gaspar wrote:bwgood77 wrote:DirtyDez wrote:
If I'm in the top-3 I wouldn't really consider those pieces to trade back 7-8 spots. Even if JJ is included. I think you might see a trade back from two to four or something like that.
There is still a pretty good chance we finish with one of the worst records. We have played one of the easiest schedules. Charlotte and Memphis have played the two toughest schedules. Dal, LAL and Sac have played the 5th, 6th and 7th toughest. Bulls 9th toughest, Hawks 11th, and Magic 12th. The Nets have also played a tougher schedule.
2 games or less separates all of us except Atlanta. Most of those other teams have beaten much tougher teams than we have. We have barely beaten Memphis twice, Dallas and Sacramento. I know all wins count the same, but I imagine those other teams will come by easier wins later.
Eh, I don't know about those SOS rankings. Maybe our opponents weren't the strongest but our schedule wasn't that easy. We played the most back-to-backs in the league - 9 (7 of them were 3-in-4 nights stretches). For example, the Hornets who supposedly played the hardest schedule had 6 back-to-backs. 19 home and 18 road games for the Suns, 20 home and 15 road games for the Hornets. The Suns had a 6, 5 and 3-game road trips. The 2 longest road trips for the Hornets were only 4 and 2 games (twice).
Being a young team, I don't think b2b's hurt us as much as teams with vets. We've also played quite a few games against teams with big name players out. We may end up winning some against the best teams later because we play the Warriors twice in our last five games and they may have clinched home court advantage. We also play Cleveland, Boston and Houston in our last 10 so they may rest players down the stretch as well.
We also play Dallas and Sacramento in our last five and they will probably be more actively tanking than us given that they both play more vets heavy minutes and can sit them. I don't know that if we sit Tyson if it will hurt us that much.