Adopt An NBA Playoff Team: Reasons To Root For Each Squad Still Playing

Let’s face it; there’s nothing C.A. Clark from SB Nation’s Lakers blog Silver Screen and Roll could do to convince you to join the Evil Empire of the NBA. So if you want to root for the Lakers this spring, have no shame. You won’t be the only bandwagon fan.

How fitting it is that the last attempt in this delightful exercise in persuasion is an attempt to convince you to throw your support behind the Los Angeles Lakers. By now, you’ve no doubt read 15 wonderful arguments from my colleagues, and they all have some kind of angle: The aging core with one last chance, the cursed city desperate for a championship, the team that plays beautiful basketball, the one that creates anarchy on the court, win one for the gipper, it’s all there. The storybook of your choice awaits.

I wrote this one, folks, so ... uhh ... when it comes to the playoffs, GO MAVS!

Confession: I’m not really a Dallas Mavericks fan. I’m a Washington Wizards fan first, and then I’m a fan of the NBA at large. Among this year’s playoff teams, though, there are none I admire more than the Dallas Mavericks, which is why I’m here trying to convince you to pull for them this spring.

Some of our bloggers took this exercise more literally than others and actually wrote letters to you fans. Here, now, is a message for you to root for the Suns, courtesy Trevor Paxton of SB Nation’s Suns blog Bright Side of the Sun.

Dear friend,

The Denver Nuggets are a pretty wild bunch, so if you’re looking for a team to feed your crazy side, look no further than the Nuggets, writes Nate Timmons of Denver Stiffs.

The question is, why should you root for the Nuggets? Honestly, you probably shouldn’t root for Denver, especially if you have a heart condition.

This isn’t your father’s Utah Jazz, so you should make an effort to get behind them, writes SB Nation’s Jazz blog SLC Dunk.

Picking a team to root for in the playoffs when your own team is on vacation isn’t an easy thing to do. Let me help you with that choice.

Dave of SB Nation’s Blazers blog Blazers Edge lists the many reasons you should root for the Blazers this spring.

Why would you root for the Portland Trail Blazers in the NBA playoffs? Let me count the ways:

The Spurs have a reputation for being boring, but that’s not true anymore, writes SB Nation’s Matt O’Brien.

I know, I know. Convining anyone outside of south Texas to root for Gregg Popovich’s squad is a Sisyphean task. The Spurs are just a boring collection of hoops automatons sent to ruthlessly and efficiently win games, aesthetics be damned. Right?

The Cavaliers may be the favorites, and they may employ LeBron James. Still, SB Nation’s Cavaliers blog Fear the Sword writes that you absolutely should root for them so the city gets the title they deserve.

So you need a team to root for in the NBA Playoffs? By going last in today’s list of Eastern Conference Playoff teams it must mean I am proposing the Cavaliers.

Looking for a contender that isn’t Cleveland, Orlando, Boston or the Lakers? Look no further than Atlanta, because they have likable players, bursts of energy and the ability to transform a city, writes SB Nation’s Hawks blog Peachtree Hoops.

The NBA is a superstar league, and the Hawks do not have a superstar. So if you are looking to go anti-LeBron, Wade, Kobe, even Durant, the Hawks offer you the best non-superstar team to root for. Your welcome.

The Celtics might look old, but they’ve been to the mountain top before. Jeff Clark from SB Nation’s Celtics Blog says this might be their last shot at getting back there.

You should root for the Celtics because this could very well be the last time this team has a shot with this core group of players.

Lower-seeded teams rarely win first-round series, but the Heat have a good chance because they have Dwyane Wade and they’re playing the Celtics. SB Nation’s Heat blog Peninsula Is Mightier says this is why you should root for them.

This year’s version of the Heat is a great example of a team growing together by battling through adversity. The majority of the season was an inconsistent mess where very skilled players weren’t able to string together a solid stretch of games. Since the month of March, though, the Heat have been one of the hottest teams in the league due to them finally finding a rotation that really works.

The Milwaukee Bucks will play without their best player, but there are still plenty of reasons to cheer for them. SB Nation’s Bucks blog Brew Hoop gives you those reasons.

Why root for the Bucks? Why not root for the Bucks?

The playoffs are uncharted territory for the Charlotte Bobcats. SB Nation’s Bobcats blog Rufus On Fire asks you to come aboard now before the bandwagon grows.

Your favorite team didn’t make the NBA playoffs. My condolences. Is that how we do this? My favorite team, the Charlotte Bobcats, have never played in the postseason, so I’m unfamiliar with this side of the conversation.

If you haven’t watched the Bobcats this year, you might wonder how in the world they managed to get into the playoffs without a go-to scorer. Sure, Stephen Jackson takes a ton of shots, and Gerald Wallace is a runaway train on the break, but neither of those guys are anyone’s idea of an elite scorer. On top of that, wasn’t Larry Brown last seen trying to play Stephon Marbury alongside Steve Francis?

Ignore the negative connotations of the preceding and trust me: you’ll love them.

The Chicago Bulls slipped into the playoffs, but you can still root for them. SB Nation’s Bulls blog Blog a Bull tells you why you should.

The NBA Playoffs are, in my mind, the best event in professional sports, because it’s your one event that really displays the best basketball in the world. March Madness is wonderful and exciting, but the NBA Playoffs is where true greatness is showcased. The best players in the world go at it for as many as seven games every round, and once the grind is over, there is no doubt that the team that survives is the best of the best.

But there’s also a problem if you’re not a fan of any team. Who do you root for? Because this is sports, you have to pick some team to get behind in order to enhance your enjoyment of the spectacle. It makes the whole thing more fun, and who knows, maybe it makes you a permanent fan.