Haha, I've been gone for like, 3 days, and this thread doubled in size. That's awesome.
Good to see someone leading the discussions though, Day-Day! Spurs fans are just too good at this. XD
To recap on the things I missed though...
Cavs: LeBron is a beast of a player, on a relatively bad team otherwise. The hype he gets is warranted in my opinion, since he fills the stat sheet in more ways than most can. I still think Kobe's better as a scorer, but I'd rather have LeBron on my team. As for Shaq, he's not too much of an improvement, to me. He's a defensive presence on rival centers, but against teams that don't focus on that position, he's a liability. He's a more savvy Big Z to me.
Magic: I agree Dwight's had a down year, but I wasn't expecting last year's numbers again. They're wildly inconsistent, but they're still a **** good team. Vince Carter, Jameer Nelson, Dwight Howard, Rashard Lewis... those are some names I'd fear in the playoffs. I think they're better than they've been playing.
Celtics: They're not as strong as they were before. They were a freakin' hurricane 2 seasons ago, but they've slowed. Rondo's become a monster point guard, but they still look mightily mediocre lately, and that's cause for concern. I do think they can beat any team in the league though.
Hawks: Definitely the sleeper team in the East. They can beat anyone, and with Joe Johnson and Josh Smith putting in the work they have been... Teams better get scurred.
Spurs: I still think we're better than our record shows, and we don't normally play championship ball until after the All-Star break... But I can't help but cringe when I see us win every game against teams under .500, and lose almost all of them against teams over it. I'll just trust that Pop knows what he's doing, and that we're just being the same old Spurs.
Lakers: Still the team to beat, but they are vulnerable, and it's showing. Kobe's the only shining star lately, and it seems like he's just sewing every body part that falls off of him back on. He's not physically fit, so he's either gotta' rest, or wear himself down.
Denver: I don't really think they're a sleeper team anymore. They can flat out play, and they represent everything tough about the West. They're deep, they've got stars, they can play D, and they're hungry. Nobody wants to play them in the playoffs.
OKC: All I can say is finally. Kevin Durant is a monster, and the cast around him is young, but good. They're sitting at 9th place in the West, and this is my sleeper team. NO is going to be without Chris Paul for a month now while he heals an injury, and they WILL NOT hold off the Thunder from reaching their first playoffs. However, if they only get the 8th spot, they have to play the Lakers... so yeah... But Durant and Bryant in the first round would be great.
On a more grim note... Does anybody think the Nets can win 9 games this year? The record is currently held by the '72 Sixers when they went a tragic 9-73 on the season. The Nets are 4-42 this year. More than halfway there in games, but not in wins...
Can they do it? I don't know if it's possible anymore...
