SPORTS ILLUSTRATED NBA Season Preview 2013-14

1. Clippers
2. Thunder
3. Spurs
4. Rockets
5. Warriors
6. Lakers
7. Mavericks
8. T-Wolves
9. Grizzlies
10. Nuggets
11. Us
12. Pelicans
13. Kings
14. Jazz
15. Suns

Thunder win over Heat

No mention of Thomas Robinson in our preview. Very positive on Lopez. Not sure why they had us so low.

 

Can't wait for all these dildos to jump on our bandwagon by December.

 

I would wager all of mags life savings on us being better then 11 in the west.

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memphis was better than the lakers last year, the lakers got worse
rankings makes sense

 

LOL in what way did the Lakers get better this offseason? Must be that Kobe returning hype or something...

 

It seems like a lot of people are hating on Memphis. Does Lionel Hollins have that many fans?

I think we'll be better than the Nuggets, I've got to say. But I will be (pleasantly) surprised if we make the playoffs.

(Also: any ranking that doesn't have Houston at the top is probably suspect.)

 

Having the Lakers ranked 6th is fucking laughable. Gives this prediction zero credibility.

 

Grizzlies suck. That was proven last year (when playing healthy team, they got swept) and their bench is worse this year. D'Antoni has better team for his system this year. Getting rid of Howard is a plus

 

If so he's the worst damn coach of all time.

 

So you think the Lakers will be better than the blazers?

 

D'Antoni is pretty bad. He's a poor man's George Karl; able to do well in the regular season and fail in the post season.

Hell, he couldn't even take talent in NY and L.A. To greatness. It's embarrassing really!

 

No but Lakers will be better than most in here think.

 

Wow, so many things wrong in that post.

First the Grizzlies don't suck. They won 56 games last year. You don't win 56 games by sucking. There is no way they finish behind the Lakers this season. One word: defense. The Grizzlies have it, the Lakers don't. You're right about one thing though. Since D'Antoni doesn't give a shit about defense, his roster this year is a better match for his coaching style and philosophy.

The Lakers were below league average in both defense and rebounding last season - and that was with Dwight Howard, 3-time DPOY who led the league in rebounding. Do you really think the Lakers will be a better defending, better rebounding team by replacing Dwight Howard with Chris Kaman? If you do: learn the game, then post.

And the Lakers perimeter defense sucks. Blake, Farmar and especially Nash are all defensive liabilities. By comparison, the Grizzlies have better interior defense, (Marc Gasol = DPOY) and MUCH better perimeter defense with Tony Allen, Tayshaun Price and Mike Conley. Defense is half the game and Memphis was the best defensive team in the league last season.

If you really want to see the difference between the Lakers and Grizzlies, go to 82games.com and compare the Net Production and Simple Ratings for the players on both teams, and also check out Kaman's stats for Dallas last season and Farmar's for New Jersey two years ago (he didn't even play in the NBA last year). The Lakers only had 4 players last season with a positive Net Production, and two of them are gone (Howard and Jamison). The other two were Kobe and Pau. Kaman had a negative Net Production for Dallas last season, and the last time Jordan Farmar had a positive Net Production was six years ago.

And finally, ANY success the Lakers have this year will be 100% tied to Kobe's health. Other than Pau, the rest of that roster flat out sucks. Pau is still a good second option, but he can't carry a team all by himself. Latest report is Kobe isn't even running at full speed isn't close to practicing with the team,ad is several weeks away from being game ready.

I'm not a betting man, but if I was, I'd say the Grizzlies finishing ahead of the Lakers is the closest thing to a sure thing out there.

BNM

 

Depends on what "most here think". I think they will be worse than last year, will finish below 0.500 and will miss the playoffs. They won't be the worst team in the West, but no way is that a playoff team. Terrible defense, weak rebounding, old and injured does not sound like a playoff team to me.

BNM

 

The only reason the Lakers made the playoffs last year was because down the stretch they, as a freaken jump shooting team, led the NBA in FTA's while the team they were racing against(Jazz) suddenly started taking over 5 less FT's a game and were attacking the paint with a vengeance. Tell me that isn't a "coincidence" because you damn well know who the NBA would rather have in the playoffs.

 

Well since SI said the Lakers will be better than us, and has us 11th in the West, I am calling them out. I don't give a shit if people think they suck, just as long as they suck worse than us.

 

Since Stern retired the Lakers have no chance at making the playoffs.

 

This is good bulletin board material for the team.

 

Well, in this case, I think it has more to do with their personnel than any influence from the commissioner. Have you looked at that roster?

Kingspeed: who exactly, have the Lakers added to their roster that makes you think they will be better this year than last? They lost Howard (their best defender, best rebounder and 2nd leading scorer), Artest/World Peace (2nd best defender and 5th leading scorer) and Jamison (6th leading scorer) and Kobe is coming back from a major injury and weeks away from being ready to play.

Have they added a single above average player to replace any of these guys?

Do they have any young players you expect to have a breakout year?

Even if Kobe was 100% right now, I don't see how they will be better this year than last.

BNM

 

I heard they want to bring back Shannon Brown, that'll totally turn them around and vault them into the playoffs.