These aren't things a 41 win team in the west worries about though. On a side note.......2 of our bigs that will get a lot of time in tight games, Davis and The PlumdogMillonaire are pretty bad FT shooters if I remember correctly. I never said a few guys wouldn't be pleasant surprises, but a team with a few pleasant surprises just don't win a lot of games in this league.
I'll just pick one of these apart, Sacramento. They have DeMarcus Cousins, Rudy Gay, Rondo, Bellinelli, McLemore and Darren Collison on their roster. Compared to the roster we have TODAY, you believe that we have MORE talent than them? I could probably find 30 GMs that would disagree with you FAMS.
Milwaukee last season. 41 wins. Once Brandon Knight was traded, there wasn't anyone on the team who averaged 15 PPG or more. Not one guy close to Lillard in talent. Comparable talent between the rest of the rosters. The secret is defense, son.
This I can not argue with, since I made the same argument all summer during the Rudy Gay debate. Sac is going to be interesting to watch. Cauley Stein will add depth as well. In the end I assume Sac and Utah will be battling it out for the 8th spot, but if either Aminu or Harkless exceed expectations offensively, then we might have a chance to battle for #8 as well.
Talent and experience goes to the Kings. Unfortunately for them, so does the jackass factor. That team looks like it was put together by that chemistry whiz, Bob Whitsitt.
I hear what you are trying to sell Den, but it just isn't working. Milwaukee plays in the East, they play in the West last season, they win 31..... 'nuff said.
Cousins is a star, for sure, but Rondo is extremely overrated and Gay has been dumped by two playoff teams. McLemore? Really? That dude is hinging on bust status.
You all know what's really going to happen, so let me just remind you of what you all already know!!!! The highs will be HIGH! We will beat a couple of the teams who will finish with a top 4 seed. We'll feel really good about ourselves. Playoffs will be in the back of our minds, some will dare type the word "playoffs", and believe it. Hope will spring eternal. The lows will be LOW! We will lose to some of the teams that will finish in the bottom 2 of each conference. These boards will be depressing with a bunch of I-told-you-so's who will feel smug. Winning the lottery will be in the back of our minds, some will dare to type "Ben Simmons". Talk of trades and cap space will dominate the boards. In the end, I'm guessing we finish about halfway between HCP's gloomy 20 and Kingspeed/Mag's 48 (or whatever they're guessing), which is around 34 wins. What won't happen is that we consistently beat teams that "we're better than" and lose to teams that are "better than us." Inconsistency will be the rule this season. It will drive some to distraction, especially those who fail to take the long view. The boards will be wild this year. Seriously, buckle up, it's going to be a long year!
I don't really worry about it. I can easily slip back into lottery mode, where I track success based on the development of our players and by where we will most likely sit in the draft. It's a much less stressful type of fandom.
We were kickin' Sac's butt until the 4th when Stotts decided to let Frazier and Pressy play with the 3rd stringers to bring it home..regular season I predict we'll sweep the Kings
I see no way this team wins more than 30 games. There just aren't enough proven players. We just saw in the Sacto game who gets the calls between known players and unknowns. Our big men are poor FT shooters and we have no backup for Damian. I'd say the roster we have put together is a recipe for disaster in the Western Conference.
It was a while back. I think he's still a Bulls fan, but he slowly was indoctrinated over the past eight years.
I've said this before ... there's a lot of talent here, but it's young talent and unrealized potential. There's also not a lot in the way of proven scorers, and I mean guys that can create good shots for themselves. I think that's a recipe for a lot of losses either from not having all the little things down to not being comfortable in crunch time to just not being able to keep pace with teams that have three capable scorers. But I don't think this is a bad thing, as a couple of these guys are going to develop over the next three years ... I think Vonleh has all-star tools, and several of these guys will be good rotation players or have enough value to trade for someone that can help the Blazers even more ... and I think with a high lottery pick you get another all-star level potential talent to go with Lillard. I'm not drinking this Kool-Aid that this year's Blazers are going to have a good record, but I am excited about where I think this is going long term.
I honestly do not think this will be that bad. That team had Juan Dixon as their 3rd best scorer, 2nd best after Miles went down. Ruben Patterson and Darius Miles played about half a season each, we got about 20 minutes a game from Viktor. This was a rookie year for Webster and Jarret Jack. This team has twice the talent as that team had. Guard play is going to be significantly better with Dame, Henderson and CJ, I believe you will get better play at the SF position than half a year of Darius and Patterson - and the bigs rotation will probably give you the same collective production as a combination of ZBo recovering from MF surgery, Joel P and the ghost of Theo Ratliff gave you. This team reminds me a lot more of the 1st year of Roy/LMA - you have one established star (Dame / ZBo), at least one unproved player that will give you close to the production that a rookie Roy gave you (I think it will be CJ, but it could be Legend or Vonleh) - and a bunch of other players that will give you something like what Jack / rookie LMA and Udoka/Outlaw gave you. Thus, I believe it is a 33 win team - just like that 2006/2007 team won 32 games.
You are critiquing them as players overall. I agree with everything you posted, but that's not what we are doing here. We are comparing flat out talent level. Sent from my Baller-Ass 5.5" iPhone 6+......... FAMS
