VOTE: Who's an All-Star?

ecuhus1981 · Post #1 » by **ecuhus1981** » Wed Oct 7, 2009 4:17 pm

Hey all. I wanted to cull opinions about our team, and our odds of sending one or more of our players to the All-Star Game.

As we know, the expectations from the media of us are quite low. Historically, losing teams have a harder time of sending players to the ASG. I think that this will particularly impact Devin Harris. He will have more opportunities to score with Vince gone, and with lock-down wing defenders like Lee and Williams by his side, he can afford to gamble more for steals as he did in Dallas. Still, the competition for likely 3 Eastern Conference PG spots is fierce. Arenas and Nelson are fully healthy, Mo is probably going to be on the best (regular season) team in the EC, and Rose and Rondo are going to continue to improve. That's 6 players for 3 spots, and there's no guarantee that the coaches will select 3. With Johnson/Carter/Iguodala/Allen looking to get in at the SG and James/Granger/Butler/Pierce vying for a spot at SF, PGs might only get 2 spots. Every PG I mentioned stands a good chance of being on a better team than ours, so the odds don't look great for our floor general, unless he just puts up undeniable stats, at least something like 24/4/8/2/1.

Brook Lopez' path seems much clearer. Obviously, Superman (Dwight Howard) is the best C in the league, and will start. After that, though, the waters are murky. I do not think that Shaq will put up the type of season he had last year; his role is smaller, and the Cavs' pace is MUCH slower than the Suns. Bogut is coming off of a season-ending back injury, and even at 100%, I'd prefer Brook. I think we can legitimately state that our Lopez is the 2nd-best C in the East; the rest are all role-players like Horford, Dalembert, Noah, Haywood, Chandler and Perkins. It's always possible that the coaches go with one true C and have guys like Garnett, Bosh, Brand (if healthy and dominant) and possibly Lee back up the pivot spot. But I think with the increased role in our offense Brook will have, he will make it.

But enough from me: what do YOU think?

(P.S. Just for you, T_J, I voted. See if you can guess which one I chose!)

Rockice_8 · Post #2 » by **Rockice_8** » Wed Oct 7, 2009 5:45 pm

Yeah I agree with that. Because we are going to suck this year there is no way we get two allstars. Brook has much less competition even though Harris my be more deserving. I give the nod to Brook if he can put up something like 18 and 10 with 2 blocks he should be a lock.

vincecarter4pres · Post #3 » by **vincecarter4pres** » Wed Oct 7, 2009 6:02 pm

I went with both, I think this team will be a lot better then people think, myself included, but still around a 30 win team, but with a lot of hard fought close losses.
That said, I think their #'s will be too much to ignore.

BTW, I think you're wrong about the best team in the EC regular season.
No way it's Cleveland, they'll be third behind Boston and Orlando, if not 4th behind Washington as well.

ecuhus1981 · Post #4 » by **ecuhus1981** » Wed Oct 7, 2009 6:34 pm

Not to derail this thread, but Cleveland improved far more over the off-season than Orlando or Boston. They trade Ben Wallace for Shaquille O'neal for goodness sakes! The Delonte situation is almost as worrisome as that of a different Mr. West, but I don't think it will affect them until the post-season, IF Delonte still isn't right by then. After all, they also snagged bargain buys all over the FA market, with Parker, Moon and Powe. Anthony started the past 3 years at Toronto, and he can fill in admirably as a starter for th e Cavs. Boston gets Wallace, but losing Powe takes away from the impact of adding 'Sheed. Orlando is a more dangerous post-season team now IMO, but the depth that they traded away (not to mention Rashard's suspension) means that they could be in for a bumpy road to start the season. Washington is my pick for 4th in the East, but they are quite a bit differ than the aforementioned elite teams.

vincecarter4pres · Post #5 » by **vincecarter4pres** » Wed Oct 7, 2009 8:30 pm

Dude, Orlando has probably the literal deepest team in the NBA, stop it now!
They traded spare parts for Carter and swapped an overrated rookie for an underrated one.
Brought back Gortat, signed Bass, Barnes and lost only the highly overrated and inefficient Hedo.

ecuhus1981 · Post #6 » by **ecuhus1981** » Thu Oct 8, 2009 2:02 am

Yeah, I glossed over Orlando's offseason FA acquisitions, and I shouldn't have. They were quite good. Don't count Gortat, but Barnes and Bass were great "gets". The upgrade from Hedo to Carter is undeniable, although the loss of up-and-comer Lee and veterans Alston and Battie will hurt more than they (or you) may realize. Overall, I think that the Magic are a stronger and deeper team this year; BUT, it still does not compare with Cleveland, who added good FAs and essentially "bought" a HoFer who can still give you 14/7/2/1/1 every night and is an absolute defensive nightmare. They were the best regular season team in the East last year, and no one has gained ground on them, let alone overtaken them, this year.

vincecarter4pres · Post #7 » by **vincecarter4pres** » Thu Oct 8, 2009 3:28 am

We shall have to agree to disagree, I think Orlando has overtaken Cleveland and Boston was already ahead, they just lost Garnett for the year, which they couldn't make up for and they got a lot deeper and better although older this year.

deviljets7 · Post #8 » by **deviljets7** » Thu Oct 8, 2009 6:57 am

I went with Harris since everything is set up for much gaudier numbers.

