I disagree wholeheartedly. I doubt Vince, coming off ankle surgery is going to bother to put forth much effort for a team that has essentially written off the next two years by trading away their best player and wouldn't be surprised to see him ask to be sent on his way. I've never thought of Devin Harris as much more than adequate. Yi I've found very unimpressive, and Krstic can't stay healthy. I don't know much about the Lopez's but OK-ish seems to be their ceiling as well. To top it all they lost Jefferson who was easily their best offensive & defensive player and who played 82 games last year, and may or may not be a lame duck depending on the fate of Atlantic Yards.
Toronto needs to do some shopping: PG: (vacant), (vacant), (vacant) SG: Parker, (vacant), (vacant) SF: Moon, Kopono, Graham PF: Bosh, Humphries, (vacant) C: O'Neal, Bargnani, Jawai Restricted FA: Calderon, Delfino Unrestricted FA: Brezec
With Ford gone, isn't it safe to assume they'll have Calderon starting? It'd be silly to take the restricted and unrestricted FA's out of every teams lineup - in that case, a lot of teams would "need to do some shopping."
Blazers kinda remind me of the Clippers about 6 or 7 years ago..had all the draft picks and all the young players, now it's time to produce. Like Darryl Morey said..the GM is building his team like it's Monopoly Money they're using, its a miss or make situation. They miss the playoffs in the next few years and they're gonna be LA Clippers 2.0.
Portland will be good, but thats if Oden and Aldridge can work together. Maybe we can trade for Channing frye
I won't say Portland is scary, but I think they can fight for a WC playoff spot. What I don't think Portland has is a true beast--someone who just really is unguardable. They may be like the Bulls a year ago, athletic as heck, lots of good players, a couple of excellent players (Roy, Aldridge + maybe Oden or Bayless) but not capable of a serious deep playoff run around an MVP candiate type player. But again I think they made great moves. I also like Minny. Love and Miller around improving Jefferson, Foye, Gomes, McCants, they could do a 15 game improvement and move off the D- list. I think Seattle, Memphis and LAC did little, particularly in the short term--there are you "freebies" in the WC. In the East Miami did great. Great value for Beasley and Chalmers. Wade and Beasley around Marion, Chalmers, Haslem, Cook, Wright, they just need to find a center in free agency to push Blount to the bench and they are ECF contenders. The Bulls IMO are a lot like Portland. Lots of good players, many young, but no MVP type players. They should be back in the playoffs, and then promptly spanked out. They will need Rose or Den or Gordon to grow into that MVP type candidate to reall mix it up. They also have trade bait though to acquire one. (If I were them I might try to get VC actually)
