If Nash and Amare play out of their minds they will be worth something. If you look at the contracts guys get in a contract year when playing out of their minds, I have no doubt Amare will get a huge payday. Use their value now to bring something back or go out and get a guy like Chandler to play with them. If you don't get Chandler, I say there probably is no other size to get and this team will suck anyway.
Roll these guys out there as is and this team doesn't make the playoffs your going to lose millions anyway. Less revenue from TV Ratings, less Jersey sells and fewer people at games. Even if you keep Nash & Amare.
Pay Amare and Nash the money they are asking (Nash 29 Million & Amare the Max), then you strap your team even more hurting the future. The salary cap is going down next season and the luxury cap threshold as well. This team will have less flexibility doing that as well.
You mean the Lakers who just signed Artest? You mean the San Antonio spurs who just got better? What about the Blazers? I don't see the West is getting worse. I see the West as getting better.
Lakers - Better
San Antonio - Better
Blazers - getting better each season
Utah - still tough
Denver - tough
Hornets - Even without Chandler - tough
Dallas - probably the same but were better then us last year
Houston - if Yao gone for year, this is the only team that will probably be worse.
The West is not going "down" anytime soon.
In short yes. The draft is never a guarantee even with a good pick. It's a gamble. If having a 2010 draft pick is going to make or break your season then your team is in trouble. You need a mix of players drafted and free agents. No one draft pick is going to make or break your team unless you missed on on the next LeBron or something like that. What are your chances of that?
Lakers-they are better but they are not invincible(their pick and roll defense, moments of passiveness and underestimating their opponents, their three point defense). They were the most emo team in the 2009 playoffs as they showed very little heart in some of the games they played. They are a team that coasts off of their rediculous talent. However, they are the cream of the West
San Antonio-they probably are better. But do they have enough lock down defenders. Kurt Thomas, Oberto, and Bowen are gone. Three quality defenders(even though Bowen was severely declining). They also suffer from the injury bug and Manu Ginobli might still suffer from injury. Without Manu, they are an average team which was proven when Dallas easily(IMO) beat them in the playoffs. If Manu is injured again, they will be very very good because of Jefferson but not great. You also have to wonder if Tim Duncan will continue to severely decline and suffer from knee problems. He complained about his knees, and when a big man complains about his knees in his near mid 30s, the end of his career or productive seasons is near.
Blazers-I believe people(including people on this board) over hyped them way too much last off season. Some people said they would make the Western Conference Finals and even come out of the West and win the Finals. They have a lot of talent yes, but they are too much off a jump shooting team to contend for a title or make a deep playoff run. Remember, we owned them in our house even when we weren't playing style where we are most dominant in. The Blazers lack a low post presence and it showed in the playoffs when the Rockets easily disposed of them and gave them a shock when they blew them out in Game 1 and Yao had a perfect game. I must admit however, that the Blazers are a machine in their building. Absolutely amazing.
Utah-Utah proved they are pretenders and not contenders this season. They still cannot consistently win on the road in big games, and they only play great at home. Until they learn to win on the road, they aint going anywhere. There interior defense is not impressive either. Boozer and Okur are not good defenders and they will always be beaten by teams with dominant big men in the 2nd round. The Rockets are an exception with Yao because they had McGrady, the 2nd round virgin who cursed them.
Denver-we match up well with them and we beat them twice. We could have swept them if we didn't give away a game in their house but the past is the past. Denver doesn't scare me at all. They became overrated after the playoffs because they beat up on weak New Orleans and a Mavericks team that struggled against them.
Hornets-With Chandler, they are a playoff team. Without him, they are a lottery team. Did you not see how Denver obliterated them by beating them by 56 points in the post season? They are a one man show with Chris Paul dominanting the ball 95% off the time. They have a weak bench, a injury riddled SF in Peja and a jump shooting PF who plays like a SG. The Hornets went from pretenders to a mediocre near lottery team. If they lose Chandler, they will be a low seed again or might not even make the playoffs.
Dallas-I might agree hear. Dallas has always given us problems. However, we did blow them out badly in one game(I know, they blew us out twice this season). Also remember we lost one game after a tough back to back and playing under Porter(Porter sucked), and lost to them without Amare twice. Us against them is a toss up next season.
Rockets-The Rockets have always been overrated and have always been pretenders. We own the Rockets, and now with Yao and Artest gone, we will own them even more.
The Suns are better than you might think. If the Suns play like they did under Gentry with Amare back and under the notion that Chandler is here(not saying he will be, but if he is), they will make the playoffs. You can only go up from there.
