert Arenas should try to make a comeback late in the season or take it easy until next year. After all, the Wizards are at 17-57 and certainly not in the playoff race by any means. As most of you will remember his comeback in the playoffs last year turned out to be a disaster due to not being physically ready to play basketball again.

But guess what, Arenas decided that he’s ready to play some NBA ball again and made his comeback versus the struggling Pistons last night. The former All-Star showed straight from the beginning what the Washington Wizards have been missing throughout this disappointing season. He finished the game with a double-double scoring 15 points and 10 assists. However, despite the Wizards race in the 4th quarter they lost 96-98 with Arenas missing the potentially game-winning 3-point shot. 

Time will tell whether it was a smart decision to start playing again with only ten games left to play for the Wizards.