Who do we need to look out for this season? Who will surprise us? I think the Kings Songaila could be really good. I watched at Eurobasket and he played very well. What/who do you think?
Kings' primary "bigs" = Webber, Vlade & Brad Miller. After that, it falls off sharply with Funderburke and Massenberg. IMO, the minutes should be available for Songaila to prove his worth. IMO, Jiri Welsh may be able surprise at Dallas and Austin Croshere will reemerge now that Bird and Carlisle are back at Indy.
There's a bit of hype emerging around creampuff extrodinaire, Mike Dunleavy Jr. Apparently he's ready to show some stuff. And considering he didn't have any last season, any stuff would be an improvement.
Fortson and Jamison, Jamison because he is on a team that fits his style more, and Fortson because he the big banger Dallas needs thus he's going to get more minutes. I also say watch out for Eddie Griffin. He has a disciplined coach that is going to stay on him and I think he's going to have a solid year this year, especially after having a few years of experience.
Eddy curry will really breakout, will probably score more than Yao, but still have no where near the overall game.
Kirilenko. He has all the talent in the world, but Sloan has been bringing him up slowly. Harpring's numbers will decline considerably with Flopton gone, and Andre's minutes should go way up. Another Andre, Andre Miller, should be able to bounce back from that nightmare with the clips.
The Nuggets frontcourt, namely Skita and Nene. They're both only 2nd year players, coming off of above average rookie campaigns. Nene's a defensive beast with his long wingspan (I heard it was longer than Yao's! ): he gets blocks AND steals, and should have a more polished inside game this year. Skita has bulked up and has the inside/outside threat that Dirk brings to the table. They should be pretty formidable this year (if you care to add in anything, Nuggets4, I'd be glad to hear it. Nene was one of my favorite rookies last year.) I like the mention of AK-47, but being mired in Utah behind Harpring will probably hamper his development a little bit. If he was really being touted as a "franchise player" (which I doubt), they would find a way for him to have the ball in the waning minutes of a close game (which there won't be much of this year for the Jazz.) For the rookies, I think Reece Gaines will surprise a lot of people. Though there are tons of more "name-brand" rookies who are touted to be better, Gaines on this Magic team with T-Mac and Howard and Gooden should be a good one to watch out for. Possibly the top sleeper of the draft, IMHO.
Darius Miles...yes I know, he hasnt improved much the past three season, but he has a new coach in Silas and LeBron James to make him better. I hear that he's improved his mid-range game considerably. He'll average around 16ppg,7rpg,1.5bpg.
Zach Randolph! He is going to be a starter for the Blazers, and I think he will BLOW up! He is instant offense, and ok.... on the defensive end. He will turn out to be a great scorer for the Blazers. Look out for Randolph!
I actually wasn't going to say anything because I don't want to be the constant Nugs homer, but if you insist............ Skita has me seriously pumped. I still don't think this will be his season. We're gonna see flashes, but in 2004-05 is when he busts out. He's added 23 pounds of muscle and has worked on his back to the basket game. Plus, with our lack of frontcourt depth (for crying out loud, we're relying on Marcus Camby!), he's gonna get PT to make his mistakes. Nene's gonna do well, but losing Howard has me a little worried. Juwan was a GREAT influence on Nene last season, taking him under his wing. Watch Drew Gooden this year, he's gonna have a good season with Juwan showing him what to do. It wouldn't surprise me to see Juwan become a coach after he's done if he wants to. That said, I think you can expect steady improvement from Nene this year, but not quite the "bust out" season some are predicting. One thing is for sure, with Melo there to take the scoring presence off of them, and Miller there (dude's so good at setting his teammates up, he's good for a 2 ppg increase for each player on the team AT LEAST), they will show improvement. This year's gonna be a fun one for basketball overall though. I get 95% of the Nugs games this year, and I'm still gonna get league pass. The LeBron fest in every city, Kobe's legal problems, etc.. Should be fun to watch.
Tayshaun Prince should be interesting to see what he can do this season. He played really well in the playoffs, the talent is thre. Turkoglu-Always thought he was a really talented player that couldnt get off the bench. Now with the spurs, he should be a nice complament to Tim Duncan Gilbert Arenas- Ya he did have his breakout last season but now hes the man on his team. He should put up some nice numbers LeBron James- Ya thats pretty obvious. But expect him to shatter whatever you have predicted for him this season. Expect 20 points per game when its all said and done
