Something that keeps being brought up is that we have the exact same record as last year at this point, which is false by the way we are actually 1 game ahead of last year I believe. Anyways the point of this thread is... "Are we more talented or less talented than last year?" We have made some major roster moves some of our own choice and some were forced and I wanted peoples input and opinion about this matter. Last year we had a starting lineup of. SF Cat Posey EGriffin Yao w/ Rice, Moochie, Cato, MoT, and some others off the bench. This year its SF Cat JJackson Cato Yao w/ Mjackson, MoT, AGriffin, Boki, Pike, Padgett IMHO I feel like the talent level of the starting squad is not as promising as last years squad, but we have added more bench depth. Not quality talent or anything but a lil more depth. SF is struggling this season, while Cat remains constant (scoring is down but FG% is up) Posey seemed much more atheletic but JJ is the consumate professional. Our PF position is a definate downgrade from last season, EG if mentally healthy would have been an important piece this season, while Cato is exceeding expectations he is an offensive liability. Yao, though his numbers are improving is commanding much more attention and double teams. any opinions on this? Are we a better team this time around? More talented? Or are we overachieving? Please provide some feedback.. I think we are doing better than expected especially since losing our "potential" star PF. Who knows though. J
More talented. Francis and Mobley have another year under their belt. Mo is fully recovered with no rust. Jim Jackson is a better offensive player than Posey. E. Griffin brought absolutely nothing last year, so not having him starting is a positive, not a negative. All starters had a full training camp together - last year, Posey arrived mid-year and Ming arrived right when the season started. Juaquin Hawkins actually started some games last year. The bench has proven vets on it this year. But the most important factor that makes this team better is Yao Ming. Last year he arrived as an unknown from another country with a translator, and missed training camp and pre-season and had to be integrated into the offense/defense on the fly. No such challenges exist this year, as he no longer needs a translator, attended training camp, knows the country/league/teammates, is stronger, more durable, etc. In addition, as a rookie, he and the team had a big mark on their back - every team got up to play against the rookie Yao Ming and the Rockets, everyone wanted to show him up. I don't think that mentality exists this year to the extent that it did in his rookie season. It can also be argued that the Rockets have a new best player this year in Ming. Any time you get a new best player, while still retaining the previous best player (Francis) and not losing anyone else of significance, you are automatically better.
Take a look at Spurs, all they have is Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili. Talent wise, we are better than them, but guess what, we can't beat them. Talent don't get you any rings, look at the Clippers for past few years, they had all the telent in the world, but still go to lottery every year.
great post thefreak! but then again Yao is only averaging 16 pts while SF's ppg have decreased to 16 also.. while shooting almost the same amount of shots. So is it really improving if your best player is playing worse? (talent wise) I agree that we are a better (more solid) team than last year I didnt like the fact that our roster was soo young. Mixing in a bunch of vets helps alot and it shows during certain situations. But Posey is having a similar year to JJ and EG was an up and coming player? I still drool when I think about what we could have had in EG had he been ok. Well we get EG's dad Rasheed in the offseason hopefully (dont they have alot of similarities).. True Talent doesnt mean everything.. but it means something. We took a bench player from the Kings and he becomes a starter and one of our best players. (JJ) that has to say something about the talent in the league. J
I have to disagree with those two points. I don't think the dynamic duo gave Posey the opportunity. Posey excels in the fast break, our duo couldn't run a fast break to save their life. I think Jackson has finally infiltrated the duo's clique, somethin Posey couldn't do last year. Also, I would rather have Griffin on the court instead of Padgett, Cato, Weatherspoon, or Mo.
I think our starting lineup got weaker (Cato shouldn't really start at the 4) but our bench got so much stronger. Over all we are a better team, especially on D.
Center: Yao is better this year. Cato is the same. Better PF: We lost EG+Morris, have Taylor in better shape, and Padgett + Spoon. (I think we shouldn't compare EG with Cato, because Cato was here and him playing PF was not considered.) EG is obviously more talented than Padgett+Spoon on paper. But was he more useful than the two? Slightly better SF: We lost Posey and gain JJ. We lost Rice and gain Pike and AG. Boki is the same. I think JJ is better than Posey. Pike and AG haven't done anything, just like Rice. Slightly better SG: We lost Hawkins and gain Pike. Mobley is the same. Same PG: We lost Moochie and gain Wilks and Jackson. Francis is the same. (He isn't playing well, but we are talking about talents. He didn't lose any talent.) Better None of the position has gotten worse. We are definitely better this year talentwise. The only talent we lost without being replaced was EG. But what had he done last year?
Nah, it happens often, I just need to remind you sometimes that while we all love Rudy, it's time to not be bitter anymore that he is no longer our coach .
The teams in the West have improved significantly, so, IMO, our "relative" position is about the same as last year. Making the playoffs is going to tougher than people think. In our own division, Memphis and Denver are significantly stronger, and the Jazz aren't out of the picture.
There still seems to be a mixed opinion about our talent level. Now I pose a new question... What the hell is difference from last year to this year that actually makes us playoff contenders with almost the same players? How do we stack up against the (hate to use this word) but revamped Minny, Lakers, Spurs, Dallas? If these team are getting stronger and we stayed the same are we worse off than last year? J
I don't see it that way... Portland, Utah and Phoenix dropped out this year. Denver and Memphis (and Houston) moved in. Minnesota was already in, they just moved up, while SA and Dallas moved slightly down. While last year, you had veteran teams fighting for the last spots (LA, Utah, Portland, Pho), this year it should be inexperienced teams, which makes it easier down the stretch. 43-39 wasn't good enough last year - it should be this year.
