How will the playoffs play out?

These are the most compelling NBA playoffs since Michael Jordan won his final championship with the Chicago Bulls in 1998. Despite an impending lockout that could negate the 2011-2012 NBA season, the league is thriving thanks to a group of young, likeable superstars, great storylines and enticing matchups throughout the playoffs. From Kobe’s rabid pursuit of his sixth title and a second Lakers three-peat to the first meaningful Knicks-Celtics series of this millennium, the 2011 playoffs have the potential to be historic.
While the NBA’s star players headline the playoffs, this postseason carries extra significance because many teams stand to gain and lose so much based on their performance. Can the Thunder achieve NBA greatness in a small market? Will the Heat’s offseason moves bring a championship to South Beach? Or will an early exit make them the target of the media for a second consecutive summer? Can the Spurs hold off father time once more for their fifth title in the Tim Duncan era? And of course, can Kobe match Jordan with his sixth title?
Above all, the playoffs will have a huge impact on the future of how teams choose to build through free agency. Postseason success for the Knicks after their midseason acquisition of Carmelo Anthony or a championship for the Heat post “Decision” would validate the belief that you can pool together multiple superstars and make an instant championship run. On the other hand, anything short of a Finals appearance for the Heat will tarnish the legacy LeBron has built so far in his young career. Widely regarded as the best player in the league right now, the one they call “King James” is still searching for his first NBA title, and with his superfriends Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, he has as good a chance as ever to take home the hardware this postseason. In his way stand a group of teams that believe that it takes more than a collective group of All-Stars to win an NBA championship.
The San Antonio Spurs have proven over-and-over again the importance of team chemistry in basketball during the Tim Duncan era. This has been corroborated by the “Big Three” in Boston and most recently by the Chicago Bulls in the East and the Oklahoma City Thunder in the West who have modeled themselves after the giants in their conferences to great success thus far. In particular the Thunder have provided a blueprint for small market basketball teams to successfully build through the NBA draft and thriftily in free agency.
Meanwhile, teams like the New Jersey Nets, Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Clippers, who will be some of the more active teams in free agency this summer, watch with the rest of the NBA to figure out the best way to build a championship caliber basketball team.
Two radically different schools of thought are going head-to-head in the postseason and the result may have a drastic affect on the future of the NBA. If LeBron James wins his first NBA Championship in Miami the exodus of NBA stars to big market teams will continue. But if the Heat fall at the hands of the team-first Boston Celtics or to the young Bulls led by the selfless play of Derrick Rose, then the belief that team chemistry trumps gluttonous talent will be vindicated.
All we can do now is wait and see.

— Damon Hatheway ’13 is a staff writer from London, England. How he knows so much about American sports is beyond his editors.