Tankers.....We Have A Problem!!!

[Revived]

Anyone who thinks we won't suck next year, look at the Orlando Magic and tell who has a more talented team, them or us?

It's them, and they were the WORST basketball team in the NBA last year.

[ATF]

Even at sucking we're mediocre.

[thamadkant]

Suns can move to bottom 3 team if they trade away Gortat, Scola and even Butler mainly because it means Shannon Brown will play huge minutes... Goodwin will most likely be D-league for first half of the season.

[gaspar]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/SportandoBasket/status/353853557625192449[/tweet]

[Frank Lee]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/SportandoBasket/status/353853557625192449[/tweet]

Vegas ... the best barometer

I have come to terms with this. After seeing the FA's fly out the door, and us standing reasonably pat, I think one can be content with the additions we have made. We are not playoffers... I think the yr will be spent figuring out who will be remaining come 2014... 3 or 4 guys need to put up or pack up.

As commonly mentioned... it wont take much of an effort to tank...but it might to bottom out below LA and Bos. That's a scary combo to be competing against with the stern-fed-Ping-Pong-ball machine.

Even at sucking we're mediocre.

[DRK]

Pistons 150/1?

I'ld throw a 20 that way just for some fun.

[RunSunRun]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/SportandoBasket/status/353853557625192449[/tweet]

I'm surprised Vegas has the Magic that low, wouldn't surprise me to see them improve at least 5-10 games over last year with getting all of those new guys to meld together.

I'd put the Magic at 200/1 and move the 76ers to 300/1, if we do end up moving some combination of Gortat/Scola, maybe we drop to 400/1,

[JMac1]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/SportandoBasket/status/353853557625192449[/tweet]

I'm surprised Vegas has the Magic that low, wouldn't surprise me to see them improve at least 5-10 games over last year with getting all of those new guys to meld together.

I'd put the Magic at 200/1 and move the 76ers to 300/1, if we do end up moving some combination of Gortat/Scola, maybe we drop to 400/1,

Where is b Boston..

[starbosa10]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/SportandoBasket/status/353853557625192449[/tweet]

I'm surprised Vegas has the Magic that low, wouldn't surprise me to see them improve at least 5-10 games over last year with getting all of those new guys to meld together.

I'd put the Magic at 200/1 and move the 76ers to 300/1, if we do end up moving some combination of Gortat/Scola, maybe we drop to 400/1,

Where is b Boston..

as of right now they still have good players on their roster like rondo, bradley, jeff green, etc

[JMac1]

I'm surprised Vegas has the Magic that low, wouldn't surprise me to see them improve at least 5-10 games over last year with getting all of those new guys to meld together.

I'd put the Magic at 200/1 and move the 76ers to 300/1, if we do end up moving some combination of Gortat/Scola, maybe we drop to 400/1,

Where is b Boston..

as of right now they still have good players on their roster like rondo, bradley, jeff green, etc

Three players and one coming off of a major injury?! Two of the players are ok.......not studs btw.

[starbosa10]

Where is b Boston..

as of right now they still have good players on their roster like rondo, bradley, jeff green, etc

Three players and one coming off of a major injury?! Two of the players are ok.......not studs btw.

saying

not saying they're studs at all, just saying overall they still most likely have a better roster than most of the teams listed in that tweet. not trying to start a big arguement besides boston still probably is at like 100/1 or something probably

[bwgood77]

This site has the Bobcats and Magic at 650/1, the Sixers at 500/1 and the Suns and Pistons at 400/1. I'm not sure why the Pistons are worse than some of the teams on the list. And I'm not sure how the Sixers have better odds than the Bobcats or Magic.

http://www.vegasinsider.com/nba/odds/futures/

[Frank Lee]

They are all teaser bets. Wait till the over/under for wins gets posted.

[King4Day]

Late to the party on this one but I wanted to comment.
I have no doubt we miss the playoffs but the OP does have a valid concern. The reason we stunk for so long last year was primarily because Beasley was getting some heavy playing time for a good chunk of the season. If our Coaching staff learned from last years disaster, he will have very little to do with the success or failure of this team.
Also, Gortat missed the last month plus of the year. Had he played, we probably finish with the 6 or 7 seed.

Say what you want but Bledsoe is a massive upgrade over Dudley's play last season. He is playing for a new contract also (assuming we don't extend him first).
I think it's realistic to believe we may finish 7-10th seed if Gortat and/or Scola aren't dealt.

