50 wins and no.8 berth in the West. My optimism forces me to think,maybe without our cornerstone,we still can manage 50 wins with our efforts.Oops,remember,Tracy will be back in action in the 2nd half of the season.
So wait a minute, a team in the West can have a way better record then a team in the East, still not making the Playoffs and have a chance to get a better pick then the team with a worse record??? Stupid imo, 15 worse team should be gunning it.
Assuming T-Mac comes back strong in middle of the season we can probably expect another 20+ wins in a row.... Maybe....
The team that played the Lakers in those last 4 games could make the playoffs. Ariza>Artest? Maybe. Theyre not a lottery team. People are overreacting.
49-33, 8th seed...we advance to the playoffs by winning on the final day of the regular season, knocking out the Utah Jazz for the 8th and final spot and our reward? A rematch with the defending champion LA Lakers.. __________________ "Cage matches? Yeah, they work...how could they not work. If they didn't work, everybody would still be in the cage."
As presently configured, somewhere in the 30's, in other words, below .500. And I am dead on. No way a team of role players wins 50 games. Most teams in the West have improved their personnel. Even the East looks better. The Rockets will be much worse, UNLESS, Ariza becomes an All Star, Brooks averages 25 pt. per game on 45% shooting, and Anderson becomes the second coming of Paul Gasol. I don't expect any of those things to happen.
watch teh last 4 games v. the lakers and you see the new trend of the team: brooks is going to be the offensive leader along with scola next year. you add ariza to that, and potentially tracy.
What I saw was Lakers adjusted their play vs Rockets without Yao, and Rockets got blown out in games 5 and 7. The great energy the Rockets played with in game 4 and 6 cannot last long, even long enough in a whole game, not saying a 82 game seaon. With Yao out and the lack of size in the post, all the other teams will know how to play with Rockets.
I have to believe that this team with these tough-minded players and this coaching staff and this management will be over .500. I believe we'll be better than the Suns and Hornets and be able to nab the 7th or 8th seed.
I agree that the Brooks we saw in 2 of those 4 games was great. Remember, we were blown out of 2 of those games. So far he as been good in stretches but he has not yet shown the consistency to be a #1 scorer on a playoff team. Could he? Maybe. Will he? No one knows. Efficiently? Don't bet on it. Scola himself played well in 1 of the 4 games and while playing abroad, but again as a go-to post player over 82 games? Who knows. I just do not get how so many members of this board are making assumptions based on 4 games of a Lakers series. You cannot make any assumptions about 4 games, sample size is too small especially when you are talking about 82 games. It was all against 1 team, with the same weaknesses, gameplans, defenders, etc, none of which can be extrapolated to 29 different teams, 82 games, and 8 months. I'm not saying do not hope they will will play better, but lots of people need to temper their expectations.
They could teeter between the high 30s to mid 40s. There are still alot of "what if's" regarding this team. What if Tracy comes back halfway healthy and confident? What if they don't aquire a dominant shotblocker, hence layup drill for opposing team? Probably lots more what if's then I can think of.
the inconsistency was b/c brooks IS STILL YOUNG and he was our leader in those games. brooks will continue to improve, and so will we. obviously we won't be one of the elite teams, but we're going to push strong for the playoffs. plus, our defensive philosophy will still be there. we'll struggle v. the bigger teams obviously.
It was done this way so that teams who tank don't automatically get the best pick. Kinda makes tanking less attractive.
I think that if some of our young guys can develop fast, then we will be playoff contenders. We might not contend for the title, but for the playoffs definitely. We might even contend without some young guys developing, but it would help. Also, if we do make the playoffs, more decent free agents might be lured to our team. This is an important season to our future. We can only hope everything turns out the best possible.
