Elite teams in the Southwest??

err....New Orleans is not an Elite team anymore... Suns and maybe Jazz is...

 

ANd what about Lakers and Queens?

They are still good teams...

 

He listed all the teams in our new division, Sadcat. Neither the Lakers nor the Kings are in our division.

 

our division is going to be ranked IMO:
San Antonio
Houston
Dallas
Memphis
New Orleans

 

oops.. he didn't say Division, so i miss-read it..
sorry

 

What's so great about the Suns. This basicly the same team that had a losing record last year except you replace Starbury with Nash. They still have nobody in the middle and no one on the team has any defensive talent what so ever.

 

no, suns is going to be great next season.
unless Amare Stoudemire start doing drugs..

 

Do division races even matter? I can't remember - are the two division winners guaranteed number 1 and 2 seeds? Anyways, I can't see the Rox beating SA for the division title.

 

The division winners are ranked #1-3 automatically, regardless of record. It's just like the old format, except now there are 3 divisions instead of 2. Division winners matter!

 

hmmm.. Elite team in the Southwest is a lil too small since there is only a few teams.

However, if we look at the West.

I think this is how we will be ranked next season.

1. San Antonio - Haven't made that many changes which I think is good for their chemistry.
2. Minnesota - SamIam had an awesome season I dont think he can duplicate that. I still think they are an elite team but they wont come out on top.. (standings)
3. Kings - I think they are actually better with Brad Miller starting at center than Vlade. Cwebber finshed the season strong, and Peja is becoming a top ten player. People are stupid if they think this team is weaker. (maybe not as deep but still very solid)
4. Houston - Adding Tmac and a few more pieces (good fits) will catapult us to the top. (ok maybe im a lil biased) but so far have made some solid moves..
5. Dallas - team has just too much talent not to be in the top five.. but losing Nash is going to be killer for them. SNash was the leader and helped keep all those ego's together. But I think they have too many SF/SG types...
6. Grizzlies - Havent made any big changes and unless they do they will be stuck around this spot for a long time. Very deep and talented team but losing Hubie will hurt them.
7. Phoenix - Made some nice moves and I see them back in the playoffs. SNash will help keep all the egos in check but I dont see them advancing with such a small team.
8. Utah - I cant believe Utah's rebuilding period was so short but sometimes the right pieces just happen to be available when you need them. This seems to be the case now.. when they couldnt overpay for a FA last year they pulled in 2 good ones this year.

J

 

The only way the Suns can be a good team next year is if Kobe signs with the Clippers and Q Rich falls in the Suns lap ... that is what they are waiting for.

 

1 - It's the first day of offseason movement. It's fair to say that it's way too early to be ranking teams. Dallas is almost certainly not done.

Division races will be huge starting this year. Say our division produces the top two records in the conference (like Spurs/Wolves last year). Because the top 3 seeds are division winners, you could have the 2nd best record in the conference (or league) and find yourself as the 4th seed. It could produce a 2nd round match up of the two favorites to win the title!

Say it ends:
SAS 60-22
HOU 58-24
UTA 53-29
DAL 52-30
MEM 51-31
NO 40-42

and Minnesota wins the Northwest, and the Lakers win the Pacific. We would have 50-game winners w/o homecourt advantage! How ferocious is that going to be? April will matter.

Evan

 

Lakers will win with who? The Kobe Show? ummm.. I dont think so. It looks like this Lakers team with or without Kobe will be bottom dwellers and Kobe will find out how hard it is too win alone.

J

 

I think it will be very close between #1-4 in the SW division. I love T-Mac & Yao, but we still need to prove that we can win as a team, especially after a radical summer makeover. At this point, I'd have to rank:
1) San Antonio - They always seem to win without getting much attention. TP & manu should continue to improve & BB is a nice pick-up.
2) Dallas - Even though they lost a siginificant piece in Nash, Daniels looks like he's ready to step up. Stackhouse & jamison are a wash. They still have the same offensive firepower and lack of D that should get them plenty of wins in the regular season but an early playoff exit.
3) Memphis - They kicked our butts last year in the standings, and there;'s no reason to believe they won't be better this year. Deepest team in the league will continue to cause fits for us & others.
4) Houston - It's gonna take a while for everyone to mesh together, and that probably means some frustrating early-season woes. T-Mac + Yao are definetely the future, but I think we're a year away from contending.
5) New Orleans - Welcome to the Wild, Wild West boys. You are about to see your run of playoff appearances come to an end.

 

The thing that is so funny is that I am listening to sports radio in LA and many of them(including the broadcasters) are saying that the Lakers are going to be fine and that they should still get AT LEAST the 3 seed in the West since Odom will be as good as Pippen and Kobe as good as Jordan.

Man they must have plastic brains there too.

 

you cant discount the lakers....kobe and odom and not to mention RUDY T...gets you into the playoffs. If kobe goes to jail then things change.

 

I've actually come across some threads on another board where Laker fans say L.A. is better off WITHOUT Shaquille O'Neal.