There are no Grizzlies in Memphis
It's been a couple of days....time to look at a new division and today we travel to the NBA's Southwest Division or as I like to call it Texas and freinds as three of the division's five teams (San Antonio, Houston, Dallas) reside in the lone star state. The division is rounded out by the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets and the Memphis Grizzlies. This could be one of the toughest divsions in all of the NBA, though each of these teams could fall completely apart if a certain man from each team goes down, in fact the Grizzlies main gun is already down and out....three guesses as to where I think they'll finish in the division this season and the first two don't count. So without and further ado on we go to the Southwest.
SOUTHWEST DIVISION
Memphis Grizzlies: This is a team that won 50 games in 2003-04, 45 the following season and nailed down another 49 last year, no small feat and pretty respectable. So why are they screwd before the season has even started? Well Pau Gasol, their all-star forward who sports a beard that would make a lumberjack blush, is out for at least three months after breaking his foot while playing for Spain in the World Championships. So that right out of the gate is the man they could ill afford to lose and well, he's already lost. On the plus side shooting guard Mike Miller is in a contract year and there are no finer players in the NBA than those in contract years. (ie - Eddy Curry, Mark Blount, et. al). Their starting backcourt would be great if it were 1998, unfortunately it's 2006. Damon Stoudamire runs the point and he's actually not too bad when he's not higher than a frat boy on 4/20, which unfortuately for the Grizz isn't all that often. Eddie Jones was one of my favorite guys to watch, used to be a stud defensively, could knock down the open jumper and occaisionaly slash to the hoop when needed. Notice how everything in that last sentence spoke of Jones in the past tense. That's because in the past couple of years he's been running on fumes of fumes. I look at him kind of like that episode of Seinfeld when Kramer is test driving that car and wants to see how far past the E on the gas gague he can drive before the car craps out. Right now, that's Eddie Jones. The tank is pretty much empty and according to the gas gague he should have stopped a long time ago, yet somehow he's still going. The lesson here is sometimes in life things can't be explained. Looking to upgrade their offense, they made a draft day trade the netted them rookie Rudy Gay amongst other players. Gay could be a perenial all-star for the next decade, or he could be cleaning your table at Applebees. There's no question this guy has all the skills to be an NBA player he also already has the attitude of an 8 year veteran, that being some games he's plays as though there is nothing more important in the worlds and others he plays as if he more worried about how many groupies he'll be bringing back to his hotel room that night. To say he drifts through games is kind of like saying there's a slight drug trafficing problem in Columbia, in other words a massive understatement. Again, I watch this league under my own power....I remind you again that I'm not that bright. For excitement purposes they have Hakim Warrick who dunks more often than a fat kid with a bag of Oreos. Stromile Swift (re-acquired in the draft day deal with Gay) can also throw it down with the best of em and should provie some interior defense. Other than that, not much to sneeze at....if they can hold it together until Gasol comes back they could make a run, but don't hold your breath on it.
New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets: This is a team that in any other division would be making some noise....unfortunately for them they play in the same division as two of the top teams in the NBA (Spurs & Mavs). Part of me wants to put them ahead the Rockets, but if the Rockets stay healthy I don't see that happening. Speaking of health, the one man the Hornets can ill-afford to lose is Chris Paul. After being a nearly unanimous Rookie of the Year last year he became everyone's favorite young point guard and with good reason. He can drive to the hoop at will, knows how to set up his teammates, basically he's the perfect point guard. He should open up plenty of opportunity for Peja Stojakovic to let it rain from deep. Peja will definetly upgrade the offense which was an area they desperately needed to upgrade. They also hoped they've upgraded the D with the acquistions of Tyson Chandler, who should provide some shot blocking and rebounding presence in the middle. Someone to watch is David West an undersized power forward, who has a good face up jumper and always seems to come away with the rebound despite giving up a lot of height and bulk. Bobby Jackson brings the Hornets some veteran experience and a good presence off the bench. I really like this team, I think they could do some good things, but they just play in the wrong division. I want to pick them as a sleeper team for the playoffs, but being in this division will do them no favors in that regard, so they'll most likely be on the outside looking in.
