spurs have to see if mason is the real deal
if spurs sign hill and keep tp rested for playoffs
IF MANU is 100% ever again?
lots of question marks now
How good do you expect the Spurs to be this year? Try to be as unbiased and logical as possible. Will Ian even play for the Spurs? Will he contribute? What about Hill? What about Mason? Can Mason be a legit factor off the bench? Will Thomas/Oberto/Ian be a good frontcourt? Will the Spurs' shooting suffer with the loss of Barry and Finley (I realize Finley is still on the team but he is too old to consistently shoot well)?
Personally I still think the Spurs will be good. We have the Big Three + Bowen and that is a good enough core to be a solid team in the league. However, at this point, I would say that we aren't legit contenders. I say the Spurs will be one of those teams that is definitely a threat, but in all likelyhood is just a second round PO team. I hope I'm wrong but I can't see the Spurs as being more than that at this point unless the team comes together surprisingly well.
With the latter said, that is one thing I want the Spurs to do this season. I want them to put more effort into the regular season. And I don't mean go balls to the wall and I don't mean Pop increasing minutes. I mean putting forth more effort in developing team chemistry. IMO that really hurt us last year. The Spurs didn't give a about the regular season (completely understandable) but with that, they never really developed solid chemistry as a team. To me, that was clearly evident in the Lakers series. When Ginobili went down, it was the role players' time to step up and Barry was truly the only one who seized that opportunity. The Spurs lacked that team chemistry that the Lakers and Celtics had. That's one thing I hope I see this season is more of an effort to develop some chemistry. I think our championship hopes hinge on that factor alone (along with health).
So how does everyone else feel about the Spurs this season? I'm still excited regardless and I've found myself watching old Spurs games to fill that void until the season starts.
spurs have to see if mason is the real deal
if spurs sign hill and keep tp rested for playoffs
IF MANU is 100% ever again?
lots of question marks now
Keys to a Spurs Championship:
-Mason is the second coming of S-Jax
-Ginobili comes back in December/Januray with the 05 look
-An injury to the lakers/rocktes yields them from running away with the #1 spot.
-Spurs earn a #1 or #2 seed spot
-Hill/Mahimni are not good or bad
Looks like wishful thinking there on your partjk
It's all good though, if the Rockets don't win,I always root for the Spurs to keep the O' Brien in Texas![]()
Utah, LA, Houston and NO all probably move ahead. The first three are better teams regardless and NO will win many more games than you while Manu's out. Maybe Dallas if Carlisle gets more out of them than Avery. I'll say 5th in the west though. Portland gets better, but they aren't as good as SA yet. The Suns will make the playoffs, but not ahead of the Spurs. Yeah, I predict 5th.
1. LA
2. Utah
3. Houston
4. NO
5. SA
6. Dallas
7. Portland
8. Phoenix
That means a rematch with New Orleans, if you're healthy, I see you winning that series, but frankly, I think you're a year older and not very likely to be healthy.
Utah will not have the second best record in the west.
he said unbiasedly and logically.
the only reason you didn't put utah in front of the lakers was cause you'd then sound extremely 'homerish'.
team chemisty uh? i'm going to respectfully disagree with that one.
we lost to the lakers last year because we couldn't make a shot or grab a rebound (in that order of importance). the reason we beat new orleans is because we executed in critical moments (last 3 minutes).
i'm not buying in to the rising power of the western conference teams. at the end of the playoffs we were just as banged up as we will be to start this season and we were among the top 4 teams in the league. teams like portland, houston, dallas, denver, and golden state have much more to prove.
here's how i see the west breaking down:
Top 3:
LA, Phoenix, San Antonio (pick an order)
4-6
New Orleans, Houston, Utah (pick an order)
7-8
Portland, Dallas (or minnesota, denver, gs)
I mean if you think that Houston will be better along with the Hornets, how can Utah be ahead of them when both of the aforementioned teams had better records than Utah last year and the Lakers still being a consensus number 1?