Another reason it's important to get rid of those guys is because we need to know if the Morris' can be part of our future. Len will need big minutes too. Coming off the bench or getting little PT won't help.
The brass are saying the right things. Make sure to keep the players at ease while hopefully working to find a deal that helps us improve for this years draft.

[phrazbit]

You can take Beasley out of the mix, have everyone stay healthy AND untraded... and its really hard to fathom how this roster can approach a .500 record. We easily have the least talent in the West and I dont think its close.

[BurningHeart]

I simply don't see that. Bledsoe and Butler are two very good players. Bledsoe addresses perimeter defense in a way we haven't seen since Raja. Butler adds veteran leadership and isn't a scrub starting at SF.

If you limit Beasley and Brown to the absolute bare minimum and roll with Bledsoe/Dragic/Butler/Scola/Gortat with Len/Frye/Marshall/Morris twins/Goodwin, that's a pretty darn respectable starting lineup with a decent, young bench to develop.

It's obviously not where we want to eventually be nor is it a number that would get us into the playoffs, but I can definitely see 35-40 wins out of that team.

[phrazbit]

Its an awful starting lineup... Butler should not be a starter, Bledsoe at SG is a big time experiment, Scola is not starting material. Every team in the West probably beats us at 3 out of 5 positions on a nightly basis and many will beat us across the board. Our bench players are either terrible or totally unproven.

If a team does not have legit scoring threats, does not have outside threats and is deficient at most defensive positions... and has a weak bench, its really hard to imagine them winning much.

We finished dead last in the conference last year and what team do you think we should leap past on paper? Sacramento, Portland, New Orleans and Minnesota all have beefed up their rosters. Dallas IMO has gotten worse but bad enough to fall all the way down to our level? Not if Dirk plays. Utah also has blown it up, but they have a nasty front court in the making and some solid young players around them.

Suns are, at the absolute best, a 30 win team, IF they stay healthy (and we stayed healthier than just about any team last year) and IF the front office does not trade more vets. And I absolutely 100% expect them to trade away more vets, especially when its New Years and we're already well out of playoff contention.

[BurningHeart]

Isn't getting Bledsoe, Butler, Len, and Goodwin "beefing up our roster" too? Isn't getting Frye back "beefing up our roster" too?

If not, then what was the point of making the trade to get Bledsoe and Butler? What's the point of having a Top 5 pick and getting a nice prospect in the draft? If Bledsoe isn't going to help beef up our lineup with all his muscle and defense and explosiveness and potential, then why are some people saying he's worth extending at 8, 9 million a year? Isn't getting two new starters "beefing up our roster"? Isn't limiting the playing time of Brown and Beasley "beefing up our roster" by subtraction or minimization?

You talk about Sacramento, Portland, New Orleans, and Minnesota "beefing up their rosters." Those teams have just as many question marks as we do with the fresh faces and how they'll come together.

Look, we might not be a great team, but if we got all these players and the best we can do is add 5 wins to our total, that's a terrible return and horrible progress. People talk about a treadmill of mediocrity but that would be treadmill of terrible. If you only added five wins a year to 25, and it takes 60 wins to win the conference, that means it'd take seven years to get the #1 seed again. That's not acceptable.

[phrazbit]

Goodwin is an 18 year old rookie, he and Len fall into the "totally unproven" category. They are both so raw right now that I would hardly count them as "beefing" us up for the 2013-2014 campaign. I expect to see their positive returns later down the line.

As for Frye, his last 2 years were ineffective, he has been terrible when Nash is not giving him open looks, and since then he has missed a year and had to undergo shoulder surgery... and we still dont know if he will even play.

Butler is a downgrade from Dudley, taking on the aging and expensive Bulter was our cost for getting Bledsoe.

I like Bledsoe, but him at SG is an experiment, we have no idea if him and Dragic will work out or not.

Sacramento, Portland, New Orleans and Minnesota are all teams who had far worse luck than injuries last year than we did, brought in move proven talent than we did this year AND they were already better than us to begin with.

The Suns could improve their product on the court and not see a return in the win loss column right away. What the front office did between fall 2010 and spring 2013 was not a treadmill or terrible but a brutal tumble off a cliff. Its not going to get a quick fix. We're building a younger more athletic team, and as we dump what few decent veterans we have in order to bring in more young, guys with potential you should not be surprised if our record gets worse before it gets better.

[Calvin Klein]

We are most probably the worst team in the west. No worries.