IMO the raps have a great shot of winning their division this year. These are some teams i think the raps should dominate this season and some who will probably dominate us. 1) Bobcats should sweep them no prob-no need to explain 2)Hornets- we had their number last year, and with a better lineup this year for us i see no problem in takin both games 3)wizards, goldenstate, clippers - all 3 teams went down during the offseason so we should handle them easy 4)Nets- team stock went down and kidd being injured half the season just took them out of contention- we should sweep them or at least take 3 5) cleveland- no real need to explain - no boozer = no problem 4 us 6) lakers- we should split them b/c they r so much weaker without shaq and we can play eye to eye with all their guard and forwards 7) miami- will dominate us cuz of our lack of big men 8) san antonio- their defense will suffocate us 9)houston- we never had an answer for yao and with t -mc now, they gonna be good but i still say we split the series cuz vince plays well against tmac 10)memphis- too big for us, they will probably sweep us 11)dallas- once again they are bigger than us - that series will be tough All in all we have the advantage on a lot of teams and the only ones i see us having a problem with is the ones who are considerably bigger. But i think we'll be over .500 when alls said and done
wizards went down? losing stackhouse and laetner but adding jamison is going down in your opinion? i dont think so at all...both players missed a SIGNIFICANT amount of time last year, and barely contributed. a starting 5 of gilber, larry, antawn, haywood and kwame is pretty impressive actually cleveland may not have boozer, but he wasnt what gave us headaches last season, it was zydrunas. they still have him, and we still dont have anyone to guard him.
Wizards had all those guys last year like gillbert, kwame, haywood, hughes and dixon and they still sucked. Jamison is a great player but hes no miracle worker and will not turn that franchise around. Plus its likely their best player arenas will get injured sometime next season as well
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting dj_premium_plus:</div><div class="quote_post">wizards went down? losing stackhouse and laetner but adding jamison is going down in your opinion? i dont think so at all...both players missed a SIGNIFICANT amount of time last year, and barely contributed. a starting 5 of gilber, larry, antawn, haywood and kwame is pretty impressive actually cleveland may not have boozer, but he wasnt what gave us headaches last season, it was zydrunas. they still have him, and we still dont have anyone to guard him.</div> I totally agree that washington will be the surprise team of the year. I doubt they make playoffs, but they have finally built one hell of a foundation. They have no bench. Give them 2 years. Cleveland will be tough. They still have James, McInnis, and Big Z. They also added Snow. Cleveland will be tough. I say we split with them. What about Philly? I think they are too young. I say we should be able to handle Iverson, after that it's downhill for 76ers. (Dalembert needs another year or two). Should easily get the best of this series. I think Chicago could have a decent team this year. Now that Crawford is out and Curry seems to be committed to working hard. Are they great? NO, but shouldn't be taken lightly. Split the series. Boston, have they done anything? Oh ya signed the slowest guard in the league. He's so slow that the C's will be lucky if he makes up his mind by training camp! Should take the series. NJ - in alot of trouble. I bet Kidd never plays another game for them. Jefferson can't carry a team. Could sweep them. Detroit - should be amazing. Be lucky to get one from them Miami - Really strong, but will they have the chemistry that last years team did? Wade really struggled in the olympics. Will he suffer the sophmore slump?
I agree with a lot of that. Chicago will be tough because they are styacked with size and also a lot of good pgs. But they lack a good 2 or 3. I still think Boozer was the heart of the cavs and they will drop without him. Zs a baby and lebron is still young. wihtout a doubt, snow is a dropoff from boozer and they r worse then last year b/c of it. we should take the series no doubt Th jazz will be reall tough now with arroyo, giricek/harpring, ak47, boozer and collins /okur this team will be great on D and will challenge the west. wed be lucky to take 1
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting princevince119:</div><div class="quote_post">Wizards had all those guys last year like gillbert, kwame, haywood, hughes and dixon and they still sucked. Jamison is a great player but hes no miracle worker and will not turn that franchise around. Plus its likely their best player arenas will get injured sometime next season as well</div> tgilbert being injured lots last season was one of the reasons they sucked so much. especially when stackhouse missed most of the season too. 02/03 season, gilbert played in all 82 games, so i dont see why or how you can just immediately assume he'll be injured all year again. he was struggling with an abdominal injury...thats the kind of thing that heals, its not like ankles or knees...that kind of thing shouldnt bother him this year. with jarvis having a decent rookie year, his softmore year should be even better...wizards have a decent team...and they got a LOT of size on the raps...i just dont think they got worse in the off season...if anything they got better. can you really look at that starting 5 and think its worse? thats whats being debated right? i didnt contend that antawn is the savior of the franchise..i didnt say he'll propel them to the nba championships...i said that they didnt get worse...i stand by that opinion. <div class="quote_poster">Quoting princevince119:</div><div class="quote_post"> I still think Boozer was the heart of the cavs and they will drop without him. Zs a baby and lebron is still young. wihtout a doubt, snow is a dropoff from boozer and they r worse then last year b/c of it. we should take the series no doubt</div> young or old, lebron is a star. 20, 5 and 5 is VERY impressive numbers, and he's only going to get better. why do you say zydrunas is a baby?? he murdered the raps last year, so baby or not...hes a skilled 7 footer + and we cant match up with that
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting princevince119:</div><div class="quote_post">I still think Boozer was the heart of the cavs and they will drop without him. Zs a baby and lebron is still young. wihtout a doubt, snow is a dropoff from boozer and they r worse then last year b/c of it. we should take the series no doubt</div> Dude, you underestimate the Cavaliers bigtime. Eric Snow is a great pure point guard, that can lead a young team, which the Cavaliers have. Once again this year the Raptors have no answer whatsoever for Ilgauskas, Drew Gooden is a good PF who should have a nice year leaving Orlando, and then they have LeBron, and that is always a tough person to stop. Then they have the X-Factor, Ira Newble, who shutdown Carter in a few games last year, obviously you forgot about that. Then they have a nice bench, Jeff McInnis is a great PG, who can easily start, and they have the great shooting rookie in Luke Jackson. Raptors will take one from the Cavaliers IMO.
