miller31time wrote:I don’t think Indiana is better than us now that we’ve shored up our center position and bench. I could see this Wizards team winning 50+ games this season and I don’t believe Indy will reach that level.
I’d rank the East as follows....
1. Boston
2. Philly
3. Washington / Toronto
4. Washington / Toronto
5. Indiana
6. Milwaukee
7. Miami
8. Detroit / Charlotte
Wow... just wow.
Howard is better than Gortat -- stipulated.
Jeff Green is Mike Scott in a Jeff Green costume -- does no one even look at what he puts up while in games? Is it... his name? His name is a better name than Mike Scott? They seem sort of similar as names to me.
Austin Rivers is better than nobody. He was comfortably in the bottom 15% of all NBA guards in productivity last year. Moreover, that's where he's been every single year of his career.
If we're better than we were last year, which I hope (and even think) we will be, you can put it on one or more of 3 things: 1) Wall plays 1000 more minutes & a zillion times better than last year -- more or less like the year before; 2) Howard plays at the level of his recent years & doesn't cause a bunch of locker room disruption; 3) Oubre & Satoransky continue to develop (esp. Oubre) & get plenty of playing time.
What can limit (maybe even prevent) our improvement is easy: Rivers taking minutes from better players. Since pretty much all our players are better players than he, you can just say that the more minutes he plays the less good a team we are.
People here continue to act as if we somehow "acquired" Austin Rivers. We did not. We took the only offer we got for Marcin Gortat before the garage sale closed down. Again, does anybody even look at what guys do while they're on the floor?
The biggest part of the gap between us and Indy last year was Wall's injury. If all goes really really well, it's possible -- just conceivable -- that we slip in front of them.
Of course, both Milwaukee & Miami were also better than the Wizards last year. Like the Wizards, the Bucks are a poorly run franchise. As with us, it's never easy to predict them doing well 2 years in a row. The Heat had no draft picks; I just heard that they signed Greg Oden. ?? I think they may plan to tank.