[red]Dream-Team[/red]-[blue]lite[/blue] rosters over the past few seasons (4 or more all-stars or borderline all-star players): 02-03, 02-01 Kings: Defeated in WCSF by the Mavs, Defeated to eventually champs Lakers in WCF Team: 7 players in double digit scoring with 3 all-stars (1 borderline in Bibby). 03-04 Lakers: Defeated by Pistons in the Championship: Team: Had two aging, but still adequete HOF with a prime Shaq and Kobe. 04-05 Suns: Defeated by the Spurs in 5 games Team: 4 all-stars (3 perennial and one possibly will be Johnson) with two border-line all stars on the bench with Jackson and Barbosa 05-06, 06-07 Mavs: Defeated by a *leastern* Eastern conference being up by 2-0 and a 14 point lead, and embrassed by a number 8 seed in the 1st round of the playoffs Team: MVP of the league with 2 all-stars (one was almost averaging 30 ppg at one point in his career), another borderline all-star, and the self-proclaimed "second best" center in the league. 00-99 Blazers: Defeated in 7 games by a thunderous 4th quarter comeback by the Lakers Team: One very likely 1st ballot HOF (Pippen), 3 all-star players (Wallace, Smith, and Schrempf), and 3 borderline all-star players (Wells, Sabonis, and Stoudemire) 96-97, 97-98 Lakers: Defeated in WCSF in 5 games, Swept the next by the same team Utah Jazz Team: One big, bad and still young Shaq with 3 all-stars (Kobe, EJ, and Van Exel). 03-04 Pistons: NBA Champions Team: 5 all-stars (three weren't really all-stars, yet Hamilton, Okur and Billups) and 1 borderline and should be all-star Prince 93-94 Knicks: Lost in the NBA Finals Team: 1 future HOF center, 3 all-stars (Starks, Oakley, and Mason), and 2 over the hill former all-star Mavs (Blackman and Harper). 96-97 Rockets, 98-99 Rockets: Lost in WCF, Lost in 1st Round Teams: 96-97 season....with 3 bonafide first ballot HOFs and one all-star and borderline (Kevin Willis and Eddie Johnson), while 98-99 Rockets had 3 bondfide but aging HOFs and two promising newcomers - at the time (Mobley and Dickerson). 91-93 Bulls: 3x Champions Team: One of the greatest players in the history of the sports, 1 future HOF (Pippen), 2 all-stars (Armstrong and Grant), and one over the hill all-star (Cartwright) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 top tier all-stars (Yao and T-Mac), 2 all-stars (Francis and Mutombo), 1 Euro MVP (Scola), and 3 borderline all-stars (James, Wells, and Battier) Verdict: Our chances of being a really good team are pretty likely (even with injuries), we may even make a surprise appearance in the Finals or WCF, but it looks like a lesser talented team who has collection of one or two all-stars with a few borderline all-stars or a team that has one or two great players with one or two borderline all-star....may end our season. Our seed will most likely be in the top 3, possibly a #1 seed. Everything sounds good so far. Most critics and analysts in each given year selected these teams to be NBA champs, and all were big favorites in Vegas....none of them, except Pistons came out of blue....they were all expected to winners in their season. Yao and T-Mac will still be all-stars, even though both of their numbers will see drop...but Yao's probably won't drop as much as T-Mac. Reason why....he doesn't need as many shots to get to his current average as T-Mac does. Yao is still 22 - 26 ppg on limited shots (14-18 shots ppg), while T-Mac gets over 20 usually....while we might have 3 to 4 other players averaging in double figures. SF3, James, Scola, Wells and Battier will be the players. Almost every team above won over 56 games in their given year in fact 7 out of the 11 teams (in each year) mentioned....won at least 60 games, while one the 99-00 Trailblazers were one game away from 60. Most of teams also breeze through the regular season, 1st and 2nd round of the playoffs. Almost half had the best record in the conference and big percentage of them had the best record in the league. Downside: Most of these teams bowed around the late semi-finals to conference finals....only five teams from above made it to the finals (93/94 Knicks, 05/06 Mavs, 03/04 Lakers, all were losers to what most considered underdog teams..Rockets...Heat...and Pistons), while the other teams were one of the mentioned underdogs (03/04 Pistons) and a dynasty that won 6 championships in 8 years. Every team that failed to win the championship above....lost to a lesser-talented team or a team that wasn't favored to win. Having so many all-stars and good quality players on the team might lead to in-fighting at some point time, maybe not this year, but possibly in the next few seasons.... Teams that will probably eliminate us: 1) Spurs 2) Celtics 3) Mavs 4) Bulls 5) Suns 6) Heat I see us getting past middle of the road teams like the Jazz and Nuggets. Spurs - proven champs and have beaten more talented teams in their entire championship run. (Lakers, Mavs, Suns, and Pistons) Celtics - three superstar factor (Garnett, Allen, and Pierce) might be too much for us Mavs - Mental edge over us, even though we might have more talent than do now. Bulls - Probably a team we wouldn't take very seriously (or be heavily favorited against) after dominating the first two or three games or totally looking down them (after beating Dallas, S.A., Pho in hard fought WCF) and fall behind early in the series...end up losing 6 or 7 games. Suns - Could still beat us in tough series, because of their style and maybe little effort on defense. (see Mavs series from last year) Heat - see Bulls
"That said … I'm betting on these guys. Big time. Like division champs big. Like best record in the West big. And yes, like winning the championship big."