Houston Rockets: This might be the hardest team to read in this division just because they have the biggest health ifs possible. For them it all revolves around the health of Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming. In their first season together, when both were healthy (McGrady 78 games out of 82....Yao in 80) the Rockets were 51-31. Last year with both missing significant time (McGrady missed 35 games....Yao 25) and seldom playing together the Rockets slid to 34-48, in the words of Austin Powers "Major ouch baby." (Yeah, that's right, I made an untimely pop culture reference, what ya gonna do about it?) So if together and healthy they'll be a force to be reckoned with....if not well, they'll be relying a lot on Juwan Howard and Bonzi Wells, which is enough to scare the be-jesus out of even a casual NBA fan. Wells is an interesting signing that can do one of two things. He will either A.) Give the Rockets a much needed scoring boost off the bench and force the defense to not focus solely on McGrady on the perimeter when they both are on the floor together....or he will B.) Cause the Rockets to become the first team to engage in a fist fight with each other in the middle of an actual game. There is no denying that Wells has talent and give the proper amount of touches in an offense he can do some damage. But also bear in mind, this was a guy who was coming off a MONSTER playoff series against the Spurs (23.2 points per game, 12 rebounds per game and five double doubles in six games) and garnered essentially ZERO interest on the free agent market. He turned down a 5 year $40 million deal with Sacramento (his former team) and instead signed a one year deal with a player option for one more year with the Rockets worth $2.1 million this season. Wells signed the deal because he prefers playing in "a good situation" rather than making more money. Right, and I enjoy being 24, unemployed and living at home. If he were any more full of it, it would be shooting out his nose. Still though, this isn't a bad situation for him to be in. He could be an invaluable bench presence, give them that offensive jolt....or he and Rafer Alston could throw down at mid-court by mid-January. On the plus side, you have to like the fact they picked up Shane Battier. He's no all-star, but you want the guy on your team. Plays good team defense, covers up others mistakes, doesn't need the ball to be effective on offense, takes good shots and shoots a high percemtage. I think of him as a slightly less athletic version of Josh Howard of the Mavericks. Also has less offensive ability than Howard but is invaluable to a team. I also don't see how they leapfrog either San Antonio or Dallas so they won't be any higher than third in this division. I think in all honesty, this division should be disbanded and spread amongst the other divisions of the NBA so they can reach their true effectivness and potential. I mean is it really fair that there are three high quality (all the Texans) teams and one if not for their superstar being injured (Memphis) would be a playoff team and another team that could push for a spot and then you have a divsion like the northwest where the Jazz should have the division title locked up by Thanksgiving get the same credit for all the games they play. It's like when you were in elementary school and during the spelling test there was that one kid who always had a dictionary on their desk so they could "check" their work as the test went on, got a "100" then rubbed it in that you got a 90. You know you're smarter than that kid, but you still get the same credit even though he cheated. That's what the Northwest division is to the Southwest, the kid with the dictionary. They have one good team (Jazz) maybe one that's respectable (Nuggets) and the rest is junk. I propose that the Hornets and Rockets switch to the Northwest and the T-Wolves and Blazers switch to the Soutwest just to even out the playing field. OK, quick question, what team was I talking about here? Can you remember, without scrolling to the top, what team I was talking about? If you said New Orleans, you are wrong, it was the Rockets....I think, hold on lemme check....yup it was the Rockets. This is why I shouldn't be allowed to have a domain to type and post whatever I feel like, things like this happen. I'm talking about one thing and then I go on a complete tanget that while kind of related to what I was originally talking about really should be a completely seperate thought all together. Lets just agree to move on to the next team here.
San Antonio Spurs: What a boring team, I didn't ever get to put their name in a fun color because they wear black. OK, I'm kidding, they're not really boring, in fact their pretty damn good, big surprise. Tim Duncan spent the summer resting his bad foot (plantar fasciitis....and yes I had to look up how to spell faciitis) and by all accounts is healthy and rested, with added muscle on his legs. If I were the rest of the NBA, I would be worried, very worried. He average career lows in points (18.6ppg) and rebounds (11rpg) last season essentially playing on one leg and all he did all winter long was sit and stew about the fact his team got bounced out before the finals. I have a feeling that he will be a monster this year and bear in mind this is a team that won 63 games last year. Manu Ginobilli and Tony Parker will be manning the backcourt and they'll continue to penetrate to their hearts delight since in the NBA, if some one looks at you cross eyed while you drive to the hoop it's considered a foul. Bruce Bowen will continue to hang out around the 3-point line waiting for kickouts on offense and continue to play his requisite "great defense" ( the more I watch Bowen, the more "great defense" just seems like a lot of grabbing the other guys jersey and sneaking in elbows when the refs aren't looking). I don't mean to knock Bowen too much, he does something that other NBA players abohr, playing defense, I just think he's kind of dirty. He also some how shoots an very high percentage from the 3-point line and a very low percentage from the free throw line. In fact in the 2002-03 season he shot a higher percentage from 3-point range (44.1%) than from the free throw line (40.0%). It just warrants mentioning that 3-pointers must be taken during the course of moving game action and free throws are taken with absolutely no one allowed to defend you from a much closer range (by a minimum of seven feet at least). And while his free throw shooting has been better in recent years it still doesn't jive with his outside shooting. Last year he hit 42.4% of his three-pointers, a very good three point percentage and only 60.7% of his free throws a very much below average percentage. It's inexplicable. It'd be like if someone could down multiple bottles of schnopps and not throw up or feel like their head was hit multiple times with a tack hammer the next day; but if they had a couple of beers they would be tossing their cookies like they were coming down with ebola and their head would throbbing worse than all the men in America if naked pictures of Jennifer Love Hewitt were released. Alright, that's too much time on Bruce Bowen, lets move one. Michael Finley comes off the bench to give them a little bit of scoring and Brent Barry can strech out the D as well with his perimeter skills. (For the record, Barry whines at least as bad, if not worse than Rasheed Wallace, he's just less animated, I can't wait to see how many techs he ends up with this year. And why hasn't anyone looked into the fact that whining is hereditary amongst the Barry family. Brent whines, Jon whines.... I'm pretty sure their brother Drew is a whiner and of course the dad Rick was the ultimate whiner, but I digress). Another reason I can be excited about the Spurs you ask? Matt Bonner. Why should I be excited about a goofy white guy you ask? Well, not only did I get the chance to scrimmage against his team while in high school, he's one of only two players in the NBA to grow up/play their high school basketball in New Hampshire. (I'm not counting guys that have played prep ball in NH and I would be amazed if you could tell me the other guy....well maybe not too amazed, with the invention of google and whatnot.) The Spurs will be good, scary even with a healthy Duncan, be on the lookout.
Dallas Mavericks: Last season's NBA runner-up and the team I thought that would win it, whoops on that part. Anyway, like any Mark Cuban team, they tinkered with the roster in the offseason, but not too much and it looks like they made it a little better. Dirk Nowitzki is amazing, took his game to a completely new level last year and hopefully, this is the beginning of a 2-3 year run of amazing by the man who hums Hasselhoff while at the free throw line. Josh Howards is another fun guy to watch, not flashy just good, goes out and does his job and does it well. If Devin Harris can figure out how to shoot then he could be dangerous. He's kind of like Tony Parker was a few years ago. Blazing speed, can finish on his was to the rim, can be out of control at times and the jumper isn't quite consistent. The biggest difference is that Parker was a better passer at this point in his career, but other than that, they look similar....well to me at least. Jason Terry isn't great, but he's not bad, just pretty good, but that's better than most. Wow, I just read that sentence and realized I said nothing with it....so this is what Tim McCarver feels like. In the middle the essentially need a big body that can take up space. DeSagana Diop is 7' tall and weighs 280lbs, check there. Off the bench Erik Dampier (Michael Cage - The Remix....seriously check out the numbers) can be productive when he gives a damn, though you would have a better chance of figuring out how Michael Rappaport can still get acting jobs then you will figuring out on which nights Dampier will actually give a damn. Jerry Stackhouse also gives them scroing off the bench and Austin Croshere replaces Keith Van Horn as the white guy off the bench that can hit the outside shot....plus Croshere can actually play with his back to the basket a lil bit and rebound better than Van Horn. Of course all of this is moot is Dirk goes down, but for the sake of the league, lets hope he doesn't. I hope they make another run and I hope they meet up again with the Spurs in the playoffs....good times all around.
