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I was just thinking about the 03-04 season, and how exciting it was to watch that team play

TJ's rookie year, unknown coach with probably the worst rotational strategy in the history of organized basketball, the year where erick strickland and daniel santiago actually PLAYED in the NBA...

we haven't had such an interesting, or hard working team since....we had almost no good players at all, but they hustled, and were happy just being out on the court....

remember that minute and a half at the end of the second quarter against the magic? TJ's bounce-oop to dez....gadz's pick that he took all the way...redd's half court 3 to end it?

and a team that was one game away from securing home court in the playoffs...

what happened? how did we get such a lazy bunch of losers? we keep hearing that we're improving, but we can't do better than a team that started the "NBA legend" Daniel Santiago for a good number of games?

i love the moves larry has made...he has certainly got us more talent, but where is that hustle, that fire that the 03-04 team had? the coach was worse, the talent was worse, but they were fun to watch and gave their best every game

i feel like now we're stuck with a bunch of spoiled princesses...we need that back, in my opinion, to have any chance of going ANYWHERE in the playoffs, much less making them

RideEmCowboy24 wrote:remember that minute and a half at the end of the second quarter against the magic? TJ's bounce-oop to dez....gadz's pick that he took all the way...redd's half court 3 to end it?

I've been a fan of this team for a long time and I've seen a lot of great moments but that was one of the greatest stretches of game action I've ever seen from this team. That bounce pass from Ford to Dez was just sick and remains one of the best plays ever delivered at the Bradley Center. Yea, that team was so much fun to watch. They played with heart and fire and passion. Then Ford got hurt, Van Horn (who was playing quite well) got hurt and it all went to hell that season.

What about when they beat the Spurs by one point? Duncan dunked at the last second but the review on the Jumbotron showed the ball still in his hands with the lights on. Damon Jones Jumped on the scorers table and the crowd was electric. I was in the 400's in row Z!

what about the jamal magloire 360 covered eye in game dunk?!?!

msquared4873 wrote:what about the jamal magloire 360 covered eye in game dunk?!?!

well....he wasn't on the team, but uh....yeah


and that spurs game was amazing...think....that team beat the SPURS, and if it wasn't for terrible officiating, would have beat that powerhouse lakers team

Cold Crush 24 wrote:What about when they beat the Spurs by one point? Duncan dunked at the last second but the review on the Jumbotron showed the ball still in his hands with the lights on. Damon Jones Jumped on the scorers table and the crowd was electric. I was in the 400's in row Z!

That was an awesome game to be at. Loudest I'd heard it since Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semis.

I thought by the title you were talking about the Disney animated film. My bad.

that was fun, but not matter how energetic and excited the players are, if they aren't extremely talented you aren't contending.

jerrod wrote:that was fun, but not matter how energetic and excited the players are, if they aren't extremely talented you aren't contending.

are we contending now?

RideEmCowboy24 wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



are we contending now?

nope, but i believe we're much much closer to it than we were then

I always thought the "lack of talent" argument that was applied to that team was way off the mark. I thought that team had some solid talent.

PG: Ford played well as a rookie and Jones had a career year as his backup. They were a strong 1-2 punch.

SG: Redd had the first of his All-Star caliber seasons.

SF: Thomas/Van Horn. Thomas was a weak link but Van Horn had some real good games before he got hurt.

PF: Smith was a MASSIVE upgrade over Anthony Mason and brought defense, rebounding and smarts to a frontcourt that badly needed it.

C: Skinner had the best season of his career that year and was a tough force inside for much of the year when healthy.

Bench: Dez could still run and jump with the best of 'em. Kukoc and Jones were solid role players.

I really thought that team had a chance to do well that season and before Ford's injury they were a Top 5 team in the East. If Ford and Van Horn hadn't gotten hurt I think things could've been interesting in the playoffs. Unfortunately, we never got to see that team in the playoffs.

europa wrote:I always thought the "lack of talent" argument that was applied to that team was way off the mark. I thought that team had some solid talent.

PG: Ford played well as a rookie and Jones had a career year as his backup. They were a strong 1-2 punch.

SG: Redd had the first of his All-Star caliber seasons.

SF: Thomas/Van Horn. Thomas was a weak link but Van Horn had some real good games before he got hurt.