Yeah I read that and was going to respond but I didn't really see the point. I don't think Utah will be that good, that's all I'll say.
I would probably have it:
LA
Houston
NO
Utah
Spurs
Mavs
Portland
?????
Which would leave a Spurs/Jazz in the first round. I hope this is the way things shake out.
No, I put LA ahead of UT, because LA is by far the better team.
Houston did not have a better record than us last year and still they had a 100% fluke of a 22 game run that will not happen again. And I seem to remember Utah knocking them out of the playoffs two years in a row now. I'm not convinced Artest makes them that much better and I have them moving ahead of SA because the Spurs got worse, not because Houston got better.
NO might have had a better record than us last year, but in case you forgot, it was only like 1 game better or something. I don't know, maybe they'll have a better record again, but we're talking about one or two games out of 164 combined. Too close to bust my chops over, don't you think? Besides, UT would stomp the out of them if it came down to a matchup so I put UT ahead.
See above.
how did the spurs get worse? by not signing corey maggette? by not adding a big name role player who will max out at 10-15 minutes a game and have a minimal impact to the bottomline? not to be a smart ass, but can you explain that.
Sure. You're an old team that's now one year older and your 2 guard, (one of the best in the league) is going to miss several months. That makes you worse IMO. Maybe not come playoff time, (although I think your chances for injury increase with the age of your team) but if we're talking the regular season, you guys are going to take a step back.
56-26
That still doesn't change my mind. My mind won't be changed until I see Utah do something significant in the playoffs or until I see them show themselves to be dominant in the regular season. So far over the past 2 years, they haven't shown regular season dominance and their only major accomplishment was beating the Rockets in 7 games, with the 7th game on the road. That's it.
Okay, not to jack your thread, but by that logic, what has Houston or NO done in terms of dominance or playoff performance that makes you think they'd fare better? And don't say that 22 game streak, because we knocked them out of the playoffs. And IIRC, we were the team that broke it. God hopes, you aren't putting Phoenix, Dallas or a Manu-less Spurs ahead of us. Look, it's fine if you guys want to disagree with me about putting Utah 2, but don't call me a homer. My case is just as compelling as you could make for any other elite team, if not more so.
2nd round out. Unless they meet Hornets or LA in 1st round.
Utah and HOU still have yet to prove themselves.
Houston has done nothingI will be the first to tell you that. But they have been dominant in the regular season (part of that 22- game win streak, a large part, was not a fluke. I'd say the last 8 games were a fluke and their playoff run was a fluke as well. A
Anyway, I'm not saying the Jazz won't be good but they aren't number 2 in the conference. They are behind Lakers, Hornets, and Houston without a doubt.
Actually I probably shouldn't be so high on Houston but I'm basing that off of their big three and chemistry I saw last season. My logic is a little flawed but oh well![]()
5th place and a 2nd round flameout would not surprise me.
However I hold out hope that the Big 3 with help from the newbies will overcome Coatails Pop and pull off another championship.
Kome, Bymum, Gasol David West or Yao could get injured. But i'd rather see us earn the win then some injury default le.
It's funny how you make it seem like the Jazz beat the Rockets at full strength. Not even a mention of one star player(Yao) being out and another one of our starters (Alston) out for most of the series.Also, if the streak is such a fluke then why isn't it being done more often?Not even the 95-96 Bulls or last year's Celtics can claim a longer streak.
TD is still the man, if Manu and Tony are healthy and playing at an all star level consistantly come playoff time and we get somthing off the bench, TD can lead the Spurs to another le. We are in the finals last year in my opinion if not for Manu's health.
We beat you at full strength the year before and Alston is a non-factor next to Deron. I don't care whether you're starting Alston or Brooks. And it was a fluke because of the reason you yourself gave- much, much, much better teams haven't done it.
Plus, to be honest, I think we have a harder time with Hayes/Landry than we do with Yao.
If we are healthy, we'll go 82-0
No wait....
It's Bynum who said that
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