So there we have it, for better or for worse this is the Southwest Division, in my mind most likely the toughest in the NBA. Again, if only we could ship a couple of these teams out and a couple of crappy ones in to level things out it would be great, but alas we can not so things are what they are. Time for a division order, actually first, the guy each team can't afford to lose, then the order.
Memphis - Pau Gasol (already lost for 3 months....yikes....next is Mike Miller I guess
Charlotte/OK City - Chris Paul....Bobby Jackson could help hold the fort if Paul goes down, but not for long
Houston - Tracy McGrady/Yao Ming....to me they are one entity....I give you Trayaocy McGradming
San Antonio - Jackie Butler....just wanted to see if you were paying attention, obviously it's Tim Duncan
Dallas - Dirk Nowitzki....do you really want Austin Croshere in your starting line-up in place of Dirk? Yeah, me neither.
Onto the division finish....
1. San Antonio - If they won 63 games with Duncan on one leg then I hate to think what will happen when they have a healthy Duncan
2. Dallas - I could honestly see them on top of this divsion as well, I just think healthy Duncan and better D from the Spurs is still too much for the Mavs in the regular season...gap between them is still close though, very close
3. Houston - If healthy, solid third in the divsion, but McGrady has back problems and when it comes to backs, well no one knows....plus watch for the Bonzi induced brawl, I can't wait
4. NO/OK - I think they've made moves to go in the right direction....again just the wrong division of them now....if they keep their core together could be tough in a year or two
5. Memphis - Only because three months w/o Gasol puts them very far behind the 8-ball
Well there it is, a Southwest Division preview that at times is completely off track, makes no sense in some moments and will hopefully intrigue you to watch at least one NBA game this season. Another division in a day or two, but until then.....
SOUTHWEST DIVISION
Memphis Grizzlies: This is a team that won 50 games in 2003-04, 45 the following season and nailed down another 49 last year, no small feat and pretty respectable. So why are they screwd before the season has even started? Well Pau Gasol, their all-star forward who sports a beard that would make a lumberjack blush, is out for at least three months after breaking his foot while playing for Spain in the World Championships. So that right out of the gate is the man they could ill afford to lose and well, he's already lost. On the plus side shooting guard Mike Miller is in a contract year and there are no finer players in the NBA than those in contract years. (ie - Eddy Curry, Mark Blount, et. al). Their starting backcourt would be great if it were 1998, unfortunately it's 2006. Damon Stoudamire runs the point and he's actually not too bad when he's not higher than a frat boy on 4/20, which unfortuately for the Grizz isn't all that often. Eddie Jones was one of my favorite guys to watch, used to be a stud defensively, could knock down the open jumper and occaisionaly slash to the hoop when needed. Notice how everything in that last sentence spoke of Jones in the past tense. That's because in the past couple of years he's been running on fumes of fumes. I look at him kind of like that episode of Seinfeld when Kramer is test driving that car and wants to see how far past the E on the gas gague he can drive before the car craps out. Right now, that's Eddie Jones. The tank is pretty much empty and according to the gas gague he should have stopped a long time ago, yet somehow he's still going. The lesson here is sometimes in life things can't be explained. Looking to upgrade their offense, they made a draft day trade the netted them rookie Rudy Gay amongst other players. Gay could be a perenial all-star for the next decade, or he could be cleaning your table at Applebees. There's no question this guy has all the skills to be an NBA player he also already has the attitude of an 8 year veteran, that being some games he's plays as though there is nothing more important in the worlds and others he plays as if he more worried about how many groupies he'll be bringing back to his hotel room that night. To say he drifts through games is kind of like saying there's a slight drug trafficing problem in Columbia, in other words a massive understatement. Again, I watch this league under my own power....I remind you again that I'm not that bright. For excitement purposes they have Hakim Warrick who dunks more often than a fat kid with a bag of Oreos. Stromile Swift (re-acquired in the draft day deal with Gay) can also throw it down with the best of em and should provie some interior defense. Other than that, not much to sneeze at....if they can hold it together until Gasol comes back they could make a run, but don't hold your breath on it.
