Following potential 2014 draftees
- Thread starter Dr. Jones
- Start date
♪alt13
Well-Known Member
Depends on Dirk
I doubt the Mavs make the playoffs, but they'll be a bit better than last year.
I think the Jazz are trying to put themselves in position to throw the kitchen sink at a team that could get us in the top 4. I think the Jazz would give up one of our young players, plus our pick (say 6 - 9 range), plus two second round picks in order to get Parker or Randle.
I think the Jazz are trying to put themselves in position to throw the kitchen sink at a team that could get us in the top 4. I think the Jazz would give up one of our young players, plus our pick (say 6 - 9 range), plus two second round picks in order to get Parker or Randle.
♪alt13
Well-Known Member
Don't forget that gsw pick
Do you really think we can trade up to grab a top 4 pick?
♪alt13
Well-Known Member
I think for Favors yes.
??? Favors wants to get traded??? This is news to me bro.
Just depends how you wanna play. The Spurs didn't seem to need a stud wing to win all those Chips.
I complain about lack of outlining decisions/evaluations...Triple TK comes and makes a list...W/O OUTLINING WHY. WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY KKK WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Ok serious mode now...
Magic will be better...They obtained eventually the best Bucks player in Tobias Harris who instantly led his team in scoring, while not being familiar with their system! He'll probably continue to grow. They have Nik Vucevic. His defensive and offensive stats in his breakthrough season suggest he isn't finished and is already a more proven player than Favors, even if Favors upside is higher. He simply played the bigger role. Add to that the most NBA ready rook on the defensive end, who also shows to be a very smart player in Oladipo and returning promising rookies Mo Harkless and Andrew Nicholson and they have a strong young core. In addition to that they got solid Jameer Nelson, fierce wing defender Afflalo and Glen Davis, who had kind of a breakthrough campaign as well. They added veteran Jason Maxiell this offseason to improve their inside rotation depthwise. After gathering these information I'll completely ignore what happens with Turkoglu and Al Harrington. It doesn't matter. They play in the Eastern Tankference. I just need to look at their division. They play 4 times the Hawks, Horncats and Wizards. I'd be surprised if that alone didn't account for 7+ wins. They'll have 2 or 3 more freewins alone against the Bucks and Sixers. Plus there are some other candidates to shuffle their roster over during the season(Celtics, Raptors) to get even more easy wins. Add to that a bad defense from Cleveland and that's another likely 1 or 2 wins to snag from there. Plus Cleveland is injury prone...A LOT.
If the Magic don't sit their best players with knee tendinitis they won't be in competition for the worst spots likely!
I totally agree with the Sixers being worse and won't elaborate. Their roster is naked.
But everyone else is a questionmark! The Suns have a very deep team. They'll win a couple of games because their bench outperforms the opponents.
PG: Goran Dragic, Kendall Marshall, Archie Goodwin
SG: Eric Bledsoe, Shannon Brown, Malcolm Lee
SF: Caron Butler, P.J. Tucker, Michael Beasley
PF: Luis Scola, Markieff Morris, Marcus Morris
C: Marcin Gortat, Channing Frye
+ Alex Len(who's not signed yet)
That's what hoopsworld suggests. I'd have it different of course, but you can see that's a tough bench mob. There's a guy like Beasley, who can win a game alone once a month when people forget he can only go left and he isn't plagued by suicidal thoughts for a night - That's not meant in a disrespectful way towards him, just as an exaggeration of his headcase status. I actually feel for people who struggle that mightily in their lives. Rooting for Beasley to change his way, and cut loose ends ever since he started to struggle.
They'll probably win a lot of games vs the East at least and are a surprise threat every night in the West as well.
The Bucks will probably suck hard too, but at least they have to fight harder for more losses. On the other hand the Bucks have a central division in which they might go 0-16 easily! But Bucks are imo the biggest contender for the Jazz to be the 2nd worst team, because of their division. No Mayo, no disgruntled "I make everyone around me worse" Jennings on a QO contract can turn that franchise around imo. Best player is Larry Sanders and they'll hope to get quality minutes either for Ilyasova to develop into a more consistent scoring threat or give major burn to John Henson to see what he can do. Their rookie Adetokunbo is also very raw and has a mentor in Delfino next to him.
