Besides the POR , suns may be the most desirable rival in the playoffs .I'm really satisfied with this ranking even though Hornets and lakers rank higher than us .Maybe we will lose the home advantage when facing the lakers and hornets though, at least we will be able to break up the first round that we have never done after dream's leaving . O'neal will be one year older , and same with nash .But the only question is that will the suns rank 6th in the upcoming season ,I really think they should be satisfied even if they just rank 8th then .However , veterans are always more energetic in the playoffs than in the regular season so it's may not be good to meet with them in the playoffs .But if the veteran rosters like shaq and nash retain some energy for the playoffs , then they will not be able to rank so high to match up with us .If they exgaust their energy in the regular season , then they will be demolished in the playoffs because the veterans are all totally tired. There are many differences between the spurs and the suns . You know the spurs are old but their bench is much thicker than the suns so that the spurs will have more rest time in season games than the old suns .The spurs rotation always contain 11 rosters while the suns is just 8 or 8n a half . (amare steve o'neal skinner bell barbosa diaw hill lopez( just the half because he is ignorable in the offensive end) . After the failure of landing O'neal and de'anthoney's leaving , the suns have avtually begun to rebuild but they are not willing to appear too bad to attract lbj or wade there ,their aim is to keep competitive for two years and rebuild with amare and wade/lbj (not to mention melo) However ,will they defeat rockets in the lbj/wade chasing battle then?I frankly suggest them rebuild right now instead of wasting another two years , and give their position to nuggets which will be easier to beat .
im only doin west cuz east is too complicated anything can happen with the East West 1.Rockets (possibly 64 games) 2.Lakers (around 59) 3.Hornets (54) 4.Jazz(may not have HCA 52) 5.Spurs(may have a tie record with NO but lower seed because of head to head)(53/54) 6.Dallas(35 j-kidd always better than 36 old shaq)(50) 7.Phoenix around 48 games) 8.Porland(47 games win head to head with Clipper) 9.Clipper (47)
We are gonna win 70 games this year............ Writers are hesitant to put us at the top, but we are one of the most dominant teams of all time on paper......
the ridiculous thing about this is the fannation poll. check out this link:http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/polling?event_id=3615&action=1&question27265=108333&question27266=108337&question27267=108339&question27268=108342&question27269=108346&question27270=108349&question27271=108352&question27272=108353&question27273=108356&question27274=108360&question27275=108362&question27276=108367&question27277=108368&question27278=108373&question27279=108374 apparently 47% of the people think we cannot win 53 games. People are idiots!
yeah ok, on paper... This is more realistic, poor warriors. The final four contenders will be the Lakers, Rockets, Boston and Cavaliers.
Honestly, did you see the Blazers winning 41 games last year? Don't get me wrong, they're a young and talented team but they were still many teams ahead of them. They lost Oden to injuries and their previous top scorer (Randolph) was traded in the offseason. Right, and the point you made about them losing the element of surprise is right. They lost that early last season when they had a winning streak in Decmber. That's at the begining of the season when many of the teams aren't yet in form. Once other teams starting taking them more serious, the Blazers fell down to earth and out of the playoffs.
I don't think anyone but hopeless Blazers homers thought they would go 41-41. But Roy turned out to be a game-changing player, LaMarcus Aldridge took a major step forward (and from reports looks likely to do so again this coming season) and Outlaw bloomed into a clutch player. The problem was Roy got injured and never got totally healthy and James Jones went down. It wasn't so much the element of surprise was gone as they became a weaker team because of injuries. Adding Oden, Bayless & Rudy Fernandez to their already young players who are a year older and I say they will win at least 50 games if Roy is healthy all year. The Blazers are NOT championship contenders. But they are a playoff lock if injuries don't chop them down. They will have a pretty rough start to the season but it's all uphill from there.
ESPN normally sucks My pick may better 1. Rockets or Lakers 2. Lakers or Rockets 3. Hornets 4. Jazz 5. Spurs 6. Suns 7. Mavericks 8. Blazers
meaningless prediction as it is, no one will precisely foresee the result untill the end of the season. the only value lies in the prediction might be that it will draw the eyeballs of ads to which team was highly ranked in the list.
Haha, very nice! If that's your way of thinking, why not disappear until the season starts? Or better yet, don't watch the regular season because the end result is all that matters? No one will foresee the result until the end of the season? You are genius.
lol that was unfinished I was trying to disagree with your 70 games plus Also by on paper, means jack. Just because you bring in a player (a) who scores 20 ppg doesn't mean that's gonna be 20 points added to the total of what we normally score. It really means less work for other stars on the team. If said player (b) makes 30 ppg when other player (a) is added to the team is most likely gonna add up that said player (b) will score less this year. Also I think 62 games is more believable (plus or minus 1). And guys don't forget the Clippers, they might surprise us....
Vote: NBA Western Conference Predictions http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/polling?event_id=3615 Currently: 3) The experts have predicted 53 wins for the Houston Rockets. This number is ... 46.6% Too high 32.1% On the money 21.4% Too low
Just got back from Vegas and the odds were 12-1...Of course I bet the Rox would win it all... I believe Mofos...
I believe we are the best team in the regular season.A healthy Rox will get more than 60 wins. Our real war field is the playoffs,we must go deep this time.
