michfan2123
Cricket Spectator
If my Knicks were not so bad I would be following more this year.
yep, incredible depth..spurs, suns(even with shaq), mavs, lakers, jazz, hornets all look really good and then to a lesser extent the nuggets and warriors are more than capable of making some serious noise come the post-season...Should be a good East Finals, but it's the West which really has me drooling.
come the playoffs, if the pistons remain reasonably fresh and motivated, they will be the team to beat in the east, garnett, allen and pierce are all hungry for a ring, but they need to first prove that they can close out good teams in a 7 game playoff series...the talent is undeniably there and i think provided they all stay healthy, next season could be when these superstars make a charge at the ring..With Pierce, KG & Allen all fit, Celtics are the no.1 team in the East imo, with the Pistons just behind them.
Yeah the competition in the West this year is amazing. It's conceivable that a 50-win team may miss the playoffs! The Mavs are currently the 5th seed. They are 3 games out of leading the West OR 3 losses out of being the last seed!!yep, incredible depth..spurs, suns(even with shaq), mavs, lakers, jazz, hornets all look really good and then to a lesser extent the nuggets and warriors are more than capable of making some serious noise come the post-season...
that's it for any faint hopes that the rockets had...Yao Ming out for the rest of the season. Rockets have a brutal schedule after their home stretch ends. Could drop like a stone unless T-Mac goes on a massive tear.
nope i thought that was a bad trade for the suns, and so far i don't see anything that would change my opinion...as much as he tries, he can't run with them and when they try to accomodate him, they end up losing their rhythm...because of the sun's fast pace, shaq is unlikely to get too many touches on the offensive end and thus unlikely to affect games with his scoring(plus he continues to be the horrendous free throw shooter he always was), on the defensive end, he is too slow for the young big men of today although they will still get a few rebounds and an occasional block from him...the only good thing that has happened for them after the trade has been that stoudemire has been able to go back to his favoured power forward position and has played more freely, but they need much more than stoudemire to click if they are to be contenders in the west...Shaq really hasn't really improved the Suns as much as Kerr and D'Antoni wanted has he? Tyson Chandler really did bury him today.
yes, good debut by devin harris...FFS could the Bucks please put 3 together and more importantly 1 away from home.
Got steamrolled by the Nets.
To think that not so long ago Kupchak was the laughing stock of the league when he gave up a stud like caron for Kwame Brown, but he's turned it around brilliantly.it has taken some time, but phil jackson has assembled a great team in l.a...as strong as the team is right now, when they get ariza, bynum and to a lesser extent mimh back, they would be the most complete team in the nba...a starting five of bynum, gasol, odom, bryant and fisher would compare favourably with any other team in the league right now...their bench is very deep with the notables being walton, farmar, radmanovic, vujacic, ariza, mimh & turiaf...they have the playoff and championship experience in bryant, fisher and jackson and a wealth of talent surrounding them...
yeah the gasol trade was a masterstroke and good thinking by kupchak and the lakers management not to trade bynum for someone like kidd under pressure from bryant...now they have one of the youngest teams in the nba and the oldest guy fisher is one of the most durable players in the league...Most NBA teams are either in win-now mode or rebuild for the future mode but he's managed to get his team into a position where they can challenge for a title now and haven't mortgaged the future either. Brilliant stuff from him.
well they are putting together an exceptional regular season run with this current 18* win streak...still seriously doubtful whether they can go far in the playoffs without yao...that's it for any faint hopes that the rockets had...