...and 2 of the last three times the east has won...so what? listen, all this west talk is BS...Just like the "NFC EAST is the stongest in football" crap....You have the Spurs and the MAVs...the suns are a nice looking offensive team that cannot win in play off crunch time....who else? a bunch of 500 teams who beat on 500 teams. GS? Lakers? JAZZ?
I agree....Golden State started out like 10-1 last year didn't they? And nobody ( except me and Cubano ) predicted the heat would win....and who the hell thought the Mavs would get past SA?? I think outside of SA any team can come out and make a run for it.....theres no centers left in the league save for yao, duncan and howard....it becomes a jump shooting contest and defensive contest
SA has some real issues with Dallas right now, they lost to them at home already. The matchup with Dallas is killing SA, they have no stopper for Dirk, and the team speed hurts them. SA doesn't have a great center, that is a problem for them. Duncan is a power forward. I see decent teams in the West, but I don't see anyone, except Kobe and Duncan, who are superstars who have won a championship. Not that I like Kobe, but he does have experience in a championship run, and that is a young team that will probably get better if their young center and young point guard, Farmar, grow and improve. Hate to say it, but Lakers have real potential. We have seen what one player can do to will their team to victory in the finals, and I think Kobe could do it, so could Duncan if he were 100% healthy, we saw Wade do it last year, etc. We shall see, I am very interested to see if Cleveland can go further this year, if LeBron can rise up enough and will his team to an eastern conference final, then to an NBA championship game. Really, apart from Detroit and their one team championship, most finals are won with at least one superstar over the past several decades.
Im not sold on Clev. yet....Gooden is a slacker...one game on, 2 games off...he only gets rebounds that fall into his hands...Im also not so sure about Dallas...Duncan was hurting last year when they go over that hurdle...but Dirk dissappeared after game 2 of the finals.
Agreed. Zilgauskas is having a bad year, and Damon Jones, Gooden et al don't strike me as a Finals team. Still, with LBJ ya never know. If he gets consistent help (calling Larry Hughes!!) they could indeed go very far. I love the Magic, but if Grant Hill gets hurt again, and that's a very real possibility, just watch them sink back to playoff bubble level.
actually, Grant hill didn't play at all last year when they finished 16-6.....and has been skipping games this year....I truly believe the magic are the Deepest team...not the most talented, but deep in terms of drop off from 1st team to 2nd....and Darko would be leading the league in blocks if he played 40 min a night...he avg around 2-3 a game in about 18 minutes.
Good points. I hope we don't have to find out what will happen if Hill gets hurt again! What I'm also enjoying about the Magic saga is the redemption of Jameer Nelson. College Player of the Year yet chosen 20th in the draft. Sorry Cubano, but the best team in Florida does not reside in Miami this year!!
The west is kicking but right now from top to bottom, dude. Face it. The suns at playoff time? You really want to get into that type of thing magicman?