F-Dog said:
If the Suns are good this year, their rivals will be the Lakers and Sacramento, and maybe Houston and Utah.
If they suck again, their rivals will be the Warriors, Clippers and Bulls.
With the new division structure, the best bet for the Suns to get a good seeding will be to win the Pacific. Without Shaq around, that is not out of the question.
The Kings are still the team to beat in the Pacific. The Suns look to be much stronger than the Warriors and Clippers. The Lakers will still be a problem, but I think the Suns are going to be measurably better.
It is hard to project how well the Kings will do. A lot depends on Webber's health and the team's overall chemistry. One of the problems they had late in the season was that adding Webber seemed to slow down their offense and took away from the style that made them a top offensive team. Adding Ostertag is definitely not going to speed things up.
The odd thing about the Kings playoff run was that they played some of their best defense of the season - holding their opponents to 41.4% shooting (no small feat when playing the Mavs). But Predrag Stojakovic shot only 38.4% and Doug Christie shot only 39.7% due to the slow down style they played. Even Bibby who led them in scoring with 20 ppg shot only 42.9% for the playoffs - including a series with the Mavs.
So while the Kings are still the team to beat, they may be vulnerable if the Suns play well. Of course, getting another big man would help.
