Post by Mark on Jan 15, 2011 19:59:21 GMT -5
Pre-Season Rankings: Western Conference
My 8th projected seed in the Western Conference won 49 games last year and hasn’t necessarily gotten worse. The depth in the conference is unbelievable. I think it resembles what the Eastern Conference was like at one point in a previous version of BBS where we had 9 truly great teams all of which could have won the West at the time. Onto the rankings:
14. Houston Rockets (38-44 last season):
[/b]Poor Andrew got his balls CY’d pretty hard this past season. He got fucked over by Gasol’s injury but in the end he wasn’t proactive enough with his remaining assets throughout the season. CJ is now at the helm and has already made quite a few moves to shake up his core, namely moving Marc Gasol and Thaddeus Young to Los Angeles and Houston respectively. CJ is in full rebuild mode and will be in the basement of the Western Conference.
13. New Orleans Hornets (45-37 last season):
[/b]Aar is rebuilding at the perfect time. The tanking teams in the west will get destroyed this season by the ridiculous depth of elite squads playing them four times each. 20 wins? His franchise player right now is Kemba Walker but I need to see how (if at all) his TOs have improved this season. He’s never going to be a true franchise player unless he can dip those TOs quite a bit because he’s not a good enough scorer to make up the difference. The Hornets will draft very high in the lotto and probably will be there for a couple of seasons.
12. Memphis Grizzlies (50-32 last season):
[/b]Last season’s record is meaningless now that Insane has dealt off his ridiculous frontcourt of Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, and Brook Lopez. I love this rebuild so far though. He got lucky that the Amare/Brook deals were made pre-lotto. I think it was Portland’s pick that netted him future superstar Harrison Barnes. Barnes/Honeycutt/Jones is a crazy start considering he is now able to tank. Shit, this team will be great soon. Insane did very well on this rebuild but the team should suck this season.
11. Oklahoma City Thunder (23-59 last season):
[/b]Wow, I just noticed that Aaron passed his contract year in 1999 with 40 wins. WTF? That is crazy. Anyway, this team isn’t very good but it’s also not horrendously bad either. I don’t expect Aaron to remain in his current limbo in terms of direction though. He’ll probably get his pick back from Insane or deal for vets who work within a particular system and try and maximize their talent. Regardless of what he does Ray McCallum looks like a franchise PG which is absolutely amazing for him.
10. Golden State Warriors (27-55 last season):
[/b]I think GAME is a surprisingly competent GM but this team is in mediocre shape at the moment. Derrick Williams has good ratings but isn’t a superstar. He looks to have hit with Plumlee at 15. Rip Hamilton is a shell of his former self (kind of like in real life so yeah it makes sense to deal expiring for him Billy King). Two brightspots are OJ Mayo and Quinn Cook. Mayo has been a consistently great offensive player throughout his entire career. Cook went up at inside, outside, and handles during TC. Maybe he could become DJ Augustin-lite from this past league? Oh shit, Steelers/Ravens getting good. To sum up, the Warriors will not make the playoffs.
9. Utah Jazz (43-49 last season):
[/b]Was it really only two seasons ago that Utah won the title? They have an elite talent in LeBron James but overall aren’t a threat at all. I’m still pissed off that he beat me in the WCF two years ago, fuck. Donta Smith joins LeBron as a great player on this team but they lack depth and high-end talent outside of these two. Utah will remain in the playoff mix as long as they have LeBron. However, his title days with this current core are over. He doesn’t have the assets to improve without dealing LeBron which would obviously make him worse this year.
8. San Antonio Spurs (49-33 last season):
[/b]The Spurs randomly won 49 games last season but never were a true threat in the West. I am looking at his roster right now and I really don’t see how the hell it got to that point. Did he lose a player off of last year’s team? Maybe the DC just clicked incredibly well this past year. I remember Jah saying he was something like 31-10 during one 41 game stretch. He has a solid squad but to me is clearly a step below the elite in the West. Pretty cool to see Terrence Williams end up with some very good ratings though.
