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I was thinking about injuries and how they can drastically affect a team and their ability to perform. Being a Raptor fan I said to myself "If we lose Bosh to injury, we're a lottery team". Kind of got me thinking about how other teams might fare under the same situation... (Let's limit it to teams in the playoffs, since it's a bit harder to evaluate the lottery teams and contenders on the same scale)

If you took the best player off each team, which teams do you think:

1) Are built well enough to not notice much of a drop off due to having a well rounded team overall?

2) Would crumble because they are built around their best player?

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My votes:
1)
- Houston (-Yao). I think they proved that this year.
- Detroit (-Wallace). Such a well rounded team. Any one of their backups could fill the void.
- Washington (-Arenas). They proved they could be a good team even without Arenas (and sometimes even Caron) this season.

2)
- Cleveland (-LeBron). Without him they can't seem to do anything.
- Raptors (-Bosh). It's depressing, but true.
- New Orleans (-Paul). I just can't see that team being in the playoffs without Paul.

i dont understand the point of this. blazers w/o oden go 41-41, with oden they go 55-27

BiggieSmalls wrote:i dont understand the point of this. blazers w/o oden go 41-41, with oden they go 55-27

O really????

BiggieSmalls wrote:i dont understand the point of this. blazers w/o oden go 41-41, with oden they go 55-27

except that oden hasnt played a game in the NBA yet...you cant just call him a superstar already

The Celtics went 7-2 without Garnett and beat SA and Dallas.

spurs without duncan would struggle

westthebest wrote:The Celtics went 7-2 without Garnett and beat SA and Dallas.

Quit your bragging!

whats the spurs record without ginobli?

Sting3r wrote:whats the spurs record without ginobli?

6-3 this year..

Yeah, I can see SA struggling without Duncan. Who's going to shoot their game tying 3 pointers without him?!

I'm still not sure how Phoenix would do if they lost Nash. Sure he is the engine of the offence, but that was more true when they still had Marion and actually ran. I think there would be a drop off, but it might not be as big as expected considering he's a two time MVP.

in other years I might have said a few teams would make the playoffs in the West without their star player, but no way any of them would in this new version of the West..so every star player has to remain for the team to make it in the top 8..

HarlemHeat37 wrote:in other years I might have said a few teams would make the playoffs in the West without their star player, but no way any of them would in this new version of the West..so every star player has to remain for the team to make it in the top 8..

Hmmm, I'm not so sure. Assuming Bynum doesn't get injured the Lakers without Kobe may be good enough to grab one of the lower seeds. It's not like Bynum, Gasol and Odom are scrubs. Though it would be very difficult.

part of the reason Gasol and Odom have been so good is because of Kobe's presence..he's always the main focus of the defense..I highly doubt they make the playoffs in this difficult West without Kobe..

also, the Lakers D is already average..imagine without Kobe..

Fair enough. I don't watch the Lakers enough to really have a good grasp on their team. Just watch the occasional game. I just remember Gasol was the focus of his team in Memphis and they did fine for several years. Add Bynum and Odom to take the load off Gasol and you have a trio that can rebound very well and score easily enough.

But Kobe probably is more valueable to his team than I give him credit for...

Rockets easily, IMO.