KnickolasMGL
Benchwarmer
the PF position is dangerously thin.
scary.
scary.
If EVERYTHING breaks exactly right - such as Felton and Stat returning to their form 2 seasons ago and Smith and Melo playing unselfishly - I could see a 4 seed.
But I think it's also worth pointing out the potential for disaster.
Kidd/Camby/Thomas could easily get injured and/or suddenly act their age. Smith could continue to shoot a low percentage and prove to be a real bad starter. Stat may never be anything more than he was last year. Felton may not be close to what he was under D'Antoni. Shump might not round into form until March.
Team could also be kind of ugly stylistically. We may well be looking at an iso-heavy offense, with rare fast-breaks. And while they all played defense under Woodson last year, that might turn out to have been an aberration, created by the urgency to make the playoffs. Team is likely to be unathletic and slow.
I'm expecting something between the best case and worse case scenarios.
I'd also like to add that, if this team doesn't break out of the gates and win quickly, I predict the boo-birds will quickly turn on them (particularly if Lin puts up good numbers in Houston).
I think Woodson is in a very difficult situation and could easily (and probably unfairly) be fired if things go badly.
We're not beating the Heat with this roster. Too many question marks for me, will Amare and Felton play like the 2010 Amare and Felton? Copeland at the backup PF, can't believe that. Kidd won't be a game changer by virtue of the limited minutes he'll play. JR is a question mark, he wasn't anything special last year and how will Shump come back from his injury.So now we basically have our team. I would update if any changes are made. Right now we look like this
Felton/Kidd/
JR/Shumpert
Melo/Novak
Amare/Copeland?
Tyson/Camby
This team can be really good. The only thing I don't like is that this team has nobody but shumpert in 3 years. What do you guys think? And where do you see us in the standings next season?
Skip sees us as an 7th or 8th seed
Stephen A sees us as a 5 seed.
I would say 4 or 5. Thoughts?
Raymond Felton es going to enjoy the worst time of his life.
Also, we've already seen his best version (which he won't achieve again, for obvious reasons) and it's not good enough, not what we need.
I do have some hopes on the one player that you, inexcusably, left out of the roster: Pablo Prigioni.
Prigioni is the best pick and roll PG in the world after Nash and I think he's capable of making STAT look like he's worth 20 millions a year. He's defenitely a better passer than Felton ever was and has a leadership comparable only to Kidd's. I think we will get a lot out of him running a second unit, specially if Stat is in it. Don't expect much from him on the defensive side, tho.
Counting Shump Shump, these are the rotations that I'm looking forward to seeing:
____
Felton
Kidd
Shumpert Iso-Melo and great defense
Anthony
Chandler
____
Prigioni
White
Novak Pick and Roll mainly, Novak 3s
Stoudemire
Camby
There is no need to point out that STAT won't give up his starter spot. But we already saw what that "big 3" lineup was (un)capable of.
Edit: Oh, and when you read White, you should read "PLEASE GET A DECENT SHOOTING GUARD!"
We have Jswish and the King of the Trey Novak.Maybe a better 3 point threat but other than that our roster actually looks pretty good and I mean top 3 Eastern Conference good. We'll see as the season goes along though. I just hope we stay healthy.ray: