Trying to keep my hopes in check. Every team's media day sounds optimistic. Everything I've heard has been exciting but the roster IMO would have to overachieve with effort and chemistry to be as succesful as 50 wins. Clint sounds like he's matured. He looks like he's in better shape. He is going into his 3rd year coming from a weak European league. I'm excited about that. When Harden said this about defense, it was a great sign IMO: "Guys like me still need to be taught." Hearing coach so confident about bringing D-Mo back was great too, but D-Mo has not been good enough to bypass a training camp and quickly catch on. I don't have a lot of confidence in that happening. He needs to develop chemistry and learn with the team and then he has a SHOT at making an impact. He needs training camp, I hope this gets sorted out soon. Beverley losing weight is great too. There is no need for him to be bulky, you can't be that physical with guards anymore. Quickness is more important, and reducing the wear on his hamstring and meniscus as well.
I'm getting a much better vibe than I had at the same point last year. Harden's comments about the new coaching staff, compared to last season, jumped out at me. We all saw how disjointed the team's play was, particularly on defense, the excessive minutes Harden and Ariza were playing, the lack of shooting from distance that was supposed to be a key part of our offense (yeah, that is on you, Daryl), not having enough depth. With some luck with the "i" word, a lot of that has been addressed by Mr. Morey, certainly on the offensive end. I think we'll see Trevor having a much better year, a lot of it due to playing fewer minutes, in my opinion. Same with James and his defense. He has a legitimate backup in Gordon, if the guy can stay healthy, so I'm hoping that he can cut down on his minutes, which led the league (I think). The development of young players like Capela will also be key. It all sounds good. Now show us how good you really are. Yeah, I'm starting to get excited. It's that time of the year, at least for me.
Thanks again Clutch. Appreciate all the time and effort that went into this. Made it a great Friday for me.
Mike has always run his players into the ground, so I am not confident in them playing less minutes. I remember during his suns tenure, he essentially had a 7 man line up with his 8th man playing 10 minutes or less.
I'm ready for the new season to start already. I'm already re-upped for the League Pass and ordered some Rox gear. Looking up tickets when they visit DC in Nov.
Those were very young teams. I don't think they were run into the ground. Here's the starters for their first WCF in '05 Nash -- 30 yrs Marion -- 26 yrs Quinten Richardson - 24yrs Joe Johnson -- 23 yrs A'mare -- 22 yrs -------sixth man------- Barbosa -- 22 yrs The following year (another WCF appearance) they added 23yr old Boris Diaw and 29 yr old Raja Bell Young teams like that often play many minutes with short rotations. Not so sure that's a coach thing. Bulls did the same thing in their pre-titles, yet two ECF years, and Shaq/Penny teams did it too.