Western Conference Player Awards: Most Valuable Player: Kobe Bryant, LAL Most Improved Player: Andrei Kirilenko, UTA Most Dissapointing Player: Scottie Pippen, POR Coach of the Year: Rudy Tomjanovich, HOU Defensive Player of the Year: Tim Duncan, SAS Comeback Player of the Year: Maurice Taylor, HOU Rookie of the Year: Emanuel Ginobili, SAS Best Foreign-Born Player of the Year: Dirk Nowitzki, DAL Best Interview of the Year: Shaquille O'Neal, LAL Sportsman of the Year: Avery Johnson, DAL All-Western Conference Teams: First Team: C----Shaquille O'Neal, LAL PF--Tim Duncan, SAS SF--Dirk Nowitzki, DAL SG--Kobe Bryant, LAL PG--Steve Francis, HOU Second Team: C----David Robinson, SAS PF--Chris Webber, SAC SF--Kevin Garnett, MIN SG--Michael Finley, DAL PG--Gary Payton, SEA Third Team: C----Vlade Divac, SAC PF--Karl Malone, UTA SF--Shawn Marion, PHO SG--Cuttino Mobley, HOU PG--Andre Miller, LAC Final Standings Predictions: 01) Sacramento Kings (62-20, .756, +1) Incredibly deep and talented and great chemistry, they're like family. Picked up Keon Clark this offseason. Bibby's out until December but they started 19-9 last year without Webber so they can handle it. 02) San Antonio Spurs (57-25, .695, -1) Have 1 of the best frontcourts in the league and the reigning MVP in Tim Duncan. Resigned Malik Rose. Improved their depth by importing Emanuel Ginobili, signing Kevin Willis, and trading for Mengke Bateer. 03) Los Angeles Lakers (56-26, .683, -2) Shaq will miss November but Kobe looks scarier than ever after adding 15lbs. Traded for Kareem Rush and Tracy Murray and Kobe persuaded everyone to get into peak physical condition. Let the mind games begin. 04) Dallas Mavericks (55-27, 671, -2) Mark Cuban had big hopes this offseason but didn't get Rashard Lewis or Micheal Redd. Instead he signed Popeye Jones and Walt Williams. Nevertheless, they'll still have more than enough firepower. 05) Portland Trailblazers (50-32, .610, +0) Signed McInnis, traded for Daniels, and Stoudamire quickly proclaimed, "start me or trade me." Sabas ended his sabbatical and is back dodging Sheed's towels. Could be great, more likely to implode. 06) Houston Rockets (47-35, .573, +19) Forget last season, this team won 45 games in 2000-2001 and has improved through the draft and the young core has gained expereince. Plus the ISOs are gone for a variation of the Nets' "5-man offense." 07) Minnesota Timberwolves (44-38, .537, -6) Replaced the injured Brandon and long-gone Billups with Rod Strickland and Hudson. No 1st round pick again and Joe Smith is injured. Lopez is out for the year. KG is getting a huge extension, Wally didn't. 08) Utah Jazz (42-40, .512, -2) Replaced Marshall and Russell with Harpring and Cheaney. Lucked out when the Nuggets kindly bought out Mark Jackson (thus getting the best deal in the draft day Knicks/ Nuggets trade. 09) Seattle SuperSonics (40-42, .488, -5) Payton's mad because he didn't get an extension. Anderson's mad because he's Payton's backup. The frontcourt is terrible. James is fat again and Lewis reaggravated his shoulder. Barry will not repeat last year. 10) Los Angeles Clippers (38-44, .463, -1) With 4 of their 5 starters in contract years and Odom out for a while and several other players with injuries, things might be over in Clipperland before they even began. Trading for Andre Miller was great though. 11) Memphis Grizzlies (31-51, .378, +8) Jerry West is beginning to make this team his. He's already created a winning attitude and added some good players like Drew Gooden and Gordon Giricek. Plus Wright and Dickerson are back from injuries. 12) Phoenix Suns (28-54, .341, -8) They're rebuilding and it'll take awhile. Marion, Johnson, and Stoudemire are the only assets they have. Googs, Penny, and Bo are huge cap hits. Marbury's a gimp now but never could lead a team anyway. 13) Golden State Warriors (25-57, .305, +4) Have had 2 good consecutive drafts but the team has major flaws. Can't play defense or shoot the ball, which isn't good. Weak in the frontcourt. Don't have a team leader at PG. Jamison's extension kicks in now. 14) Denver Nuggets (12-70, .146, -15) Acquiring Whitney for McCloud was something they really needed. Otherwise they would of had Satterfield and Harrington at PG. Their rookies aren't ready and Camby's out until January. Howard will put up 20/10.
Those rankings are pretty good. I think that we can be in the top 5. I think that we are better then Portland.
Ha Ha better than Portland, your joking right?? I think Portland should be higher than that, 4th at the least but we'll all see this year, the team will come together behind Wallace and Wells and Pip. Worst case scenario they'll still finish better than the Rockets.
They are a bunch of thugs that are not capable of playing as a team. Higher then 4th in the West? Hell no.
Higher than fourth isn't realy saying that much, they are a better team than Dallas, Dallas has no defense. They are going to get out to a great start because they play the Lakers twice early, and they will probably win both of those games because of a certain big toe. I really don't think San Antonio is that good at all, Portland should have no trouble over taking them, I think Cheeks is a great coach and a good fit for the team.
He actually spend quite a bit of time at SF (depending on matchups). Also Nellie has said all summer that he wants to go with a bigger lineup this year. With the improvement Bradley, and Eschmeyer have been showing in the preseason Nellie has said that he wants a lineup of C - Bradley PF - Raef SF - Dirk SG - Finley PG - Nash Dirk lost 10-15 pounds over the summer, and is in better shape than he was last year so he should be quick enough to hang withe SF's in the West.
