The Utah Jazz will have a good season and will finally make it to the Playoffs. Probably as a 6-8 seed. Deron Williams is starting to look like and All Star guard and Carlos Boozer and Okur will have breakout seasons. Just watch. They will make the Playoffs this year.
Not to bring this thread back onto the Lakers but I seriously believe we will be the surprise team of the season with around 50-55 wins. Most of the writers have written "they will scrape into the playoffs because they have Phil Jackson." I think we will upset alot of these sports writers.
What do you mean finally? It's not like they were expected to make the playoffs yet. Hell, they've been better than a lot of people thought they'd be right now. They've been very competetive and haven't rolled over and died during games. Beyond that, last season they had a plethora of injuries to deal with. May and Okafor didn't even play 30 games each and Gerald Wallace missed something like 26 games last year. Despite all that, they still didn't finish with the worst record in the league.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Detroit and Orlando</div> how would detroit be considered a surprise team? unless your talking about them being alot worse without ben.
<div class="quote_poster">CrazyHops Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">orlando Magic</div> Suprise teams this season: Magic Hawks Hornets & the Bobcats They're on the rise. Should be alot of fun to watch! Thank God for NBA tv!
<div class="quote_poster">Moo2K4 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">What do you mean finally? It's not like they were expected to make the playoffs yet. Hell, they've been better than a lot of people thought they'd be right now. They've been very competetive and haven't rolled over and died during games. Beyond that, last season they had a plethora of injuries to deal with. May and Okafor didn't even play 30 games each and Gerald Wallace missed something like 26 games last year. Despite all that, they still didn't finish with the worst record in the league.</div> The Magic have had the hype since getting Francis and have failed. That's the hype I'm talking about. Yeah, they did better AT THE END OF THE SEASON. You can't go by that at all. If the Bobcats are healthy, they are going to be a nasty team to watch out for.
Eastern Conference - Atlanta Hawks, Orlando Magic, Toronto Raptors Western Conference - Golden State Warriors, Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets oh yea, Bobcats Merged posts, try not to double post next time ~ J
<div class="quote_poster">CLos Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">The Magic have had the hype since getting Francis and have failed. That's the hype I'm talking about. Yeah, they did better AT THE END OF THE SEASON. You can't go by that at all. If the Bobcats are healthy, they are going to be a nasty team to watch out for.</div>Sorry,but I actually misread your post. I thought you were saying Charlotte will finally make the playoffs. I do mostly agree about Orlando. Though, I wouldn't necessarily say they were being hyped. They had a solid squad and many might have expected them to make the playoffs, but they weren't getting hyped as much as the otherside of that Francis deal was.
I'd have to say Magic in the East and the T'Wolves out West. If the Magic can finally figure out a way to make their offense focus more on Dwight Howard, I have no doubt that he's ready to become a superstar and really take this team on his back. Hill is solid when he's right, and Turkoglu showed some more flashes of consistency last year (see how I flipped that?). Nelson will be a year wiser and better, as will Ariza. Two guys who could have a mini-breakout along with Howard: Darko (I can't believe I just said that), and Bogans, who I think was a fantastic pickup after losing Stevenson. And I LOVE that Brian Hill got a young team to play defense. That's going to help them more than they'll ever know if they can keep it up. That's how you build a long-term winning team. If Minnesota can get KG back on board early on, it'd really help. I like their pick of Foye; I like it a lot. He's a guy who KG has to be excited about having. And if you consider Ricky Davis part of it, they've got a potentially really solid backcourt that's kind of flying under the radar. If this team can get back to playing defense like it did two and three years ago, think about this: they've got two guys who you know will average 20+ ppg, and two others (Foye and James) who wouldn't shock me to see score 15 or so ppg. They've got the scoring ability, they've got a potentially excellent young lead guard, they've got a superstar who can be the best in the league when he's fully focused, and they've got some solid role players. If they can find any semblance of center play, this team can go far. Other picks: New Orleans (it was tough not to go off on a tangent about them; I liked their aggresiveness in the off season. If only they hadn't dumped PJ Brown) Houston (I loved their off season. Snyder and Battier will both have bigger impacts than you expect) And, call me crazy, Boston.
<div class="quote_poster">Moo2K4 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Sorry,but I actually misread your post. I thought you were saying Charlotte will finally make the playoffs. I do mostly agree about Orlando. Though, I wouldn't necessarily say they were being hyped. They had a solid squad and many might have expected them to make the playoffs, but they weren't getting hyped as much as the otherside of that Francis deal was.</div> Didn't mean to confuse you there man. Yeah, lol, I wasn't talking about Charlotte. But, the Magic have had a little hype about making the playoffs but I believe THIS SEASON they will do it. The pieces are there. They have Brian Hill who is a good coach. They have D12 who should have a breakout year. They have Jameer Nelson who should ALSO have a breakout year. If Grant Hill stays healthy then that will definitely help the Magic on the offensive and defensive side. The bench is also solid. Redick could contribute big for us and Turkoglu is a solid SF. Darko could also do some damage after he's been underrated and criticized against. Yeah, after Houston got T-Mac, they thought they were going to the NBA championship. But injuries always take a toll on that team and they didn't do much in the postseason. I think HOUSTON this year is gonna do great with Battier and Wells. I personally would have liked to see how Rudy Gay would do with T-Mac but........
Hopefully the Celtics... But I would say the Chicago Bulls, even though they were already pretty impressive last year. Ben Gordon has another year under his belt and they know have Ben Wallace.
<div class="quote_poster">Answer_AI03 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">how would detroit be considered a surprise team? unless your talking about them being alot worse without ben.</div> Yeea thats what i meant. Cos most people think ben was the heart of our team, and we dont have a chance at making a good playoff run without him.
