Commentary: Prepare to be enthralled

 Thankfully for the NBA, the off-season is finally over. Every summer, several youthful millionaires find themselves in trouble with the law, and as is painfully obvious, 2003 was no exception. But now that the regular season has officially begun, it's time to discuss some basketball.

 *While his hiring was hardly discussed compared to Larry Brown's move to Detroit, Larry Bird's decision to fire Isiah Thomas and hire Rick Carlisle to coach the Indiana Pacers will make the biggest short-term difference in the NBA this season. Carlisle is arguably the NBA's best coach, despite being asked to resign from his Pistons job for the more famous Brown. Carlisle led a moderately gifted Detroit team to back-to-back 50 wins seasons and a conference final birth in 2003.

 In Indiana, Carlisle will have something he never had in Detroit: undeniable raw talent. Although the Pacers lost all-star center Brad Miller in a trade, Indiana has the firepower to immediately take away the New Jersey Nets' consensus distinction as the best team in the East. Last season Thomas lost control of the team, as it seemed a referee ejected at least one Pacer player for either technical or flagrant fouls every game. But because of Indiana's considerable talent and the East Coast's lack thereof, the Pacers stumbled into the third best record in the Eastern Conference in 2003 before the Boston Celtics upset them in the first round.

 This season, Carlisle should be able to tame the wildly aggressive Ron Artest, allowing the New York native to finally blossom into his considerable potential. The Pacers also have three players--Jermaine O'Neal, Al Harrington and Jonathan Bender--who went straight from high school to the NBA. Expect even more out of the three now that they have been in the league for at least four seasons.

 *The Detroit Pistons' hiring of Larry Brown and drafting of Darko Milicic will not greatly improve the team, if at all. It is not clear that Brown is a better coach than Carlisle, as Detroit out-performed the Philadelphia 76ers--Brown's old team--the past two seasons with less talent. Darko is also years away from dominance--he averaged less than 10 points a game in a professional league in the Balkans. Detroit should remain a playoff team, but will not compete for the Eastern title as it did for past two seasons.

 *Kevin Garnett will not lead the Minnesota Timberwolves out of the first round of the playoffs for the eighth-straight time. The Minnesota front office brought Garnett more help for this season with the acquisitions of Latrell Sprewell and Sam Cassell, but each player is past his prime. These moves do not improve the Timberwolves enough to surpass the NBA's best four teams: the Los Angeles Lakers, the San Antonio Spurs, the Dallas Mavericks and the Sacramento Kings.

 *If Kobe is acquitted, expect the Lakers to run away with the 2004 title. While chaos seems to be the only word to describe the Lakers' situation right now, head coach Phil Jackson's controversial laissez-faire methods have pushed the Lakers into playing their best basketball at the end of the season every year. The Lakers have four hall-of-fame players, giving Los Angeles at least a chance of becoming the greatest NBA team ever assembled.

 The 2003-04 season looks to be one of the most intriguing ever. Off-season acquisitions in both player personnel and coaches have created intriguing situations for the post-Jordan league. Adding to the excitement, potential superstars Lebron James and Carmelo Anthony are both entering the league at the same time, creating the most dual rookie buzz since 1979, when Larry Bird and Magic Johnson entered the league.

 Let the games begin.