first time i've seen the show in a while. tim legler loves the additions the rockets made and feels yao looks much stronger so far and more aggressive. feels stromile swift will add the needed atheleticism to the lineup. and apparantly felt the rockets were the team to watch in the west....
here's the video for those that missed it: http://s63.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=368F4OPKHK8OX0YZYH8TDI8UFW
Yeah he said that Yao appeared stronger and more aggresive in the pre-season, seemed ready to come into his own in his fouth year and that T-Mac would be an MVP candidate... At the end of the show, however, he still picked the Spurs over the Heat in the Finals, and Lebron for MVP with the Cavs posting a 48-50 win season. So take his comments as typical pre-season "I told ya I liked 'em before the season started" ass-covering in case (a) the Spurs win it all, (b) the Heat make it to the Finals, (c) the Rocks upset and go deep, and (d) Lebron and the Cavs make waves. In other words, his comments are worthless...
^^^ that's pretty sorry thing to say about a guy that chose the rockets as #2 in the west behind the spurs
Sorry dude, it's just that if you watch these shows enough, you'll realize that comments from guys like Legler and Greg Anthony are more about going with what's reasonably acceptable at the time, and ass-covering for later on in the season, rather than making genuine comments. The prediction that the Spurs and Heat are going to the Finals, the Rockets are the runners up in the West, and Lebron will make an MVP push (given his insane numbers last year) with a much improved team (with the additions of Larry Hughes, Donyell Marshall and Damon Jones, plus a re-signed Z) is about as safe as it gets at this point in the pre-season.
Well, I'm not sure how you can - being totally objective - not pick the Spurs at this point. That doesn't mean I'll be rooting for them, but they are clearly the class of the NBA and it is the job of the rest of the league to knock them off.
Who is Chris Palmer? I've never heard of the guy, but over at ESPN.com, he picks Tracy to win MVP and Juwon to win MIP. I agree with Jeff. There is absolutely nothing wrong with praising the Rockets and picking the Spurs. We're in an unlucky situation this year where we are arguably the second best team in the conference, yet will have a good shot of falling all the way to the four spot in the playoffs. Not only does that mean playing a better team than we should in the first round of the playoffs, that also means meeting the Spurs in the second round. It's going to be tough to make it out of the second round this year if we don't beat the Spurs. I'd almost rather us be the #6 seed than the #4.
But out of all those guys that think they know basketball on ESPN, Tim Legler is about the only one that gives us any type of credit. But you can't fault them for picking the Spurs. They got better and so did we. Sure they could of done what the Timberwolves did and just bring back the same team. But as we saw with KG and them. If you dont add and just sit, you might not make it the next year. I think our team will be fine, but i sure would love them to be number one this year.
Everybody's picking the Rockets as #2 in the West behind the Spurs. ... everybody except me, of course. I pick the Rockets as #1 in the West.
Yeah, I agree with both of you that there's nothing inherently wrong with predicting the Spurs over the Rockets. My point, however, was just that commentary from guys like Legler and the rest of the Fastbreak crew are meaningless, because they essentially dole out praise to anybody expected to well in the season, so that around the end of the season, they can say "I told you I liked 'em before the season started," as if that's necessary to seal their status as "NBA experts" and justify holding their cushy jobs. Case in point: how in that episode alone he enthusiastically said that T-Mac would be an MVP candidate while talking about the Rockets, and then 15 mins later at the end of the episode he said that Lebron would win MVP. I'm sure if you keep watching throughout the season, he'll throw out a bunch of other names of star players on teams expected to do well, calling them MVP candidates as well, and when one of 'em wins it, bingo bango, he saw it coming long ago. Basically, what I'm saying is, the same way Jon Stewart criticized the Crossfire crew last year for just hacking out partisan opinions that conformed to mainstream views, without actually believing what they were saying, I'm saying you should expect similar fluff while watching Fastbreak. In Stewart's case, given the importance of the topics being discussed, he accused Carlson and Begala of "hurting America". This is just basketball, and I'm not saying that Legler or Greg Anthony are bad people at all, I'm just saying don't put too much stock into anything these guys say on Fastbreak, it's just a fluff show. That's all I meant, nothing more.
Varunan speaks the truth. There isn't any NBA show out there right now that provides any sort of insight unless you are completely oblivious to what's going on outside of your own team. And I mean completely.
