I love this game....and I don't know why
The NBA it's faaaaaaaaaannnnnntastic, or some such crap like that. To pilfer a line from ESPN.com's Bill Simmons, I'm one of the two dozen NBA fans that actually exists. No I'm not just a Celtics fan, of which I am of the rabid variety, I actually like the NBA. I know, the game can be boring and methodical, lots of one-one while everyone else stands around. I absolutely abhor the some of the showmanship and one-upmanship that seems to plague the game today. Count me among the very happy the NBA will be giving away technichal fouls for excessive whining and showing up referees after calls.
I'm thinking the new rule will hopefully cut down on the cry-baby antics you can't go more than 45 second without seeing in an NBA game. In fact I'm hoping that the new rule will cause the rest of Detroit Piston forward Rasheed Wallace's hair to turn gray like that little patch he already has on his head due to the new stress the rule will cause him. He's one of the guys who is claiming this rule will be "taking away from the emotion we display on the court." Seems to me guys named Bird and Magic and Robertson and Reed and Russell and Chamberlin all played with plenty of emotion. What they didn't due was play like whiny cry-babies which is what the rule is trying to crack down on. If you decide sometime in the near future to watch an NBA game (and if you do, god bless you for doing so) keep a count of how many guys actually think they committed a foul. My guess is about 3% of the time a player will admit to committing a foul and the other 97% of the time he'll cry worse than a baby who just dropped half their body weight into their diaper.
In fact over the course of his entire 16 season career with the Lakers, Hornets and Kings, Vlade Divac never once committed a foul, well in his mind at least, despite being whistled for just over 3,600 fouls in 1,134 career games. Divac also had it the other way as well. If he missed a shot, specifically a lay-up that was well contested defensively, he wanted a foul, because he would never miss that shot under his own power, he must have been fouled. Let put it this way, Divac stands 6'11"....if Verne Troyer (aka - Mini-Me) sneezed on Divac while he was taking a jumper and he missed Vlade would turn the ref, swear at him in Serbian and demand a foul. Divac was also known for smoking like a chimney in his earlier years in the association, but eventually gave it up at the behest of his children and then he suddenly noticed he wasn't as short of breath as he once was. Yes, this is the league I grew up watching and for some reason still enjoy.
This is all not to say that NBA officials are very good, in fact they may be the worst officials in all of professional sports, but that is another rant for another day. So what's this all a set-up for, why an NBA pre-view of course! Please, don't get too excited, no really please sit back down. This will be coming in chunks by divisions in the next few days or week or however long it takes me. Hell, I probably won't finish this until December when we're almost 2 months into the regular season. If you're looking for in depth, detailed analysis with insightful commentary, team by team position by position breakdown, playoff and finals picks and league awards picks then this is definetly not the place for you, at all. I may do some of that and maybe at the end I will actually try to pick some awards winners, but that's as far as it will get. Predictions are useless, they're seldom right and you're pretty much basing them on past years performances which can either mean a whole lot or a whole little so you won't find them here.
Since I live on the east coast and I hate hearing about the "East Coast bias" I'm going to start all this crap with the teams out west in the Pacific Division....ok not really, lets start out in the Southeast division, why, well just because.
