/\ Also...OKC took a breather last year but they'll be back. Any team with Westbrook, Durant and Ibaka will be competitive.
I'll have to wait and see what we finsh up doing with josh smith or another point guard. Main thing is staying healthy and then I'm confident we CAN beat any team in the league in a 7 game series.
FOR me 1 GSW _champs 2 Spurs_ pop is a genious 3 Clippers_ they got better and last years choking won't happen this year with Paul Pierce 4 memphis_ that defence is not letting up and Marc is only going to get better 5 okc durant westbrook on a mission with something to prove scares me 6/7 neworleans and Houston. We haven't improved while others have. We're also still stuck with no backup/starting pg besides Bev, josh Smith has yet to sign. DMO might or might not be ok after back issues. It took Dwight a Full season or more to recover. I'm also no longer a Tjones Supporter. New orleans will be better with alvin gentry but they are still lacking help for AD. 8 lakers/kings/minnessota
We never saw what a Howard/dmo front court looks like playing together. If it's as good as I imagine we might be better than a lot of people here think. Its all about cultivating your in house talent and Houston has been one of the best at that in recent years, That's the optimistic approach. History says some team will suffer a major injury could be warriors could be San an maybe clips. All the rockets players are young outside of Howard, we should see better health this season I would hope. One thing that gets over looked is that harden is only 25 he will come back with something added to his game. Not to mention he can win 50 games by himself with dleague players. I think a healthy bev/dmo/Howard/jones all year adds atleast 5-8 more wins for us putting us at the 62+ Win range that should be good for 2nd seed. I know most don't think we're the 2nd best team in the west and maybe we aren't but I do think we can get 60+ wins with this team and that should be good enough for at worst the 2nd seed and were talking about playoff seeding not who's we think is the best team. Ps I think the clips slip their asking for a major help from an old pierce who wasn't good last year. It for 6 playoff games in the east I might add and lance Stevenson who is a terrible fit for them not to mention a head case and not a very good player at that. There like 6 deep on that team they still lack depth big time.
We can be anywhere from 1-5 .... And it's not even dependent on health . There are five powerhouses in the west right now: HOU, GS, MEM ,LAC , and SAS . The rockets could be the best of the group or the worst . Our variation is derived from the fact that we have the most young, unproven talent from that group . If players like NJ , KJ , Capela , DMo , Jones , Papa , Dekker , Harrell take steps forward our talent level goes up quite a bit . Now obviously not all will improve some will probably regress . Depending on who and how much will likely be the determining factors to our success this year . Assuming that Harden Howard Ariza and bev perform within expected range . Brew and smith are also wild cards game to game .
Here is my list. Obviously health plays a big factor - I could see a similar scenario to last year where the final standings went down to the last week with teams from the 2 to 6 seed all separated by the narrowest of margins. 1. GS - returning champs, didn't lose a key piece however I don't expect them to win 67 games again. 2. OKC - I put them here if everyone's healthy - might even be better than GS if Kanter stays. 3. Houston - we KNOW there will be some mid season acquisitions that will help their playoff chances - happens every year. The fact they did as well as they did last year with so many injuries I think means they may be a better regular season team than others give them credit for. 4. SA - I like the Aldridge pickup, still Timmy and Manu and an increasingly unreliable Tony Parker scare me. Kawai and Aldridge can't carry this team by themselves so it depends on whats left that the vets can give. 5. Clippers - others would rank them higher but I actually think there is a **** storm brewing in LA. They put themselves in a bad position roster/cap wise and made some moves that seemed desperate(including the last minute attempt to keep Jordan). This team already has huge question marks around whether they like playing together and they just promised DJ the moon and then added a potential agitator in the mix in Lance. I predict this team turns toxic at some point - especially if an injury causes them to sink in the standings(any lost time for Chris Paul will have a huge effect on LA's record) 6. I actually think healthy Memphis is better than healthy Clippers, but the Clippers game is built for regular season wins more so than Memphis' 7. New Orleans - Rest of the roster is really only mediocre but AD is possibly the most versatile basketball player on the planet. 8. Utah or Phoenix - I would say probably Utah gets the nod but injuries could play a huge role on which team sticks it out.
Why is everyone rating OKC so high? I have them and pelicans fighting for 6-7 position. 1 - GSW 2/3/4/5 - Rox/spurs/clips/griz 6/7 - thunders/pelicans 8 - kings
Because when all 3 guys are healthy, they have been a top team. I'm guessing the people who rate OKC higher(myself included) are skeptical that they will be decimated by injuries again. Also, don't you remember Rus turning in video game stats for a solid month at the end of last year? Assuming they keep Kanter, he makes them better because he is solid - something they never had at center when Durant/Westbrook/Ibaka were running through teams a year ago.
5th is fair. Remember that we were a breath away from being 6th last year. Spurs and Clippers had practically the same record and objectively have improved more than Houston. I actually don't buy the Thunder as much of a contender at all - too thin - but they'll still get 55 wins and a 3 seed or so. When you have two top-5 players winning the division just kind of happens whether you have a strong team around them or not.
Top 2, that's where we finished right? Haven't lost anyone, added 2 promising rookies, and 2 starters....
I completely agree. I think Grizzlies (who one can argue is just as good as we are on paper), Jazz and Pelicans likely round off the playoff teams. There would seem to be quite a drop-off after that.
1- GSW 2- Hou 3- OKCSAS 4- SAS 5- LAC 6- Mem 7- NOP 8- Sac All depends on three huge IFs, Dwight's knee, Durant's foot, and Duncan's carcass.
Ya, that's what I was saying - we were the 6 seed going into the last game of the season. You could argue that 2 seeding played a pretty big part in our success in the playoffs. I think given how tightly packed the west is, it's better to talk about it in terms of groups. Top contenders (health obviously the great wildcard) GS, OK Next contenders - 3-6 seed in some order. Any of these teams could knock out GS/OKC in a playoff series but I think GS and OKC generally will have more regular season wins. Houston, SA, Clippers Memphis the first round losers - 7-8 seed New Orleans, Utah or Phoenix Match up and health will play a huge part as we saw this past season with GS's run against an injured Western Conference.
