Southwest Divison
by Big50 on Jul 30, 2009 9:51 AM CDT
Email
PrintAlright, we all know the Spurs have done some nice work this off season to improve the roster. I know that we are all thinking or rings and 'ships, but before all that shouldn't we go ahead and win the division? With that in mind I'm going to run down the moves of all the teams in the great Southwest Division and give some opinions.
The Standings from the end of last year:
|
Southwest Division Team % Overall Streak Home Streak Away Streak |
||||||||
| 1 | San Antonio Spurs | 65.9 | 54-28 | won 4 | 28-13 | won 2 | 26-15 | won 3 |
| 2 | Houston Rockets | 64.6 | 53-29 | lost 1 | 33-8 | won 6 | 20-21 | lost 1 |
| 3 | Dallas Mavericks | 61.0 | 50-32 | won 2 | 32-9 | won 6 | 18-23 | lost 2 |
| 4 | New Orleans Hornets | 59.8 | 49-33 | lost 2 | 28-13 | won 1 | 21-20 | lost 3 |
| 5 | Memphis Grizzlies | 29.3 | 24-58 | won 1 | 16-25 | won 2 | 8-33 | lost 3 |
via www.laurenec.com
Dallas Mavericks. They finished 3rd in the division last year. Of course they knocked the Spurs off in the first round and then got punked, literally, by Denver. They have had the foresight to re-sign Jason Kidd, an aging PG who can no longer play defense against anybody that could be classified as "quick". They traded to get Shawn Marion, a nice player who's on the downside of his career. They sign Drew Gooden, because he somehow impressed them in the playoffs last year. They did draft a nice rookie PG, at least he was nice in the Summer League. They lose Bass and miss out on Gortat and so remain very thin on the interior.
IMO: They are better than last year. They lose only one good player in Bass and add a couple of players that are better than what they had. I'm not sure how it's going to work out for them. I don't like the resigning of Kidd, but then again I didn't like the trade for him. How much better would this team be with Devin Harris as PG? They could have gotten Andre Miller, who is a younger version of Kidd and would fit the style of this team is made to run. The Mavs are clearly going to be the 2nd best team in the division.
New Orleans Hornets. This team is the victim of a poor FO and a bad economy. They have really only made one move and it seems fairly lateral. They pick up Emeka Okafor for Tyson Chandler. I'm not sure why either team would make this move outside of some financial reason I don't understand or one or both of them had worn out their welcome in the locker room.
IMO: This team is going to need to get better without any big off season moves. It is possible. They had some injuries last year and they still have some talent. Chris Paul, David West and the rest of the crew still have some skill. The question becomes can they over come their coach and sometimes questionable attitude to be a contender? The NOOCH will be 3rd in the Southwest.
via www.hba.org
Houston Rockets. It has been a really tough off season for the Rockets. They lose Yao Ming for the playoffs last year and for this year and possibly forever. There have been better off seasons for sure. They lose Ron Artest to LA, but pick up a very nice player in Trevor Ariza. This is probably a small step back in the short term. Ariza has a higher ceiling than Artest at this point. Tracy McGrady is still in limbo. He isn't due back until sometime in February and the Rockets might not want him even when he is ready.
IMO: The Rockets are going to have a rough year. They might be good enough to sneak into the playoffs, but it doesn't look real likely. Aaron Brooks, Luis Scola and Ariza are going to be counted for all the scoring for this team and none of them are big scorers. The defense will still be there to some degree, but it's going to be hard for this team to score. Houston might miss the playoffs, but they have the chance to be one of the last two seeds. I'm saying they finish 4th in the division.
via www.pycomall.com
Memphis Grizzlies. Did they do anything worth noting? I haven't heard them giving up their best player for a song. They've got some talent on that team, but the problem is not much. Rudy Gay is a nice player, Marc Gasol is a nice big man and O.J. Mayo can score. Perhaps the worst move in the SW division is the Grizz picking up Zach Randolph. That guy is a cancer.
IMO: The Grizzlies are not good. They have a couple of talented players, but it won't be enough to get out of the basement of the division. Memphis will have to enjoy their college basketball, which has taken a hit. If Memphis was smart they go higher some former SA front office guy, but there's only so many of those guys running around.
via www.pycomall.com
San Antonio Spurs. The denfending champ of the division will probably take it again. We all know the Spurs are vastly improved. They now have 4 solid scorers who will be difficult to defend. Manu Ginobili is coming back and will be healthy. Tony Parker is only getting better. The injection of youth/less old has Spurs fans every where stoked. The only questions that this team have are Tim Duncan's knees and will the defense be back?
IMO: The Spurs will walk away with the division. Timmeh will have a good year, but he'll still get plenty of rest. Pop will have to find a way to get this team to play the classic Spurs defense and I think they will. If this team melds together well they are going to be very very difficult for anybody to stop. It should be a good season for Spurs fans.
47 comments
|
1 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
I really liked the format of this. Good job.
The thing I love about our team now is that in a hypothetical situation where Duncan and Manu get benched for a game to rest, Tony is left out by himself.
Lineup:
PG: Parker, Hill
SG: Mason, Finley
SF: Jefferson, Haiston, Williams
PF: Dice, Blair, Haislip
C: Mahinmi, Ratliff, Bonner
That is a roster that I think could beat a lot of NBA teams. I wouldn’t be shocked to see Ratliff start and then Yawn to still take bulk minutes.