For some of you more "realistic" (pessimistic) fans out there I also saw the CBS Sport's magazine on the shelves today. It predicted us to go 51-31 and finish third in our division. They actually believe we will have a worst record than last year. I don't know how that would be possible (exempting catastrophic injuries), but I guess if you set the bar low enough, then there's no way they can let you down. That seems to suit some of you.
Some of these fans need to just forget they ever read any of this. And shut themselves off from the rest of the world until games get played. It's no use worrying karma people! Just take it with a grain of salt.
Well, I would say that predictions are supposed to be fun for both those that make them and those that read them. They are made with some expert analysis. IOW, no one ever picks Memphis to win it all. So, if some experts believe the Rockets will win it all or could win it all, then it add some credibility there. It doesn't mean it will happen, but Rocket fans should enjoy the fact that our team is a part of the conversation. That was my only reason for starting this thread. I thought a few people might enjoy that we were thought of so highly by a reasonable popular magazine. It takes absolutely no courage to say that the Spurs will win it next year. But it takes some nerves to "bet" (the word that Hollinger uses) on the Rockets. On paper they have no obvious weaknesses. So, enjoy, because once the season starts there are no guarantees.
Plus the NBA is not like the NFL and MLB, where there is so much talent spreaded throughout the league. and the injury bugs. The talent level is situated into a few teams and those teams usually are a 6 to 12 season playoff-caliber team. Top-level talent doesn't change as much either, if you look at who the best 5 to 20 players were five to seven seasons ago...it really hasn't changed that much. If you look at NFL's it has changed alot, and while MLB gradually did also. NBA (2000-2003) Shaq, Duncan, Garnett, Kobe, Iverson, Carter, McGrady, Kidd, Malone, Webber, Davis (perennial playoff teams: Lakers, Spurs, Kings, Mavs, Suns, Jazz, 76ers, Pistons, and Bucks) NBA (2007) Kobe, Nash, Nowitzki, Garnett, Wade, Lebron, McGrady, Arenas, Yao, Melo, Kidd (perennial playoff teams: Mavs, Spurs, Suns, Rockets, Jazz, Heat, Pistons, Nuggets, Cavs, and Lakers) NFL (1999-2003) Faulk, Manning, Warner, McNabb, Moss, Bruce, George, R.Lewis, W.Sapp, E.James, Holt, Strahan, Favre, Gannon, Rice, Owens (just becoming an all-pro player), TE were still primarily used as blockers until more started come into league become full-fledge receiving threat (perennial playoff teams: Rams, Eagles, Vikings, Packers, Bucs, Colts, and Titans-sidenote most of these teams missed at least once in that time span)...remember also Brady was still considered a game manager even after the Super Bowl win. NFL (2007) Tomlinson, Brady, Moss, Owens, George, McNair, Manning, L.Johnson, Urlacher, evolution of TE position is fulfilled, Umenyiora,Palmer, C.Johnson, Favre (creeping back into top 10) Alexander (but he's fading quickly..irony is his peak years, like Tiki where in the last 4 or 5 years) (perennial playoff teams: Patriots, Colts, Steelers, Eagles, Seahawks, Cowboys ) MLB (2000-2003) Bonds, Clemens, A-Rod, Helton, Bagwell, R.Johnson, Schilling, Jeter, Gagne, Smoltz, Pujols (rising star - not quite an MVP yet), Suzuki, Thome, Giambi, and Maddux (perennial playoff teams: Yankees, Braves, Twins, As, and Red Sox) - you had teams like the Cardinals, Astros, Giants, and Mariners who came year and skipped year. MLB (2007) A-Rod, Pujols, Santana, Beckett, Utley, Holliday, Rollins, Howard, Soriano, Peavy, Webb, Oswalt, Ortiz, Morneau, Haren, Wang, Wagner, and Fielder (rising star) (perennial playoff teams: Red Sox, Yankees, while the Angels are have only made the last two and Cardinals have missed this one (almost last year) and a few seasons ago.