Bobcats are a tough bunch to evaluate. They have a couple guys who indicate they could scratch on a playoff rank next spring, but there's questionmarks in their frontcourt defense. BigAL and Zeller aren't defensive anchors. Bustyombo alone can't keep their lanes empty. It's also hard to say how Kemba develops as he has deficiences(defense) as well as good signs. He's already 23 though, his improvement will be probably limited.
It's hard to predict how Henderson will play on a QO. If he's good he'll help with good perimeter defense, if the pressure is too much that'll cost the team wins. Their only alternative is Ben Gordon and while he can be lights out in the fourth quarter he can also get overpowered on defense and sometimes his offense misses as well.
But my gut tells me that their uncertaincies are paying off and they'll end with a stronger record than most anticipate. But my gut isn't right very often, so you can also add them right to the mix competing for a #3 seed.
Next up are the Kings. They'll have Vasquez. That will boost their offense a lot over having heroball midget Isaiah Thomas and Jimmer Bustette playing major minutes. Their starters are mostly solid: Thronton has an above average 3 pt shot. He played well on limited minutes last season. Depending how much opportunities McLemore getts they'll be limited as well. At the 3 spot they have good balance with Mbah a Moute providing defense and rebounding, whilst Salmons and Outlaw(okay he was before he joined the Kings) are more productive on the offensive end in streaks. At 4 they have solid veteran Jason Thompson and a scoring push from Landry. Patterson isn't too shabby either. Plus he can knock down open 3 pointers. In end it will all depend on Cousins. If he's on fire and plays for a new contract that he doesn't seem to be able to command right now, they can play inside out and have very good shooters around him. EVERY player on the 1-3 positions except Mbah a Moute is a good shooter from long range.
Their defense is strengthened on some positions, but they still have liabilities. But that's a trade off most teams have to make. And they mostly have multiple options from the bench to strengthen defense on a specific position. If Cousins finally plays up to his potential and listens to his coach Kings will have wayyyy more Ws than the Jazz imo.
Other questionmark situations I want to add for a long shot on the higher picks are in this particular order:
Celtics - How's Rondo's shape? If he can't lead his team they'll be right up there imo. Plus a couple of their players struggle to stay healthy
Raptors - Major knee tendinitis candidate as well. If Gay's eye correction surgery doesn't spark his production and other guys with questionable health or impact on the game struggle(DeMar, Lowry mainly), I expect them to throw the towels. But if they can stay halthy and even Valanciunas has a breakout season they're right in playoff range. They have a lot of players who are good defender or role player.
Mavs - Yeah pretty much no depth and I expect them to move Carter and eventually Trix if Dirk has bad luck with an injury early into the season. Defense is also a major concern. If even 1 little thing goes wrong it can launch an avalanche.
The last 2 are the T-Wolves and Wizards. Both teams have huge injury history and I guess no one would be surprised if they repeated that pattern once more. While both teams have enough depth to overcome 1 outage, a 2nd important player going down could lead to them throwing towels too.
Summary: Basically the Sixers have the best shot at going first overall. After that it's head to head between the Jazz and Bucks with the Bobcats and Kings having an outside shot to sneak in in case of injury or chemistry issues. A little bit stronger due to Conference or talent are the Suns and Magic. Their depth doesn't hurt either to be more stable. The next group are all fringe playoff candidates. (Celtics, Mavs, Raptors, T-Wolves, Wizards, Kings and Bobcats) They'd have to do a huge spontaneous obvious tankjob during the season, but injuries could lead them to that decision in a Duncan-esque fashion. I expect at least 1 team to have that kind of bad luck and sink their own ship before Christmas. At least 1 more does that strat right at the trade deadline, but that'll be too late to compete with the Jazz and Bucks.