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If Rockets doesn't beat the Grizzly cubs in regular reason records, I will quit watching NBA.
1. San Antonio Spurs
The early exit in the postseason this year actually made most Spurs fans even including those die-hard ones lose their confidence in their team, and almost convinced them the Spurs were about to trade away some of their cores like Manu and Tony Longoria for reconstruction.
But no pivotal gear has been removed from the Spurs squad, instead, their front office made a fantastic that gave their cabin car a 4th wheel.
After spending two disappointing seasons, Jefferson finally got a chance to contend for the championship, as he did with the Nets in the first several years of this century. The starting SF job had been held by Fin since Bowen got demoted to the bench by Pop for some reason, probably because Bowen did a poor job guarding Kobe in the WCF of the prior season, but Fin wasn't very satisfying as the starting SF and heard more criticisms than claps. Fin has already lost his speed and quickness to his age and it was really a hard job for him to run from line to line with Tony Longoria and Roger Mason, after all Fin was the oldest guy in their starting five of last season and the two starting guards and Bonner were both on the green side of 30.
The line-up has got much more positive change other than Fin of the SF. Bonner played some nice games last season but in some of his bad games, he sucked even worse than any other Spur did in his worst game. The examples are easily located in the series against Mavs in the first round, where Bonner got totally dominated by Dampier who was not even a second-class center. Probably Bonner will still start for Spurs in some regular season games, there is no doubt that he will sit on bench during the crunch minutes unless the Spurs need a bet on 3 pointers. And most of the minutes of paint rotation will be shared by Dyess and Duncan when the post season comes, even the rest limited minutes will probably be taken by Ian but not Bonner.
Even without making further roster moves, like getting captain Jack, the Spurs are already a great team on both ends of the floor, both inside the paint and outside. This team consists of talented guys and awesome balance and chemistry, both of which aggregate these various elements to make them an entire team that makes the best use of every player's talent. Next season, the re-decorated Spurs team will certainly have a big shot at the champoinship, which was something taken granted by Spurs fans during the period from 03-07, even though most of their players in rotation are already on the other side of 30 and the young players still need a lot of work to earn some trust and game-time from Pop.
2. Dallas Mavericks
If you are asked to name some Western teams that may not get overwhelmed by the renewed Spurs team, Lakers would be considered firstly while the second name has nowhere to go but Dallas.
Even in the past 08-09 season, the Mavs had already got decent guys at each position from 1 to 4, only leaving one black hole at the spot where Dampier was the only pro. Diop was too crappy to fill in and got traded midway to Charlott for Hollins and a very large filler, while Hollins didn't contribute too much either since he joined us, though he did give us a surprise in a game of the series with the Spurs.
Besides our incompe ence at the 5th spot, the depth of our bench was also a big embarrassment compared to other good teams and that forced Carlisle to play JET off the bench in order to keep some power in offense when our starting 5 were resting off the court. Therefore, the starting SG had to be filled by a mediocre player in Antonie Wright for most of the 82 games.
Although the crisis of center spot remains unresolved, we did fix the flaw of SG position by adding a remarkable swing guy to our roster list. Marion may not be as good as he was in Phoenix a couple years ago, dude still can drop double digit points and grab nearly ten rebounds per night. And his off-ball moves will definitely bring much more fluency to our offense which used to be crippled by too much ball-handling, of course Marion will also give us a lot on the defensive end.
Mavericks could have exceeded the Spurs easily had Donnie Nelson landed Shaq or any other decent big guy like Okafor or Al Jefferson, but dude still insists on his "silence isn't inactivity". The acquisition of a decent center will easily summon the Mavericks, even though Donnie is a little bit mentally handicapped he is still not too re ed to notice what his team needs, and he did make a try in landing a decent center to Dallas. Although he failed as the Magic matched his offer to Gortat, he still have many other chances to bring some even better centers to Dallas to make our team equally as great as Lakers, Spurs, Celtics and Cavs.
3. New Orleans Hornets
This team could have been another great team of this devision that has the ammo to make a shot at the devision le, but the financial problems seem to be the biggest and only obstacle to hold this team back.
Although it was several months ago, but the Chandler Trade still seems very close to us as though it just happened a couple days ago. Even though Chandler remainded in New Orleans after his ankle injury aborted that trade and the Hornets didn't lose him, the morale of this team was surely damaged badly and even some franchise players started to lose confidence in this team. Everyone on this team can be traded just for financial reasons, of course such a team isn't expected to do anything remarkable even though its coach won the COY only one season before.
4. Memphis Grizzlies
Maybe this team is still very young and pretty immature, but I think next season will witness some change on this team and I won't feel surprised if the Grizzlies finish above the bottom of this division at the end of season. Even though a lottery pick will still be a guaranteed gift for this team next summer.
For the best scenario, the Grizzlies will finish the new season as a marginal playoff team, and make their first appearance since 06 in the 10-11 season, just like the route the Blazes went through in recent years.
With Mayo and Gay leading the team and many talented youngsters around them, this team has enough potential to climb higher in a couple seasons than the franchise has every did in its short history. For the Grizzlies, a bright future is expected yet conditional... It would cost the Grizzlies a lot more years to grow strong or even make them eternally weak if the Lakers commited another robbery on them again for Gay or Mayo, or even both of them.
