sohum
Executive member
The Heat won't win this year, but they'll win 3 of the next 5 is my guess.
You can't just take LeBron, Bosh and Wade's numbers from their old teams where they were the primary offensive weapons and add them together. They're going to have to share the ball and share the minutes, not to mention play through the adversity of now becoming the most hated team in the league (outside of Miami, anyway). They're all phenomenal players (well LeBron and DWade are, at the very least, I'm still not convinced about Bosh) so they'll eventually work it out, but make no mistake that they still have their work cut out for them.
Lakers have had a very quiet off-season thus far, but they've made some ripples recently by signing Matt Barnes. Barnes, for those of you who don't remember, is a defensive minded player formerly in the Magic who gave Kobe a lot of problems when the Magic and Lakers took on each other last season. He's definitely going to bolster their D off the bench. In fact, the Lakers D looks very good now with Artest in the starting line-up and Barnes coming off the bench. Steve Blake is a decent addition who played a lot of minutes for the Blazers when they went through that period of ridiculous injuries. I wouldn't call him an upgrade over Jordan Farmar, though.
I'm personally excited about the Rockets this season, especially if we manage to keep it healthy. Our starting line-up is looking pretty solid:
PG: Aaron Brooks - MIP last year and leader in 3-pointers made last regular season
SG: Kevin Martin - Dynamite scorer from the Kings
C: Yao Ming - I don't think anything more needs to be said
PF: Luis Scola - Argentinian who puts a ton of effort in and almost averaged 16/9 last year with a couple of games where he went 30/20!
SF: Trevor Ariza - Our one weak link, probably, but hopefully he has learned the offense after a year in it and the offseason
Our bench has Kyle Lowry, who could have been starting at another club this season but was retained by Daryl Morey. We've also got the defensive specialist in Battier and our newest addition--Brad Miller--who brings a real back-up center to Yao's fragile body. Chase Budinger showed flashes of brilliance last season and during the summer league and Jordan Hill's athleticism makes him one of the up and coming young PFs in the league. We've also got Chuck Hayes, David Andersen and Jermaine Taylor, the rookie Patrick Patterson and a couple other guys on one of the deeper benches in the Western Conference. Let's just hope we can stay healthy and play some ball! Can't wait for the season to get underway...
You can't just take LeBron, Bosh and Wade's numbers from their old teams where they were the primary offensive weapons and add them together. They're going to have to share the ball and share the minutes, not to mention play through the adversity of now becoming the most hated team in the league (outside of Miami, anyway). They're all phenomenal players (well LeBron and DWade are, at the very least, I'm still not convinced about Bosh) so they'll eventually work it out, but make no mistake that they still have their work cut out for them.
Lakers have had a very quiet off-season thus far, but they've made some ripples recently by signing Matt Barnes. Barnes, for those of you who don't remember, is a defensive minded player formerly in the Magic who gave Kobe a lot of problems when the Magic and Lakers took on each other last season. He's definitely going to bolster their D off the bench. In fact, the Lakers D looks very good now with Artest in the starting line-up and Barnes coming off the bench. Steve Blake is a decent addition who played a lot of minutes for the Blazers when they went through that period of ridiculous injuries. I wouldn't call him an upgrade over Jordan Farmar, though.
I'm personally excited about the Rockets this season, especially if we manage to keep it healthy. Our starting line-up is looking pretty solid:
PG: Aaron Brooks - MIP last year and leader in 3-pointers made last regular season
SG: Kevin Martin - Dynamite scorer from the Kings
C: Yao Ming - I don't think anything more needs to be said
PF: Luis Scola - Argentinian who puts a ton of effort in and almost averaged 16/9 last year with a couple of games where he went 30/20!
SF: Trevor Ariza - Our one weak link, probably, but hopefully he has learned the offense after a year in it and the offseason
Our bench has Kyle Lowry, who could have been starting at another club this season but was retained by Daryl Morey. We've also got the defensive specialist in Battier and our newest addition--Brad Miller--who brings a real back-up center to Yao's fragile body. Chase Budinger showed flashes of brilliance last season and during the summer league and Jordan Hill's athleticism makes him one of the up and coming young PFs in the league. We've also got Chuck Hayes, David Andersen and Jermaine Taylor, the rookie Patrick Patterson and a couple other guys on one of the deeper benches in the Western Conference. Let's just hope we can stay healthy and play some ball! Can't wait for the season to get underway...