<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Chutney:</div><div class="quote_post">You can't determine how good a team is by rating the top 3 players on the team. In fact, that's been the Nets' biggest weakness the last few years: their "Big 3" is better than anybody elses, but who else is there? The Rockets best player (McGrady) is better than the Nets' best player (Carter or Kidd). The presence of Yao alone, makes the Rockets' frontcourt better. And, with either Battier or Bonzi coming off the bench along with Luther Head/Rafer Alston/Bobby Sura, the Rockets' have better depth. And, for people saying that the Rockets have yet to prove anything that warrant such a high ranking: they're are just two seasons removed from a 50-win season in the West. And that was before Yao's improvement and all of the additions that they've added over the past couple offseasons (Battier, Bonzi, Rafer, Luther Head, etc.). While, the Nets have made playoff noise consistently, its always been in a very shallow Eastern Conference.</div> first man to start talking some sense. it is comparing apples to oranges. FOr me it all comes down to cohesiveness - the Nets are way more cohesive right now than the Rockets, so when the talent is matched almost evenly, cohesiveness wins. That is the case almost all the time - the first time I've seen it not happen was when Miami beat Dallas in the finals.
second man to start talking some sense- havent we all learned from reporters that they never ever never favor the nets and we always get worked up over this
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Chutney:</div><div class="quote_post">You can't determine how good a team is by rating the top 3 players on the team. In fact, that's been the Nets' biggest weakness the last few years: their "Big 3" is better than anybody elses, but who else is there? The Rockets best player (McGrady) is better than the Nets' best player (Carter or Kidd). The presence of Yao alone, makes the Rockets' frontcourt better. And, with either Battier or Bonzi coming off the bench along with Luther Head/Rafer Alston/Bobby Sura, the Rockets' have better depth. And, for people saying that the Rockets have yet to prove anything that warrant such a high ranking: they're are just two seasons removed from a 50-win season in the West. And that was before Yao's improvement and all of the additions that they've added over the past couple offseasons (Battier, Bonzi, Rafer, Luther Head, etc.). While, the Nets have made playoff noise consistently, its always been in a very shallow Eastern Conference.</div> Krstic has proven himself to be a top 10 center in the league and he's still improving, and Collins adds defense and hustle to a star-studded starting line-up. Our bench looks pretty good this year, and can only do better than our crap bench last year. We had the worst bench in the league last year and still won 50 games. Also, the Nets have now had three years to gel, while the Rockets played around with too many starting line-ups last year, and will take awhile to get used to eachothers playing styles. You're also assuming that band-aid's back is going to hold-up an entire season, which I don't see happening. Until he can prove that he can actually play at least 75% of the season at a high level, I don't consider him better than VC or Kidd.
Kidd>Alston Carter>Wells Jefferson< TMac Collins<Battier Krsctc<Yao bench i give the edge to housten too