HOOPs.......................a few thoughts after the first couple weeks. so, the West first. The two best teams, not counting of course the Spurs........the only two teams with a shot at contending are Golden State and Portland. I actually think Portland is slightly better and i nominate wes mathews as the most underrated player in the West. The Clippers are lost. And chris paul is no longer a top three point guard. Maybe not even top five. DeAndre Jordan has regressed, and honestly, if matt barnes or jamal crawford are your third option, you have problems. Crawford is so bad on defense that Doc cant start him, and barnes cant shoot. At all. Reddick however can, but he cant defend. Its an awkward roster that -- when needed -- can will their way to wins, but they cant do that every night. They just dont have the players to contend. As for paul ... we have parker, Rondo, Lillard, Rose, Lowry and Dragic -- then maybe conley, george hill (hurt now), and bledsoe and then Paul. Golden State is flashy on offense, and they shoot very well with curry and thompson, but if Bogut gets hurt they will take a big hit, and bogut always gets hurt. David Lee is fine, underrated, and Iguadola is a stud defender, but Harrison Barnes has not found his mojo again, yet, and the rest are pretty much fringe NBA players. THey look good now....but Im not on board quite yet. Portland has continuity, and Stotts is starting to look like a real coach (remember he was the guy designed the dallas defense the year they won the title). The blazers do a lot of small things well on offense, but having Lillard makes other guys look better, and actually be better. Lillard is phenomenal with the ball in his hands. Nobody is more fun to watch. On defense, portland switches a lot, and plays positional smart D, they dont create turnovers but they dont care. They play the averages. They figure with Lillard and Aldridge, thats enough and I think theyre right. One surprise is how well chris kamen is playing -- another sign Stotts knows how to utilize fringe guys with a single talent.-- utah is going to be very good by the end of the year and its a stunning season so far for Hayward. And to only a slightly lesser degree for Favors. The ceiling for Exum is ELITE. Its already a team nobody wants to play. But trey burke is a disaster at both ends, and Alec Burks not much better. That said, burke hit the winning three last night. If he has space he can shoot. The problem is finding space. And the bigger problem is his defense. Gorbert is ok in some situations, but he lacks strength. He cant stop a marc gasol or andre drummond. Snyder is a great coach though and using Kanter at the four was a genius move. Kanter is quietly having something of a break out season./
Posted on: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 16:04:13 +0000
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