Assuming the T-Mac deal goes down and assuming, for now, that Shaq and Kobe kiss and make up in LA, there is no reason to think Houston won't be in the toughest division in all of basketball. East: Atlantic: Boston, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, Toronto Central: Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Indiana, Milwaukee Southeast: Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, Orlando, Washington The most competitive division will clearly be in the central, but Chicago will still be bad and Cleveland and Milwaukee still have a ways to go to be competitive out west. The Southeast will be a BRUTAL division. There might not be a +500 team winner in there. The Atlantic won't be much better. West: Southwest: Dallas, Houston, Memphis, New Orleans, San Antonio Northwest: Denver, Minnesota, Portland, Seattle, Utah Pacific: Golden State, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Sacramento The Pacific has two great teams (assuming Shaq and Kobe are back), one could-be-decent team (Phoenix) and two lottery teams. The Northwest will be a fun division with Denver, Minnesota and Portland, but Utah can't maintain its run and Seattle is going to be bad again. But, look at the Southwest. There is a chance, depending on how well New Orleans travels to the west, that we could have an entire division make the playoffs. Even more startling is that Dallas, Houston (with T-Mac) and San Antonio are ALL very solid playoff teams. Even if we aren't a legit contender next year, we will be soon and this whole division is going to be nuts. Frankly, we HAD to upgrade this way if we want to compete with just our division, nevermind our conference. And if Dallas gets Shaq...
... Though then again the Spurs never make good personnel moves outside of the draft. They usually just trade for Steve Kerr to make it seem like they have an active front office.
New Orleans doesn't have a chance. As they stand now they are a team that does not translate well to the West. Unfortunately for them, they are only going down. They are a poorly run franchise that has no direction right at the time they move into a super tough conference, much less division. They will be last in the div. this year and soon after will be a doormat team.
the divison will be tough - but thankfully the NBA has not adopted the silly MLB "unbalanced schedule" - we still get to play every east team twice and we won't have 8 games against Dallas (or some other nonsense)
It's all about TEXAS!!! they should have a Texas vs California matchup one time Nash McGrady Dirk Duncan Yao vs Bibby Kobe Peja Webber Shaq (if he stays)
Yeah it's gonna be a real tough divison that will be close all year, and it will be that much better when the Rockets win it.
does division winners = automatic playoff spot like it does this year? if so there should be no reason for francis not to go to orlando because they, by far have the weakest nba division. the heat are the only real contenders and I believe they may squeeze in the east again, but not the 4 seed and also for some reason i dont think they'll be as good next year unless they improve their road record. With a team of Francis/Mobley/Cato/Howard/Nelson/Garrity/Gooden there is no reason why the magic shouldnt think they wouldnt be able win the division. Add in the possibility of a healthy Grant Hill and then its even more so. Francis should realize his chance to get into the playoffs and advance year after year is just as good as it is in Orlando as it is in Houston. Also Johnny Davis hasnt shown me anything to a point where he would try to shape francis into a different type of player like JVG. Francis will be able to play his rucker style all he wants, like the Pre-Yao rockets which should make him a lot happier. I think going to Orlando will boost his stats big time and his career, and if what they say about Howard is true and he develops within 2-3 years they may have a contender in the east
True, the Magic won't have a hard time making the playoffs, but their chances of winning it all are soooooooo not even close to as good as the Rockets.
Yes. The 3 division winners will get the top 3 seeds. And then after the first round homecourt will be based on season record. So yes, if you are in a crappy division, you can win it and get the #3 seed! Big incentive to win!
SO once again . . . .. With the addition of TMAC we should expect at least a 10% improvement in Wins?? Rocket River
In the first season, in terms of regular season record, we should expect the same with the addition of T-Mac. The improvement in the team is offset by the need to rebuild chemistry from scratch again. However, with this being JVG's second season, we should expect improvement. Also, Yao improves steadily, so that should be some good help too. So overall, we should expect improvement. But we can't base the team's improvement on the T-Mac addition, there are other factors.
