ESPN Summer Forecast

Post #1 » by **The Guilty Party** » Mon Sep 1, 2008 7:45 pm

Well, since we are now nearing the end of the dog days of summer, ESPN went ahead and polled their experts to determine an early version of their Power Rankings, who will win the MVP and ROY awards, and which players will have the best and worst impact on his new team.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/stor ... rds-080901

While it isn't much of a shock that Elton Brand was clearly picked as the player to have the best impact on his new team, I did find it interesting that the experts picked Baron Davis and Jermaine O'Neal to have the greatest negative impact on their new clubs. If these predictions turn out to be true then perhaps my dreams of seeing the following aren't as far fetched as I initially believed them to be.

Loose Cannon · Post #2 » by **Loose Cannon** » Mon Sep 1, 2008 8:13 pm

I don't think D-Bear will stand for that.

kanga · Post #3 » by **kanga** » Mon Sep 1, 2008 10:28 pm

http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/polling?event_id=3617&action=1&question27285=108406&question27286=108412&question27287=108418&question27288=108422&question27289=108429&question27290=108430&question27291=108435&question27292=108455&question27294=108477

i know this is just fan voting and will most likely not indicate what will happen, but why in the world do so many people believe the Heat will do well? 4th in voting for Who will win the East? and 6th in voting for Who will win the title??! I think they are a lottery team, with only a small chance of sneaking into the 8th playoff spot. Beasley will be a good player in a few years, but won't have enough of an impact to add 25-30 wins. Wade will be back at full force, but with Marion now a Sixer, who else do they have? Joel Anthony?

Post #4 » by **The Guilty Party** » Mon Sep 1, 2008 10:43 pm

While almost everyone who checks this website is an NBA fan, the people who vote on "SportsNation" aren't always a fan of hoops. It's that reason that you see a team like the Heat voted to be the 4th best because casual fans know Dwayne Wade and most know Shawn Marion and Michael Beasley was one of the biggest college names of last season. Casual fans see those 3 players on the same team and figure the team will be good while NBA fans will look at that team and ask who's running the point and who's playing center. Also of serious question is whether Dwayne Wade's body will hold up for a full 82 this year.

geiger · Post #5 » by **geiger** » Tue Sep 2, 2008 2:44 pm

Heat should do okay. I think they will sneak into the playoffs if they stay healthy. I don't think its fair to expect much more than than that from them and if they suffer injuries, especially if Wade misses any significant amount of time, they will be a lottery team again.

Post #6 » by **The Guilty Party** » Tue Sep 2, 2008 10:28 pm

Anyone think the Bulls will be good this season??? And by good, I mean a Top 5 team in the East.

LongLiveHinkie · Post #7 » by **LongLiveHinkie** » Tue Sep 2, 2008 10:32 pm

No. I think the Bulls will be awful.

geiger · Post #8 » by **geiger** » Wed Sep 3, 2008 3:45 am

They keep taking steps back. They need to build for the future and they have some nice pieces in Rose at PG and Deng at SF. Noah might turn into a decent PF and Thefalosha and Tyrus Thomas still have some promise. But at this point, it appears that they have a lot of role players and no post scoring, go to scorer, and their defense is not what it once was.

They do have some trade pieces. Gordon might get dealt and Nocioni and Gooden will prove attractive to a number of teams. Even Hinrich and Hughes might find homes elsewhere. They need to do something and it would be better for them if they rebuild and free up cap space. But right now, I would be absolutely shocked if they made the playoffs.

Loose Cannon · Post #9 » by **Loose Cannon** » Wed Sep 3, 2008 6:46 am

^Ditto, Gordon about to bolt overseas only adds to the disarray.

Philly KDub · Post #10 » by **Philly KDub** » Wed Sep 3, 2008 11:16 am

geiger wrote:They keep taking steps back. They need to build for the future and they have some nice pieces in Rose at PG and Deng at SF. Noah might turn into a decent PF and Thefalosha and Tyrus Thomas still have some promise. But at this point, it appears that they have a lot of role players and no post scoring, go to scorer, and their defense is not what it once was.

They do have some trade pieces. Gordon might get dealt and Nocioni and Gooden will prove attractive to a number of teams. Even Hinrich and Hughes might find homes elsewhere. They need to do something and it would be better for them if they rebuild and free up cap space. But right now, I would be absolutely shocked if they made the playoffs.

chicago shd have gone after kobe harder last year. they had a lot to offer for kobe but they blew it. i truly believe that kobe would have made a big difference for the bulls.

kobe must be glad that the trade never went thru

Post #11 » by **The Guilty Party** » Wed Sep 3, 2008 1:05 pm

I agree that the Bulls really blew it last off-season. That franchise was as loaded with assets as any other team and rather than make a move for a veteran superstar by moving some of that young talent, they choose to hold onto their players which caused the trade value in most to plummet. I guess they can hope that Rose turns into that superstar player but that's going to take some time.

Skates · Post #12 » by **Skates** » Wed Sep 3, 2008 6:19 pm

The Guilty Party wrote:I agree that the Bulls really blew it last off-season. That franchise was as loaded with assets as any other team and rather than make a move for a veteran superstar by moving some of that young talent, they choose to hold onto their players which caused the trade value in most to plummet. I guess they can hope that Rose turns into that superstar player but that's going to take some time.

Paxson is just an outright bad GM. He made a bad move giving big money to an aging and surly system player in Ben Wallace, then got gun shy when real super-stars like Kobe, Garnett and possibly Amare were on the market. The Wallace trade last year was uninspired. He knew he would not be able to pay both Deng and Gordon and should have moved Gordon last year. They still have a lot of talent, but the team is poorly built. Their best scorer (Gordon) doesn't want to play there, their best returning player has injury issues, their big men can't score and their number one pick has to deal with the pressure of playing at home when he's not quite ready for prime time yet.

Post #13 » by **The Guilty Party** » Wed Sep 3, 2008 6:26 pm

Not every move by Paxson has been bad but he's had a lot. It's not entirely inconceivable that the Bulls could look like this.

Hinrich
Bryant
Nocioni
LaMarcus Aldridge
Chandler

I believe that team is contending in the East.