Written by Matt | 14 July 2009

Not sure how many people actually follow the NBA so I thought I'd give you all a preview with a focus on former Tigers. There are only four Tigers currently playing in the NBA and three of them will be playing in the playoffs.  

The only guy not playing in the NBA's second season is Keyon Dooling who had career high totals for the New Jersey Nets scoring 9.7 PPG and dishing 3.5 APG. Dooling also saw his most significant amount of minutes in his career, probably thanks to how insanely brittle Devin Harris is. Hopefully this is a good sign for Dooling who unfortunately has been nothing more than bench player in his career and is only known by the rest of the country for fighting with Ray Allen. People don't like it when you pick a fight with Jesus (Shuttlesworth).

Linas Kleiza -- Denver Nuggets

Linas has been pretty awesome in the NBA for how inconsistent (I thought) he was in college. I didn't think his game would translate to the pros but he proved me wrong by developing a pretty awesome outside game and hustling like a mother fucker. He's been a spark off the bench for the second seed in the West Nuggets and has even seen some significant minutes in the occasional start. The Nuggets look to be the biggest challenge to the Lakers quest for their inevitable second trip to the Finals, and Klieza is a pretty big part of that off the bench. The Nuggets face the CP3 led Hornets in what should be a pretty exciting series.

Kleiza has average 9.9 PPG and 4.0 RPG in 22.2 MPG and he also did this:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1gSUWnYdyE&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

Awesome.

Kareem Rush -- Philadelphia 76ers

Rush saw a significant drop in production this year as he was traded from the terrible Pacers where he saw 21.2 MPG to the solid (for an East team) 76ers to free up a roster spot for his younger brother (who will remain nameless). That's probably not exactly how it happened, but that's the story I like. Rush only saw 8.0 MPG with 2.2 PPG and 0.6 APG. Kareem has been a solid bench player throughout his career but the 76ers are simply stacked with solid young super athletic talent. I mean, dude is playing behind Andre Iguodala. How many minutes could you possibly expect behind Iguodala?

The 76ers are the sixth seed in the East and they got the completely not horrible draw of the Orlando Magic. Okay, yeah, the Magic have an awesome inside/outside game with the incredible Dwight Howard and a ton of really good shooters, but Rafer Alston is not a great replacement for Jameer Nelson and a lot of the starters are hobbling into the playoffs thanks to numerous injuries. Should be a pretty solid series as the 76ers are athletic as hell and will work the Magic like crazy.

Thomas Gardner -- Atlanta Hawks

Trust me, I'm just as surprised as you are that Gardner is still in the league. I thought he was insane for leaving school early. There was absolutely no reason for him to think that he would get drafted and make an NBA roster. Somehow, someway, this guy has hustled his way onto two NBA rosters starting with a short stint with the Bulls last year and making his first full season in the league with the four seed Atlanta Hawks. Which is pretty crazy seeing as how the Hawks are actually a good team now. Like the 76ers, the Hawks are young, athletic, and an all-around solid team. Gardner has not seen a lot of action this year and finds himself at the end of the Hawks bench with 1.5 PPG in 6.1 MPG.

The Hawks will be facing the Miami Heat in the first round and will have the unfortunate task of stopping the unstoppable in Dwayne Wade. This will be an awesome series that I completely expect to go seven games.

I'd have to say that the Mizzou player most likely to hoist the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy at the end of all of this will be Linas Kleiza of the Nuggets. The Nuggets are clearly the best of the three teams even though they have to go through the ridiculously difficult West but if they've managed to nab the two seed they've obviously done something right and should be favored out of these three teams. Now, I will admit that I do not think that Nuggets will win it all as I don't expect them to get past the Lakers and I do expect the Cavs to cut down the nets (Do they do that in the NBA? Seriously) but the Nuggets have an outside shot.

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