Besides San Antonio, Dallas and Phoenix, which are close to unanimous choices, what 5 teams of the 7 listed below do you think will make the playoffs in the West? If you think the Kings, Clippers, Grizz, Sonics or T-Wolves will be in the playoffs, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn for sale, really cheap. Denver LA Lakers New Orleans Portland Golden State Utah Houston Comments welcome. Please make only 5 choices.
Lakers are contenders, they are better than the Suns now so all they need is a little more experience.
assuming everyones healthy for all their teams... LaLakers, New Orleans, Goldenstate, Utah, Denver Houston
oh hah thats 6 lulz well toss up between denver and houston depends how much houston gets together on their offense
Sorry guys. I messed up. Please select two choices to miss the playoffs from the poll thread and make comments over there. My bad. Mods, lock this up.
I look at that list and I'm scared. On paper, Portland and Lakers are not as good. But then again one has won 11 games in a row and the other has a freakin' 18-10 record. I still don't think Portland makes it. That leaves 9 teams. The last one out is either GS, Lakers or Rockets. btw, wtf is wrong with Utah? Coasting? They're 2-8 in their last 10.
if Houston is completely healthy in terms of talent we should make it. Unfortunately there is a major chance we miss it cause of injuries. With our slow start we are going to struggle to make it
i think rockets miss it, same with utah portland and lakers are playing with HUGE confidence and only injuries to star players(roy/kobe) will shut them down, which i don't see happening the rockets could make it but they would have to go to a run like the golden state warriors but what would be the point, they'll end up playing the suns and will get swept
DenVAR! Lakers will flame out in the second half. MAYBE a low seed. Nawlins will be there. They're better than last year; last year they were just N.O.K.(I got a ton of 'em) I called Port Land as my playoff sleeper to friends of mine after watching them against the Spurs in the season opener. They frequently play zone defense (which NBA players really struggle against) and have far more talent than they were initially credited for The City will go again. The Warriors are just too good. Ootah definitely has a good chance. They just need to pick it up And for Houston? We need a small miracle. But if it had to go down to 8... 1.) San Antonio 2.) Phoenix 3.) Oklahoma 4.) DenVAR 5.) New Orleans 6.) Golden State 7.) LA Lakers 8.) Harborville This is assuming all of the following: CP3 stays healthy. Baron Davis stays healthy, and Nellie doesn't just decide to quit. We all knew the Warriors weren't a true 9th seed last year, but the Blazers would be a great 8th seed this year. But I will say this: If T-Mac comes back with the same fire he had last season, Houston is 5th seed. Period. If he doesn't? It's LOTTO TEXAS TIME!
A_3PO, if you want to depress me, you succeeded. Just looking at the conference standings is killing me. Assuming through some miracle we squeeze into the top 8, I guess I have to pick two teams clearly playing better than we are, and figure the wheels will come off... Portland and Denver. Did I say this subject is depressing?
there are only 2 contenders right now, the celtics and spurs, all other teams can only hope to have a "big three" and defense as strong as them, but the blazers have a shot at the contenders circle in their bright future if oden returns on schedule next season. and the magic might have a shot also if they can play more consistently...
Lakers and Denver will falter in second half and my five are NO, Utah (too tough/disciplined of a team to not make the playoffs), Houston, portland, and GS. So i see it as SA PHX NO DAL POR HOU UTA GS although the last seed is pretty much up for grabs imo between LAL, GS, and DEN
I think the West outside of S.A. is pretty wide open, NFL wide open, before this year. Every team has a team that is sort of an achilles heel. Dallas (weak inside game, 2 straight post season collapses), Teams to avoid in the 1st round, Golden State and possibly Utah. Phoenix (weak inside game, porous-fleeting defense, weak rebounding), Teams to avoid in 1st Round, Golden State, Utah Jazz, and the Lakers Los Angeles (playing great right now, but still not quite on the level of upper tier teams), Teams to avoid in the 1st Round, the Spurs and the Mavs. Both teams are deep rosters are superior to LA's and they are more discipline on defense than Suns. Nuggets (erratic - to non-existent defense, inconsistency), Teams to avoid in the 1st Round, the Jazz and Rockets.....they seem to struggle against teams with good big men or outstanding defense, or both. Golden State (inconsistency, defense is sort of below average, tendacies to go small), Teams to avoid in the 1st Round, The Trailblazers, The Jazz, and The Lakers. The Rockets (inconsistent, new offense, injuries, weak offense presently), Teams to avoid in 1st Round, Suns and Warriors. The Hornets (Not quite as deep as some of other teams, 2nd and 3rd best players, probably aren't as good as some of the other teams), Teams to avoid in the first around, The Spurs, Mavs, Lakers, and even say the Rockets. When I say these are teams that should be avoided for certain, it just means that these teams have favorable match-ups against that team. It doesn't mean that they won't beat those teams, it's saying a eam that they could possibly struggle with more so than other teams.
When it's all said and done 1. the Suns 1a. The Spurs 3. The Mavs 4. The Nuggets 5. The Lakers 6. The Rockets 7. The Jazz 8. Trailblazers/Hornets/GSW fight it out for the last spot. Even though, we are 9th right now in the west, we're only one game out from the 8 spot and believe we can beat (have beaten) alot of the teams that are in front of us. I believe we struggled early, because of identity issues...it's become clearer now, who is going to help the team in the long run. Also, we had toughest schedule in the league to start the year, we are going to have a lot of easy games for the next two months while these others teams are going to start playing tougher teams.