5. Houston Rockets
Superstars weren't the only factor that used to make this team great, but this team could never be great without them. With all their former so-called big three either leaving the team or being sidelined, seriously this team has no chance to make their 6th playoff apearance in 7 years next season. But I fathom this team will still work very hard next season and fight with their full efforts night in and night out to gain as much respect as they can possibly earn, even though this team will be probably even worse than the version of 05-06 season.
timvp doesn't have limits.
If Rockets doesn't beat the Grizzly cubs in regular reason records, I will quit watching NBA.
Nice writeup, Rogue.
After the first two, it can go any number of ways for those other three teams.
Nice reading Rogue
Missed this part.
The Mavs could have gotten Okafor or Al Jefferson?Mavericks could have exceeded the Spurs easily had Donnie Nelson landed Shaq or any other decent big guy like Okafor or Al Jefferson, but dude still insists on his "silence isn't inactivity".
Al Jefferson is just a "decent big guy?"
Compared to Dampier, Nate Robinson is a decent big guy.
New Orleans can be better than it says...
Nice write up
Nice job Rogue, not only do you try to write a decent article, but you use a message board to question my character by callin me a ? That's hilarious that you act like a badass through your mommy's computer
Last edited by djohn2oo8; 07-25-2009 at 01:39 PM.
Well the Grizzles have a 20-10 guy in Randolph and you can't forget OJ and Gay on the wing. If they sign Iverson they might be in the run for 3rd place in the division and maybe a playoff spot.
Rogue in retrospect I don't lose much sleep over losing Shaq due to Dampier's apparent super expiring value next year. Damp/Stack for Shaq would've been an improper allocation of assets and Shaq wouldn't have been that much of a difference maker to begin with IMO.
Furthermore were we ever in the running? douuubts it.
Marion is a slowing-down SF, certainly not a SG. Fail there.Although the crisis of center spot remains unresolved, we did fix the flaw of SG position by adding a remarkable swing guy to our roster list. Marion may not be as good as he was in Phoenix a couple years ago, dude still can drop double digit points and grab nearly ten rebounds per night. And his off-ball moves will definitely bring much more fluency to our offense which used to be crippled by too much ball-handling, of course Marion will also give us a lot on the defensive end.
Otherwise, decent.
wheres the link to this...what a shame...
never mind I can now tell you wrote this....
He meant by putting Marion at SF and sliding Howard over to SG....
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you''ll be missed...not nube.
Blah blah hornets financial issues getting blown up blah blah.
Shinn already said he wouldn't trade players for financial reason if the trade would make the team worse. We weren't going to get a whole lot from OKC, but we were getting back all expiring contracts, which would have allowed us to sign one of the few quality bigs that were available this offseason. None of which had degenerative foot and toe issues. Wilcox and Smith would have been a lot more helpful than Chandler playing at 70%
Come up with new jokes please.
Also, it's kind of bittersweet to see our division no longer be as strong as it has been for so long.
worse than grizzlies? Sweet Jesus
Rockets 10-11
PG John Wall
SG Lebron/Dwade
SF Tmac
PF Scola
C Yao
.................................................. ............................
Tank it babe!
Is any all-division team this good?
Paul/Parker/Kidd or Brooks
Mayo/Ginobilli/Ariza or Terry
Gay/Marion/Jefferson or Howard
Dirk/West/Scola or Randolph
Duncan/Chandler/Gasol or Thebeet
Ginobilli could have started, but that 6th man position fits him so well. If T-mac and Yao were healthy, our all-division team would be downright sick!
thanks bro, i appreciate it. your character has been lost for many years since the moment you signed your name on the contract that made you give up your former citizenship. There's nothing wrong to be an immigrant and millions of other immigrants are also living in the american soil on their hard work, unlike someone else that kept acting like a clown talking trash to the foreign basketball fans like me. Your blunt performances and terrible acting skills can only drag down the reputation of every american's including your own. The US immigrant officers and yourself both made a horrific mistake in making you an american citizen, I'm not sure if the US would have been free from the current problems without you but it's quite certain the situation would be a little bit less severe if you were out.
Using a twelve-man roster, I make
Atlantic
Rondo, Harris
Allen, Iguodala
Pierce, Turkoglu
Garnett, Brand, Bosh
Lopez, Bargnani, Perkins
Central
Rose, Stuckey
Hamilton, Gordon, Redd
James, Deng, Granger
Villanueva, Noah
O'Neal, Bogut
Southeast
Arenas, Nelson
Wade, Johnson, Carter
Lewis, Wallace
Okafor, Diaw, Horford
Howard, Haywood
Pacific
Nash, Davis
Bryant, Ellis, Martin
Artest, Richardson
Stoudemire, Randolph
Gasol, Bynum, Biedrins
Northwest
Williams, Billups
Roy, Smith
Anthony, Durant
Boozer, Aldridge, Millsap
Nene, Okur, Jefferson
Southwest
Paul, Parker
Ginobili, Terry
Howard, Gay, Battier
Nowitzki, Gasol, West
Duncan, Chandler
I think the Atlantic and Southeast division teams are a little better than the Southwest overall.
Nice job w/ the teams. Gasol is a center though. Howard wouldn't start over marion, jefferson, and Gay. I'd still take the SW division.
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