Only 1 ESPN writer thinks the Rockets are a top-5 team next year.

Lol at the guy who picked Miami. These are the same people who had the Warriors and Rockets as 7/8 seeds last year. ESPN is straight trash, Kobe!

 

Speaking of the Spurs, Michael Wallace said in naming them the 2nd best team in the West: "Find a weakness. I dare you."

Ok, Mike. Here's a glaring one. They don't have a true center(a quality one anyway) on that roster. Duncan has started at PF his entire career. And West, Diaw, and Aldridge and PFs. Who's gonna guard Marc Gasol? Dwight Howard? Hell, even DeAndre Jordan?

Not saying that derails their title hopes, but this is so-called NBA analyst who thinks the Spurs have no weaknesses. And that's to say nothing of how old most of that core is.

 

Cavs
Spurs
Warriors
Clippers
??????

hey look, now I work for ESPN.

 

That's why I think MVP voting and other awards that the media votes on need to be handled by the players/coaches peers. MVP, ROY,DPOY, MIP and COY needs to be in the hands of the current players, coaches and front office personnel (HOF voting a little different but still feel the same) Of course my opinion.

Having the Rockets out of their top five doesn't really bother me because it's always like that. It's fine, just speaking in general. The Media is full of biased nonsense. Case in point....

Rockets sign Josh Smith and the media thinks its a joke and frown on the signing.
Clippers sign Josh Smith and it's a consensus win for them. Great pick up and should be a major move that helps them contend. (LA bias **** lol)
Rockets trade for Pablo and the media laughs. They say he is too old and don't understand what the Rockets were thinking
Clippers sign Pablo and it's a smart pick up....savvy veteran that will help with their pg depth.

WTF lolol It's media is general. They are just one big joke. Strip them

 

Petty, but this made me google-image "Bradford Doolittle" so I could see what a dufus looks like.

I was not disappointed. :|

 

another weakness is age. the dropoff comes quick like a waterfall. for each of duncan, ginobli, parker, and diaw that dropoff may or may not come right this season. odds are it will for at least 1 of them, maybe 2. as dumb as barkley may be, he is entirely accurate when he repeats that father time is undefeated

 

to be fair, he's said that about the spurs for how many years now? if he keeps repeating it long enough I guess he'll be right one day eventually

 

there's warriors and spurs.

then clippers,cavs,rockets.

 

people said the same about stockton and malone for years too. then stockton retired and boki blocked the **** outta mailman :grin:

 

I can't believe someone put the Heat. They should've been fired immediately. How embarrassing. I don't really care if they put the Rockets or not because there are a legit 5-7 teams that can be called top 5 teams in the NBA, but to put the effing Heat in the top 5 just pisses me off.

 

but but they got justise win-slow! :grin:

 

It is a matter of when. Actually, I would argue that the dropoff has already come for Manu. He looked bad during a lot of that Clippers series. And he just turned 38. Parker is also starting to noticeably decline. He was definitely not the same player last season. Duncan is the X-factor. He had a great season and playoffs. But if he takes a dip in production this year, it's really gonna hurt them defensively.

 

Uhh the Rockets played half the season without Howard last year. The Rockets played without 2 starters against the Clippers and still beat them. The Clippers added depth to the bench but the Rockets have DMO, Jones and Beverley coming back healthy AND added a top 10 point guard solving their largest positional need and team need (creator).

 

I said it a while back they will finish as a 5/7th seed. But if healthy they still have a chance to do something in the playoffs.

 

see even duncan, i think we say he had a great season relatively speaking for a player his age. but 14pts and 9rebs while resting on the bench 2/5 of the game every night -- they just might need more than that to eek out homecourt advantage in the brutal west..

 

The worse people think we are the better. You think Tim Duncan cares where some random dude ranks his team?

 

Ginobli and parker have already been exposed as pumpkins past their time. It's just Pop has been pretty masterful at getting everyone buy-in to the "team first and passing thing" plus rotating/experimenting with new players. This keeps them fresh to pull an Horry when the time and spotlight is right. Sometimes it's great, other times it means your ass is grass in the 1st round.

Other coaches can try to do the same thing, but they don't have the confidence or leash to pull it off, which is why you hear Adelman or Van Gundy always going all in with their starters when it comes to minutes...

 

True, there's no doubt the Rockets had a ton of injuries last year. But keep in mind that they wound up winning 56 games in spite of all of that. Their record without Dwight was almost as good as it was with him. So it's fair to ask how much better they'll be recordwise this season if everyone manages to stay healthy. Maybe they reach 60 wins, but I don't know how much higher their ceiling is(aside from being through the roof of course).

The biggest variable in all of this is Lawson. If he's as good(and sober) as we all hope, they could win way more than 56 games next season.

 

No, they just don't respect us.

 

i liken these guys' past season to perhaps hakeem's 1999-00 and 2000-01 seasons, when he was still able to take over some games or at least some quarters in games. but that waterfall really came in the next season for dream and then especially in toronto it was clear his body just couldn't do the same things anymore. that big dropoff may indeed come for a couple of these spurs now, and then that team's depth is simply not sufficient to compete against the western conf powerhouses night after night