2003/2004 Preview & Predictions Thread

[Shep]

Stoudemire made much more of an impact on the team

i don't know how you measure how players make an impact on their teams (perhaps you measure it by if that player does a spectacular dunk on on olowokandi ala colin) but i measure it on how much the team improves. and as i mentioned earlier houston improved 15 games.

especially with a great point guard like Francis on his team

yeh...great. maybe if francis gave ming the ball more often he would be yielding stats worthy of your lofty expectations. dump francis, sign brevin knight (a point guard who does what a point guard should do), play him the minutes francis was getting, and ming will be averaging numbers (points) that would live up to all the 'hype' you was talking about.

[Eugene]

Okay, first of all...

Amare Stoudemire doesn't know more about the game than Yao Ming does. In fact, only a few players have more intuitive knowledge of the game than Yao. This guy has great fundamentals and footwork, the vision and the creativity to hit the cutter out of any double team.

The presence of Matrix and especially Starbury actually helped Amare. There was no way Amare would've gotten all those dunks had Steph not set him up. It was the defensive attention that Matrix drew and Steph's commitment to the team that ultimately improved Amare's game.

The reason Yao was so passive last season is because the Rocket's were still under Rudy T's regime, in which Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley dominated the ball. I said this last year, and I'll say it again this year. You go through Yao Ming every time down the court, and the chances of your scoring doubles, regardless of what defense the team plays.

That being said...

Amare gave the Suns the tough inside presence that coach Frank Johnson had enough sense to exploit. He gave them intensity, defense, rebounding, and at times, scoring. Yao was neglected by Rudy T, and didn't get the chance to really help the team. Yao is the better player, but under the circumstances, Amare produced better stats and played a key role in Phoenix making the playoffs. That is, Amare had more value to his team. So, regardless of who was and is the better player, Amare won the ROY and he deserved every vote he got.

But I will say this. Had Yao gone to Phoenix and Amare went to Houston, Yao Ming wins the ROY, without a doubt.

All the best,

Eugene

[Jackal]

Bottom line is that Ming was expected to play amazing...He was hyped up so much...WOAH A 7'4 Center with a three point shot WOAH...heh and yet a highschool kid played just as good as a hyped up Chinese 7 footer who was supposed to be amazing in his first season, point being...Ming didnt live up to his expectations whereas Stoudemire exceeded EVERYONE'S expectations, that and that only is the reason Stoudemire won ROY and Ming didnt...

You saying that he deserved it wont change my opinion or the opinion of the people who voted for Stoudemire to get the ROY instead of a overhyped Yao Ming...I'm done, hope you see where I'm coming from...

peace.

[Shep]

Amare produced better stats and played a key role in Phoenix making the playoffs

- ming produced better stats

- as noted before, houston improved 15 games, which ming had a key role in. ming was the teams second most valuable player, not the 3rd.

Bottom line is that Ming was expected to play amazing

out of all the posts you've made in this topic, this is the only thing you've been saying - more was expected of ming, people wern't expecting much from stoudemire. and i will continue to say this - it doesn't matter what was expected, it doesn't matter how old they are; what matters is what impact the player had on his team, and also statistics. as you continue to repeat yourself, i will be more then happy to keep repeating myself.

[EGarrett]

Ming didnt live up to his expectations whereas Stoudemire exceeded EVERYONE'S expectations, that and that only is the reason Stoudemire won ROY and Ming didnt...

So then we should definitely hand the trophy over...to Lorinza 'Junior' Harrington. After all...he went undrafted and managed to put up 5 points and 3 assists for the Nuggets last year. It might be hard to find him though because he has since been cut. Regardless...by asserting that exceeding expectations is the only reason for winning rookie of the year...you have constructed a rare self-defeating argument.

(And more people thought Yao would be a project or a bust then thought he would be amazing.)

[Filip]

Im adding Ronald Murray to my MIP nominiess (spl)

[Shep]

yeh its all well and good predicting that now....team A is winning by 40 at quarter time, i think team A will win

[paul_pierce_the_truth]

Ming is about 200 times better than Amare.

[Filip]

Ming is about 200 times better than Amare.