7. Portland Trailblazers (20-62 last season):
[/b]So Donnie, who is on this team now? LOL. I think you have Amare-Aldridge-Young-Gordon right? Dan did a great job assembling talent quickly this off season. He got fucked by the Harrison Barnes pick but if he didn’t act fast I’m sure he would have lost out on Amare. Oh well, can’t do anything about that. This is another team that looks like 50 wins on paper. I really have no idea how the wins will shake out in the West because we’re all going to be playing each other. A 60 win team in another season might only win 54 or so this year. The conference is so deep and Dan’s team exemplifies that. However, his PG play keeps him below the top spots in the West. Nelson is a good player but I don’t think this team is better than Insane’s from last year.
6. Dallas Mavericks (55-27 last season):
[/b]Greg did a pretty sick job of turning a completely average team into a dangerous one this past season. Dallas scared the shit out of me and I really didn’t want to play him in the playoffs. My boy JJ Redick is so damn good, wow. No wonder I was 43-7 before I dealt him two years ago. Fuck. The Bynum/Amir frontcourt is amazing. 8 BPG and 25+ RPG from your FC? Holy shit. Where does Amir Johnson rank in terms of overall players in this league? Top 10-15? He is incredible. I do think Dallas is a step below the BBS elite but Greg has another 50 win team on his hands.
5. Los Angeles Lakers (30-52 last season):
[/b]I’m pretty sure this is the first time Nanz has been in the CY but he will easily pass. Gasol/Kaman is a dominant front court. Michael Gilchrist had the craziest TC I have ever seen in BBS from someone who had already been in the league for a couple of seasons and hadn’t done much overall. His development put Nanz’s team in another level. Ilyasova is a good fifth starter. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Nanz has a couple more moves up his sleeve, particularly at PG. Shved sims well but I think LAL is a step below a couple of teams without one more addition. Gasol is legitimately a franchise piece though so they’re going to end up at 50+ regardless of any more trades (assuming he is healthy… LOL Andrew). I could also see LAL pull a Greeme and play way above 50. For now I am going to be conservative in ranking them though.
4. Minnesota Timberwolves (56-26 last season):
[/b]The T’Wolves are bringing back the Roy/Monta backcourt so DBW should have another 50+ win season on his hands. I’m surprised at just how good Monta has become. The one thing holding Minnesota back is the lack of a front court. Elton Brand regressed in TC and the team as a whole is getting pretty old. There are obvious flaws with this team that keep them from the top spot in the West. Regardless, Monta/Roy can dominate any back court and that alone makes them scary as hell in a 7 game series.
3. Denver Nuggets (64-18 last season):
[/b]Did anyone expect Denver to win 64 games before the season began last year? I had them #3 overall in the pre-season (higher than everyone other than Greeme I assume) but I never expected success like he had. I thought his Kaman deal was a pretty awful move given his position as West leader at the time. His logic behind the deal was it made him better in the future while still keeping him as the best team in the league. The only issue is pretty much everyone felt it pushed him off of his perch as best team in the league which eventually proved correct in the playoffs. He is bringing back pretty much the same core that ended this past season so Greeme will be very good once again. I don’t see it approaching 60 again though.
2. Los Angeles Clippers (16-66 last season):
[/b]Martinez legitimately just dealt for Kobe one minute ago. Wow, he is still so good. It is kind of crazy how he has kept his ratings through age 36. B+/A/B-/A/B-. So good and did 27 a game last year on great %’s. Martinez dealt a 24 year old big man for Kobe so loses out value-wise but I think the logic behind the trade is pretty obvious. Kobe is still a superstar. I know Love has a bunch of fans in the league but eh, I’m not really one of them. 3.0 TPG and 1.0 BPG this past year. That is gross out of your PF. Irving/Kobe/Gay/Jonas/Lopez. It is a legitimately great team and people would just be hating to say otherwise. I think Jonas’ development is the key to the entire squad. Is he a superstar now? He has legitimately great ratings so he could be. The two issues I see are with block shots (none) and defense as a whole (weak for an elite team). He’ll win a ton of games though and should be a very tough out.
1. Phoenix Suns (57-25 last season):
[/b]I thought at the time of the Webster trade this past season that it would make me the best team in the league. I kind of hung around throughout the regular season but my team was quietly doing around 9.5 TPG after the trade with 18 blocks plus steals per game. The only real change to last year’s team came in the form of my Noah/Horford trade and I view that as an upgrade. We should have an elite offense, low turnovers, and an above average defense. I’m going to put myself number one even though I find that kind of lame. I think winning last year’s title justifies it though.
