[Brandon_T]

Well, pre-season has started, and people have had the summer to rest. I look forward to another year of debating, disagreeing and the such.

So what do you think of your teams chances. How many people are going to say that Detroit was a fluke? I think for the Pistons, adding McDyss and Delfino are huge, while the loss of Okur does hurt, he hardly played in the finals.

How about you Laker fans, what do you think about your team now and what are the prospects. Do you like the new make up? Denver looks to be a player, but San Antonio and Minny still are the strongest out west.


Brandon

[James T]

I'm really curious about the Raptors this season.

Last year, they got a new coach and had to deal with a disgruntled player who wanted out.
This year, they got a new coach and have to deal with a disgrunted player who wants out.
Ya, they got a new GM, but he hasn't really done anything groundbreaking yet, so who knows if this team goes anymore this year.

[Lew Crippen]

It will be pretty hard to assess the Mavs chances until at least mid-season. Eight or nine new players and limited practice obviously result in ‘no one knows’.

[Scott Merryfield]

While Detroit may not end up repeating, I think they are a better team than last year. They return all five starters for the first time under Dumars, will have Rasheed for the entire season, McDyess (if healthy) is an upgrade over Okur, and rookies Delfino and Dupree should help off the bench. The only area they may be weaker is at backup point guard with the loss of Mike James. Other questions will be whether Rasheed will continue to behave himself now that he has a new contract and can the team stay healthy like last season.

One big advantage Detroit has over the teams from the West is that there are only a couple of good teams in the East for them to worry about, with Indy being the biggest concern. Miami will be competitive with Shaq, and Milwaukee should be a decent team. Who knows what will happen with the Knicks, and New Jersey is going to fall.

[John Chow]

It's all Rockets baybee. Tmac + Yao, 'nuff said. Ok, well, maybe not, but at least it'll be an interesting season for us Houston fans

[Casey Trowbridg]

Quote:

How many people are going to say that Detroit was a fluke?

Certainly not me. I give them just as good a chance to repeat as I have to any other team these past few years.

As for the Lakers don't even get me started. I hope they don't win a damn game this whole season. Ok, so maybe that's a bit much but I hope that they perform to a level that will get the GM kicked right out of his job.

Never ever ever trade the big man. This team may as well be the Los Angeles Kobes and they'll go as far as he goes. I am a person that will admit that I bought in to the nice guy Kobe image. I wanted to believe he was a good person, but just too much information has come out from way too many different sources for me to like this guy.

As for this NBA season, I don't know what it is, but I could really care less right this minute. Usually, I take some of the summer off to get away from it, and then around this time of year I start reading all the team previews in the preseason and such, but not this year. Haven't read anything basketball related since the Olympics.

I think the NBA is a league with a lot of problems, mainly being the large gap between the haves and the have nots.

I'm not just talking about East vs. West like last year, there are a lot of bad teams out there. Although, I will keep my promise and not call the Eastern Conference the Leastern conference this year because of Detroit's win.

Although, should things get bad in the South East division with Orlando, Charlotte, Miami, Atlanta and Washington...I would like to be able to call it the South Least division if it becomes appropriate. Although maybe its the New York, New Jersey, Toronto, Boston and Philadelphia group that will submit the least deserving team to make the playoffs this year.

Your NBA finals prediction
Spurs over Pistons, but its close.

Well, I am ready for another round of jokes this year...assuming that the playoffs go long again, Stern says this won't be a problem but we shall see

The NBA thread was the most fun for me, and will probably be the source of a lot of my NBA interest this year.

[Casey Trowbridg]

ABC Sports would like Phil Jackson to be in the booth for the Christmas day game between the L.A. Kobes and the Miami Shaqs.

As fun as it would be to have Phil taking cheap shots at Kobe all throughout the game, and going out of his way to praise Shaq, I think I'll stick with football.

Oh, and when I say "fun" I mean "fun" in the nails across the chalkboard sense.

That's one decision I'm glad was made, I never much cared for Phil Jackson just tollerated him, and I'm glad to have a head coach for the team that I root for that I actually respect.

[John Gates]

My team has always been the Trailblazers since I saw their championship in the 70's. They have sucked for the last 8 years or so. Woe is me!!

John

[Chris Farmer]

This should be an interesting season. Out West the Spurs and the T-wolves are probably on top after the dismantling of the Lakers, and Detroit and Indy lead the East. Miami will be good, but if Shaq-Kobe couldn't beat Detroit or even be competitive, will Shaq-Wade be able to do it?

The interesting teams to watch though will as usual be the ones that made the biggest changes in the offseason. Dallas is looking very different then last year, and finally has a legit presence in the middle. Houston is an up-and-comer, but I'd say it will take at least a season for the Yao-McGrady thing to settle out. The Rockets will be good, but they're at least a season away from being full on contenders. Sacramento's window has probably closed by now, their locker-room lead is back where he started with the Lakers, and there seems to be plenty of tension in what's still there. The Lakers will make the playoffs on the sheer strength of Kobe's will alone (he knows how much hell he'll catch if the Lakers go from Finals to not even in the play-offs without Shaq, and he won't let that happen), but I doubt the advance past the first round.

On a wider note, while the conferences are more equal at the top, with two excellent teams over each conference (Spurs, T-Wolves, Pistons, Pacers), out East things have gotten far uglier. Miami gives the East three legit teams, but after that it's an abyss. If it wasn't for the greater scheduling of East vs. East teams vs. East-West, I could literally see only Indy, Detroit, and Miami being over .500 for the season, the rest looks that bad. Out West things are more competitive. SA and Minny are still the boys to beat, but the Rockets, Nuggets, and Jazz will all be even better this season then last after some significant upgrades, and the Kings, Lakers, Grizzlies, and Mavs will be interesting to watch for results as well, although I expect one of those three to flame out this season and strongly underperform. While not play-off material I don't think, I also like the direction the Suns and Blazers are moving, it's not there yet, but it's a decent start (especially Nash on the Suns, nice coup there for this season, although they'll be regretting it before the end of that massive contract). As it is, the West has eleven teams that could conceivably make the play-offs (and would if they were in the other conference), the East has nothing after you pass Miami.

As for predictions, I guess I'll say that Barry gives the Spurs the outside shooting they lacked in last year's play-offs, which opens the floor for Duncan, Parker, and Manu to work their magic, and they take the championship from the Pistons in a hard-fought series with a series combined score less then just the Mavs seasonal average for one game.