Rockets #5 on top western teams... http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&id=1845274
I know this is off the topic of the thread but I saw it in the article. That Jasikevicius kid sounds pretty good. Good shooting, good dribbling. Stein, which I know alot of people on the board dis-credit, even said he is batter than any backup PG in the league. Said he is a better dribbler than when Parker came into the league.
this is key: "If the Clippers do match (the offer to Q. rich), Phoenix can present a contract to Dampier that starts above the $4.9 million mid-level exception. At present, unless New York can find a third team to get involved in a sign-and-trade with Golden State, Dampier can't get more than the mid-level from any team besides Atlanta." we would make something work with the TE. maybe we can pull nazr or deke from ny to make a 3-way with GS work out.
forgot to add this to my last post: "Unless Cleveland has plans to occasionally play McInnis and Snow together in a smallish backcourt, with LeBron at small forward, another trade is a strong possibility. " looks like we have a lot of options and will wait to see which will be the best one.
Love this from the article: Bonus explanation: The Spurs addressed a major need by swapping Hedo Turkoglu for the dead-eye shooting of Brent Barry. The Wolves and Kings still hold our esteem because logic says they'll be healthier next season than they were last season, although Sacramento will certainly miss the locker-room presence of Vlade Divac. I loved Denver's offseason because the acquisition of Kenyon Martin and re-signing of Marcus Camby means Kiki Vandeweghe has flanked Carmelo Anthony with great defenders. I like what Houston did as well because Tracy McGrady will be as motivated as Shaq in Miami to mesh with Yao Ming and hush his detractors … and because Juwan Howard is due for a bounce-back season as the Rockets' third-best player. I see five teams challenging for the last three spots: Phoenix, Utah, Memphis and the two teams that have tumbled from the elite, Dallas and those wacky Lakers. Portland and New Orleans should also float on the fringes of playoff contention. -------------------------------------------------- Nice. I like to see Juwan break out of this funk he has being w/ loser teams. Just need that damn PG and backup C!!
Exactly. This team is strong right now, shore up the PG and back-up center spot and this team will be a power in the West, at least on paper.
He has Denver at #4 - too high imo. Denver is probably my 2nd favorite team, but to expect them to jump that much puts too much pressure on them, if you ask me. Are they not essentially the same team PLUS Kenyon Martin? Does K-Mart make that big of a difference, especially in a much more balanced conference?
Juwans been pretty consistent, I havent really seen him in a funk. Maybe its just because he hasnt lived up to his contract expectations
Also, found this tid-bit interesting: The league released its scheduled last summer on July 25, but it sounds as though you're going to have to wait a little longer for it this summer. Word is all the player movement this month (read: Shaq switching teams) is causing several dates and marquee matchups to be shuffled. I knew the league planned around marquee match-ups somewhat (ala Christmas Day games), but not to the extent he's making it sound like. Kind of sucks if your schedule is potentially harder than someone else's because of marquee match-ups on other teams or your team.