New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets: This is a team that in any other division would be making some noise....unfortunately for them they play in the same division as two of the top teams in the NBA (Spurs & Mavs). Part of me wants to put them ahead the Rockets, but if the Rockets stay healthy I don't see that happening. Speaking of health, the one man the Hornets can ill-afford to lose is Chris Paul. After being a nearly unanimous Rookie of the Year last year he became everyone's favorite young point guard and with good reason. He can drive to the hoop at will, knows how to set up his teammates, basically he's the perfect point guard. He should open up plenty of opportunity for Peja Stojakovic to let it rain from deep. Peja will definetly upgrade the offense which was an area they desperately needed to upgrade. They also hoped they've upgraded the D with the acquistions of Tyson Chandler, who should provide some shot blocking and rebounding presence in the middle. Someone to watch is David West an undersized power forward, who has a good face up jumper and always seems to come away with the rebound despite giving up a lot of height and bulk. Bobby Jackson brings the Hornets some veteran experience and a good presence off the bench. I really like this team, I think they could do some good things, but they just play in the wrong division. I want to pick them as a sleeper team for the playoffs, but being in this division will do them no favors in that regard, so they'll most likely be on the outside looking in.
Houston Rockets: This might be the hardest team to read in this division just because they have the biggest health ifs possible. For them it all revolves around the health of Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming. In their first season together, when both were healthy (McGrady 78 games out of 82....Yao in 80) the Rockets were 51-31. Last year with both missing significant time (McGrady missed 35 games....Yao 25) and seldom playing together the Rockets slid to 34-48, in the words of Austin Powers "Major ouch baby." (Yeah, that's right, I made an untimely pop culture reference, what ya gonna do about it?) So if together and healthy they'll be a force to be reckoned with....if not well, they'll be relying a lot on Juwan Howard and Bonzi Wells, which is enough to scare the be-jesus out of even a casual NBA fan. Wells is an interesting signing that can do one of two things. He will either A.) Give the Rockets a much needed scoring boost off the bench and force the defense to not focus solely on McGrady on the perimeter when they both are on the floor together....or he will B.) Cause the Rockets to become the first team to engage in a fist fight with each other in the middle of an actual game. There is no denying that Wells has talent and give the proper amount of touches in an offense he can do some damage. But also bear in mind, this was a guy who was coming off a MONSTER playoff series against the Spurs (23.2 points per game, 12 rebounds per game and five double doubles in six games) and garnered essentially ZERO interest on the free agent market. He turned down a 5 year $40 million deal with Sacramento (his former team) and instead signed a one year deal with a player option for one more year with the Rockets worth $2.1 million this season. Wells signed the deal because he prefers playing in "a good situation" rather than making more money. Right, and I enjoy being 24, unemployed and living at home. If he were any more full of it, it would be shooting out his nose. Still though, this isn't a bad situation for him to be in. He could be an invaluable bench presence, give them that offensive jolt....or he and Rafer Alston could throw down at mid-court by mid-January. On the plus side, you have to like the fact they picked up Shane Battier. He's no all-star, but you want the guy on your team. Plays good team defense, covers up others mistakes, doesn't need the ball to be effective on offense, takes good shots and shoots a high percemtage. I think of him as a slightly less athletic version of Josh Howard of the Mavericks. Also has less offensive ability than Howard but is invaluable to a team. I also don't see how they leapfrog either San Antonio or Dallas so they won't be any higher than third in this division. I think in all honesty, this division should be disbanded and spread amongst the other divisions of the NBA so they can reach their true effectivness and potential. I mean is it really fair that there are three high quality (all the Texans) teams and one if not for their superstar being injured (Memphis) would be a playoff team and another team that could push for a spot and then you have a divsion like the northwest where the Jazz should have the division title locked up by Thanksgiving get the same credit for all the games they play. It's like when you were in elementary school and during the spelling test there was that one kid who always