That's about little to much, Amare were maybe a bit better than Yao last season, but this seaon Yao has adding some weight and I think he will be a big help to Houston, he will get as important as Franchise!

[Shep]

actually, ming was better than stoudemire last year

[Vins15]

the 8 teams i think now will make the playoffs are (No paticular order)
Toronto Raptors
Philadelphia 76ers
New Jersey Nets
Boston Celtics
Indiana Pacers
Detroit Pistons
New Orleans Hornets

as for the west top four spots are almost ready locked by Dallas,Spurs,Lakers,Kings

1.Lakers
2.Mavs
3.Kings
4.Spurs
5.T-Wolves
6.Rockets
7.Nuggets
8.Warriors..i feel for them since they haven't made the playoff in like 10 straight seasons...

[-BHZMAFIA-]

im mostly gonna do the west:
1.Lakers
2.Mavericks
3.Kings
4.Twolves
5.Spurs
6.Jazz
7.Rockets
8.Grizzlies

The Suns are playing too bad to make the playoffs, even though it is early in the season and Seattle won't make it because teams like Grizz, Nuggs, Utah and Rockets will outplay them.

[fgrep15]

West: LAL, DAL, SAC, MIN, SAS, DEN, MEM, HOU

East: IND, BOS, NOH, DET, TOR, PHI, NJN, MIL

Raptors as 5th seed in the East

Denver will be 6th seed in the West

Milwauke is 8th seed in East

The Magic lose to Philly last game of season and miss the playoffs by 3 games so it wouldn't have mattered anyways

Champions: Lakers

Finals: Lakers vs Indiana

West Finals: Lakers vs Dallas

East Finals: Raptors vs Indiana

The NBA will be extremely repetitive if Indiana goes to the finals
Finals last 5years
Spurs vs New York
Lakers vs Indiana
Lakers vs Philly
Lakers vs NJ
Spurs vs NJ
and now Lakers vs Indiana

Melo will win rookie of the year

Zach Randolph Will win Most Improved

Earl Boykins will win sixth man

Ben Wallace defensive player

Jeff Bzdelik will win coach of the year

Danny Ainge will be GM of the Year

All Rookie first team: Wade, Melo, Anthony, Bosh, Hayes
All Rookie second team: Ford, Kaman, Lopez, Howard, Hinrich or Haslem in their somewhere

All NBA First: Kobe, Tmac, KG, TD, Shaq

All NBA Second: Ivy, Kidd, Pierce, Dirk, Jermaine Oneal

All NBA Third: Baron, Starbury, Carter, Big Ben, Yao

All Defensive First: Kobe, Christie, Kirelenko, KG, Ben

All Defensive Second: Kidd, Artest, Bowen, TD, Shaq......or Snow in there

Jamal Mashburn will return and The Baron will somehow get injured

[sliccat]

East Playoffs:
1. IND(1) def. MIL(8)
Indiana struggles in the late season and barely wins,(Reggie saves them) 4-3
1. DET(2) def NY(7)
KVH explodes, but he and Steph feud over scoring and NY collapses 4-2
1. NJ(3) def TOR(6)
Toronto has no PG; J-Kidd and NJ sweeps TOR 4-0
1. PHI(5) def NO(4)
PHI makes a late season push and AI steps up in the playoffs as much as usual 4-3

2. PHI(5) def IND(1)
Reggie goes off, to make them 3-1, but Tinsley and O'neal will collapse, AI and Big Dog step up, and PHI wins a 4-3 thriller

2. DET(2) def NJ(3)
DET finally beats NJ 4-1

3. PHI(5) def DET(2)
PHI is as motivated against DET as DET was against NJ and sweeps them 4-0


West Playoffs

1. SA(1) def UTAH(8)
Even Sloan can't save Utah 4-0

1. LA(2) def DEN(7)
Lack of playoff experience kills DEN 4-0

1. SAC(3) def HOU(6)
Franchise puts up a fight, but they can't hold SAC 4-2

1. MIN(5) def DAL(4)
They'll score at least 120 each, but KG carries MIN 4-3

2. MIN(5) def SA(1)
KG is named MVP, and proves it by outpreforming TD. Oh, and Cassel and Spree out preform the rest of the Spurs put together 4-1

2.SAC(3) def LA(2)
I almost picked LA, but SAC is just too good for them, and Mike Bibby will have a playoff come-back
4-3

3. SAC(3) def MIN(5)
SAC will have too much momentum and MIN will be rusty after the layoff 4-2


FINALS

SAC(3) def PHI(5)
AI will take the series to 7 by himself, but SAC will just score too much for them 4-3

[DipSetVC]

Wow, It's nice to see the predictions from an over-excited Sixers fan ....Not!