SOUTHEAST DIVISION
Atlanta Hawks: On the positive side, the Hawks doubled their win total in the 2005-06 from the previous season. On the negative side that translated into just 26 wins (pop quiz - how many wins does that mean they had the season before?). They do have a high quality NBA player in Joe Johnson. He can shoot, drive, pretty much handle all facets of the game (sans defense). They also have a very exciting player in Josh Smith who jump out of the gym and may be one of the more exciting finishers in the NBA in the open court and is a pretty good shot blocker. Other positives? Small Forward Josh Childress sports a very well kept afro....no seriously, that's the next best thing about this team which doesn't say much for them or their chances. They did brings in Speed Claxton to shore up the point guard position. Not a huge move but maybe a step in the right direction. Last year's starting point guard combo of Tyronn Lue and Royal Ivey combined to average a whopping 4 assists a game. If you follow basketabll you now that's not just bad, it's horrendous. If you don't follow basketball just understand that's very bad, much like drinking Jobu's rum. Speaking of which, do yourself a favor and Google image Tyronn Lue, picture him with some fluffy hair and he would look a lot like Jobu. And speaking of funny looking, joining the Hawks this year fresh out of Duke University is Sheldan Williams, who is a lock to join the NBA's all ugly team and may even give Sam Cassell a run for his money in the "most ugliest" category (and yes I know most ugliest is not correct grammar, whatever). In fact I think Cassell and Williams are from rival planets and when they meet on the floor the first time this year it's gonna get messy. What the hell am I writing about again, oh yeah, the Hawks. They'll be bad....really bad....and they'll probably beat the Celtics twice.....damn you NBA.
Charlotte Bobcats: Gotta love it when a franchise leaves a city (Hornets) and the NBA place an expansion franchise there just a few years later, nice work. Anyway they could be respectable, hell they could put together and NCAA All-America team with some of the current players on their roster. Unfortunately this is the NBA, not the NCAA so how that will work remains to be seen. Emeka Okafur (All-America #1), former co-rookie of the year missed a lot of time with an ankle injust last year. While not spectacular, he's solid, when healthy of course. He can hold down the power forward position, though slightly undersized. To pair with him in the front court, the Bobcats drafted former UNC forward Sean May (All-America #2). May also was hurt for much of last year, out with a knee injury. Since he was already a little overweight to begin with I'm sure having a knee injury that would keep you sedintary would do nothing to exaserbate that problem, not at all. Baby fat is OK on a baby, it's not OK on 22-year old power forward, but I digress. May's former teammate Raymond Felton (AAM #3) will most likely be manning the point for them this year. No real problem with him, so we'll move on to AAM #4, Adam Morrison. He was everyone's favorite athlete last year not named Brett Favre. We heard about how he was a diabetic one week and then how he played video games on-line with JJ Reddick then about how he displayed such emotion on the court and then every week we heard about his moustache and then how he reminded everyone of Larry Bird (that my friends is another rant for another day, believe me). How's he gonna do this year, I think OK. He'll have some great games and he'll struggle in some others, just like every other rookie. If they run him off enough picks, he'll score enough. He just won't be able to create his own shot that well, or rebound that well. Rookie of the Year? Wouldn't be surprised, but I definetly wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't in the running for it either. Another thing too, he does not have a porn start moustache, not at all. Porn start staches' are big and bushym almost fu-manchu like. He has a moustache of an 8th grader, so enough about it already. I do like Gerald Wallace, high energy guy, not afraid to go to the rim and plays some solid defense. If you watch a Bobcats game, watch him and you should be entertained. Again, they could be respectable, depends on the health of the guys they have....then again that's true of all teams, so I really made no real point there, just wasted word space.
