Spurs - Brutal schedule and will suffer on back to backs. Has age caught them? take a look at their sced. By no means are playoffs a lock at all. Suns - Their awful defense catches up to them? Amare is pissed about trades? OKC - They come back to earth? Houston, Portland will make strong pushes and both will be very close to getting in. Can anyone fall out of the race out of those 3? I just dont see the Lakers, JAzz, Nuggets, Mavs fading obviously. Why is fucking Houston always a thorn in our side????? They ruined our season last year and likely will do it again this year. Grizz and Hornets will have to play out of their minds to get in. Dont see this happening. Of course their are injuries but lets hope it isn't roy's injury that is this years amare. I would think 1 major injury to the spurs and they are dead.
I think Houston. They're gonna find out how valuable Landry was to them this year real quick I imagine.
I can see with the favorable schedule we have to end the year and a returning Brandon Roy, we could get a similar seed to last year. Either a 4 or a 5.
Out of sheer morbid curiosity Mixum, since you post a lot about making playoffs and seedings and things (which is fine, btw)...I'm just wondering if your interest in it is due to the thought that we can make some noise, or just that you as a fan are more personally geared toward making the playoffs (even in a first-round sweep) than other things?
Neither, he's more personally geared toward making actual fans of the Blazers blood boil with his nonsense.
Houston I think Landry was important to Houston, but mostly I'm just not sure whether Kevin Martin helps or if he won't fit in. He is a scorer, but I just wonder if he will cause a similar skid as he did when returning from injury to the Kings. I just can't believe the Spurs not in the playoffs. If it had to be one team that would be in right now, it would be Phoenix.
Uncle Cliffy! "The Kings acquired Carl Landry in a three-way trade with the Knicks and Rockets on Thursday afternoon. Landry is averaging 16.2 points and 5.5 rebounds in the 51 games he has played off the bench this season. It has been 17 years since a player averaged 15+ points and 5+ rebounds per game as a sub (minimum: 50 games off the bench). The last player to do that was Portland's Clifford Robinson during the 1992-93 season (18.9 points and 6.4 rebounds in 70 games"
I'd give Portland and OK City about a 75% chance of making the playoffs. Portland has the uncertainty of Brandon Roy, but actually improved themselves with a trade. OKC just hasn't made a stretch run like this before, and I could see them fading down the stretch. If Phoenix can survive their early March home games - the Jazz twice, Portland, Lakers, Hornets - they'll be fine. Houston has the best chance of the teams on the outside looking in. Memphis has a brutal April (Hornets, Magic, Rockets, Spurs, Mavericks, Nuggets, and Thunder - many of them on the road), so they've got to get in the running by the end of March, if they're going to have a chance. New Orleans has got to be hosed without CP3.
Exactly who is going to knock them out? Houston? Memphis? New Orleans? The way I look at it, the reason Portland, OKC and PHX are pretty much guaranteed playoff spots is because: 1. Chris Paul is out for a couple of months. Game over New Orleans unless you get lucky. 2. Memphis had been playing well but started to fall apart as of late. 3. Houston is Houston. They are playing above their heads to just get where they are now. I believe their trade actually made them worse, but I could be wrong. I just don't see how adding another wing player into the works when they already had Battier and Ariza will make a difference.
I'm basically saying there's a small chance - 1 in 4, for argument's sake - that either the Blazers or Thunder fall apart down the stretch. All Houston would have to do - and that's the team I'd bet on making it if the Thunder or Blazers stumble - is not fall apart. Portland makes it so long as B-Roy is at least serviceable and the team has no more serious injury problems. I just think losing one more key player, whether it's Aldridge, Miller, Webster, Fernandez, Batum, or, now Camby, could allow the wheels to come off. Just like the Rockets, who have been playing over their heads, so have the Blazers. And Houston has a better coach (I like Nate, but he's no Adelman). With Oklahoma City, teams that have veterans and are on the cusp of the playoffs, or are fighting for playoff position, start playing better after the All-Star break. Young teams sometimes wilt under that pressure. I don't expect that out of the Thunder, but it could happen.
