This reminds me of that Utah Jazz team a few years ago that didn't have any of their star players and were projected to win like 17 games but ended up kicking ass. It's funny how sometimes you don't need star players to be decent if you have the right group of guys. However, that doesn't ring true for championships.
Assuming no injuries (because with the right injuries, no team is a lock). Locks: Lakers, Spurs, Blazers, Nuggets, Mavericks Extremely Likely: Hornets, Jazz Significant Chance: Suns, Rockets, Warriors (all these teams won't make it, but each has a non-trivial chance of sneaking in) Lucky To Make It: Everyone else Definitely Not Going To Make It Even If Every Other Team In The Conference Lost Their Two Best Players To Injuries: Sacramento
i agree with the locks (barring injuries) i think the jazz, hornets, rockets and suns are very close. in all honesty... i think the blazers belong in this group too.
i don't see tmac doing much positive for the rockets when he comes back. he'll be less than a year off microfracture surgery and won't really fit in with what the rockets are doing. right now everyone on the team plays hard on defense(though there still is no inside defensive presence which definitely hurts the overall defense) and is unselfish offensively. they play good defense and push the tempo. that's never been tmac's game. starting 3-1 is good for the rockets, but their great shooting isn't going to be there every night. they are likely to win most of the games when they shoot 45+% from three, but i don't see how that could be expected to continue at the rate it has. i can't wait to see how good this team can be with yao in the middle at 100%, unfortunately that's at least a year away at this point.
Aaron Brooks continues to get better and is still young. Trevor Ariza is another greta up and coming player who plays both defense and offense.
Brooks embarrassed Deron Williams on his home court. Williams could not stay with him (Sound familiar?) and he never tried to post him up to utilize the size difference.
Maybe but there's no shot blocker in there, but PER differential wise, are there more than a handful of bangers that are better than Hayes down there?
hayes is a great man to man post defender and he's also very good at drawing charges and getting into the right spots to close off passing lanes, but it's hard to be a great defensive team without a shot blocking anchor.
People are forgetting this is a Rockets team that took the Lakers to game 7. From what I've seen, Ariza fits better than Artest and Adelman does an excellent job using the players acquired by stat guru Daryl Morey.
The Blazers are not a lock and I hope our players don't they they're a lock. They fought their asses off to get those 54 wins to make the playoffs and it's not a given that they'll do it again. This is going to be a VERY competitive year. I think the Suns are gonna have a great year and they didn't make the playoffs last season. Houston is looking good early too.
i would love it, but i don't see it as a possibility at all. essentially this rockets team went 2-2 against the lakers in the playoffs, but the lakers really didn't show up for those games(the losses) at all.
The Rockets continue to impress me. There isn't a smarter, harder working team in the league. I suspect even Gregg Popovich looks at their effort and finds his Spurs wanting.
It's not even if they make the playoffs. I am saying they are a tougher team than many think. They will underestimate many teams and steal wins. They may never be close to making the playoffs, but I suspect they will be beating some high quality teams on effort alone.
Effort is most of the battle. Most NBA players are extremely talented. The question is, is the motor running? Right now the reason they are winning is effort and confidence. I would have to imagine after everybody writing them off with major players hurt, that every player on that team has an axe to grind.
