Cuz I've been thinking about it too much
July 15th power rankings:
1. Lakers - 'til Miami proves otherwise.
2. Miami - Could probably beat 11 teams in the east 3 on 5.
3. Orlando - Should only be better if Jameer is healthy.
4. Dallas - Most of the talent stayed and they'll have had some time to get accustomed to each other.
5. Utah - Optimistic? probably. But to me it looks like Jazz have turned the loss of Boozer, Matthews and Korver into a net positive.
6. Portland - Either Oden or Camby will be coming off the bench. that's scary for backup Cs in the west.
7. Boston - Yeah they almost beat the Lakers in the Finals, but they had the same record as the 8th seed in the West, and are now another year older.
8. Denver - This seems low for them. Could easily be 2 seed in the West.
9. Oklahoma City - This seems low for them. Could be 2 seed in West.
10. Houston - If Yao Ming is back at full strength the Rockets will be very dangerous.
11. Chicago - Young, talented core adds inside scorer of Boozer's caliber. Boozer immediately makes Rose and Deng better.
12. Phoenix - Losing Amare, adding Turkoglu? Sorry Suns, don't see it.
13. San Antonio - Out of the playoffs this year? Hard to imagine, but I think so.
14. Atlanta - This is how top-heavy the east is and how insane the west is. They drop farther if they send Williams to Cleveland for Shaq.
15. Milwaukee - Dirty Lip needs to heal up and stay healthy. Losing Ridnour might be a bigger deal than people realize.
16. Memphis - Playoff team in the east, stumbling block/Laker feeder in the west.
17. Cleveland - How awesome would it be if the Cavs upset Miami in round 1? Except then I'd have to see Dan Gilbert gloat. . . yuck.
18. Charlotte - This team should be in rebuilding mode, but MJ doesn't know what that means.
19 - 29. Who cares
30. Minnesota - Only Cleveland took a bigger step backward, but they had farther to fall. Replaced their best player with Darko Milicic. Added yet another mediocre PG, trust me, there was no need. They did get the intriguing but unmotivated Michael Beasley, who should score for them at least. The Timberwolves won 15 games last year (2 against the Jazz), they don't look better this year. But hey, thanks for Al Jefferson!
Observations:
The East is a three, maybe four team race and the West is a gauntlet. All 8 seeds in my scenario would be incredibly tough outs come playoff time.
The Northwest division is especially tough, there is absolutely no clear favorite the way there is in the Pacific and Southwest.
There will be a lot of interesting teams to follow once the season actually starts, I don't think I've ever been this intrigued by any offseason in sports before. And I didn't even watch "The Decision."
1. Lakers - 'til Miami proves otherwise.
2. Miami - Could probably beat 11 teams in the east 3 on 5.
3. Orlando - Should only be better if Jameer is healthy.
4. Dallas - Most of the talent stayed and they'll have had some time to get accustomed to each other.
5. Utah - Optimistic? probably. But to me it looks like Jazz have turned the loss of Boozer, Matthews and Korver into a net positive.
6. Portland - Either Oden or Camby will be coming off the bench. that's scary for backup Cs in the west.
7. Boston - Yeah they almost beat the Lakers in the Finals, but they had the same record as the 8th seed in the West, and are now another year older.
8. Denver - This seems low for them. Could easily be 2 seed in the West.
9. Oklahoma City - This seems low for them. Could be 2 seed in West.
10. Houston - If Yao Ming is back at full strength the Rockets will be very dangerous.
11. Chicago - Young, talented core adds inside scorer of Boozer's caliber. Boozer immediately makes Rose and Deng better.
12. Phoenix - Losing Amare, adding Turkoglu? Sorry Suns, don't see it.
13. San Antonio - Out of the playoffs this year? Hard to imagine, but I think so.
14. Atlanta - This is how top-heavy the east is and how insane the west is. They drop farther if they send Williams to Cleveland for Shaq.
15. Milwaukee - Dirty Lip needs to heal up and stay healthy. Losing Ridnour might be a bigger deal than people realize.
16. Memphis - Playoff team in the east, stumbling block/Laker feeder in the west.
17. Cleveland - How awesome would it be if the Cavs upset Miami in round 1? Except then I'd have to see Dan Gilbert gloat. . . yuck.
