Entire Staff at HoopsWorld responds to EC rankings:

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

quote:

Originally posted by IgotzHops:

quote:

Originally posted by ThisIsTheYear:

Aside from that horrid second article (Fighting with CHI, CLE, and ATL for the last four playoff spots! 40-45 wins and a first round exit!!), they're relatively fair.

 

I just can't believe how some are placing Toronto higher than us because of the JO signing. Beyond the smoke of the O'neal signing, I feel that they've regressed dramatically:

 

1. They lost Ford

2. They lost Delfino

3. They lost Nesterovic (A guy who's ironically played Dwight better than O'neal)

4. They lost Garbajosa

5. Jose now has to start, which means that they have no true playmaker to help out their now porous second-unit.

 

Despite Bosh's development, I can't see this team winning anymore than 40 games.

 

You make a good point, but let me tell you something.

1.) We lost Ford, thats okay, Jose played tons of minutes for us while he was out, and played like an allstar. Ford is an injury-prone just like O'neal, but unlike O'neal, Ford is one headshot away from ending his young nba career.

 

2. Delfino- He was inconsistant for us, one day he played great another he played horrible. Game 1 vs Magic. 2 pts 3 reb. Game 2- 16 pts 6 rebs 3 asts. Game 3- 7 pts 6 and 3. Game 4- 4 2 and 1, Game 5- 14 7 and 2, You see my point.

 

3. Nesterovic- Used him as center half-way through the season. Played solid. He was getting old, and had a pretty high contract, but still played better than bargnani.

 

4. Garbajosa- Played like 10-15 games last season. So there's no point in adding him as a lost for the Raptors.

 

5. Jose- Jose has shown he can start, so it wont be a problem for him. Has shown he can hit clutch shots.

I can see Jose being top 4 in assists next season with more minutes. And our second unit will not be Will Soloman. It will be Roko Ukic, plays similar to Jose style. Not to sound ignorant, but whos your starting playmaker? Jameer? I dont think so.

 

So basically we got JO + Nathan Jawai, who I have high hopes for, for an injured prone, too fast he cant control himself Tj, and college player who moves slower than my grandma, a buried bench player in Maceo, and a vet who gets a few garbage points here and there.

 

I still think you guys are losing your minds, Orlando will still be top 4 in east I dont know what these hoops writer are writing. Toronto will definetely be better than last season, I can guarantee that. But one thing that bothers me is the Sixers. Forget Raptors being ahead of Magic next season, who the hell does Sixers think they are going from 7th seed in a week conference to being a "Contender" now. Elton brand is worse than JO. Atleast JO played last season, Brand missed the entire season. SAM + ELTON vs BOSH and O'Neal? Jose vs Andre Miller? Come on man, you gotta be kidding me.

 

Celtics

Pistons

Magic

Raptors

Cavaliers

Wizards

Sixers

Heat

 

1. as a starter Calderon averaged 13 pts and 9 assists. Great numbers, but not All star. I agree with your assessment of trading the possibility of a paralized Ford for the possibility of a hobbled JO'N

 

2. I agree, Delfino was really inconsistant, I had him for a few weeks on my fantasy team.

 

3. Nothing to argue about here

 

4. dont really care about him

 

5.Jose can start. Ukic is an unproven player so anything said about him is just moot right now. Why even bring up Jameer? He can start. He averaged 17.2 ppg against you guys in the playoffs. He shot over 50% from the 3pt line after the all star break.

 

I dont know if you guys are the 4th best team in the east, there are way to many ? to predict where you are going to go. I dont think that 4th in the east would mean you are overachiving. You could feasibly end up with the 4th best record at the end of the season and I wouldn't be suprised when I read the standings. It just seems to.... homerish... to believe that you can succeed with a bench of Ukic, Hassan adams, jason kapono, kris himphries, and bargnani with jawai and graham filling out the lineup. You have two unproven players backing up the point guard. You have adams and kapono (your JJ redick) as SGs. Humphries and Graham are career IR guys. Bargnani is a nice player to have coming off the bench. Jawai could be servicable.

 

not really the scariest bench i've seen.

[Skywise316 211]

Okay.. I just have to say that J.J. Redick wishes he could have half of the career so far of Jason Kapono. I mean seriously, there's no real comparison. The last two or three seasons at least Kapono's made an impact now and again.

