SI.com - Writers - Marty Burns: Western Conference rankings - Friday August 3, 2007 4:09PM Details and reasons are in the article.
No love for Darko. Grizzlies could be better if they can stay healthy. This is also pre-Brand injury, so that would definitely drop Clippers closer to the bottom. As far as the top three, yeah, one can say that the Spurs are the champs until they are beaten, but I'd say it is a toss up.
put out a ranking and a key guy will go down to mess that up. I think the grizzlies will do a lot better. but its pretty solid.
Seems pretty good to me other than Golden State. They played over their heads in the playoffs and I'd bet can't sustain that next year.
I don't know. I see no reason why they won't continue to win games. They just won't ever win the big one playing zero defense. I wouldn't change anything in that list except maybe flipflopping the Wolves and the Sonics. The Wolves have alot of good young talent as a result of that Garnett trade.
Just seems like too many guys with precarious emotional states. Can Jackson hold it together for a full season at a high level? They barely made it into the playoffs last time. But, who knows - I'd guess they have an equal probability of winning anywhere from 35 to 45 just depending on who gets hurt and who wigs out.
Darko aside, doesn't it seem like the Grizz will be better than that with a healthy Gasol, a euro guard, and some nice draft picks? I could see them doing sort of what the Raptors did in the East last year... except the top Western teams will be tougher.
Golden State plays defense. They just don't grind it out. They look to create turnovers, crash the offensive boards, bomb the trey, run, run, run and score in transition. They are everything Denver wants to be.
Denver will do better than Golden State next season. I expect the Nuggets or the Rockets to make the conference semifinals along with SA, Dallas, and Phoenix.
You're right. I recant that statement. Stephen Jackson and Biedrins can be excellent on D. I still think their half court defense reveals alot of holes. If you can slow the tempo down with these fellas, their weaknesses are opposed.
