ESPN's NBA Future Power Rankings

[Soul Bro 1,422]

quote:

The Future Power Rankings are ESPN Insider's projection of the on-court success expected for each team during the 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons.

 

quote:

The Magic dropped from first to third in our latest poll, as the specter of eating the back end of several large contracts looms ever larger in their future. While Vince Carter has increased his production of late, neither he nor several other well-compensated teammates (Rashard Lewis, Jameer Nelson, Marcin Gortat, Brandon Bass, Mickael Pietrus) have delivered at anywhere near the level at which they're paid. All those players still have years to go on their contracts, meaning the small-market Magic could be in a very precarious salary position in another year or two.

 

That said, Orlando still rated No. 1 in the players category. With a building block center in Dwight Howard who is a virtual certainty to stay with his team (as opposed to the uncertainty surrounding some of the game's other top stars at the moment), the Magic have the foundation of a great team. And while Howard's expensive supporting cast isn't fully earning its pay, there's no doubt that impressive talent surrounds him. With such assets, a couple of the players who haven't seen as much burn, such as Bass and Gortat, could make for great trade chips this summer.

 

(Previous rank: 1)

 

They have OKC ranked #1 and LA #2. No doubt, OKC has mad young talent. (I still can't believe Portland passed on KD, btw). Like YFP, I'm still so thankful to have a winning record and core. I actually hope we get some more young talent around Dwight this summer b/c SVG is a fantastic developer of young guns.

[Soul Bro 1,422]

quote:

The Future Power Rankings are ESPN Insider's projection of the on-court success expected for each team during the 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons.

 

quote:

The Magic dropped from first to third in our latest poll, as the specter of eating the back end of several large contracts looms ever larger in their future. While Vince Carter has increased his production of late, neither he nor several other well-compensated teammates (Rashard Lewis, Jameer Nelson, Marcin Gortat, Brandon Bass, Mickael Pietrus) have delivered at anywhere near the level at which they're paid. All those players still have years to go on their contracts, meaning the small-market Magic could be in a very precarious salary position in another year or two.

 

That said, Orlando still rated No. 1 in the players category. With a building block center in Dwight Howard who is a virtual certainty to stay with his team (as opposed to the uncertainty surrounding some of the game's other top stars at the moment), the Magic have the foundation of a great team. And while Howard's expensive supporting cast isn't fully earning its pay, there's no doubt that impressive talent surrounds him. With such assets, a couple of the players who haven't seen as much burn, such as Bass and Gortat, could make for great trade chips this summer.

 

(Previous rank: 1)

 

They have OKC ranked #1 and LA #2. No doubt, OKC has mad young talent. (I still can't believe Portland passed on KD, btw). Like YFP, I'm still so thankful to have a winning record and core. I actually hope we get some more young talent around Dwight this summer b/c SVG is a fantastic developer of young guns.

[UBBALLER8 248]

Melo in 2011 would keep us at #1.

[Natesroom 197]

haha...at the risk of going off topic wade in 10-11 season would put us #1 also

[AddiFB 429]

IF we get either Melo or D.Whistle, I'll be smiling like a sugar-rushed kid in a toy store filled with the greatest toys and stuff in the history of awesome!

[TreyTime 3]

[Nyce_1 311]

link?

 

What's Cle's rank?

[cpower 13]

Melo + Dwight would be beautilful. Melo > Dwade in the long run

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

quote:

Originally posted by cpower:

Melo + Dwight would be beautilful. Melo > Dwade in the long run

 

yeah, wade takes too much punishment to be playing at his level for too much longer. He's got 2-3 more seasons max of playing at a all nba first team level.

 

then he becomes stephen jackson

[Chase 209]

[NittanyBuc 757]

OKC at #1 is spot on. They will be a very scary team in the years to come.

 

LA at 2 is iffy. One night Kobe looks like his normal self and then others he looks like he's almost breaking down.

 

Us at 3 is about right because really, no one has much of a clue as to how our future will turn out, but there's definitely potential to have big things go down in O-Town.

 

Miami at 4 is kinda under rated, IMO. When you look at their roster and realize that Michael Beasley is the only one on the roster after this year, it's kind of scary as to what they could do in free agency. Theoritically, they could get Wade and another star. I'd swap them with LA

 

Portland at 5 is okay I guess. They have a rather young core in Roy, Rudy, Oden, and Aldrich and they're style of play fits their age perfectly. Once their players hit their peaks, watch out.

[Soul Bro 1,422]

UT is #6, DEN #7, CL #8.

 

Link provided but you need to be an ESPN Insider: http://insider.espn.go.com/nba...werRankings-1-100302