I also agree that the prediction may be too extravagant. Here's to minimal egos, hot shooting, and no injuries this 2007-08 season!!!
Is Hollinger a guy who uses a computer to rank a player in ESPN? If he is, his predication makes a point, hoping that he is going to be right. If some things are from Steve A., then likely would be wrong.
Can somebody post Hollinger's predictions from the beginning of last season? I'd like to see how accurate he was. Boy what an exciting article! I'm not nearly that optimistic, going to the Finals in the first year with a new coach? And with combustible players like James, Francis and Wells who could blow up the locker room at any time? And two injury-prone superstars? Sheesh. That would be a MAGICAL season indeed. I concede it's within the realm of possibility, but c'mon... let's not start sucking each other's dicks just yet!
Here was his outlook before last season: source T-Mac ended up being healthier than he anticipated, and Yao was much less so. Battier ended up playing very little at PF, which wasn't anticipated either. But his prediction for wins was pretty close: "will defend like crazy" and "a 50-win team and a solid No. 4 in the Western hierarchy."
I've loved Hollinger since he first showed up on ESPN. Now this is beyond awesome. That gets me even more pumped for the upcoming season. Hollinger is the man. I think the prediction is right on. Anything less than top 3 is a failure for this team; I expect them to be #1 or #2.
Yeah that's pretty dead on. Kinda cool actually. Hope his accurate prediction of us last year holds true for us this year. I'm thinking we win over 55.
Taking into account 1. the adjustment period 2. injuries and 3. uncertain chemestry, I will be happy with 50 wins. At playoff time, the only ? should be injuries. If healthy, we should be in the finals!
In Game 5 against Utah all but eight of the Rockets' field goals were scored or assisted by McGrady; in Game 7 all but nine were. and people wonder why he ran out of gas (plus the fact he was never in shape). kobe/wade/bron prollie only did that ONCE or twice in an entire season. tmac did that TWICE in the playoffs. it's sad. but that stats showed we needed help. and morey got us the help.
for 3-4 seconds and then tmac takes over. but really, if u watch the youtube highlights of clutch of those games, u really see why morey had to do what he had to do by getting james/francis/scola. when u have EVERYTHING, and i mean literally EVERYTHING, riding on a guy and you're playing against a physical team like utah, and the shots tmac got for the others and they don't convert, it's VERY VERY tough to win. so when others can't make them, u want tmac or yao to take them. but unfortunately, no one could create for tmac and no one was as good at creating as tmac. now we have james/francis who can do a decent job of that where adelman can move tmac to being a scorer 80% of the game. the 20% he'll be a facilitator when he wants to get others involved. tmac is a scorer. point blank. he can do everything b/c he's great. but he's a scorer.
What's the franchise record for wins? 58 in '94? Hollinger must have been hanging around Les recently.
"what happens if you take that team and add Wells (essentially), Francis, James, Brooks, Scola, and Butler, and give it a coach who wants to be there? It's scary to think, but a gang that had 57-win talent a season ago may also be the league's most improved team." This gives me the chills!!!
Hollinger was ahead of the game on touting the Spurs as the best team in the league and favorites to win the title by February. He has a pretty good track record.
I keep telling myself that I'm in typical (for me) off-season über-optimistic mode, then I read something like this. Wow!