had a dictionary on their desk so they could "check" their work as the test went on, got a "100" then rubbed it in that you got a 90. You know you're smarter than that kid, but you still get the same credit even though he cheated. That's what the Northwest division is to the Southwest, the kid with the dictionary. They have one good team (Jazz) maybe one that's respectable (Nuggets) and the rest is junk. I propose that the Hornets and Rockets switch to the Northwest and the T-Wolves and Blazers switch to the Soutwest just to even out the playing field. OK, quick question, what team was I talking about here? Can you remember, without scrolling to the top, what team I was talking about? If you said New Orleans, you are wrong, it was the Rockets....I think, hold on lemme check....yup it was the Rockets. This is why I shouldn't be allowed to have a domain to type and post whatever I feel like, things like this happen. I'm talking about one thing and then I go on a complete tanget that while kind of related to what I was originally talking about really should be a completely seperate thought all together. Lets just agree to move on to the next team here.
San Antonio Spurs: What a boring team, I didn't ever get to put their name in a fun color because they wear black. OK, I'm kidding, they're not really boring, in fact their pretty damn good, big surprise. Tim Duncan spent the summer resting his bad foot (plantar fasciitis....and yes I had to look up how to spell faciitis) and by all accounts is healthy and rested, with added muscle on his legs. If I were the rest of the NBA, I would be worried, very worried. He average career lows in points (18.6ppg) and rebounds (11rpg) last season essentially playing on one leg and all he did all winter long was sit and stew about the fact his team got bounced out before the finals. I have a feeling that he will be a monster this year and bear in mind this is a team that won 63 games last year. Manu Ginobilli and Tony Parker will be manning the backcourt and they'll continue to penetrate to their hearts delight since in the NBA, if some one looks at you cross eyed while you drive to the hoop it's considered a foul. Bruce Bowen will continue to hang out around the 3-point line waiting for kickouts on offense and continue to play his requisite "great defense" ( the more I watch Bowen, the more "great defense" just seems like a lot of grabbing the other guys jersey and sneaking in elbows when the refs aren't looking). I don't mean to knock Bowen too much, he does something that other NBA players abohr, playing defense, I just think he's kind of dirty. He also some how shoots an very high percentage from the 3-point line and a very low percentage from the free throw line. In fact in the 2002-03 season he shot a higher percentage from 3-point range (44.1%) than from the free throw line (40.0%). It just warrants mentioning that 3-pointers must be taken during the course of moving game action and free throws are taken with absolutely no one allowed to defend you from a much closer range (by a minimum of seven feet at least). And while his free throw shooting has been better in recent years it still doesn't jive with his outside shooting. Last year he hit 42.4% of his three-pointers, a very good three point percentage and only 60.7% of his free throws a very much below average percentage. It's inexplicable. It'd be like if someone could down multiple bottles of schnopps and not throw up or feel like their head was hit multiple times with a tack hammer the next day; but if they had a couple of beers they would be tossing their cookies like they were coming down with ebola and their head would throbbing worse than all the men in America if naked pictures of Jennifer Love Hewitt were released. Alright, that's too much time on Bruce Bowen, lets move one. Michael Finley comes off the bench to give them a little bit of scoring and Brent Barry can strech out the D as well with his perimeter skills. (For the record, Barry whines at least as bad, if not worse than Rasheed Wallace, he's just less animated, I can't wait to see how many techs he ends up with this year. And why hasn't anyone looked into the fact that whining is hereditary amongst the Barry family. Brent whines, Jon whines.... I'm pretty sure their brother Drew is a whiner and of course the dad Rick was the ultimate whiner, but I digress). Another reason I can be excited about the Spurs you ask? Matt Bonner. Why should I be excited about a goofy white guy you ask? Well, not only did I get the chance to scrimmage against his team while in high school, he's one of only two players in the NBA to grow up/play their high school basketball in New Hampshire. (I'm not counting guys that have played prep ball in NH and I would be amazed if you could tell me the other guy....well maybe not too amazed, with the invention of google and whatnot.) The Spurs will be good, scary even with a healthy Duncan, be on the lookout.