18. Charlotte - This team should be in rebuilding mode, but MJ doesn't know what that means.
19 - 29. Who cares
30. Minnesota - Only Cleveland took a bigger step backward, but they had farther to fall. Replaced their best player with Darko Milicic. Added yet another mediocre PG, trust me, there was no need. They did get the intriguing but unmotivated Michael Beasley, who should score for them at least. The Timberwolves won 15 games last year (2 against the Jazz), they don't look better this year. But hey, thanks for Al Jefferson!
Observations:
The East is a three, maybe four team race and the West is a gauntlet. All 8 seeds in my scenario would be incredibly tough outs come playoff time.
The Northwest division is especially tough, there is absolutely no clear favorite the way there is in the Pacific and Southwest.
There will be a lot of interesting teams to follow once the season actually starts, I don't think I've ever been this intrigued by any offseason in sports before. And I didn't even watch "The Decision."
posted by b r christensen at 7/15/2010 11:26:00 AM
12 Comments:
I'm totally with you, except for you assessment of Phoenix.
The Nash factor, even in limited minutes, is going to mean big things. Hedo might not make much of a difference, but I expect big things out of Childress.
Amare leaving also isn't going to make that much of a difference. Comparable Suns teams won 54 games without him, and 55 with.
And, also, how many times can we say that the Suns are going to stumble only to have them be a solid threat? I guess one more won't hurt either.
Nash (36)
Richardson (29)
Hill (37)
Turkoglu (33)
Frye (27)
Is that your starting 5? Or,
Nash
Richardson
Turkoglu
Warrick
Lopez
What do you mean by big things from Childress? I'm thinking somewhere around 25 mins per game, 10pts, 6 boards, 2 assists and a steal. The problem with that is he's probably taking minutes away from Dudley cuz they're pretty much the same player except Childress is a bit more athletic, and doesn't shoot the three as well.
Amare leaves a huge gap, which they tried to fill with Warrick, but aside from him noone on the team can score inside, and Warrick's not nearly as efficient or talented. He's not really a defensive upgrade either.
In '06, '07, and '09 Amare played in all but 3 games for the Suns and they were the 2, 3 and 4 seeds in the playoffs. In '08 he missed 30 games and the Suns missed the playoffs.
I would love to be wrong since I love Nash and Hill, but I really don't see Hedo as a good fit on that team, he's a ball suck and will slow things down too much, he was best with a dominant big (Howard) it seems like a very odd choice to pair him with Nash.
Dwayne Wade everyone: "Plus, there's going to be times when we lose 2-3 games in a row, and it seems like the world has crashed down. You all are going to make it seem like the World Trade is coming down again, but it's not going to be nothing but a couple basketball games."
What? I mean, he's right I guess, losing a couple basketball games is not equal to the death of a couple thousand people. What?
I think you have Dallas too high and the Thunder too low. And the Blazers are too unpredictable. I don't want to have to see my friends commit sepiku when "somebody" get injured again.
You might be right Logan, any way you want to rank the 2-8 seeds in the West wouldn't seem too crazy to me.
Still think the Thunder are a little ways away though. Obviously Kevin Durant is the man, but I think their back court is pretty weak. No matter how you spread the minutes among Aldrich, Krstic, Collison, Green, Ibaka and DJ White, it doesn't seem very solid. Those guys are going to have to match up with Aldridge, Oden, Camby, Nene, Martin, Harrington, Jefferson, Millsap, Okur (hopefully) just in their own division. Add in Dirk, Gasol, Bynum, Yao, Scola, Gasol jr., Randolph, Lee, Biedrins, Kaman, Griffin, Duncan, Okafor and West in the conference. . . I smell some struggles.
In the West I think only the Suns, Kings and Wolves have comparably crappy front courts. Unless Cole Aldrich turns out to be the new Brook Lopez, then all bets are off.
sorry I guess I'm specifically talking about 4s and 5s, not including 3s.
Totes magotes. The West is still a crapshoot. Should be interesting until the Lakers 3peat again.
So if it does end up being Miami and LA in the finals (vom) you gotta want Miami right?
Eh Miami's good, but I don't think anyone can handle a double team with a 3rd help.
I think it's a little bit too early to make good rankings. Miami's gotta play a few games first. They could be anywhere in the top 10. Way too early to tell.
not sure what you mean by handle a double team with a third help artificial.
Oh man:
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