Early Power Rankings (SI)

Well, in the offseason the reining champs have to be number one, like it or not…

But in the end I think we will see a celtics-spurs finals…

Dont see how the spurs rank higher then us, they have just as many age and injury concerns, and we have been the better team for 2 seasons, dont see how they rank higher then any of those teams to be honest.
Dont see how the cavs rank ahead of the magic…pretty laughable
whatever , when it comes down to it these mean nothing, and I disagree with some about the spurs coming out of the west….I give them no shot against the lakers

most vulnerable to health issues are the older teams like Boston & San Antonio..winning 50 or 65 makes no difference come April&May…in the finals it matters some….starting out you assume health, so my take is the Celtics are good notch above the Cavs in the East….Lakers are easy over the Spurs…and Magic might fall outta the top 10…this is a 3 team league just like the days of Celtics,76ers & which one plays the Lakers but insert the Cavs…Celts in 6 again for #18

However, I think the Spurs have made a solid effort to strengthen their team and will be formidable opponents come play-off time. This will be the best Spurs team in the last 3 years, which says something (considering they are perennially good).

spurs are an old team and are injury prone. ginobli will go down before the season is over as will DUncan. Of course you can say the same thing about KG and the Celts but KG should be rejuvenated after his surgery and so much time off. I like our chances better than the spurs. they also lost a glue guy in bowen so as nice an acquisition as Jefferson was I don’t see them as the favorite. the lakers to me are still the deepest team. Artest takes them to a whole new level. Cleveland probably added more pieces than any other team so if I were ranking the teams it would be: 1) Lakers 2) Cavs 3) Celts 4) tie between Orlando and Spurs

I don’t see how the Lakers repeat. They traded Ariza, a player just coming into his prime, for Artest, a headcase going out of his prime. People talk about the age and road miles on Garnett, what about the age and road miles on Kobe? Kobe has thus far been the most durable two guard in history. How many more years can he do that? The Celtics have depth behind Garnnet. With Big Baby and Sheed they can afford to rest Garnett and keep his minutes down during the regular season. The Lakers have nothing behind Kobe. He has to go out and be Superman again. It is just a matter of time before he starts to break down.

And the idea that a 50 year old Shaq is going to put the Cavs over the top is laughable. The Celtics are the clear favorite in the East if nothing else.

Yes, Garnett has been injured. But Kobe is due to. Who is to say that Kobe won’t come up lame this year like Garnett did last year? They both have a ton of games and minues played. That is the point.

Yes, the Lakers have other talented players. But they don’t have any talented players who do what Kobe does. The Celtics have backups that can take Garnett’s place and limit his minutes. The Lakers don’t have any backups that can take Kobe’s place. Kobe played 36.1 minutes a game last year. He will have to play that many again this year for the Lakers to repeat. That is an awful lot to ask from a 31 year old who has been playing big minutes in the NBA since he was 19.

i would have to say it would be lakers-celts. we all know that is a bit of a fairytale in terms of teams playing an 82 game season and heading into the playoffs without significant injury but setting that aside, that would be the pre-season call. however, with that said, i feel both the Spurs and Celtics face the a much greater risk via injury than the other three teams listed here as contenders. obviously. it will come down to some deft time management and luck. I for one was amazed last season, watching from a far and mentioned this to my celts fans/friends. to what degree Doc let his team play each game like it was the NCAA finals. During that early win streak, I called it out and predicted injuries and fatigue would stop the Celts short (precipitated by big minutes and a non existant bench). Clearly, this season can’t be approached in the same manner. For the Spurs, Greg has ALWAYS been excellent at managing minutes, almost to a fault He flat out won’t play his stars certain games to give them rest. (which is another and opposite extreme to Doc’s) For them, i think they need a certain degree of good luck simply. Cleveland is better than last year and hungrier and not very injury prone. They will be tough. And Orlando, to me, is the wild card, question mark “who knows” team that will be fun to watch. They could sort of disappear or come together and win 68 and be the terror in the east. Curious to watch. and as far as the west, both Denver and Portland are fine teams but still not there.

Oh and the lakers, as mentioned above, they have the most talent and are all poised at pretty optimal ages save Fischer. Artest is a boost plain and simple…just look at the numbers. The question will be Bynum, his status and the team’s overall thunder. If Bynum is healthy and Artest plays his part, and Kobe and Phil instill the passion again, they should win it all.

