It's going to be tough, folks. GSW seems to have righted the ship and not miss Draymond one bit. Podziemski is contributing. I thought he'd be the steal of the draft, and unfortunately went one spot before us. Now instead of a contributor we ended up with a G-league player. Ja is back for Mem and there is plenty of time for them to make-up ground. POR is not a hopeless tank team, they may make noise in the play-in race. Simons is balling, J.Grant and Brogdon are quality veterans, even Ayton seems to care a little bit. Proven D-specialist in Thybulle. Sharpe is supposedly really good, I am yet to see it, but if that's true, that's a complete team there. Utah, I am not sold on, they seem to be overachieving at the moment a little bit. But they overachieved last year, too. Nothing says they can't continue overachieving. San Antonio seems to be the only bone fide tanker this year in the West. I am not sure where we can get a boost from. Pretty much doubt CAMEN are ready to be contributors. Not sure benching Jalen Green is getting us a lift. Last couple of years he was clearly the cancer with the way he carried himself, and we did end up playing decent ball when he was injured. But this year he's putting-up more effort; he may not be contributing but I don't see him being out as an "addition by subtraction" thing. We have been relatively lucky on the injury front. I am worried that Jeff Green will run out of steam at some point, given his advanced age. We are running our best player to the ground, playing the most minutes in the entire NBA. Bottomline is the play-in looks dicey. If we are serious about it the team needs to step up and be more consistent. Specifically Smith Jr. and Sengun need to be balling night-in/night-out. That seems to be the most realistic resource that we can tap for getting the Ws.
I was just reviewing the standings and thought the same. But we also haven’t seen practically anything (outside maybe 3-4 games) of Jalen Green, Amen hasnt contributed, and we are still under a brand new coach and system. So theoretically, we should only get better. It will be tough. Memphis has a deep hole to climb from and NO can’t stay healthy.
I don't think we're going to make the playins with how we keep losing on the road. All these moral victories will cost us in the end because the West is so stacked and close in standings. We don't get to play the Pistons and Wizards 4x a year. Even the Spurs aren't a guaranteed victory if we don't show up.
Humor, Sarcasm meter broken? They all suck because the league got better or everyone got worse....your choice. The West never had a problem with parity.....it was mostly the East and star players going West....but I can see a reverse trend happening as well with the Dame trade. In a 82 game schedule everyone loses due to fatigue, injuries, bad stretches....etc. In come the INST, the removal of Load management, the B2Bs, the 2nd Apron of disabling signing great role players ....of course there is going to be a sense of 'Parity' but it is not real parity, just occurrences. It also helps that Denver is not a dominating RS team, they were always around 53-54 Wins mostly every season because they do not win enough on the Road........
Spot on post! Only way we make the playoffs is to use our future draft compensation to improve the existing talent on this squad. We have an average team with an above average coach, but unfortunately, as you pointed out, most teams in the West have exceptional talent and that is the uphill battle we are in. Not worried about Portland, Utah, Spurs, or Grizzlies….rest of the West has more talent so we need to make a move.
The Spurs, Jazz, and Blazers are no real threats. I think the Grizzlies will have a really hard time catching up. So, we need one (or several) of the Suns, Pelicans, and Warriors to crash hard. The Lakers could also drop hard if hit by injures. It’s just too early to make any conclusions either way.
This team is resilient enough to fight till the end so i expect them to make the play-in. Portland is not finishing above us that's impossible imo i watched them they are a young team. Scoot is struggling, Ayton looks trash. Anfernee alone can't make them a play-in team. Utah looks bang average and they are supposedly trading Markkanen. Don't expect them to get better. We will be fine.
Whether we make the play-ins or not, if we actually finish the season near .500, we would've surpassed most of our expectations coming into this year. If we get Jalen actually scoring well, Amen and Cam contributing, Alpi being our star and Jabari growing by leaps and bounds...I'd consider this season a roaring success
As said I view it more as a content thing than hardcore standings, results and records. If only one of the youngs is developed I would say it was an average season.... If two or more are developed - good season. If none have improved greatly.....then it is a failure for me.....
I’m afraid that we cannot sustain staying above both Phoenix (not mentioned in OP) and GSW with their superstars and Championship/Finals experience. Utah, Memphis , and Portland will not be in the picture. But Houston will be just on the outside looking in with a near .500 record-a huge improvement but not quite enough. you can’t spell Time without Ime
Y’all underestimating Portland, IMO. They had some injuries, but seem to be jellin’ now. Simons, Brogdon, J.Grant are legit. Ayton is talented, no question about it, the thing with him is mentals; if he cares he’s an asset. Thybull is a legit D-specialist. Sharpe is the wild card, if he is what people say he is, watch out. (Scoot is trash as predicted, like all the other Ignite products, I am not counting him at all.)
Yeah, I only listed teams that are below the cut as of now. What I’m saying is that other than San Anton and maybe Utah, the others will be rising… OTOH, some of the teams above may crash, that’s always a possibility, I guess…
I like the well thought out analysis. I wouldn't call Green a cancer. Just underperformed. KPJ was a cancer as he's just a bad person. Green just might not be good
Ayton is similar to Jalen to me as he's just a gifted athlete. In terms of actual skill I don't see much.
