Think 60 wins is a possiblity, will be happy if we break 55 and get past the first round. On paper, this team is very impressive. So many "if's." If they remain injury free. If Swift lives up to billing. If a true PG makes a huge difference. If Ming comes of age, and so on. I doubt the team will be a bust, and they may win a championship. Compared to the Francis era, most of us will think we are in basketball heaven.
You are WAY OFF in your evaluation of our backcourt talent. IMHO, I believe: PG Parker/Udrih/Van Exel > Rafer/DA/Bobby SG Manu/Finley/Barry >> Wesley/Barry/DA
Since beating the Sperms is the only way that we advance to the WCF (unless we tank the regular season intentionally), please explain how we can achieve that goal.
3 new rotational players (possibly 2 new starters...recalling how long it took the Orlando "Rockets" to adapt), Sura's injury, older players are 1 year older... 54 or 55 wins...another slow start but deeper into the playoffs. But IMHO, this years' losses won't be to the Knicks, Hawks or Hornets...losses will be close games vs playoff caliber teams.
I believe we still need to address the backup 3 spot. If Tracy goes down for any period of time, well, it'd be bad news anyway, but backup 3 seems a void that we shouldn't fill with players no taller than 6'6". Still, with no significant injuries, I'll predict 57 wins. 4th seed.
I usually don't do this but there's no harm... 56-26 Round 1 in 4 WC Semifinals in 6 WC Finals in 7 Finals in 6
The first matchup may be a toss-up - but even Popovich isn't that high on Parker - noticeable by how little Parker has historically played in crunch time if Popovich has ANY other options. I expect this to continue this year, with Van Excel playing the majority of 4th quarter minutes, although he may play some two guard. On the Rockets side, I expect Rafer to be very effective and both DA and Bobby are more than legitimate starters when healthy. At SG, Manu is clearly the best starter out of the 6, but JBarry and DA are more than a match for Finley and BBarry. That's why I gave the Spurs an edge, but not a strong edge. When it comes to matchup time, I'm confident that we could rotate Tracy onto Manu and shut him down.
That's possible, Spurs aren't unbeatable all the Rockets have to do is keep it close till the end where T-Mac and Yao are better finishers than Duncan and Manu. The worry will be this team's playoff experience, very rare for a team to go from a first round exit to a Conference Finals appearance, that said the talent on the Rockets is insane with a coach and role players with a lot of playoff experience, so anything's possible.
Records matter not. We'll be the 4th seed, beat Dallas in 6, then lose in a 6-7 game dogfight to the Spurs in the semifinals. That doesn't mean I won't be at every home game doing everything I can to push them through.
Well, in the two losses against the Spurs last season, we were able to keep it close until the early 4th quarter, then the Spurs just took over. Even Duncan choked, Emmanuelle was able to find a way to score at clutch time. We will see, but I feel that the Spurs beat us in 6 games if both teams are set with no major injuries in the playoffs.
