http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/powerranking?season=2008&week=-1


Big expectations this year...

College Wolf wrote:
Wow...maybe 11 wins isn't out of the question

College Wolf wrote:
How can he rate Sonics as #23?

That's a lot of faith towards a couple of rookies. World is injured 50 percent of the time, and Wilcox is highly overrated. Actually, I would place Seattle below us.

That is complete crap. This team will definitely go through some growing pains, but I highly doubt they'll finish with the worst record in the league. Jefferson, Foye, and Davis are a decent core.

DeROK wrote:
I agree. Whatever though, this doesn't really bother me as I'm not putting too much stock into it.

Also, there is no way the Sonics should be rated as high as #23. Great observation Zonker.

Ha. My two favorite teams will be the worst two.

Well, maybe I'm the minority around here...and yeah, the Wolves are highly underrated and Seattle might be one or two places overrated, but the teams placed below them - maybe except for the Hawks, who have added good picks to their already talented and versatile roster, and the Wolves...come on!

- The Blazers where toast even before Oden went down for the season.
- The Knicks have been a dysfunctional mess for years and won't be much better with Zach Randolph around and Isiah under lawsuit.
- The Kings are a train wreck waiting to happen until they trade either Artest or Bibby or both.
- The 76ers are still a bunch of one-dimensional role players with only one player who could be starting somewhere else.
- The Clippers are done for the season with Brand down and will be happy to add another draft pick to the mix in the hope to someday get rid of their loosing image for more than one season per decade.
- The Pacers...well, the roster makes even the Knicks look like a championship caliber team.

I do not know...who would I put above Seattle, who have an interesting mix of promising youngsters and experienced veterans along with the sure bet ROY even before Oden's injury? They also have a good coach at hand. Soooo...I'm not saying the Sonics will win a lot of games more than the T-Wolves for example and I am not yet convinced that Durant's game will translate to the NBA, but compared to the other teams placed below them, I like their situation this season better.

The unfortunate fact of the matter is: we're now (more or less) the 2006 Celtics. I agree there are a few key differences, we have Foye instead of Rondo and Davis(another Celt) instead of PP...but we're not too different from a team that had only 24 wins last year. I admit, I think the Celts had enough talent to win 30-35 games if not for injuries and tanking but I do see the logic behind starting us at the bottom.

I'm not saying we're going to finish dead last, because I don't think that's realistic either, but I'm just looking at things objectively. Now the Wolves have to use this as motivation to work hard and play as a team next season because we need to work on building a foundation for the future.

Sanyarin wrote:
That was harsh.

Perhaps you skimmed over the name of Jermaine O'Neal, the most overrated player in the NBA. Him being repeatedly voted in the All-Star game shows how stupid people can be.

I'm not taking a shot at Ryan at all here, but I honestly believe the Pacers are one of the worst and most boring teams in the NBA. I'm sorry man.

P.S. I do like Granger though. Wish we would have drafted him...

RyanYes it was, I'm sorry. But I guess that from all people you will know best that in New York, there is at least talent although the team is a mess. Seperated and put on other teams, most or at least some of the players could be productive NBA players.

But in Indiana...oh boy, I'm quite sorry for what became of my all-time second favorite NBA team. Talentwise, they may be one of the crappiest teams on earth, especially since Golden State screwed them over by seducing them to take on Dunleavy and Murphy. That makes me sad...but maybe Diogu will come around one day, but having never seen him play, I can only guess.

By the way, I was so in love with Reggie Miller, that I had his book \"I love being the enemy\" imported by myself to Germany (it was never published in Europe and that was before the times Internet and Amazon made such things as easy as going to the bakery). Again, it was quite fun rooting for the Pacers when all my buddies where die-hard Bulls / Jordan fans. *sigh* the glorious Pacers-Knicks series'...what great Basketball moments of time...when I could still see the NBA on TV.
Ooops...I'm sorry...what does \"to skimm\" mean ?

Sanyarin wrote:

Skim means \"to pass swiftly or lightly over.\" Think of it like reading something really fast, like speed reading... thus accidentally missing or not completely understanding something.


Example sentence:

I was skimming through the pages, therefore I must have missed the part where it said McCants will be an NBA Finals MVP.

I think this season we have a good possibility to be better than: Indiana, LA Clippers, Seattle. That is all.

We could possibly, but probably won't, be better than: Portland, Atlanta, Memphis, Sac-Town, Philly.

Otherwise I am fairly certain every team will finish ahead of us. So I would put us at 27th out of 30 on my preseason power rankings.

BonK wrote:
Sounds about right to me too. Also, I think we could be better than Sac-Town. They blow chunks.

No worries Sany, I was only yanking your chain. I'm still a Pacer fan but I don't like a lot fo the players on the team.

Always glad to see another Reggie lover though.