[sliccat]

Wow, It's nice to see the predictions from an over-excited Sixers fan ....Not!

So bitter...

I wonder why?

Could it be?

Sixers def Raptors 4-3 '01 playoffs.

Hmmm...

[DipSetVC]

No trust me, it most certainly ain't that man...Buh-leeve that! I'm well over that, the Sixers won 56 games that year for a reason and it was easily one of the best playoff series of the last few years I'm just a little surprised that you put the Sixers in the Finals this year...

[The Big Racist]

I as a Sixers fan don't belive that 76ers have a shot at it this year and so doesn't any other team in the east than Pacers,Pistons and Nets(unless their main players get injured) so stfu.

[DipSetVC]

so stfu.

What's the need for that? How did I offend you?

[The Big Racist]

so stfu.

What's the need for that? How did I offend you?

You didn't but I don't like these kind of flame-wars like you and sliccat had going on and it wasnt only directed at you so stfu

[DipSetVC]

LOL, that's all you had to say instead of telling me to stfu again... wait a minute, you did tell me to stfu again...oh well, s'all good. I'm just saying that just because I said the Sixers can't make it to the Finals. Anyone has the right to criticize any team they want, it's their opinion and I respect everyones here at this forum.

[sliccat]

Point blank, I think the sixers can beat anybody in the east, but not the Lakers or dallas, and only have a slight chance at beating the T'wolves, Kings, or Spurs. But anybody in the east can go to the finals this year, or any year. I just picked the team going to the playoffs that(in my opinion) has the best all-star.

[fgrep15]

Point blank, I think the sixers can beat anybody in the east, but not the Lakers or dallas, and only have a slight chance at beating the T'wolves, Kings, or Spurs. But anybody in the east can go to the finals this year, or any year. I just picked the team going to the playoffs that(in my opinion) has the best all-star.

I don't think they could take Indiana, I dunno I just don't see them being able to do it. Also New Orleans, they are winning so much and Mash is still injured, what about when he returns (Mid January to Early Feb), and they play together for a while, they'll be pretty sick.

Whichever West team makes it to the finals is probably going to win the championship. Philly can't beat, Lakers, Spurs, Kings, Wolves or Dallas, Dallas being the most likely one but no. They haven't really proved that they can right now, but they've been ravaged by injuries, no one is healthy at the same time so not too great rythm on the team.

[sliccat]

I don't think they could take Indiana, I dunno I just don't see them being able to do it. Also New Orleans, they are winning so much and Mash is still injured, what about when he returns (Mid January to Early Feb), and they play together for a while, they'll be pretty sick.

Whichever West team makes it to the finals is probably going to win the championship. Philly can't beat, Lakers, Spurs, Kings, Wolves or Dallas, Dallas being the most likely one but no. They haven't really proved that they can right now, but they've been ravaged by injuries, no one is healthy at the same time so not too great rythm on the team.

New Orleans can't beat Philly, because the sixers beat them last year even with KVH choking in the playoff(one good preformance in 12 game?), and the Big Dog is better than Mash. And philly can beat Indy in the playoffs, although I fully expect Indy to sweep the season series. AI will step up and the whole Pacers team will step down(except Reggie)

Also Philly can't beat Dallas, but they might be able to beat the kings or the spurs because of the matchups.

[fgrep15]

New Orleans can't beat Philly, because the sixers beat them last year even with KVH choking in the playoff(one good preformance in 12 game?), and the Big Dog is better than Mash.

Big Dog is a better scorer than Mash, but all round player Mash is better. He can defend better, is a much better passer and they are both good rebounders. Mash has also proved that he can stroke it from long range the past 5 seasons, without the stupid injuries every single year he'd be better. I dunno though I'd say they are equally as good or give Mash a slight edge.