Dallas Mavericks: Last season's NBA runner-up and the team I thought that would win it, whoops on that part. Anyway, like any Mark Cuban team, they tinkered with the roster in the offseason, but not too much and it looks like they made it a little better. Dirk Nowitzki is amazing, took his game to a completely new level last year and hopefully, this is the beginning of a 2-3 year run of amazing by the man who hums Hasselhoff while at the free throw line. Josh Howards is another fun guy to watch, not flashy just good, goes out and does his job and does it well. If Devin Harris can figure out how to shoot then he could be dangerous. He's kind of like Tony Parker was a few years ago. Blazing speed, can finish on his was to the rim, can be out of control at times and the jumper isn't quite consistent. The biggest difference is that Parker was a better passer at this point in his career, but other than that, they look similar....well to me at least. Jason Terry isn't great, but he's not bad, just pretty good, but that's better than most. Wow, I just read that sentence and realized I said nothing with it....so this is what Tim McCarver feels like. In the middle the essentially need a big body that can take up space. DeSagana Diop is 7' tall and weighs 280lbs, check there. Off the bench Erik Dampier (Michael Cage - The Remix....seriously check out the numbers) can be productive when he gives a damn, though you would have a better chance of figuring out how Michael Rappaport can still get acting jobs then you will figuring out on which nights Dampier will actually give a damn. Jerry Stackhouse also gives them scroing off the bench and Austin Croshere replaces Keith Van Horn as the white guy off the bench that can hit the outside shot....plus Croshere can actually play with his back to the basket a lil bit and rebound better than Van Horn. Of course all of this is moot is Dirk goes down, but for the sake of the league, lets hope he doesn't. I hope they make another run and I hope they meet up again with the Spurs in the playoffs....good times all around.
So there we have it, for better or for worse this is the Southwest Division, in my mind most likely the toughest in the NBA. Again, if only we could ship a couple of these teams out and a couple of crappy ones in to level things out it would be great, but alas we can not so things are what they are. Time for a division order, actually first, the guy each team can't afford to lose, then the order.
Memphis - Pau Gasol (already lost for 3 months....yikes....next is Mike Miller I guess
Charlotte/OK City - Chris Paul....Bobby Jackson could help hold the fort if Paul goes down, but not for long
Houston - Tracy McGrady/Yao Ming....to me they are one entity....I give you Trayaocy McGradming
San Antonio - Jackie Butler....just wanted to see if you were paying attention, obviously it's Tim Duncan
Dallas - Dirk Nowitzki....do you really want Austin Croshere in your starting line-up in place of Dirk? Yeah, me neither.
Onto the division finish....
1. San Antonio - If they won 63 games with Duncan on one leg then I hate to think what will happen when they have a healthy Duncan
2. Dallas - I could honestly see them on top of this divsion as well, I just think healthy Duncan and better D from the Spurs is still too much for the Mavs in the regular season...gap between them is still close though, very close
3. Houston - If healthy, solid third in the divsion, but McGrady has back problems and when it comes to backs, well no one knows....plus watch for the Bonzi induced brawl, I can't wait
4. NO/OK - I think they've made moves to go in the right direction....again just the wrong division of them now....if they keep their core together could be tough in a year or two
5. Memphis - Only because three months w/o Gasol puts them very far behind the 8-ball
Well there it is, a Southwest Division preview that at times is completely off track, makes no sense in some moments and will hopefully intrigue you to watch at least one NBA game this season. Another division in a day or two, but until then.....
posted by MC at 1:51 PM
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