i still have hope for this team. when we get everyone back, were going to make a serious second half run. even with just yao and tmac, were dangerous already. once we get everyone, this team's dangerous again. i even expect on the second half of the season, clutchfans will be filled once again with senseless, repetitive, stupid threads since the bandwagoners will be back again.
I'm willing to admit I'm not so optimistic about this season anymore. I haven't been posting much because I don't have anything positive to say and I don't really enjoy all the negative talk. I'm still watching every game and I'm still reading through these threads daily though. My main concern is that I think alot of our injury woes are due to the age of our team and since pretty much everybody on our team except Yao, McGrady and Head are 30ish or over, it's hard to see how that is going to be rectified. I think that core of young guys gives us a great place to build around, but we've got to do something to become younger, quicker, and more durable and I'm not sure that can be done even with a high draft pick and a new MLE player. Some trades need to happen.
All they have to do is get healthy enough to get the 8th seed, then with Tracy and Yao they will be the team no one wants to have to play in the playoffs. But you wouldn't be human if you weren't very disappointed in going from the giddy heights of hope this summer to lookng up from the bottom of the cellar in January.
Everybody needs to stop going into panic mode. We are only 4 games behind the Lakers for the 8th spot. Slowly but surely are players are becoming healthly plus the emergence of stromile will get us back in the hunt. By the all-star break and when yao comes back, everybody will be hopping back on the bandwagon. We can easily put some multiple winning streaks together. Gotta believe dammit.
Well this is a critical stretch while Yao is out, the team can't play less than .500 ball until Yao returns by the All-Star break. If we play .500 ball our record at the break will be 17W 24L and if we play at around the .650 clip we have been with a Yao/T-Mac lineup then our 2nd half record will be 27/14 for a combined season record of 44/38 probably good enough for the 7/8 seed in this years playoffs. If the team is able to play above .600 without Yao, it would be a great sign that we have the talent to get the 4/5 seed and get to the second round. If we suffer another 5 game losing streak before the ASG then I would consider mailing in the season by not rushing Yao's recuperaton and holding him out until April to ensure a lottery pick.
i still believe, the nuggets went 17-2 to close out last season and I think our team could roll off 15-16 wins in our last 20. I think we will be in striking distance more than i had previously thought for Yao's return with the return of alston, but im still hoping for a trade that could bolster our offense. I don't think Ryan Bowen, Jon barry, or Moochie Norris would get more than 4minutes of playingtime if they were on any other team's roster. DA wouldn't get much more, and it's a good indication of how poor our offense is, when these are some of the role players that are asked to play for us.
