hi everybody we all are waiting for: 1) getting Yao back in good shape 2) trading for a backup center or big 4 who can compensate Yao's weakness assuming we get this two (lets' say we get Bosh) , do you really believe we can win a champ even w/o a superstar at the 2 or 3: LJ, D Wade, KD35...
Kevin Martin when healthy is an elite SG in a Reggie Miller/Rip Hamilton/Ray Allen kind of a way. If we get Bosh and Yao can play at 80%, it's not even a matter of can we win a championship. But that we almost should win a championship. At least get to the finals.
I've always rolled my eyes a little at the "you need a great [position x] to win" sentiment. No...you need a great team. Prince and Hamilton are clearly not a legendary wing duo, but with a team full of talented guys in their role they won a title. Derek Fisher and Bruce Bowen racked up plenty of titles as a mediocre starters who played a role well and had better players on their team. To win a championship, we need a great TEAM. As far as I'm concerned, the championship plan at the moment involves banking on Yao returning in decent form, banking on Brooks becoming better, and adding a good scorer at the 3 and a good defender with size at the backup 4/5. But I can see a title with Yao, Scola, Martin, and Brooks as the focus; you just have to build a great team around them.
Yes we can. I also want to add that an elite coach is not needed as proven by Boston. We have Yao, Martin, and I think Scola and hold his own with the elites. I think the question should be: "Can we win a champ w/o healthy players?"
Can the lakers win without an elite PG? Can boston win without an elite center? You can't have a superstar at every position. that's not always a good thing. It's about having a complete team and no holes, or minimizing those holes as much as possible. Superstar status at every position doesnt mean much if you still have significant holes.
I don't know about everyone else but I'm about as sick of the word "elite" as I can imagine getting. Can we call truce for a day? Please?
Since when was Rasheed Wallace elite? Billups was borderline elite never cracking into that category.
I think billups is elite. He is in detroit they go to ecf, he leaves they suck. Denver sucks he goes there and they go to wcf.
We will have an elite C, with PF/SG/PG being one to two levels below elite. I think once Yao gets back, this team will have as good a shot as any to win it all (assuming he is healthy). Morey has done such an amazing job building it, I am excited for next year.
Billups BECAME elite, but at the time of the championship was just borderline. More people were riding the Wallace duo and Hamilton then paying attention to what Billups did. Over time he came into his own.
It's all about match-ups is all. The Bulls in their best years won with only elite wings as no one else on that roster was a prime time NBA player. The Rockets, during their first championship year, had no elite wings as someone else stated. Of course we did that against a Knicks team which also had no elite wings, but our center outplayed theirs and our other players did enough, so we won. The finals were won because Olajuwon was a huge mismatch for them. The following year, they had Penny, who was a great player at the time, but Cassell did enough in his role and Smith countered with the barrage of 3-pointers that I'm sure we all remember, Horry was also a perimeter player to counter Grant's inside game, which also ended up working in our favor, so we won that match-up and so forth. Sure you need good pieces, but a lot has to do with match-ups. As great as those teams were, our championship teams never went through the Sonics, which again goes back to match-ups, etc.
Rasheed Wallace could always match up with Duncan and KG. His problem was that he couldn't stop fighting with the refs and a poor attitude. When he came the Piston, his attitude improved.
