2009 Magic reached the NBA Finals despite the loss of their All Star point guard. 2009 Rockets took the Lakers to a 7th game after losing Yao (and McGrady). No other team got that close to ousting the eventual champs. 2008 Lakers reached the NBA Finals despite the loss of Andrew Bynum. 2006 Suns reached game 6 of the WCF without Amare Stoudemire Not an injury but the Bulls won 55 games in 93-94 without Michael Jordan. 1999 Knicks reached the Finals despite the loss of Patrick Ewing. The 1980 Lakers lost Kareem Abdul-Jabbar during the Finals. Magic started at center, played every position, and the Lakers won the championship in Game 6 in Philly. Nelson, Yao, Bynum, Amare, Jordan, Ewing, and Kareem are all better than Oden. If those guys can have success without them. We can have success without Oden.
That brings me a step away from the full on tank mode, but I don't think we're as good without Greg as all these other teams are without their stars.
I know you want to think that Oden was that important to our team, but he wasn't. Joel is a very good rebounder and plays very good defense. Yes, we'll lose some of Oden's offense, but Roy's added 4-5 pgg plus LMA's added 3-4 ppg will make up for that. Just look at the end of tonight's game. The "pecking order," as Roy put it, was clear. This is Roy's team. Now that Roy doesn't have to worry about throwing the ball inside and standing around, he can show us exactly how great he is with the ball in his hands.
I really liked watching that team. Allan Houston when healthy was one of my favorite players to watch. Then you had Sprewell and Larry Johnson, with JVG as coach. That team had some heart.
Oden ment everything for this team. He probably will never be the player he should have been. We might rally together and make the playoffs and even get lucky and make it out of the first round which I doubt but you never know. We will never be a top team without Oden no matter what the hell you think!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here's some more facts. We're down to 8 healthy bodies out of 15. We've got an ICU's worth of players on the shelf. This team will be lucky to win 35 games. Book it.
Are you SERIOUS? I will absolutely book that. 35 games??? Even though our two best players are healthy? Sorry, Nik. We're gonna win at LEAST 50. Did you watch tonight's game?
Yes, I did watch tonight's game, and if you think this looks like a fifty win team with a skeleton crew for a roster then I can only assume you've finally gone completely over the edge.
Niko - you're usually pretty spot on with your posts but I'd be shocked if this team only won another 22 games the rest of this season. I know we're all in shock and flabbergasted by GO's injury but (barring even more injuries to this team - which would be incredibly hard to believe) I don't see how this team wins only 35 this year. My god, I'd have to guess that we've bottomed out on our luck at this point, haven't we? So we'll start getting some of the other players back and they'll contend. Not as well as we would have with GO healthy - but this is not a 35 win lottery-type team. All that said, I was pretty OK with Speed's up and down posting last year. But to put it into terms that he'd understand, somewhere along the line this season, his posting really jumped the shark.
I just saw this team's interior defense take a major step backward tonight, and I don't see the perimeter D getting magically fixed any time soon. If Batum were weeks away instead of months, and if we weren't so woefully depleted at center and power forward then, yeah I could see a .500 season or maybe even 43 to 45 wins, but as of right now (barring any major trades that may or may not happen) there just isn't enough production and depth at the 3-5 positions on this team. Martell is completely ineffective and inconsistent, Rudy is up and down like a yo-yo, Howard is way old, Dante is way young and very raw at times, Pendergraph coming back in a month is no guarantee of adequate production, Mills coming back whenever doesn't really help us at all. And the list goes on. Maybe I'm dead wrong and am just reacting because of the devastating news about Oden, but a .500 record from this point forward just doesn't seem like it's in the cards. I'll still be watching, rooting and supporting the team, I'll just be reining in any expectations of the post-season.
Well, like I said - you're usually pretty spot on but this is one time I sincerely hope you're dead wrong. They haven't been playing great ball by any means and GO going down for the rest of the season is like getting tazer'ed in the balls - but I've gotta think that between Rudy, Dre, Bayless, Dante, LMA and, yes, possibly even Martell, one or more of them will step up and raise their production. Pendegraph and Mills are unknown quantities so I don't expect much, if anything, from them at all. But there's plenty of talent on this team to at least make the playoffs - even without Greg. They just have to resolve whatever been stuck up their asses these last few weeks. But shit, if we go 35-47 this year . . . I don't think I can take the grief this forum's going to bring after every loss (hell, even after wins sometimes too)!!!
