<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ballerman2112 @ Sep 11 2006, 07:09 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>How do you know that Amare is 90 percent healthy? And even if he is, his type of injury is something that can happen again very easily. I am almost positive that he will miss at least 10-15 games this season. Also, Phoenix may have a gotten better but so did Lebron James. Nash is getting older as well. Also, Amare is just going to take away minutes from Boris and others so I dont think they will improve THAT much from last year. Also, even though the East isnt as weak as it used to be, they are still worse and it will be easier for them to make it out.</div>I've read articles saying he's in alot better shape, and he played very well in summer league. I know it's just summer league, but he proved that his knee wasn't bothering him. and it wasn't an "injury" per say, it was just a build up in his knee from all the activity. If Amare, a BETTER player will take minutes from Boris, they will play better. Not to metnion that the Suns suffered big time from Kurt Thomas' injury. And Nash being a year older isn't too much of a difference. He is enough of a veteran to compensate for being alittle bit slower. and plus, he is coming back from an mvp season (deservant or not) and he was in great shape last year. Not to mention that the Suns will be a much much much better defensive team this year. Rebounding is half of defense, and they aren't undersized anymore. Shawn Marion will be playing his natural position, which he hasn't been able to do for a long time.
The Suns last year without Marcus Banks, Amare Stoudemire, Tim Thomas and Jumaine Jones were on pace for 60 wins...nuff said?Amare left knee is absolutely 100% healthy. His problem would be not building enough strength to throw down those dunks for a while. There was a very good article in the paper this morning that I will post in the Suns forum about him.Nash isn't that old and he didn't have any problems except for the very end of the season because of his career high in minutes. His pt should drop by about 6-7 minutes with the addition of Marcus Banks so our point guard position is fine.Boris will get his playing time. Amare will play less minutes than two years ago and even though Kurt will start he won't even play 30 minutes. I see Diaw getting around 30. He'll see some time at SF tour defense will be better next year. It really wasn't bad last year and with Banks replacing House as the back-up and another big man with Kurt to help rebound it will improve. I'd put Phoenix at #2 right now but I think they can win it this year.BTW balla, I don't see Piatkowski as anything more than Pat Burke's assistant towel waver and a 10-min of real time per season player for us this year.
Here's my list of top 5 (no particular order)hoenix Suns- they have the best PG in the league, a versatile SF in Shawn Marion, and an undeniably dangerous threat in Amare Stoudemire. I believe even an injured Amare is better than most big men in the league. The Suns have a unique playing style, too. They run more than the "Showtime" Los Angeles Lakers did. The Suns make their opponents tire out quickly.Dallas Mavericks: They don't really have any defensive players on the team, but the Mavs are dominant when it comes to offense. They score tirelessly. I know they had a bad Finals run, but whatever. The Mavs will bounce back. Dirk Nowitzki has proven to be a great offensive player. He's one of the top big men in the league and that's saying a lot about a guy who can barely play D.San Antonio Spurs: Though they seem to have fallen off a bit, I'm sure that the TD, Parker & Manu trio will step back into the spotlight. They still have a great three-point shooter in Brent Barry and one of the best defenders in the league with Bruce Bowens. Also, losing Nazr Muhammad may not have been such a big deal. It opens more room for Tim to play D on either PF or C opponents.New Jersey Nets: This is my favorite team right now, even though I live in California. You can't deny that they put on a show and still have the immense love of winning stuck in their blood vessells. VC, RJ & JKidd make arguably the best trio in the NBA at this moment. JKidd has great D, VC has insane offense and RJ compliments both players with his half-and-half at both D and Offense. The Nets also have young talent in Nenad Krstic. I can see him become a solid rebounder by next season or so.Detroit Pistons: They lost some insane key-defense in Ben Wallace, but still have Chauncey Billups, Sheed, Rip and Tayshaun to help 'em out. The Pistons still have 4 All-Stars on the team. I don't think that anybody can deny that this team is still top 5.Honorable mentions:Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat.Note: I didn't put Cavs up because the team relies on LeBron James & Zydrunas Ilgauskas to do everything. It's as if the rest of the team has no interest in winning. Larry Hughes attempts to help, but he was injured for most of last season so he was no help.I didn't put Miami Heat up because the team has too many old players. They rely on Dwyane Wade a bit too much. DWade has talent, but he can't do everything. Also, Jason Williams isn't much of a PG. DWade almost has the same amount of apg as Jason Williams! That's alarmingly embarrassing. However, I'll give the team respect for prevailing throughout the entire post season and winning the NBA Championship when people claimed that the Mavs would.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Illosophee @ Sep 11 2006, 11:08 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I didn't put Miami Heat up because the team has too many old players. They rely on Dwyane Wade a bit too much. DWade has talent, but he can't do everything. Also, Jason Williams isn't much of a PG. DWade almost has the same amount of apg as Jason Williams! That's alarmingly embarrassing. However, I'll give the team respect for prevailing throughout the entire post season and winning the NBA Championship when people claimed that the Mavs would.</div>Jason Williams and Wade are like the co point guards of the team. Jason Williams is a pass first point guard, unless he gets the ball and is wide open you will hardly see him take the shot. Just like LeBron is basically the point guard of the Cavs, Wade is the same with the Heat. We got a team of two stars and a bunch of good role players, I just don't see how you can replace the champs with the Nets who will never win a title because of there lack of inside presence.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Heatfan32 @ Sep 11 2006, 10:11 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Jason Williams and Wade are like the co point guards of the team. Jason Williams is a pass first point guard, unless he gets the ball and is wide open you will hardly see him take the shot. Just like LeBron is basically the point guard of the Cavs, Wade is the same with the Heat. We got a team of two stars and a bunch of good role players, I just don't see how you can replace the champs with the Nets who will never win a title because of there lack of inside presence.</div>Honestly, I just put New Jersey Nets up on my top 5 list because that's my favorite team. Also, I don't think Miami has any better chance than the Nets do. Miami has too many old players now. They won the 2006 Finals... Big whoop! :yahoo: Oh yeah, etc. etc. However, they will not win another championship. I guarantee it... Or maybe I don't, but whatever. You know what I mean, don't you? I'm just a pissed off Nets' fan, enraged that Miami knocked my team out of the playoffs two years in a row.Hey, you guys can't really blame me for putting NJ above Miami, can you? I mean, that's my team. I have confidence that they will prevail. Haven't you guys ever heard of confidence? I believe in New Jersey. I hope they do turn out to be better than you guys give them credit for. In the mean time, don't suck my dick. Suck yo' own, son! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrlllllllllllllllllllllattt!
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Illosophee @ Sep 11 2006, 10:14 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Honestly, I just put New Jersey Nets up on my top 5 list because that's my favorite team. Also, I don't think Miami has any better chance than the Nets do. Miami has too many old players now. They won the 2006 Finals... Big whoop! :yahoo: Oh yeah, etc. etc. However, they will not win another championship. I guarantee it... Or maybe I don't, but whatever. You know what I mean, don't you? I'm just a pissed off Nets' fan, enraged that Miami knocked my team out of the playoffs two years in a row.</div>Big Whoop? that was like 3 months ago!! they can still get the job done. and if miami is too old, isn't new jersey? they're best player, Jason Kidd is aging. and Miami's best player is waht like 25? give me a break you homer.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Illosophee @ Sep 11 2006, 11:08 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Here's my list of top 5 (no particular order)hoenix Suns- they have the best PG in the league, a versatile SF in Shawn Marion, and an undeniably dangerous threat in Amare Stoudemire. I believe even an injured Amare is better than most big men in the league. The Suns have a unique playing style, too. They run more than the "Showtime" Los Angeles Lakers did. The Suns make their opponents tire out quickly.Dallas Mavericks: They don't really have any defensive players on the team, but the Mavs are dominant when it comes to offense. They score tirelessly. I know they had a bad Finals run, but whatever. The Mavs will bounce back. Dirk Nowitzki has proven to be a great offensive player. He's one of the top big men in the league and that's saying a lot about a guy who can barely play D.San Antonio Spurs: Though they seem to have fallen off a bit, I'm sure that the TD, Parker & Manu trio will step back into the spotlight. They still have a great three-point shooter in Brent Barry and one of the best defenders in the league with Bruce Bowens. Also, losing Nazr Muhammad may not have been such a big deal. It opens more room for Tim to play D on either PF or C opponents.New Jersey Nets: This is my favorite team right now, even though I live in California. You can't deny that they put on a show and still have the immense love of winning stuck in their blood vessells. VC, RJ & JKidd make arguably the best trio in the NBA at this moment. JKidd has great D, VC has insane offense and RJ compliments both players with his half-and-half at both D and Offense. The Nets also have young talent in Nenad Krstic. I can see him become a solid rebounder by next season or so.Detroit Pistons: They lost some insane key-defense in Ben Wallace, but still have Chauncey Billups, Sheed, Rip and Tayshaun to help 'em out. The Pistons still have 4 All-Stars on the team. I don't think that anybody can deny that this team is still top 5.Honorable mentions:Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat.Note: I didn't put Cavs up because the team relies on LeBron James & Zydrunas Ilgauskas to do everything. It's as if the rest of the team has no interest in winning. Larry Hughes attempts to help, but he was injured for most of last season so he was no help.I didn't put Miami Heat up because the team has too many old players. They rely on Dwyane Wade a bit too much. DWade has talent, but he can't do everything. Also, Jason Williams isn't much of a PG. DWade almost has the same amount of apg as Jason Williams! That's alarmingly embarrassing. However, I'll give the team respect for prevailing throughout the entire post season and winning the NBA Championship when people claimed that the Mavs would.</div>Then show the champs some respect, instead of putting us as honerable mentions and being a homer inserting the New Jersey Nets, who may I add we've ripped the last two years during the playoffs. Even if Shaq, Zo, and GP aged another year, the rest of the team is still in their prime. I could understand not putting us as the top team, but not even top 5!?..get real.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (nba dogmatist @ Sep 11 2006, 07:45 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Phoenix isn't top 5? that's ridiculous. Just look at the roster. What gives you justifications on detroit and cleveland being better, when phoenix got better, yet cleveland didn't make any new acquisitions and detroit got worse?</div>David Wesley bro, You act like hes not a superstar or something.....
How the devil is Sacramento in the top five? I'm still scratching my head on that one. Sure Bibby is a nice leader, Artest can play great defense, and Brad Miller can do everything at the 5, but the lack of depth can hurt. Abdul-Rahim and Bonzi Wells round out one of the best starting fives, but most people don't even have them in the playoffs.
I think the Suns are definatly a top 5 team during the regular season because they are built to win tons of games. I think they are top 5 with or without Amare Stoudemire. With Kurt Thomas healthy, Boris Diaw back for another season, you can't tell me they drop off. I have an bad feeling about Amare Stoudemire, I've seen Penny Hardaway announce that he's fine, in great shape and ready to play and 20 games in has a huge injury. Amare might be in great shape now and 90% but these type of knee injuries often come back and even though he's young you can't tell me your 100% confident he won't have more knee trouble.