Lakers
Celtics
Cavs
Spurs
Magic

the cavs no way should be ahead of the celtics they didnt give up much for shaq but they give up ben wallace whos a good defender and rebounder and sasha pavlovic who is a good three point shooter and really helps the cavs spread the floor and keep guys from doubling lebron so much. pavlovic is better than moon, not a flashy but certaintly a better player so there is no upgrade there. the cavs have gotten better but they have gotten easier to match up with and are not as deadly late in games with shaq on the floor.

the spurs’ health is a huge factor manu is very injury prone and duncan is getting up there in age. tony parker also sprained his ankle again this summer and now his health could be a question where as was there only steady player last year. the chance of them staying healthy is to low to put them above the celtics

the magic gained alot of good players but lost alot of good player they gained vince carter, brandon bass, and matt barnes. The lost courtney lee, hedo turkoglu, and rafer alston. courtney lee and rafer alston are better players than both brandon bass and matt barnes, they got bigger but deffinetly less talented. vince is obviously a better player than hedo and there assists numbers are similar but vince is not gonna be able to run that team like hedo did late in games, exspecially not right away.

lakers are ahead because there the raining champs

1) Spurs…will they be healthy, plus they have a rookie that is very good.
2) Lakers..Does Bynum play up to his potential, and be healthy…what about Artest learning the triangle offense
3)Cleveland…they will be better on the primeter than in the paint
4) Denver…Suprise…suprise suprise
5) Portland… If they can put it together heaven help us all

Celtics win…Celtics win…Celtics win…Celtics win Let no one misunderstand having Rasheed is like having two KG’s. Our defense will suffocate every one. The killer will be the second unit. All that… just keep it close, for get about it, there will not be many prisoners

2008 defense will be back if the refs let it that it

I don’t know nothing since I don’t know who’s going to play backup point guard for the Celtics.

Let’s remember that the Spurs last year were knocked out of the playoffs in the 1st round. They were beat quite easily by the Mavericks…who were destroyed by the Nuggets…who themselves were beaten by the Lakers. It’s not as though last year’s Spurs were a good team. I know that the excuse given is Manu. But the Truth is that Manu, even when healthy last year, was not the Manu of old. Even with Manu playing, the Spurs looked like an old team which had lost their main man (Tim Duncan to age).

Will RJ, who is about an AVERAGE NBA player on offense and a below average NBA player on defense, make the Spurs into a top team? Not to mention that RJ is a volume shooter and has horrible stats. His +- is like a -2.7 points. That is, the Bucks last year scored 2.7 points less than their opponents when RJ was on the court versus when RJ was off the court. His PER is 15 which is average. But it is that high because of the high number of shots/possessions he got on the Bucks. What about Dice you say? The guy is ancient and has had injury problems throughout his career. I doubt he can make a significant difference.

No, the reality with the Spurs is Duncan and Manu. If they can play as they did a couple of years ago, then yes the Spurs are right up there with the Lakers in the WC. But that’s just not possible now. Fighting against father time is a losing proposition.

So i don’t spend much time on this board…but here is my take about the celtics of 2010.

First off, KG and Paul Pierce are not the same as they were in 08. Here are their PERs

Paul Pierce:

07: 21.XX
08: 19.XX
09: 17.XX

X is i’m going off the top of my head and don’t remember the remainders.

KG:
08: 25.XX
09: 21.XX

Both have obviously lost something already due to age. Pierce is on a clear down path losing 4 PER points since 07. If you say that the loss from 07 to 08 is due to KG/Ray arrival, then his PER should have increased in 09 due to KG’s injury —but it still fell 2 entire points. And everyone saw the way that Paul was playing in the playoffs. The guy is obviously not the same guy that played in 08. And next year he is 1 year older. KG is the same, there was a dramatic falloff from 08 to 09. And this is not counting the injury. With the injury and another year, he is going to be a lot worse in 2010.

Also, you guys lost Powe and James Posey, two of the biggest role players in the 08 championship. Not to mention that the Lakers played the 08 championship without 2 starters in Trevor Ariza and Bynum. If they were there, the 08 Finals would have been different. Heck, if they were not here in 09, the Lakers wouldn’t have even made it to the Finals, let alone win it. That’s how important those 2 were, especially Ariza. Now the Lakers get an upgrade in Artest over Ariza and a presumably HEALTHY Bynum (he was not healthy in the 09 finals, came back with only 4 games to go in the regular season).

To make up for this you get a better Rondo and Rasheed/Daniels. I think Daniels is a bigger addition than Sheed. Come on now, Sheed has definitely fell off of a cliff in production over the last few years. He is not even close to the Sheed of old.

So basically it is an uphill climb for the Celtics. If everything goes their way, I still see them losing before the NBA finals next year due to age. KG/Pierce are simply not the KG/Pierce of old. And without them, it is over.