Orlando Magic: If I had to pick a sleeper team to make the playoffs, I would pick them. I don't know why, there's just something about them that's appealing. Dwight Howard is an absolute monster and he's just scraping his ceiling. He could pull down 16-18 rebounds a game, I'm convinced of this. If he can develop a face up jumper he could be like Karl Malone, except with a vertical leap, better open court finishing skills and he wouldn't throw cheap elbows....there I said it. I'm also thinking they can win because they got the hell rid of Steve Francis who in so many ways epitomizes what's wrong with the league. Guy with a ton of ability, wants to play the point when he really is a two-guard, could care less about setting up his teammates with easy shots and seems like he could snap and punch some one out at any moment. So yeah, without him I think things could be smoother in Orlando. This next part may sound funny, in fact it might sound borderline retarted (well look at the source on that one), but I think a portion of their success will hinge on, get this, are you ready? OK, here we go....Darko Milicic. Yup, the same guy who was drafted between LeBron and Carmelo and three picks ahead of Dwayne Wade. His numbers weren't that spectacular (7.6ppg 4.1rpg), but he averaged over two blocks a game and has apparently added 15 pounds of muscle. It'll give Howard some one else to bang with the other team's big guys down low (no offense Tony Battie....well can you really offend Tony Battie, I think no, but I digress) and some interior defense. And hey, if he gets some minutes, maybe he'll get some confidence, not something Larry Brown, his coach in Detroit, is known for doling out. I also like watching Jameer Nelson play. Small guy, scrappy as hell, can fly up and down the floor and can shoot the ball very well. Of course there is the subject of Grant Hill. If healthy this team could creep into the playoffs and if not, well it'll be a little harder. Also a big questions is when Keyon Dooling will stab someone during actual game action....I have no basis for this thought, it's just the more I see Dooling play the more I am convinced he's very mentally unstable. Again, no actual incidents to make me feel this way, just a hunch. He's kind of like that guy that shows up at a party that no one knows, hangs around the beer and acts like he's going to stuff a bunch inside his jacket and make off with it so you watch him like a hawk and even though he doesn't end up taking any you still find him creepy and you don't trust him....wow, I've devoted way too much time to Keyon Dooling, my apologies. There's also former Duke golden boy JJ Reddick is on this team or as I like to refer to him, Steve Kerr: The Rebirth. Essentially, he'll be a spot up guy, like Kerr was, but a little bit more athletic. If they can get anything going in the post with Howard & Milicic and they can teach those two to pass out of the post then he should be good for like at least a dozen a night. On the negative he's already had back and ankle (I think?) injuries and last I checked opening night was still about two weeks away. That and he would have trouble guarding a coat rack. On the plus side with him though, he already has down the NBA whining scheme, as nearly every player that comes out of Duke does. Then again with the new rules that could result in him getting T'ed up which would be fun. But yeah, I like the Magic, I think they could do some good things you might even say magi.....you thought I was going to make that joke, didn't you?
Washington Wizards: This just in, Gilbert Arenas feels disrespectd....again. If you don't follow the NBA, Arenas has built his entire career on being disrespected. Got nothing against that or him, great offensive player, has obviously worked hard to get where he is, just stop thinking everytime something doesn't go your way that it's a sign of disrespect. It's a boring storyline, it's an overdone storyline, please lets stop. You don't see me getting mad everytime the people at McDonalds assume I can't eat a 20 piece nugget and large fry. More love, less hate. As for the rest of the roster, there's Antawn Jamison who can play in blocks and more out of necessity because of creaky knees has become a pretty good perimeter shooter....notice the use of the word shooter because he's definetly not a perimeter player, just a shooter. Brendan Haywood is in the middle and he can be best surmised as follows. He's seven feet tall and he looks like an oversized baby, runs about as fast as a baby and more often than not he plays and whines like a baby....and yes this is a professional sports league that I watch voluntarily. I never said I was smart, in fact more often than not I say that I'm stupid....I have no idea where I'm going with this....moving on. I look at the rest of their roster and I have no idea how the hell they made the playoffs each of the last two years and why they could make it again this year. Other than Antonio Daniels there's not much else to like....well maybe Caron Butler, but he and Drew Gooden seem to have been spawned out of the same basketball pond where any given game they could look like an all-star at their position and then the next they look like the guy who should be waving the towel on the bench. So yeah, this might be one of the most wasteful paragraphs I've ever typed, but I had to do something on the Wizards, right?
