Now that we've started 2009, what would you say has been the biggest (non Blazer) disappointment in the NBA? I'd put Philadelphia, Toronto, Indiana, the Clippers and Warriors tops (or bottoms) of my list. How about you?
Definitely the Sixers. They have loads of talent but have yet to be able to put anything together. I'm very surprised at how low in the standings they are right now. I didn't expect as much from the Pacers or Warriors this year, so I guess they haven't been as much of a disappointment to me.
Clips and Indy? No. No expectations. Toronto and Philly on the other hand, playing in the weak East (after the top few teams), I fully expected to cruise into the playoffs. I guess the lesson is that care must be taken in putting teams together. Toronto had great guard play the last couple of season's and played small and took tons of jumpers style and out of need. Trading a good guard for a washed up big seems to have sucked the life out of that team. Philly was a team that played open court basketball and used speed and athleticsm to defend and fast break. That can't find the groove with a half-court Brand. They are not better defensively with Brand, and offensively he turns Igudola and Miller into second rate offensive weapons.
Toronto is by far the biggest dissapointment mainly due to the fact that they they are the same team as last year but now inlcuding J.O. Now if I were to choose my biggest suprise this year, it would have to be the Nuggets . I didn't expect them to do much of anything this year, but with the aquisition of Billups, they have become quite a force.
Detroit is disappointing, based on pre-season expectations, but that is largely due to self-inflicted wounds. Toronto and Philadelphia, of course. Like Masbee, I had no real expectations about the Clippers or Pacers, so they're not disappointing to me.
West Disappointments: Not really too many. I knew GS, Sac, Minn, Mem, and OKC were going to suck. I did think the Clips were going to be a bit better, but after Brand left my expectations went down. East Disappointments: Toronto, Philadelphia, Washington is MUCH worse than I thought (though injuries to Gilbert and Haywood play a big role), and Detroit isn't as good as I thought (but the trade had something to do w/ it). Surprises: Portland is better than I thought Orlando is better than I thought New York is better than I thought Denver is better than I thought (trade) New Jersey is better than I thought Atlanta is a little better than I thought (I had them at #6 or 7 in the east though, but surely not 21-10) I knew Cleveland would be good. Same w/ LA and Boston like everyone. I picked Miami to make the playoffs. Houston is a little worse than I thought, but not by much... they will probably be better by the end of the year. That is MrJayremmie's summary of 08. It was a wonderful year. Go Blazers! Go Ducks (10 wins!)!
You said it pretty well. I underestimated Lopez's D for NJ (I thought the PHX Lopez would be the better defender). We're about the same record I thought, but not firing on all cylinders yet (I didn't expect Oden and Webster to have the injuries, obviously). New York is about where I thought they'd be with D'Antoni, though I thought it would be their guards going off instead of Harrington and Randolph that really played well.
Toronto is my biggest disappointment as well. No way a team with that much talent should be last in their division in the East, and have a worse record than NY who's played with seven players all season.
Biggest team disappointments have to be Philly and the Clippers, both seemed to make solid personnel moves in free agency that have done absolutely nothing for them. and on an individual basis, I'd have to say Andre Iguodala looks like a shell of himself the few times I've seen him play.
I disagree on Toronto. They have no depth and no starter quality players at the 2 or 3. Their bench is horrible, one of the worst in the league, and their starters pretty much play 3 on 5. In the end, they gave up three solid rotation players (two that started for them last season, and a solid rookie big man) for O'Neal. They also let Delfino walk and got nothing in return. Their off season acquisitions are just horrible (not a single double digit PER between Solomon, Ukic and Adams) and don't even belong in the NBA. I called this before the season started. They are exactly what I thought they'd be. Philadelphia, however, has been a huge disappointment. They added Elton Brand to a team that was five games over 0.500 after the all-star break last season and appeared to be on the rise. They have a lot of veteran talent on that team and a couple pretty solid young players, too. There is no way they should be five games under 0.500 with that much talent playing in that weak division. But, they can still turn it around. In spite of their under achievement and poor record, they are actually only 1 game out of the 8th seed in the East. It's funny, but with all the off season moves that supposedly made the East stronger, it's looking like once again at least one, and probably two teams with losing records will make the play-offs in the East and a team that wins around 48 games in the West will be on the outside looking in come play-off time. The more things change, the more they stay the same. BNM
I agree on Toronto. They may lack depth but they have plenty of talent at least in the starting line up and playing in the east should not be so desolately bad. I did not expect the Clips to be a playoff team, but adding Baron Davis, Marcus Camby and Zach Randolph, they should be a little better than they are. I knew OKC would suck but 4 wins? Not suprised about Warriors. Don Nelson in every coaching gig has his team overachieve the first year, slide back but still be exciting the second year, such the third year. Denver is better than I expected going into the season but the trade accounts for that. Bulls also disappointing. Orlando and Cleveland I figured would contend but both look really good, they could unseat Boston.
From what the "experts" said before the season you have to go with Toronto and Philly. Although I personally didn't think they would THAT good, i still thought they would have better records then this. I thought Philly would have an adjustment period with Brand coming off his injury and a differerent style of ball. As far as Toronto, I like Calderon, just not as much as some of you do. I think Ford was better. But obviuosly injury prone. But his penetration is hard to stop. Can't say that about Calderon.