The way i see it man, the cavs are good... but we are overall better PG- snow and alston - alston has adv. on shooting and creativity, but snow is more experienced and plays smarter i say teams are equal on pgs sg- if we play vince shooting guard or small forward it dont matter, either way vince has definite adv. on lebron no need to explain why sf- i dont know who cavs starting on this pos. but rose and mopete are easily better than the guys on ther roster or this newble guy pf- bosh and marshall against gooden? we goit the adv. on that one easy with boozer gone c- i dont know who wed be startin but they got adv. on us easy overall we match up better. Boozer is a great player and he was the x-factor last year because he is stronger than our pfs and out muscled them. gooden isnt near as good as boozer. i say they may take one off of us
You can't look position by position and pick who will win what. If they were playing 1on1 that might work, but it's a team game. You have to look at the total talent of the team. Chungster you are right that any team can beat another, but it's definitely easy to make predictions based on the talent level. For example, I think it's safe to say that the Bobcats aren't going to win their season series against Miami/Detroit/Indiana/Minnesota/San Antonio, etc.... That's all we're doing is making predictions....
BAH..... I believe Bobcats are going to suprize a lot of people this year with their record.... all in all, it comes down to team chemistry if you are capable of beating them or not...
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">3)wizards, goldenstate, clippers - all 3 teams went down during the offseason so we should handle them easy</div> What? I hope you were joking about the Wizards, even Golden State. Wizards lost the garbage Stack and the bad infulence Laettner, and added a guy who doesn't need the ball in his hands to score in Jamison. Arenas only played 55 games last year, and Hughes only 61, it was a fulke year for Arenas really because of playing through injury, and he still averaged 20-5-5. Kwame Brown is on the same improvement path as Bosh is, with minutes he'll improve to about 14-15 points, and 8-9 rebounds this season. The Wizards also have on of the better front lines in the East, I really don't see how they went down at all, actually they got much better and should be making the playoffs this year. The Wizards bench will also have: Steve Blake | Jarvis Hayes | Anthony Peeler and Etan Thomas, they have one nice team, don't hate. The Warriors aren't as bad as they might seem, last year if they were healthy they were real deep, their second line would've been: PG: Claxton SG: Pietrus SF: Cardinal PF: Cliff or Murphy C: Foyle that' a real nice second unit. This year they have: PG: Fisher [uggh] | Claxton SG: J-Rich | Pietrus SF: Dunleavy | Najera [Pietrus will play here too] PF: Murphy | Cliff C: Foyle | Davis |Biedrins nothing special, but against Eastern conference teams they can put one good fight. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Any team can beat every team in the league. What kind of a question is that?</div> Exactly, even the Hawks last year beat almost all the Western powerhouses.
Why don't we list the top 3 teams that the Raps are most likely to sweep this season...i'll start. I think we have the best chance of sweeping: 1. Bobcats (no explanation really) 2. Hawks (we always dominate them with Vince and they have absolutely no size as of now) 3. Boston (have done almost nothing this off-season except keep Pierce from running away) Other close 3rd placers are NJ (no K-Mart and Kidd is probably not motivated at all...i doubt he'll even stay a Net for half the season) & Philly (very young but if Iverson is healthy and willing to bring this team back to where it was a cpl years ago....watch out)
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">3. Boston (have done almost nothing this off-season except keep Pierce from running away)</div> Well they re-signed Mark Blount, and remember Rae Lafrentz will now be healthy. They also got an influx of young players, I don't think it will be a sweep.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">3. Boston (have done almost nothing this off-season except keep Pierce from running away)</div> Are you serious?? A new coach and 7 new players is almost nothing?
^ My bad...i meant to say have done almost nothing significant with their roster. I say this because i'm not even sure if GP is gonna play over there or not. And regarding LaFrentz...let's just see whether or not he can finally live up to his potential.
Well it's not potential right now with Lafrentz, we just know he can shoot, score about 14 points, grab about 8 rebounds, and even though he's not a good defender, he'll also get his 2 blocks, so that's very good.