PF: Smith was a MASSIVE upgrade over Anthony Mason and brought defense, rebounding and smarts to a frontcourt that badly needed it.

C: Skinner had the best season of his career that year and was a tough force inside for much of the year when healthy.

Bench: Dez could still run and jump with the best of 'em. Kukoc and Jones were solid role players.

I really thought that team had a chance to do well that season and before Ford's injury they were a Top 5 team in the East. If Ford and Van Horn hadn't gotten hurt I think things could've been interesting in the playoffs. Unfortunately, we never got to see that team in the playoffs.

....they were the sixth seed and got crushed by the pistons

jerrod wrote:-= original quote snipped =-




nope, but i believe we're much much closer to it than we were then

two (soon to be three) trips to the lottery and an eight seed are closer?


all i'm saying is we need some guys like that, and a coach that will at least get the players to work a little bit to have a chance to go ANYWHERE

europa wrote:I always thought the "lack of talent" argument that was applied to that team was way off the mark. I thought that team had some solid talent.

PG: Ford played well as a rookie and Jones had a career year as his backup. They were a strong 1-2 punch.

SG: Redd had the first of his All-Star caliber seasons.

SF: Thomas/Van Horn. Thomas was a weak link but Van Horn had some real good games before he got hurt.

PF: Smith was a MASSIVE upgrade over Anthony Mason and brought defense, rebounding and smarts to a frontcourt that badly needed it.

C: Skinner had the best season of his career that year and was a tough force inside for much of the year when healthy.

Bench: Dez could still run and jump with the best of 'em. Kukoc and Jones were solid role players.

I really thought that team had a chance to do well that season and before Ford's injury they were a Top 5 team in the East. If Ford and Van Horn hadn't gotten hurt I think things could've been interesting in the playoffs. Unfortunately, we never got to see that team in the playoffs.

I agree with all of that, but I actually think Tim Thomas did ok for us that season prior to being traded.

And you forgot about a key component to our success that season...
Toni Kukoc.

RideEmCowboy24 wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



....they were the sixth seed and got crushed by the pistons

They were playing without their starting PG and their second-leading scorer and rebounder. If Ford hadn't gotten hurt I think they had a shot at a Top 5 seed. If both Ford and Van Horn stayed healthy I think there was a very good chance they avoid the Pistons in the first round.

I would've preferred TT over Van Horn to close out that season. Van Horn pulled what he usually did in the playoffs... The disappearing act.

europa wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



They were playing without their starting PG and their second-leading scorer and rebounder. If Ford hadn't gotten hurt I think they had a shot at a Top 5 seed. If both Ford and Van Horn stayed healthy I think there was a very good chance they avoid the Pistons in the first round.

Exactly.

And the Pistons were our worst matchup in any case. We probably don't ultimately get by them regardless of when we played them, but depending on seeding, maybe we would have met them in the ECF that year.

Keep in mind that no team that faced the Pistons in the playoffs that season played them better than even a depleted Bucks team did.

The biggest problem we had with the Pistons was that we couldn't bring the ball up well against the Pistons full court presses and traps. Those problems don't exist during minutes we would have been getting from Ford if he had been healthy, and I'm sure he would have ended up playing around 37mpg due to that ball pressure.

europa wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



They were playing without their starting PG and their second-leading scorer and rebounder. If Ford hadn't gotten hurt I think they had a shot at a Top 5 seed. If both Ford and Van Horn stayed healthy I think there was a very good chance they avoid the Pistons in the first round.

if ford wouldn't have gotten hurt they would have been the fourth seed....like i said in my original post, they lost the fourth seed on the last game of the season

i was just stating, that they did, in fact make the playoffs because i thought you said they didn't

and i get the feeling like you think i didn't like the team or something? i just wrote a whole long post about why i loved the team and how i wish the team we had now retained some of the same values

RideEmCowboy24 wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



two (soon to be three) trips to the lottery and an eight seed are closer?

i'm nowhere near as optimistic about that lineup as europa was.

wouldn't you say we're a lot closer to having the players necessary to contend now?

skinner/santiago and joe smith on the frontline will not get you a title,

will bogut/yi/cv? no, but it feels closer to me


maybe i'm out of my mind though

players? yes


attitude? no