And I got some hate for putting us 8th on here behind 4 Eastern teams. lol. Top 9 is still very, very good.
7th sounds about right since we or they still don't know what Dwight Howard we are getting and how everything will turn out
Under the theory that at some point age actually WILL catch up with them, I suppose. Although maybe Timmy has found the secret to eternal life, I wouldn't put it past him...
There definitely not 4 Eastern teams better than us. To be honest I think only the Heat are better than us out Least. You underestimate how bad the East is. The Pacers were #3 in the East last season and their record was 49-32. The Rockets were #8 in the West last season with a record of 45-37. Now factor in that every team in the Eastern conference had an easier schedule than we did because they get to play garbage teams 2x as much. The Rockets might actually have been 3rd seed if they were in the East last season. Not even joking. They would certainly have had more wins than 45, in any case. By contrast, if the Pacers had been in the West last season, they would have barely scraped into the playoffs. There is NO EARTHLY WAY they would be anywhere close to 3rd seed. They would have been somewhere in the 6-8 range at best, and might even have missed the playoffs with a little bad luck.
I wouldn't blame anyone for those rankings. The talent is far closer than people here are realizing from 1-10.
Not to mention, Howard put up almost twice the points Asik did... while recovering from a season ending injury! Howard over Asik is a huge improvement.
IIRC, they had the Lakers at #3 last year, because on paper they had the most talented players. Look how that experiment turned out.
You do realize the Pacers destroyed the Rockets last year. If it wasn't for injuries they more than likely would have surpassed the Knicks in the standings.
We haven't done anything yet. Howard is flashier than Asik but it's hard to tell how much he will actually upgrade the team. For a recent example of this, look what happened to the Rockets when Yao went down and they continued their winning streak due to the valiant play of Legendary Rockets Hero Tracy Mcgrady. With additional offensive load shifted to the T-Mac attack, the Rockets were not much worse with a 40 year old center than an all-star because Mutombo was getting it done on the boards and defense. Now we may see the reverse. Some load will shift away from Harden, but there's no guarantee that Howard will use the possessions better than Harden did. Asik was already getting it done on the boards and on defense. Greg Smith was also turning in some good performances. This insightful analysis was brought to you by JCDenton, everyone's favorite Clutchfans poster.