Miami Heat: The Defending Champion Miami Heat....still doesn't seem to fit, but it's true. This roster seems like it was put together during a fantasy draft when the guy picking the team was bombed out of his tree. Instead it was put together by Pat Riley who has enough championship rings for an entire hand. It used to be you could never bet against a team with Shaq, but I think we're getting closer to where that's a reality. Nothing against the big guy, but his knees are getting creaky and if creaky knees really bother guys that are 6' tall and weigh 195, I'd hate to think what the creaky knees on a 7' 1" 300lbs feel like. You just can't count out a team with Dwayne Wade....it's impossible to do. He some how covers up Antoine Walker's horrendous shot selection, Jason Williams' shakey decision making, Gary Payton's age and the fact that James Posey is, well Jame Posey, just one of those guys you watch and you go, "How did he get into the NBA?" Last year we heard about how this was a team full of verterans hungry for a title and we saw it as they closed out the series against Dallas in the finals. I still believe that if Alonzo Mourning and Walker were given weapons to use while on the court during the finals last year they would have used them without hesitating. They weren't just possesed, they were something beyond it, something beyond intense, which is saying something, especially for Mourning who is so intense he scared his own kidney out of his body (too soon?) But yeah, hungry veterans last year, they won the title, so now the question is are they still hungry? I'm leaning towards yes, though after 30 games I think some one will cause bodily harm to Gary Payton....just have a feeling now that he has a ring he won't give a damn anymore and that will be his undoing. In all honesty the only reason he's survived the past couple of years, while playing on fumes, is because he gave a damn because he wanted to get a title. This year, with ring on hand, he shall give no damn and some one will give him a swift kick to the ass, I'm betting Michael Doleac, ok not betting, just hoping because no one would ever suspect Michael Doleac. But yeah, a team with a healthy Wade and a semi-healthy (60-65 games) Shaq is a beast in the east. Oh yeah, I like Udonis Haslem, plays bigger than his size, scraps with much bigger guys....he's kind of like a likeable Danny Fortson....or should I say Danny Fortson is and unlikeable Udonis Haslem....yeah that's better.
So there you have it, the Southeast division, for better or for worse. With the Hawks and Bobcats, I'm leaning towards worse. Alright, just for the hell of it, I'm going to try and predict a division finishing order, here goes nothing.
1. Miami - unless Wade goes down, then all bets are off
2. Orlando - Yup, my sleeper team, which means they'll probably finish 4th in the division
3. Washington - Yeah Gilbert, I picked your team 3rd in the division, please feel disrespected
4. Charlotte - Sorry, any team with Marvin Ely can not finish higher than 4th in their division, would in fact be lower if not for....
5. Atlanta - ....the fact they play in the same division as the Hawks
Alright, that's way too much time on the Southeast Division...another division coming your way sometime soon, so until then.....
I'm thinking the new rule will hopefully cut down on the cry-baby antics you can't go more than 45 second without seeing in an NBA game. In fact I'm hoping that the new rule will cause the rest of Detroit Piston forward Rasheed Wallace's hair to turn gray like that little patch he already has on his head due to the new stress the rule will cause him. He's one of the guys who is claiming this rule will be "taking away from the emotion we display on the court." Seems to me guys named Bird and Magic and Robertson and Reed and Russell and Chamberlin all played with plenty of emotion. What they didn't due was play like whiny cry-babies which is what the rule is trying to crack down on. If you decide sometime in the near future to watch an NBA game (and if you do, god bless you for doing so) keep a count of how many guys actually think they committed a foul. My guess is about 3% of the time a player will admit to committing a foul and the other 97% of the time he'll cry worse than a baby who just dropped half their body weight into their diaper.
In fact over the course of his entire 16 season career with the Lakers, Hornets and Kings, Vlade Divac never once committed a foul, well in his mind at least, despite being whistled for just over 3,600 fouls in 1,134 career games. Divac also had it the other way as well. If he missed a shot, specifically a lay-up that was well contested defensively, he wanted a foul, because he would never miss that shot under his own power, he must have been fouled. Let put it this way, Divac stands 6'11"....if Verne Troyer (aka - Mini-Me) sneezed on Divac while he was taking a jumper and he missed Vlade would turn the ref, swear at him in Serbian and demand a foul. Divac was also known for smoking like a chimney in his earlier years in the association, but eventually gave it up at the behest of his children and then he suddenly noticed he wasn't as short of breath as he once was. Yes, this is the league I grew up watching and for some reason still enjoy.
