<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Only two teams in the West have no shot at the playoffs, and this is No. 1 on that list. The return of Nick Collison will help, but it was another way-too-quiet summer in Seattle.</div> <font size="1">Full Rankings courtesy of Marc Stein and ESPN.</font> Lovely, the only team ranked below us is the Bobcats. Granted we probably won't make the playoffs, but every season Stein ranks us low (last year he had us 28th), and every season we are competitive. We'll be competitive again this season, a bogus ranking. Of course the argument from him will be something along the lines of 'Seattle didn't do enough over the offseason' which is probably true, but surely Power Rankings should be somewhat reflective of a team's position going into the season, and we're not the worst of the 29 teams who played the 2003/04 season.
Good to see the national media give us some props. Honestly, I don't believe that the Sonics are the 29th best team in the NBA. We're in the bottom half no doubt but 29th is a little bit of stretch. Preseason power rankings mean nothing anyways.
I know, I agree. How the hell can you have a team with Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis and be ranked second to the last worst team in the league.
We could end up being one of the worst teams in the league if the contract situations of our players becomes a huge issue. Compounded with the fact that all of our coaches and our GM are in the final year of the contracts, it might be the case that at mid season many people could end up throwing in the towel. That being said if McMillian is able to get these guys on the same page I would say that from a talent perspective we are in the upper half of the NBA. There aren't too many guard combinations better than Flip and Ray, Rashard Lewis is a top ten small forward, Danny Fortson is the best position rebounder in the league, and our bench should be one of the deepest in the league. Everything this year rides on McMillian. If Chuck Daly coached this team I would be predicting a 5th or 6th finish in the west. Since he isn't I'm thinking more along the lines of 10th or 11th.
Chuck Daley might have keeled over trying to get some of these players to play defense. But I guess Stein must think nate is a pretty good coach to get them to consistently overachieve... Worse teams than the sonics: bobcats, bulls, hawks, clippers, warriors, celtics, cavs, nets, bucks, possibly wizards. That makes what, 19th?
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting grumpyd:</div><div class="quote_post">Chuck Daley might have keeled over trying to get some of these players to play defense. But I guess Stein must think nate is a pretty good coach to get them to consistently overachieve... Worse teams than the sonics: bobcats, bulls, hawks, clippers, warriors, celtics, cavs, nets, bucks, possibly wizards. That makes what, 19th? </div> And I have no idea what he sees in the Warriors. They had a terrible offseason. There are definitely a handful of teams which will be worse than Seattle next year.
