I think we will be better than the Hornets next season, assuming we are healthy. They have the best PG in the league and a very good PF but beyond that, we are the deeper and better team. We've got our Stojakovic now in Barry and own them when it comes to SG, SF, C and backup PF. The Lakers are a different story. My biggest concern is their frontcourt and how we will matchup with it. They may have up to six 6'10+ players, four of them being 7-footers. It will be important for our undersized PF crew to step up and play big against them.
I like being under the radar. Whenever we get to many props from people it ends up biting us in the butt. I just wana stay low & win BIG!
ESPN is who we think they are, wanting to give attention to anybody but us. It took us to win 15 games to give us attention, while it takes the Lakers, Cavs a 3 game win streak to be the headline We wouldve gotten more attention with the Artest trade if the network stop giving constant updates when Brett Farve was taking a dump Its nice to see some national attention but wins and rings will speak for themselves I also wonder why the Hornets are getting some love, they finally had 1 good consistant season and the media is all over their nuts about it
I could care less where they pick us to finish. Weren't the Bulls a favorite to come out the East last year
I like the Hornets but the problem with that team is that Peja is one of their main guys. I wouldn't trust him in the post-season.
It's pretty much dependent on how many games we win this year. If we have the best record and Yao & T-Mac stay relatively healthy, it's virtually a given that one or both of them will finish top 5 in the voting. They say these types of awards go to the best player on the best team...We'll see! However, I'd much rather have a championship and no awards, we don't wanna sweep all the awards (Morey for Executive, Ron for 6th man or DPY, Adelman COY, Yao/T-Mac MVP) and lose when it counts ala Phoenix a few years back.
The ESPN experts just baffle me time and time again. 53 games? That's simply not the potential of this team. They think that a 55 win team will win the West? Yeah, right. I predict that the top two teams (Lakers and Rockets) will win 63+ games each. 55? pfft. Not the visual I wanted to have. Why does it have to be their butt cheeks? Damn man!
Damn. 63 wins? You do realise there is only 82 games in the regular season right? So 63-19. Can't see it happening, although it's good to see your optimism. I think 60 is the max. Anything over 55 I'm happy with and will get us a good seed.
so we win 55 games last year - including a 22-game win streak, with yao out for almost 1/2 the season, add artest and barry (and dorsey), lose practically nobody of any importance, and people expect us to win less games than we won last year? yeah, okay.
Yeah dude, I think that we can be quite dominant. It all depends on health. 55 to me would be an underachievement, though if they make it all the way to the championship I could care less how many times they win in the regular season.
I like how we match up with the Hornets. You just kind of have to accept Chris Paul gets his so there's really no stopping that but Peja is guardable and somebody like Artest is physical enough to body up David West to force him out of the paint. Granted, West's mid-range game is his bread-and-butter but i'll take my chances with Battier buried in Peja's grill, Artest bodying up West and Yao owning Chandler inside. Posey on T-Mac? All of our match up advantages offset what we lose with Paul vs. whoever at the point. When healthy....we're better.
The problem with the Hornets is that they have absolutely no depth. If any one of Paul Chandler or West goes down for half the season they become the team they were two years ago, which is the one that missed the playoffs entirely. If any of them is out for even one month, that to me knocks them out of the top four in the West. This year the Rockets are built to thrive in the regular season. We are so deep, no single injury (or two injuries) will stop us from getting a top-2 seed. Plus, Adelman has a nasty regular season track record. We will win 60+. Hopefully that translates to playoff success as well.
Rumor has it in the mid 90's a team came from the 6th seed when no one gave them a chance, to win it all in a blaze of glory.
