9 good teams this year. Houston LAL Denver San Antonio New Orleans PHeonix Utah Dallas Portland One of these team is not gonna make the playoffs. Well except for the LAkers are already in supposedly. SO 7 out of 8. All these teams are really really good. ROckets definately are gonna make it. I have no doubt If I had to bet I would say Denver won't make it. What do you guys think.
I don't know. I' am not sure if PHX makes it unless they make a trade or something drastically changes.
Denver with Chauncey is really really good. I would bet Phoenix or Dallas but honestly, every team is just an injury away from the playoffs.
Portland might break down. *might* Lakers will be there. Can't bet against the Spurs. They'll be there. Jazz ( ) will be there. Hornets for sure. Denver too. I don't think this is just a run for Denver. I mean they're not going to be this good all season, but they will be solid. They'll be there. Not getting past the first round, but they'll be there. I think it's a dogfight between Dallas/Phoenix/Portland for the last 2 spots. And I still think we'll win this division.
phoenix doesn't look good right now. denver seems to be raising after acquiring billups. So let's see where these two teams go. I bet one of them won't be able to make it.
The Northwest conference has suddenly become very competitive this year with Portland Utah and Denver all being really good teams. Portland is gonna be the 2008-2009 version of the NO Hornets, a young team that gets a high seeding and advances far into the playoffs. Utah will do well as usual, but if they dont win the chip this year I don't think they'll ever win it barring a major acquistation or trade. (just like the Dallas and Phoenix teams of the years past) Denver will be a darkhorse this year, Billups is meshing with the team way better than expected, they'll probably get a 4th or 5th seed and could possibly even advance to the 2nd round. Its gonna either be Dallas, Phoenix, or New Orleans that gets knocked out of the playoffs this year...for some reason, the Hornets are performing below expectations this year. Perhaps teams around the league have figured out how to play them.
I am going to go out on a limb and say the Hornets will be on the out side looking in. 1.Lakers 2.Rockets 3. Jazz 4. Spurs 5. Mavs 6. Trailblazers 7. Suns 8. Nuggets Thats how I see it going down
Billup is slow but strong PG. Ron can easily stop him. But the Nuggets will make the play off. If we meet them, we should be able to beat him.
Last year the top 9 were close not only in ranking. This year there's a pretty big gap in skill between the Lakers and everyone else. Portland and Denver are hot right now, and they follow the Lakers in terms of skill level at the moment, but it remains to be seen if they can maintain their level of play. Safe bets to increase their level of play closer to the Lakers are the Rockets, Jazz, and Spurs, either due to injuries or lack of chemistry. New Orleans was a huge improver last year due to some above-their-heads performances from guys like Peja and West, but what people don't realize is that almost exact same team missed the playoffs the year before due to injuries, because their roster is just that thin. So if they are healthy and clicking, they should be in easily as well. But that's not a guarantee yet. If New Orleans stays healthy, then it looks like Dallas and Phoenix are fighting it out for the 8 seed. Let me just reiterate that these two teams are NOT very good right now. The eight seed of last year (Denver) would probably whoop both of Dallas and Phoenix as currently configured. So to compare it to last year is a little misleading. My guess is that Denver and Portland fall back to earth and occupy playoff spots in the lower half along with San Antonio and Dallas, while the top four teams go LA, Utah, Houston, and New Orleans in that order.
Yea... I'm kind of with you on the Hornets. Last year they obviously had a great season, but they had an MVP season from Paul, luck with injuries (I wanna say only West got injured for like 10 games), and the element of surprise. Now teams know how to beat them, maybe Paul doesn't play as well as he did last year, maybe a couple of injuries disrupts their flow enough. My other choices right now are the Suns and Nuggets.
I think that either Phoenix or SA will break apart thier teams this year and start looking toward the future.
How can you say Denver won't make it? Theyre in it after the Billups trade 100%. I say the Suns won't make it, or Dallas. Either two.
