Frenchise player
11-27-2008, 03:16 AM
I was looking at the western conference standing and was shocked how clear the situation seems to be:
There is one elite team, the lakers (12-1)
8 teams between 11-5 and 7-7 who are going to contend all year for better home court advantage and the right to avoid the lakers till the WCF.
6 bad teams, none better than 5-10, that don't seem to have a chance in hell of making the playoffs.
More surprising, the 9 better teams are exactly the same as last year.
Which team is going to stay outside the playoff picture?
Last year it was Portland but they seem tremendously improved with 4 new regular rotation players: Blake and 3 rookies Fernandez, Oden, Battum.
I think that Phoenix is the least likely to miss because they are in the weakest division and will therefore meet 4 times 3 sub par teams. On the other hand, Spurs, Rockets, Hornets and Mavs are going to battle each other all year.
If I had to pick one, it would probably be the Mavs but the Hornets have also been underwhelming so far and the Nuggets have to be concerned with the health of their frontcourt.
There is one elite team, the lakers (12-1)
8 teams between 11-5 and 7-7 who are going to contend all year for better home court advantage and the right to avoid the lakers till the WCF.
6 bad teams, none better than 5-10, that don't seem to have a chance in hell of making the playoffs.
More surprising, the 9 better teams are exactly the same as last year.
Which team is going to stay outside the playoff picture?
Last year it was Portland but they seem tremendously improved with 4 new regular rotation players: Blake and 3 rookies Fernandez, Oden, Battum.
I think that Phoenix is the least likely to miss because they are in the weakest division and will therefore meet 4 times 3 sub par teams. On the other hand, Spurs, Rockets, Hornets and Mavs are going to battle each other all year.
If I had to pick one, it would probably be the Mavs but the Hornets have also been underwhelming so far and the Nuggets have to be concerned with the health of their frontcourt.