Yeah, it all looked very pretty, Big50. Not sure what all the columns in the table near the top represented, though-
Straight from the No-Stat Zone to your computer!
Dunkin' Cheerleaders
Excellent post 50. We got this. For kicks and giggles, maybe post this on the other SBN blogs on the other teams and see the responses? Then duck and cover! ;-P
"It is better to be silent and thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt." - Mark Twain
Thanks
Yeah, I really want to hear from a Mavs fan, that isn’t hell bent on just calling me stupid, that can tell me what they really expect from this team Cuban is putting together.
It seems to be a fairly enough written post, with accurate analysis. Any rational thinking fan could either… A.) Agree or
B.) Offer up a valid differing opinion in a classy enough manner. More often than not we’ll just see C.) They’ll just take the easy route and call the other fans ‘stupid.’
"It is better to be silent and thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt." - Mark Twain
Lets not count out the Mavericks here. They still have a couple of trade assets( i guess horrible management has its upsides) in Dampier (12 million) and Buckner, as well as Howard, if they choose. Seems to me like the Mavs “offseason” wont be finished until really February, where Cuban will probably try to land a impact 2, or an athletic 5. Even if they land say, Dalembert, I still dunno if they can beat out Portland or Denver, much less SA or LA. But if we still have injury problems, and Artest goes cuckoo in LA, they could be the long shot to land all the way in the finals.
4 championships and counting ...
Go Spurs!
Damn, not even a troll visitor from another team’s blog.
I used to be a c+x kind of guy, but nowadays I just go nuts with my z. - LatinD
Retire Bowen's #12!
I naturally voted for the Spurs, BUT, if the Spurs are going to be monitoring minutes, (resting Timmy in back to backs?) and giving more playing time to the youth movement, I think Dallas takes the division.
JKidd might not play great on-ball d, but even at his age he ends up with a lot of steals. He doesn’t have to score to be effective, he’s still a great passer, gets the ball up to the wings in transition and surprisingly hit a bunch of open 3’s last year.
I hate Terry/Barea. enough said.
Marion will be effective again with Kidd at the point.
Howard always seems to have ankle issues. But he’s capable of gettin busy when healthy or not high for that matter.
Dampier-burger
Gooden-better than your average burger
Dirk is an offensive beast. Is it safe to say this would be his best team on paper that he’s had in Dallas?
Dallas has always been a very good regular season squad.
So them finishing second, most likely, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they ended up in first.
keeping the balance
BLAIR FORCE ONE
I hear what you’re saying and I tend to agree with you. If the Spurs let them have it, Dallas could win. I’m still not sure how they’re going to mesh this team together, but I’ll let them worry about that.
I think the 2006 team was better for Dallas. Stackhouse was still good, Howard wasn’t hurt as much, Harris was cause match up problems, they had a nice bench of Terry and Bass and they had Joip (or what ever his name was, the other big guy that played better than Damp).
Grizzlies will be good
I think they might challenge for the 8th seed in the West with the Clippers, Thunder, Suns, Rockets, and maybe the Warriors.
I just want to know…. who are the two people who voted for Memphis to win the division?? lol! :)
"The problem actually is that PER is a extra-long, double high wagon load of horse crap." - timbo (7/3/09)
Not when their players will have to double up as ushers.
My people call it "sarcasm." - Lauri
by CapHill on Aug 3, 2009 3:01 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
zing! (?)
Don’t quite get what the joke was there. Memphis’ poor attendance? Could be said for the Hawks, Thunder, Clippers, Kings, and a bunch more poor teams.
Memphis has a good solid roster building (losing Warrick will hurt them badly, however). Mayo, Gay, Gasol, Thabeet, Randolph, and Conley. I like their roster… they almost have a Portland thing going on down there.
"The problem actually is that PER is a extra-long, double high wagon load of horse crap." - timbo (7/3/09)
I think it had more to do with Memphis’ recent staff cutbacks. They fired all their scouts, for example.
Re-sign Bruce Bowen!
No one checks the FanShots. :)
Straight from the No-Stat Zone to your computer!
Dunkin' Cheerleaders
the fanshots allow me to not have to go to other nba sites to get any new information related to the nba. Almost like an old person having all of their groceries, medicines, etc. delivered, as they live out their last days of their life. Life, oh I remember when I had one.
"He's Manu Ginobili"
by the little o on Aug 3, 2009 11:39 PM CDT up reply actions
ushers eh? I underestimated the front office. Thabeet will be useful for them after all.
"He's Manu Ginobili"
by the little o on Aug 3, 2009 11:34 PM CDT up reply actions
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Pounding The Rock
Related FanShots on Pounding The Rock
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
FanShots
Quick hits of video, photos, quotes, chats, links and lists that you find around the web.
Recommended FanShots
Recent FanShots
Featured Stories
In Association With
Ball Don't Lie - NBA - Yahoo! Sport
- LeBron James won’t even give Lance Stephenson half a bar
- Let’s all hate the Oklahoma City Thunder shirts that take a needless shot at the team’s move from Seattle (PHOTO)
- The Golden State Warriors will likely move to San Francisco in 2017
- Chris Paul goes off the top of the backboard for one last Clipper highlight before losing to Spurs (VIDEO)
- Behind the Box Score, where the Heat grabbed control behind LeBron James’ amazing afternoon
