San Antonio - Parker, Duncan, Ginobili Dallas - Dirk, Terry, Howard Houston - T-mac, Yao, Alston New Orleans - Paul, ??, ?? Memphis - Gasol, Jones, Miller/Stoudamire Denver - Mello, Camby, NeNE? Utah - AK47, Harbring, ?? Seattle - Allen, Lewis, ?? Minnesota - KG, James, Davis Portland - ??, ?? , ?? Phoenix - Nash, Marion, Stoudamire LAClippers - Cassel, Cat, brand LALakers - Kobe, Odom, ?? Sacremento - Artest, Kenny Thomas Golden State - Dunleavy, Murphy These are the BIG THREE's of all the teams. . .I could think of on the fly The issue I have is people think James going to Minne is better than him going to Dallas. . . We may got 1-3 against dallas anyway but without James. . I was thinking 4-0 against Minne now we might split 2-2 It makes our division a bit harder. . Spurs, Dallas, Pheonix, are Locks Clippers, Memphis, Rockets, TWolves, Lakers, and Seattle [long shot] are those contending for the playoffs [Nate Mc may do something with portland but i did not pay them much attention this year] So as of Right now. . . Which of THE BIG Three can we beat Dallas, Spurs, Pheonix can we bump off in the 1st Round? [we may have trouble with the Clippers] Rocket River . . and for those that think it cannot get worse IMAGINE . . .the Rockets. . .losing in the 1st round. . TO MEMPHIS giving them their 1st playoff win and 1st playoff series in the same season .. . THIS CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO HAPPEN!!!
RR, we have 2 superstars, a superb role player, and crap. We also have an idiotic, brain dead front office that doesn't know their ass from a hole in the ground. We just lost another guy, not ****ing James, because of their stupidity.
you TOTALLY missed New Orleans here, they could change the whole outlook of our division. Paul, Peja, Chandler, West, and Mason? They should be pretty dangerous, I'm hoping Paul suffers an injury and get out for 35 games. You also missed on Utah, they are dangerous too, AK, Boozer, Okur, Fisher, Deron with another year under his belt...
We may be underestimating Battier. I think he's our #3 guy as of right now. But if we were to get Fred Jones to slot in at SG, we'd be sitting pretty with a good solid five-piece that's only really susceptible to paint-banging PFs. Alston, F. Jones, McGrady, Battier, Yao
This is why I poster this thread now that the Mjames hoopla has fallen out I want to see where we stand. . .i know their is alot of time left but . .. I just wanted too get a feeling of where we are Byron Scott is a good coach too in N O that could be trouble We might have to beat a whole division in the east again Rocket River
As is we stand at about 5th in the west but with a nice peice ala stephen jackson or Bonzi we are at the top with everyone else! I think if amare is completly healthy and nash is as well no one will stop phoneix!
Utah went .500 last year despite losing a ton of minutes to injuries. Their big three are AK, Boozer, and Okur which is a substantially above average front court. Their guards are a little thin but Williams and Brewer should be pretty good (though both will take a while). Picking them to do worse than they did last year seems like a mistake and I'd be suprised if they didn't make the playoffs this year.
I think we are ALL underestimating Battier given what we had to give up for him. I remember last yr the Grizzlies spanked us both games, and battier completely shut down TMAC on D. Battier is a solid pickup when you compare strictly from last yr's team.
I can say this to you because I feel you are one of the few who will understand. What is getting the "play" around here is the likes of Jared Jeffries, V-Span, Fred Jones, DerMarr, Bonzi (unrealistically), Marcus Banks, Ariza, John Salmons, Rasual Butler, Darius Songaila, Melvin Ely and Chris Wilcox. What we are going to end up with is the likes of Jeff McInnis, Chucky Atkins, Anthony Carter, Greg Buckner, Devean George, Aaron Williiams, and Jarron Collins. I'm not optimistic.
I think we are a top 4 team behind pheniox, san antonio and dallas but if we get some more solid pieces we'd be up there.
Last offseason we signed Stro, D.Anderson, and we had Barry. We lost all these three, and have Battier as new member, possibly Banks/Ariza/Spree/Ex Knicks/Robo's brother are on the way. Tmac is one year older, and as much as I love him I have to say his back can crack any time. He weighs about 245 pounds right now. I dont ever see Kobe let his body blow that much in the offseason. Only hoping Yao continues to be unbelievable next year. I dont think our prospects are better than last year. Lack of depth, still one major injury between Yao and Tmac away a complete break down. Not good. BTW, I am not crying.
Yao, Hayes, McGrady, Battier, and Alston form a good starting 5. The problem is whether Rockets have enough contributors beyond these 5. Head and Bogans hopefully have made some improvement. Juwan need to be shipped. Novak needs to learn the NBA. They still need a backup at the 1 and the 5.
It's too early to say where we stand because it doesn't matter. We still haven't used the MLE or the trade exceptions. This is a good question AFTER we acquire players. To ask now accomplishes nothing. We aren't even sure what our starting lineup will be.
I'm not either. I think you are likely to be right, and the front office is to blame for a whole lot of it. The other thing I'm worried about is that they may throw the whole MLE at a restricted guy, and then sit around, twiddling their thumbs, while the team who has him waits until the last possible minute to say yes or no. Meanwhile, possible targets, those that are left, sign with other teams.
That line up at full strength, Phoenix Dallas and Spurs can beat us 3 out of 4 times. Minny, Sac, Hornets, Laker, Mem, Nugs wont be scared of it at all. We seem to have numbers on Clippers and Golden state, no matter who are playing with Yao. Our bench sucks.
Denver -if they get a shooting gaurd they are a signifigance force plus their division sucks so they are pretty much in. utah- they were a 500 team but had injuries and were too inconsistent phoenix Come on.... Lakers- Another year with Phil... and get some talent in radmonavich, they look good Minnesota- check their line-up out.. James, Davis, Hassel, KG, Blount that is a solid line-up sacremento- they have ron-ron but if they dont get bonzi im not sure how good they will be Clippers- they have one of the best line-ups in the league. Cassel, Mobley, Maggete, Brand, and Kaman San Antonio- they got the pop and Timmy Dallas- They got the Dirk and Dick(Cuban) New Orleans - they got Peja and Chandler in the offseason to go along with Paul. I still am not sure about them and Peja's back. Memphis- I do not think they are that good anymore, they look like they are in rebuilding mode. Houston Come on we got big mac and the chinese guy The way i see it is that 12 teams are contending just for the playoffs it is going to be awfully hard this year in the west.
i really hope instead of trying to get jefferies or fred jones we go after banks, because both washington and indy will probably match whatever offer we give them...while banks is unrestricted, we could use him off the bench providing good solid D at the one and he is good getting to the paint...
top 8 Phoenix - Amare, Nash and Marion may be the best triple threat in the NBA Dallas - Dirk is still Dirk, and they got better drafting Ager, but why trade Daniels for Croshere San Antonio - Losing both their centers is going to hurt, but they will have Duncan, who should post 24 and 12 again LA Clippers - They have the best starting 5 in the league, and watch out of Quinton Ross Houston - With T-Mac and Yao, makes Houston a playoff contender without a question New Orleans - Chris Paul is no fluke, he's a great leader and with Peja and Chandler, they will make the playoffs, what a turnaround LA Lakers - Kobe, Kobe and Kobe Utah (sleeper) - they have one of the best defensive players in the NBA in AK, and if Boozer and AK can stay healthy they can push for that 8th seed. Deron Williams will have a solid season, all they need is a legit number one option on offense
