They won 66 regular season games because they played in the East, where wins are easy to come by. They don't win 60 if they're a Western Conference team. The 6th, 7th and 8th seed combined had a losing record that season. The 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th seed combined for .500 record. Absolutely crap basketball in the Eastern conference.
Sorry man, but when you have 3 60 win clubs and a 50 win club, that's a decent conference... or was the West pathetic as well when we won 61 games and the bottom three seeds were 42-40, 42-40 and 45-37? It's a top heavy conference and the Magic beat both of the heavies without HCA. That's impressive no matter what you might want to try and say.
Come on man, the Celtics are a completely different animal with a healthy KG - I shouldn't have to argue that.
Sure they are, but they proved themselves to be a good team without him, just like that Suns team was a good team without Amare.
And that Lakers team had one of the all-time great players in Kobe, and one of the all-time great coaches in Phil Jackson. What did the Bulls have that comes close to that?
and they had NOTHING else on it. Smush Parker, Walton and Qwame Freaking Brown were starters on that team! The Bulls had a TON more talent on their team last year. Rookie of the Year, 6th Man of the year, a Rebounding Monster in the middle and depth.
Yes, by an incredible Spurs team that many consider to be a dynasty.
an "incredible" Spurs team? That Spurs team was on it's last legs and we couldn't even put them away... with home court advantage... again. It was a good champion, who didn't have to face anyone else because the league was atrocious that year and thus they got to cake-walk to the Finals after punking our punk asses again.
That goes back to my argument - that the East has been, and still is an easier path to the Finals than the West. Even if the gap has closed somewhat, there's still a gap.
And yet, the East is even stronger this year and the Cavs are off running towards another 64 win season. And this with more injuries to pretty much everyone except Lebron that I can ever remember for a team. Maybe, just maybe they were pretty damn good last year.
Not necessarily. There's more than one way to impact a game.
sure, you can score or you can defend... or you can do both. Amare can do excel at one, but offers very little on the other, as opposed to Howard who can impact the game offensively AND dominate it defensively... where the game matters most.
There are plenty of players that have improved defensively as their careers moved forward - Larry Nance is a great example. Nance was a so-so defender for much of his early career, then turned it in his later years and became a 3-time all-team defender.
was a so-so defender in his early years? Yeah, I don't remember that, nor do his stats tell the same story. He came into the league as a shot-blocker and maintained that presence throughout his career, along with his rebounding numbers which maintained at about the same level. He got more acclaim with Cleveland because Cleveland was know as the "defensive" team, as opposed to every Suns team since the history of man.
I don't think Amare will ever make all-team, but the guy has the physical tools to become an above average defender, it's his mentality that needs to change, and it would appear it has, at least in the short term.
I agree that is more likely, which is why I said I'd take Howard over Amare. Just don't count Amare out, and it's amazing how things and opinions can change over the course of one year.[/QUOTE]
or 15 great games apparently.