This is all not to say that NBA officials are very good, in fact they may be the worst officials in all of professional sports, but that is another rant for another day. So what's this all a set-up for, why an NBA pre-view of course! Please, don't get too excited, no really please sit back down. This will be coming in chunks by divisions in the next few days or week or however long it takes me. Hell, I probably won't finish this until December when we're almost 2 months into the regular season. If you're looking for in depth, detailed analysis with insightful commentary, team by team position by position breakdown, playoff and finals picks and league awards picks then this is definetly not the place for you, at all. I may do some of that and maybe at the end I will actually try to pick some awards winners, but that's as far as it will get. Predictions are useless, they're seldom right and you're pretty much basing them on past years performances which can either mean a whole lot or a whole little so you won't find them here.
Since I live on the east coast and I hate hearing about the "East Coast bias" I'm going to start all this crap with the teams out west in the Pacific Division....ok not really, lets start out in the Southeast division, why, well just because.
SOUTHEAST DIVISION
Atlanta Hawks: On the positive side, the Hawks doubled their win total in the 2005-06 from the previous season. On the negative side that translated into just 26 wins (pop quiz - how many wins does that mean they had the season before?). They do have a high quality NBA player in Joe Johnson. He can shoot, drive, pretty much handle all facets of the game (sans defense). They also have a very exciting player in Josh Smith who jump out of the gym and may be one of the more exciting finishers in the NBA in the open court and is a pretty good shot blocker. Other positives? Small Forward Josh Childress sports a very well kept afro....no seriously, that's the next best thing about this team which doesn't say much for them or their chances. They did brings in Speed Claxton to shore up the point guard position. Not a huge move but maybe a step in the right direction. Last year's starting point guard combo of Tyronn Lue and Royal Ivey combined to average a whopping 4 assists a game. If you follow basketabll you now that's not just bad, it's horrendous. If you don't follow basketball just understand that's very bad, much like drinking Jobu's rum. Speaking of which, do yourself a favor and Google image Tyronn Lue, picture him with some fluffy hair and he would look a lot like Jobu. And speaking of funny looking, joining the Hawks this year fresh out of Duke University is Sheldan Williams, who is a lock to join the NBA's all ugly team and may even give Sam Cassell a run for his money in the "most ugliest" category (and yes I know most ugliest is not correct grammar, whatever). In fact I think Cassell and Williams are from rival planets and when they meet on the floor the first time this year it's gonna get messy. What the hell am I writing about again, oh yeah, the Hawks. They'll be bad....really bad....and they'll probably beat the Celtics twice.....damn you NBA.
Charlotte Bobcats: Gotta love it when a franchise leaves a city (Hornets) and the NBA place an expansion franchise there just a few years later, nice work. Anyway they could be respectable, hell they could put together and NCAA All-America team with some of the current players on their roster. Unfortunately this is the NBA, not the NCAA so how that will work remains to be seen. Emeka Okafur (All-America #1), former co-rookie of the year missed a lot of time with an ankle injust last year. While not spectacular, he's solid, when healthy of course. He can hold down the power forward position, though slightly undersized. To pair with him in the front court, the Bobcats drafted former UNC forward Sean May (All-America #2). May also was hurt for much of last year, out with a knee injury. Since he was already a little overweight to begin with I'm sure having a knee injury that would keep you sedintary would do nothing to exaserbate that problem, not at all. Baby fat is OK on a baby, it's not OK on 22-year old power forward, but I digress. May's former teammate Raymond Felton (AAM #3) will most likely be manning the point for them this year. No real problem with him, so we'll move on to AAM #4, Adam Morrison. He was everyone's favorite athlete last year not named Brett Favre. We heard about how he was a diabetic one week and then how he played video games on-line with JJ Reddick then about how he displayed such emotion on the court and then every week we heard about his moustache and then how he reminded everyone of Larry Bird (that my friends is another rant for another day, believe me). How's he gonna do this year, I think OK. He'll have some great games and he'll struggle in some others, just like every other rookie. If they run him off enough picks, he'll score enough. He just won't be able to create his own shot that well, or rebound that well. Rookie of the Year? Wouldn't be surprised, but I definetly wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't in the running for it either. Another thing too, he does not have a porn start moustache, not at all. Porn start staches' are big and bushym almost fu-manchu like. He has a moustache of an 8th grader, so enough about it already. I do like Gerald Wallace, high energy guy, not afraid to go to the rim and plays some solid defense. If you watch a Bobcats game, watch him and you should be entertained. Again, they could be respectable, depends on the health of the guys they have....then again that's true of all teams, so I really made no real point there, just wasted word space.
