Iceman36 wrote:bwgood77 wrote:I'm excited for the season. But I'm excited for every season. Of course every season since 2010 except the first season for Hornacek was a massive disappointment, but when we traded for Paul I was interested to see how good we could be.
I certainly wasn't expecting the finals but it was fun. I knew many of the favorites had massive injuries so I did worry that expectations for the team going forward would be too high and people would throw more blame around than maybe even all our 20 win seasons...because I've seen it happen a lot. And we had the Sarver story hanging over our season.
But then last season we rolled. I didn't think we could beat GS and Memphis scared me a bit but though we had a decent chance. I just knew we for the most part had a very young core without much playoff experience....and those teams seem to take a while to get over the hump if they ever do. Even the Bucks had the best record a couple years before getting over the hump...getting massively upset in not so many games by the Heat when they were the heavy favorite having rolled over teams throughout the regular season.
I will be interested to see what happens with Crowder but mostly am curious to see if Booker can reach #1 guy on a serious contender status. It seems like many at this point feel no, evidenced by the fact they felt the need to get KD. We will see..his defensive improvements have been great. I am interested in seeing if he could be the primary ball handler post Paul.
And then Ayton and how they've said he has added next level stuff to his game. Interesting to see what he has added this year after improving so much offensively last year and defensively the year before.
It would be nice to see Bridges step more on offense. He could really be the key to us exploding offensively, and helping us maintain once Paul is gone.
I also don't think 2-3 bad games in a series last year defines our team from last year. Teams get upset in playoff series. It happens all the time.
Many felt last year we had our best team ever...whatever the case, it was certainly close with mostly young guys who will only get better.
Good Post!
I agree with you in many points and I'm excited for the new season, too!
We have a team, that reached the finals 2 seasons ago and broke the franchise win record last season. No need for so much negitivity in here!
Sure, we didn't deliver in the playoffs, but I think, we learned a lot.
I just hope, Monty gets better in playoff coaching. He was outcoached by Bud, Willie and Kidd in a row and he still has no decent ingame coaching. Yes, he regulary fails at that. Monty is my biggest concern.
I agree, Monty can improve, as can our young players. Look at Jason Kidd..he has improved coaching (though Doncic makes it easier, but then again, he did have Giannis).
Obviously some thought with KD, Paul and Book and one of Cam and Mikal was a finals shoo in, but of course even a favorite usually only has a 30% chance of winning it all unless you are like that Warriors team that won 73 and added KD without losing anyone but Barnes.
We feel depth is a slight problem now, and worry about CP3's demise, but with so much relying on KD and Paul in that scenario, we would have really been relying on very old injury prone players with no depth and probably a higher likelihood of Book wanting out in a few years.
Anyway, our chances are not any worse in my mind, but even if they were, it isn't meaningfully less, and adding any injury possibility, they are probably better, knowing Bridges is an iron man and KD has played 90 games the last 3 years.
We are were one of the best teams last year with this core, who should still improve and have more playoff experience. The competition will be tougher but we should still be a top 5 team in the West, with a better playoff chance than all but GS and the Clips, and Curry/Klay/Draymond will be declining soon even if they have depth, an improving Wiggins, Poole, Kuminga and young guys with depth, and we know Kawhi isn't totally reliable (though if he and George are, they scare me the most). But even if those teams are healthy, if we are at our best, we have a decent chance of beating them. Their depth scares me so our bench has to step up.
But to be a competitive team in the mix is really all you can hope for going into the season. Of course all team's fans hope for a ring, but no team by any means has this guaranteed.
