ESPN:Chad Ford Offseason Grades For The West

http://insider.espn.com/nba/insider...offseason-grades-chad-ford-western-conference



Dallas C+
Denver B
Golden State A+
Houston B+
Clips C
Lakers B
Memphis C+
Minny A-
Nola C
OKC C-
Phoenix B+
Portland B
Sac D+
Spurs A-
Utah A-

 

No Fs and only one D... and it's a D+. Chad pumping the sunshine over the entire West. For Portland it isn't a secret that Turner is supposed to "fit" in at the 3 for a good chunk of his minutes.

STOMP

 

"250 million on the backcourt?" Fuckin' A Right!

 

Anyone else notice that the Lakers got the same grade as the Blazers? Houston even got a higher grade. HCP is spamming the forum!

 

Either you missed the point of these off season grades, or you're trolling, likely both. Big deal, the Lakers and Rockets "improved" as much, or slightly more than the Blazers. When you suck, there is much more room for improvement, and the Lakers had more room for improvement than any team in the Western Conference.

What is more telling is that two of the 4 teams that finished ahead of us last year, OKC and LAC got worse grades than the Blazers. To me, this means we have a very realistic shot at a top 3 or 4 finish and HCA in the first round of the playoffs. Of course, they still have to play the games, but on paper, this agrees with my sentiments - that we have a legitimate shot at passing OKC and winning the NW Division and we also have a shot at passing the aging Clippers and their weak bench.

BNM

 

Fixed, duh.

 

Minnesota might, and should, be saying the same thing.

 

How does OKC lose the third best player in the league and come out with a grade of C- ? They went from championship contender to first round hopeful. I can't think of another recent team that's fallen that far that fast. The Aldridge Exodus pales in comparison to this disaster. Sure, they re-signed Westbrook. Sure, they got some nice pieces for Ibaka. But really, what the fuck is OKC going to do without Durant? That team is basically consigned to several years of Russ's muscle-ball first round exits until his athleticism fades, and hoping to eventually draft another Durant. That shit is seriously depressing, given they were just a few months ago up 3-1 in the WCF's.

On more general note, how many times have I read "The west only got harder this year." At least since 1997 or so. It can't always be true, of course. In preseason projections people always underestimate age and injury. It's only natural. A guy puts up 20 ppg at 31 so you assume he'll do that at 32, then at 33, etc.

And people overestimate the impact of guys moving to new teams. For example, the West got way less competitive this year with Durant moving to GS. GS won 73 games last year--how many more wins can Durant possibly bring them? 1? 3? If they even reach 73 again it would be a massive achievement. Sure, if we make the WCF GS will just buzzsaw us, but that was going to happen anyway. We now have a much better chance of getting that far.

Durant basically made the west massively less competitive by removing from relevance the 2nd or 3rd most talented player in the NBA. Portland will be far more competitive in every Thunder game than it was before--that's potentially 2 more wins right there (we went 2-2 in the regular season).

 

No they should not. They only have one above average NBA player.

 

Harsh. Wiggins, Rubio and Dieng are better than average and that "one above average NBA player" you speak of had one of the best statistical rookie seasons ever.

If Wiggins makes another modest jump this year, Towns keeps getting better plus the Thibs>>>>Mitchell factor...they have a chance to make an 09-10 OKC type jump (23-59 to 50-32). It's not likely, but the argument can be made for it.

 

Lol Wiggins is the most overrated player in the league!!!

-19,0 pts, 4.1reb, and 2.1ast per 36 on awful 3 point shooting (30%) and bleh efficiency (45% FGs) for someone that doesn't shoot outside shots. Hell, Rudy Gay has higher shooting percentages across the board as well as more assists! Yet people claim Rudy Gay is one of the biggest chuckers in the league.
-Not to mention he is one of the worst defenders in the league. So what does he bring to the table that helps a team?

Rubio isn't a top 15 PG. He's a below average starting PG in this league.
Dieng? Yeah he's a solid piece, but nothing special. None of those guys would be a top 5 piece on a championship team.

 

Wiggins is 20, and you can point to plenty of guys his age with the issues that you're describing who turned out to be great players. And I guess we'll have to agree to disagree about Dieng and Rubio.

While I'm here, what do you expect their record to be? I'll go with 42-40, with a chance to finish ahead of Dallas and Memphis and earn 7th/8th playoff spot.

 

Yeah, in 5 years Wiggins might be an all-star. But right now he's a worse player than Rudy Gay.

They'll go 35-47

 

"Golden State Warriors: B-

The Warriors sacrificed most of their bench, letting Baroda, Rush, Speights, and Ezeli walk away to sign Kevin Durant. To feel the gap, the Warriors signed David West, Zaza Pachulia, Elliot Williams, and drafted Patrick McCaw. Some say the addition of Durant makes the Warriors the best team in the west, and a shoo in to finally break the Bulls win record..."

They already broke the Bulls win record. The Bulls record was 72-10, the Warriors went 73-9 last season

Not sure how you can give the team that acquired what you later call the 3rd best player in the league a B-. Adding Durant gives them the last 3 league MVPs and 5 of the last 7 scoring champs. Durant is a HUGE upgrade over Harrison Barnes. They can now have two of Durant, Curry and Klay Thompson on the court at all times, without any of them playing excessive minutes. All three of those players are capable of going off for 20+ points is a quarter or 50+ points in a game.

Yeah, their bench got a little thinner, but the kept Shaun Livingston and Andre Iguodala, their two most important reserves. And, the best starting 5 in the game got even better. Durant is an upgrade over Barnes in every way. They lost Bogut, but Zaza is an adequate replacement. He's not the shot blocker Bogut is, but he's a better scorer and better rebounder. He just needs to perfect the Bogut stumbling backwards moving screen, and they won't miss Bogut one bit. Should be easy, there is plenty of footage on youtube, and the same coaches who taught Bogut that move can teach it to Zaza.

Will they win more than 73 games. Most likely not. That requires an insane amount of focus and health, plus a little luck, but in the end, they are a better team than they were last year and for landing one of the top free agents EVER, should deserve a better grade than the Clippers, Timberwolves and Pelicans (and they are the Pelicans, by the way, not the Hornets).

BNM

 

But, how much will those bench players they lost, impact their record? Other than Barnes, who is MORE than replaced by Durant, they lost (in terms of minutes played) their 7th, 8th, 9th, 10, and 11th men. Bogut, who was 7th in minutes played was replaced with Zaza, who played over 500 minutes more. Speights was replaced by West, who played more minutes and averaged as many points and more rebounds. Ezeli missed 36 games and average 17 MPG when he did play - and they replaced him with an almost identical, younger player who went to the same college and posted almost identical numbers.

Ultimately, when you add one of the top 5 (arguably top 3) players in the game to a 73-win team you deserve a better grade than the Clippers. Who was the Clippers big acquisition? Did they acquire anyone NEAR Durant's talent. Hell no. Their two biggest off season acquisitions were Maurice Speights, a guy who played 11 MPG for GSW and Raymond Felton, who sucks. On top of that, they lost two players (Cole Aldrich and Jeff Green) who are better than anyone they added. Thye STILL don't have a decent starting SF, their already shitty bench got worse and their best players, who are injury prone, got another year older. How is their offseason as good as the team that landed Kevin Durant?

BNM