Orlando Magic: If I had to pick a sleeper team to make the playoffs, I would pick them. I don't know why, there's just something about them that's appealing. Dwight Howard is an absolute monster and he's just scraping his ceiling. He could pull down 16-18 rebounds a game, I'm convinced of this. If he can develop a face up jumper he could be like Karl Malone, except with a vertical leap, better open court finishing skills and he wouldn't throw cheap elbows....there I said it. I'm also thinking they can win because they got the hell rid of Steve Francis who in so many ways epitomizes what's wrong with the league. Guy with a ton of ability, wants to play the point when he really is a two-guard, could care less about setting up his teammates with easy shots and seems like he could snap and punch some one out at any moment. So yeah, without him I think things could be smoother in Orlando. This next part may sound funny, in fact it might sound borderline retarted (well look at the source on that one), but I think a portion of their success will hinge on, get this, are you ready? OK, here we go....Darko Milicic. Yup, the same guy who was drafted between LeBron and Carmelo and three picks ahead of Dwayne Wade. His numbers weren't that spectacular (7.6ppg 4.1rpg), but he averaged over two blocks a game and has apparently added 15 pounds of muscle. It'll give Howard some one else to bang with the other team's big guys down low (no offense Tony Battie....well can you really offend Tony Battie, I think no, but I digress) and some interior defense. And hey, if he gets some minutes, maybe he'll get some confidence, not something Larry Brown, his coach in Detroit, is known for doling out. I also like watching Jameer Nelson play. Small guy, scrappy as hell, can fly up and down the floor and can shoot the ball very well. Of course there is the subject of Grant Hill. If healthy this team could creep into the playoffs and if not, well it'll be a little harder. Also a big questions is when Keyon Dooling will stab someone during actual game action....I have no basis for this thought, it's just the more I see Dooling play the more I am convinced he's very mentally unstable. Again, no actual incidents to make me feel this way, just a hunch. He's kind of like that guy that shows up at a party that no one knows, hangs around the beer and acts like he's going to stuff a bunch inside his jacket and make off with it so you watch him like a hawk and even though he doesn't end up taking any you still find him creepy and you don't trust him....wow, I've devoted way too much time to Keyon Dooling, my apologies. There's also former Duke golden boy JJ Reddick is on this team or as I like to refer to him, Steve Kerr: The Rebirth. Essentially, he'll be a spot up guy, like Kerr was, but a little bit more athletic. If they can get anything going in the post with Howard & Milicic and they can teach those two to pass out of the post then he should be good for like at least a dozen a night. On the negative he's already had back and ankle (I think?) injuries and last I checked opening night was still about two weeks away. That and he would have trouble guarding a coat rack. On the plus side with him though, he already has down the NBA whining scheme, as nearly every player that comes out of Duke does. Then again with the new rules that could result in him getting T'ed up which would be fun. But yeah, I like the Magic, I think they could do some good things you might even say magi.....you thought I was going to make that joke, didn't you?
