re: Grantland's Basketball Hour premiers tonight @ 6 CST

It's a different year.

Listen, I thought the Spurs would win it all the last two years. They played the redemption card hard last year. Now, I just don't know if the same motivation will be there. They're a year older, but that really shouldn't matter too much as long as they stay healthy. They rely so much on depth and ball movement. They were the only team in the playoffs last year that kept their 10-man rotation even in the postseason.

They've very good.

The Clippers should finish with a better record than OKC in the regular season, probably simply due to the fact that Durant might miss two months. The Clippers should have beat them last year, IMO. And now, they'll have home court on top of it. And like I said, the constant hassle of having to hear about and deal with the Donald Sterling drama really affected that team.

I think the Clippers are a team that will be in the conference finals. The Spurs could very well get there, but let's not forget they could have gone down to Dallas in the first round last year. They aren't immune to the deep western conference either.

I like the Clippers. I like their style and I like their depth. And I think Chris Paul could be the best player in the Western Conference this year.

It should be an exciting season.