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I'm starting up my offseason preview and wanted to get some info and feedback from you guys before I got going.

So, I come to you folks.

How do you see your depth chart breaking down?
What are the major story lines to your team this year?
How do you think you will finish record wise in the league? (what place? 1-30)
Tell me a little about your coaching situation.

Thanks in advance.

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jazzfan1971 wrote:I'm starting up my offseason preview and wanted to get some info and feedback from you guys before I got going.

So, I come to you folks.

How do you see your depth chart breaking down?
What are the major story lines to your team this year?
How do you think you will finish record wise in the league? (what place? 1-30)
Tell me a little about your coaching situation.

Thanks in advance.

Depth Chart
C: Splitter / Ayres / Baynes (RFA)
PF: Duncan / Diaw / Bonner
SF: Leonard / Manu / Anderson / Daye
SG: Green / Bellinelli
PG: Parker / Mills / Joseph

Our second unit is usually those five. Ayres, Diaw, Marco, Manu and Patty. I know Manu is a SG and I'm sure when it comes to depth chart, people will list Manu at SG, but Manu plays with the 2nd unit with Marco and Manu usually is the one guarding the opposing SF, so I'm listing Manu at SF because that's the 5 man second unit for us. The Miami series, the 2nd unit got shorten to just Diaw, Manu, and Patty though.

Story line? I guess health will be the biggest story line. Isn't it always health? Every year TD and Manu gets older, the more likely they're going to go through what Steve Nash is going through. Just constant nagging pains that won't go away and affect their contribution. And we all know that without a healthy TD, Manu, and Parker, we won't go far.

Record wise, this time I don't expect us to finish first. Champions have a target on their back. I still think we finish top 3 in the West. Top 5 record overall. Basically good enough of a record that we're still considered a legit title contender.

I'm not sure what to say about our coaching situation. Pop just signed a multi year extension. If you mean Messina, I think his first year will be more about him being acclimated to the team and the system. So I still expect Jim Boylen to be our top assistant. Perhaps next year Messina will have a bigger role or something, but not right off the bat.

That's not really an accurate reflection of the line-ups, and there's a lot of positional overlap and switching. I went through the board history (easy to do on this forum) and found your last offseason prediction. It doesn't look like it went so well. I recommend this time round you don't sleep on the Spurs. The Spurs are likely going to win less than the Thunder in the regular season (and maybe even less than the Clippers), but they should be contender again unless age and injuries really kill them (and the last 2 years injuries haven't been enough to slow them down). If I had to guess I'd say 55-59 wins. The Spurs are pretty darn consistent, and even with a target on their backs in the regular season I imagine they'll plough along in good shape.

Let's hope that this time you're nicer to the Spurs when you make predictions. As far as I remember, you had the Spurs as a lottery team last season and BK as the best overall team

Neither the Thunder, Clippers or Trailblazers made any significant additions so i'm expecting us to finish at the top of the west once again.

As for the depth chart we have a lot of versitle players so its kinda hard to map out a depth chart of our team but Co_laper's chart is probably as close as your going to get.

The main storyline for us is going to be maintaining and the progression of Kawhi. If he can build on his play in the finals we'll be tough to beat.

The main storyline is Duncan's last year farewell tour. Kawhi's increasing role and the transition to a post Duncan era is a backdrop to that primary narrative.

Baller2014 wrote:The main storyline is Duncan's last year farewell tour. Kawhi's increasing role and the transition to a post Duncan era is a backdrop to that primary narrative.

I'm still not convinced that this will be his last year. He said he wants to play until the wheels fall off and at the moment the wheels look pretty secure.

I think I misunderstood what he meant by storyline.

I agree that whether this will be Duncan's last year is going to be a major storyline. Unless he signs an extension, it has to be assumed that this will be his last year.

Kawhi's progression will also be a huge storyline. After his Finals MVP performance, his expectations are high now. These 13 points 6 rebounds averages in 29 minutes is no longer acceptable. Offensively is where he has to grow more. If he can take another leap next year, we'd be incredible.

GM Wotsup wrote:After watching KL do his thing last season up against LBJ the Worthy mention is very interesting. If ever we get back to another game 6 I feel KL improvement is such that he will take over when it's in the balance.

I posted this about Kawhi late May in the Raptors forum. There were a few posters who did not share the faith. Anyhow KL and Timmeth in the main and equally important I think is the # 1 seed again.

The more I review the season I come back to the # 1 seed being so important.