Washington Wizards: This just in, Gilbert Arenas feels disrespectd....again. If you don't follow the NBA, Arenas has built his entire career on being disrespected. Got nothing against that or him, great offensive player, has obviously worked hard to get where he is, just stop thinking everytime something doesn't go your way that it's a sign of disrespect. It's a boring storyline, it's an overdone storyline, please lets stop. You don't see me getting mad everytime the people at McDonalds assume I can't eat a 20 piece nugget and large fry. More love, less hate. As for the rest of the roster, there's Antawn Jamison who can play in blocks and more out of necessity because of creaky knees has become a pretty good perimeter shooter....notice the use of the word shooter because he's definetly not a perimeter player, just a shooter. Brendan Haywood is in the middle and he can be best surmised as follows. He's seven feet tall and he looks like an oversized baby, runs about as fast as a baby and more often than not he plays and whines like a baby....and yes this is a professional sports league that I watch voluntarily. I never said I was smart, in fact more often than not I say that I'm stupid....I have no idea where I'm going with this....moving on. I look at the rest of their roster and I have no idea how the hell they made the playoffs each of the last two years and why they could make it again this year. Other than Antonio Daniels there's not much else to like....well maybe Caron Butler, but he and Drew Gooden seem to have been spawned out of the same basketball pond where any given game they could look like an all-star at their position and then the next they look like the guy who should be waving the towel on the bench. So yeah, this might be one of the most wasteful paragraphs I've ever typed, but I had to do something on the Wizards, right?
Miami Heat: The Defending Champion Miami Heat....still doesn't seem to fit, but it's true. This roster seems like it was put together during a fantasy draft when the guy picking the team was bombed out of his tree. Instead it was put together by Pat Riley who has enough championship rings for an entire hand. It used to be you could never bet against a team with Shaq, but I think we're getting closer to where that's a reality. Nothing against the big guy, but his knees are getting creaky and if creaky knees really bother guys that are 6' tall and weigh 195, I'd hate to think what the creaky knees on a 7' 1" 300lbs feel like. You just can't count out a team with Dwayne Wade....it's impossible to do. He some how covers up Antoine Walker's horrendous shot selection, Jason Williams' shakey decision making, Gary Payton's age and the fact that James Posey is, well Jame Posey, just one of those guys you watch and you go, "How did he get into the NBA?" Last year we heard about how this was a team full of verterans hungry for a title and we saw it as they closed out the series against Dallas in the finals. I still believe that if Alonzo Mourning and Walker were given weapons to use while on the court during the finals last year they would have used them without hesitating. They weren't just possesed, they were something beyond it, something beyond intense, which is saying something, especially for Mourning who is so intense he scared his own kidney out of his body (too soon?) But yeah, hungry veterans last year, they won the title, so now the question is are they still hungry? I'm leaning towards yes, though after 30 games I think some one will cause bodily harm to Gary Payton....just have a feeling now that he has a ring he won't give a damn anymore and that will be his undoing. In all honesty the only reason he's survived the past couple of years, while playing on fumes, is because he gave a damn because he wanted to get a title. This year, with ring on hand, he shall give no damn and some one will give him a swift kick to the ass, I'm betting Michael Doleac, ok not betting, just hoping because no one would ever suspect Michael Doleac. But yeah, a team with a healthy Wade and a semi-healthy (60-65 games) Shaq is a beast in the east. Oh yeah, I like Udonis Haslem, plays bigger than his size, scraps with much bigger guys....he's kind of like a likeable Danny Fortson....or should I say Danny Fortson is and unlikeable Udonis Haslem....yeah that's better.
So there you have it, the Southeast division, for better or for worse. With the Hawks and Bobcats, I'm leaning towards worse. Alright, just for the hell of it, I'm going to try and predict a division finishing order, here goes nothing.
1. Miami - unless Wade goes down, then all bets are off
2. Orlando - Yup, my sleeper team, which means they'll probably finish 4th in the division
3. Washington - Yeah Gilbert, I picked your team 3rd in the division, please feel disrespected
4. Charlotte - Sorry, any team with Marvin Ely can not finish higher than 4th in their division, would in fact be lower if not for....
5. Atlanta - ....the fact they play in the same division as the Hawks
Alright, that's way too much time on the Southeast Division...another division coming your way sometime soon, so until then.....
posted by MC at 3:49 PM
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