[IgotzHops 0]

Lewis4thewin- You are absolutely right. Is our bench stronger than last season? probably not. Is our starting line up stronger than last season? Yea. I just dont think a team should rely alot on their bench to win games. They are just out there to give the starters a rest, but to win you ball games, maybe not. If there is anything I learned last year from watching Raptor games is the fact that Raptors relied a ton on their bench to win games, which did not work out well. Yes its great to have a strong bench, but we'll actually never know which team has a good bench until the season starts. New Orleans had a horrible bench last season, and look where it got them. Almost everyone other than the people living in Boston said they had no bench. But they actually played extremely well.

[Kramer 0]

Hm this read had the same flaws as the last one. The Magic aren't going to be good because they don't do this, that, and the other. But what they aren't realizing is that this is the Eastern Conference baby! You don't gotta be flawless to get that third seed. Philly and Toronto? Seriously, two teams who have proved little to nothing added big name free agents who can't stay healthy and suddenly they are in contention with us? That is just bananas and there shouldn't be talk of Philly taking the third seed, there should be talk of whether Elton Brand will be healthy next season and whether the soft, injury ridden Jermaine O'neal will create such a weak defensive frontline that even with offensive fire power at their disposal, no way can they keep up with other teams. They also fail to realize that we did function well last season with our limited big men and we got Tony Battie back so that isn't really our weakness nor was it last season. The problem was smaller guards who were not very good defensively and I think Mickeal Pietrus helps us a lot on that point. Hear that Hoopsworld, we took our biggest weakness and added players who could help us fix it. They are making it sound like we are coming off a 30 win season but added some talent. We don't have the question marks, everyone else in the East does. We are set, we know what to look forward too, and now all we gotta do is just win.

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

quote:

Originally posted by Skywise316:

Okay.. I just have to say that J.J. Redick wishes he could have half of the career so far of Jason Kapono. I mean seriously, there's no real comparison. The last two or three seasons at least Kapono's made an impact now and again.

 

i was referring to skill set, not actual production. Although Kapono's career average of 7.3 ppg in about 19 mins per game somewhat resembles JJ's 5.2 ppg average in 12 mins per game.

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

quote:

Originally posted by IgotzHops:

Lewis4thewin- You are absolutely right. Is our bench stronger than last season? probably not. Is our starting line up stronger than last season? Yea. I just dont think a team should rely alot on their bench to win games. They are just out there to give the starters a rest, but to win you ball games, maybe not. If there is anything I learned last year from watching Raptor games is the fact that Raptors relied a ton on their bench to win games, which did not work out well. Yes its great to have a strong bench, but we'll actually never know which team has a good bench until the season starts. New Orleans had a horrible bench last season, and look where it got them. Almost everyone other than the people living in Boston said they had no bench. But they actually played extremely well.

 

Yeah, if calderon gets injured though you guys are screwed.

[Skywise316 211]

quote:

Originally posted by Lewis4thewin:

quote:

Originally posted by Skywise316:

Okay.. I just have to say that J.J. Redick wishes he could have half of the career so far of Jason Kapono. I mean seriously, there's no real comparison. The last two or three seasons at least Kapono's made an impact now and again.

 

i was referring to skill set, not actual production. Although Kapono's career average of 7.3 ppg in about 19 mins per game somewhat resembles JJ's 5.2 ppg average in 12 mins per game.

 

Ah, my bad. I thought you meant production.

 

As far as losing T.J. Ford, absolutely it'll hurt. Having Jose Calderon start, there'll definitely be no drop off. Heck, I thought he was the better player all of last year. But losing T.J. hurts in the trickle down effect, it's not like Jose can play all 48 minutes! He has to rest sometime.

 

As far as how important a bench is? Ask the Boston Celtics how important their bench was in the NBA Finals. It's not the end all be all, but it definitely matters.

[LanceD 0]

quote:

Originally posted by tjm384:

I heard the Magic beat writer for hoopsworld Jarrod Rudolph went to work for realgm

 

Yup, I read this from him today, not bad either ...

 

http://realgm.com/src_twoplusthefoul/229/20080815/simpl...em_teams_importance/

[aSnaCCanSa 0]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/preview2007/news/story?page=Experts-EastChamps

 

I do not know why you guys care that much about what the so called experts say anyway. Above is an article from ESPN about the preseason guess from 2007 about the East Champ, so go and see who got the most votes (:

[Erik 0]

I quit, and you guys suck!