Lopez will have a very fine season, but let's be honest here, it's hard for a non-playoff team to get 1 all-star, let alone 2. I can't imagine there are many, if any, instances of a lottery team having 2 all-stars, especially when they weren't voted in by the fans.

lurkingobeiscity · Post #9 » by **lurkingobeiscity** » Thu Oct 8, 2009 11:09 am

ecuhus1981 wrote:Yeah, I glossed over Orlando's offseason FA acquisitions, and I shouldn't have. They were quite good. Don't count Gortat, but Barnes and Bass were great "gets". The upgrade from Hedo to Carter is undeniable, although the loss of up-and-comer Lee and veterans Alston and Battie will hurt more than they (or you) may realize. Overall, I think that the Magic are a stronger and deeper team this year; BUT, it still does not compare with Cleveland, who added good FAs and essentially "bought" a HoFer who can still give you 14/7/2/1/1 every night and is an absolute defensive nightmare. They were the best regular season team in the East last year, and no one has gained ground on them, let alone overtaken them, this year.

The only nightmares that will happen because of Shaq's defense will be the ones the Cav's coaches can't push out of their heads as they sleep. Their biggest problem was pick and roll defense last year. Shaq can't be on the court unless he is guarding the center and when the Magic run a Vince/Howard pick and roll the Cavs will get torn apart again and again.

Hydroponic3385 · Post #10 » by **Hydroponic3385** » Thu Oct 8, 2009 3:49 pm

lurkingobeiscity wrote:
ecuhus1981 wrote:Yeah, I glossed over Orlando's offseason FA acquisitions, and I shouldn't have. They were quite good. Don't count Gortat, but Barnes and Bass were great "gets". The upgrade from Hedo to Carter is undeniable, although the loss of up-and-comer Lee and veterans Alston and Battie will hurt more than they (or you) may realize. Overall, I think that the Magic are a stronger and deeper team this year; BUT, it still does not compare with Cleveland, who added good FAs and essentially "bought" a HoFer who can still give you 14/7/2/1/1 every night and is an absolute defensive nightmare. They were the best regular season team in the East last year, and no one has gained ground on them, let alone overtaken them, this year.

The only nightmares that will happen because of Shaq's defense will be the ones the Cav's coaches can't push out of their heads as they sleep. Their biggest problem was pick and roll defense last year. Shaq can't be on the court unless he is guarding the center and when the Magic run a Vince/Howard pick and roll the Cavs will get torn apart again and again.

The Cavs biggest problem last year was not pick & roll defense, it was having a big enough body on Howard (Shaq) and having lengthy, athletic perimeter defenders beside Lebron (Moon, Parker). Add in the other perks of the new guys (Shaq's post presence, Parker's shooting, Moon's slashing and fast break abilities) and just the possibility that Powe can return around the all-star break, and it was quite an impressive offseason for the Cavs. Nevermind the fact they only lost Wallace (completely done), Pavlovic (terribly inconsistent, doesn't deserve to be a regular rotation player), Wally (completely done), and Joe Smith (love the guy and he has nice games here and there, but he is way past his prime, and Hickson looks to be an improvement over him). The Cavs have recent starters like Ilgauskas, West, and Moon coming off the bench. Hickson should surprise some people with his improvement from rookie to sophomore year. And Mo should be more dangerous now that he's a 3rd option.

I'm not saying the Cavs are the clear favorite for the East, but they are in no way a step behind Boston (KG's injury problems, the overall age of their top players, Sheed's attitude problems, etc.) and Orlando (Wince not starting out too hot in preseason, Hedo gets completely underrated in terms of his importance, not to mention also losing Lee/Alston (yes I know Nelson's back, but Alston was a great insurance policy) who were big parts of their playoff run). And to anyone who says WASHINGTON may be ahead of the Cavs, you are absolutely crazy. Good luck to them playing any defense, and to having their core guys stay healthy (a core that was never even that good when they were all healthy, and younger)

vincecarter4pres · Post #11 » by **vincecarter4pres** » Thu Oct 8, 2009 5:15 pm

Way to try and win over the fans and win the argument, call VC Wince.