OPINION

By Sean Deveney

updated 1:07 a.m. ET Sept. 17, 2008

Sean Deveney

When the NBA's media days roll around in a scant two weeks, we'll find ourselves exposed to blinding, deranged and perhaps even dangerous levels of optimism. Every team will be a contender, every youngster will be poised for a breakout year and every weak spot from last year will have been cemented by the addition of some gimpy veteran.

But we, of course, are not fooled. There are some potentially good teams out there that entered the summer with a weak spot -- and are preparing to enter the fall with the exact same weak spot. These are five potentially fatal holes that were not filled this summer:

1. Warriors point guard. Even before Golden State lost Monta Ellis for a few months to the mysterious ankle injury he suffered in Mississippi last month, point guard was a problem -- most of Ellis' career had been spent as an off-guard. Newly acquired Marcus Williams, who averaged 5.9 points in 53 games last year, has spoken confidently about his ability to get into top playing shape (he was a bit doughy during his time with the Nets) and to take the lead as a replacement for Baron Davis. After Williams, the Warriors are looking at giving serious playing time to second-year man C.J. Watson.

2. Spurs bench scorer. Michael Finley is back, and Manu Ginobili should not miss too much regular-season time. They'll cover the shooting guard/sixth man combination. But production from the bench figures to be an issue. Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Ginobili combined to average 60.4 of the 94.1 points per game the Spurs scored in the postseason. Brent Barry is gone, and the Spurs will look to Roger Mason and Ime Udoka to fill the void.

3. Nuggets point guard. Trading away Marcus Camby wasn't a huge shock for Denver, because the payroll is a mess and, at some point, they simply have to cross their fingers and hope that Kenyon Martin and Nene can stay healthy. But the real surprise was that the Nuggets did not upgrade at the point guard spot. Anthony Carter did a decent enough job in the regular season, but by the playoffs, he was relegated to the bench as Allen Iverson started at point guard. To be fair, this was done because of matchup problems with the Lakers, but still, point guard was one opportunity for the Nuggets to get better. Anthony Johnson, Keyon Dooling and Chris Duhon were affordable options for the Nuggets out there.

4. Pacers center. In the end, Indiana will use a small lineup for a large chunk of time, with forward Troy Murphy moving over to center and Mike Dunleavy at power forward. This is partly because such a move suits coach Jim O'Brien's offense, but also because Indiana doesn't have much choice. Rasho Nesterovic is likely to be the starter, but it's hard to imagine him playing much more than 20 minutes per night. Jeff Foster is the other option, with, maybe, Josh McRoberts making a cameo or two.

5. Heat point guard. Is there really such a dearth of point guards in the NBA that Chris Quinn will open the season as a starter? Looks that way. He actually played pretty well as a starter last year, averaging 11.6 points and 4.9 assists in his 25 starts, most of which were made with a skeleton lineup and thus are hard to judge. Miami's other option is Marcus Banks, who is on his fourth team in five years. Draw whatever conclusion you like from that fact, as long as it isn't that Marcus Banks is so good, every team wants him. Quinn's main job will be to get the ball to Dwyane Wade, Michael Beasley and Shawn Marion, which he might be able to handle just fine. But it'd be nice to have a reliable veteran behind him, just in case.

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