(*) The Magazine

Poll question: ESPN* picked the Nuggz to win the West. This means...

Poll result (24 votes) Denver has a balanced squad with the depth to see off LA, OKC, etc. (1 votes) Vote OKC didn't do enough to get better. (1 votes) Vote LA hate is stronger in Bristol than OKP. (1 votes) Vote ESPN crazy. (21 votes) Vote

Ty Law or Iggy...I doubt it though. They will just be a team that real contenders hate to play.

besides, that team isn't designed to have a superstar, they are very deep and have a lot of talented players, which is probably why denver picked them. But its dumb.

he's solid offensive player with a lot of different abilities and great defender. while not a star in the cliched GO-TO ALPHA-GODHEAD-SCORER sense, he's more efficient from the floor than kobe or melo (higher TS%, higher offensive rating). so while iggy isn't someone you can hand the rock to and get out of the way, he's still helping a team on that side of the ball.

philly needed to move iggy to get a legitimate young, talented big man because they had the worst front court in the NBA and had maxed out with the current talent. but iggy was the main reason that collection of scrubs was competitive.

shout to lou willz, though.

anyway, if lawson and gallo can be that isolation scorer, then iggy can be the stopped on the other side of the ball. we could be in for some real playoff fun with him on kobe and KD late in games.

nm

everyone was pissing their pants when i said denver was potentially a top five team and a "contender" two weeks ago.

>everyone was pissing their pants when i said denver was
>potentially a top five team and a "contender" two weeks ago.

I thought you were referring to the way the teams are building towards their future.

y'all ain't winning the east, probably everybody but Paul Pierce & you understand that.

Stop acting like we trotting the same niggas out on the floor as last season.

It kills me how fans put all chips in on their team's additions but can't even come with a thought process that will disconnect the outcome of two different seasons based on overall additions.

Do better Bombastic

you got so much better adding Jason Terry over Ray, returning Avery Bradley from knee surgery & overpaying Jeff Green that you will now beat a Miami team with a (presumably) healthy Big 3 who have now figured out how to win a title then I've got a Dino Radja throwback to sell you.

The Celtics are contending for no title other than 'Old & Mad', they've already got a dynasty going in that regard but I'm hoping the Lakers can upset them this season.

Whether Jeff Green is overpaid or not doesnt take from his value on the court as a contributor or as someone that'll allow Pierce to rest without there being a gigantic whole on the perimeter. If you watch the Celtics, then you'd know who long a ways 14-16 points a game from a non starter would go. We scored 2 bench points in game 7 of the ECF..That on top of the fact that we could have someone who even seems like they could matchup with James. We had Brandon Fucking Bass matched up with him last season. Brandon Bass.

Avery Bradley being able to take a bulk of minutes from gimpy ray allen (Who in 2012, Jason Terry is better than btw) and giving us someone who could make scoring difficult on Wade... and you didn't even mention Courtney Lee. Nor Jared Sulliger who is likely to take minutes from Bass, who was already a solid option at the 4...

This team is greatly improved in general and as a match up with Miami.

But I wouldn't expect you think that far about a team you hate. You are a philly fan, and Philly fan mad reached an all time high in last year's second round.

I see you.

How awesome for you!

you called my praise of the nuggets: "the dumbest thing you've said on this board, ever."

cry!

It was SPECIFICALLY for you calling them title contenders.

They aren't.

Because you said that they are, that is the dumbest things ever said on this board.

that's a good ass long shot. probably it's $20 into a fire but a middle of the pack team at really long odds there.

But I'm saying that no true contender has ever had a 65-1 shot at the beginning of a season. In September of 2006, just before the 2006-2007 season (when the Heat were just coming off a title), the pre-Pau, Kwame Brown/Smush Parker Lakers were 22-1 to win the NBA championship.

that was and still is laughable. Funnier now that you're putting in quotation marks.

Iggy is not Lebron and Lawson is not Wade.

other than the title that everyone's already given the Lakers, i guess.

they're going to run a lot of teams ragged.

You may have heard of them.

i like the Nuggets value at 20-1 for the WCF though.

Denver is good, but not that good. They're not even going to win their division.

Iggy is an upgrade and Mcgee has potential, but there is no way they beat either OKC or the Lakers in a 7 game series.

Not even sure they can beat memphis or a healthy Spurs team in a series.

i been said they goin to be in WCF

dont kno if they'll win

i kinda feel coach karl is due


____________

Dallas Heatvricks BACK 2 BACK CHAMPS!!

if nothing else they'll be the most entertaining team in the west (maybe the league)

be 2x as good as they were last year...and that kid Kenneth Faried looks like he's going to be a BEAST...

They are younger and more athletic than LA...and they don't fear LA after taking them to 7 gms last season

They match up well w/OKC too...and they have more players that can score than Oklahoma

the only question mark is will they make a concerted effort on the defensive end...and if they do that, they are for sure one of the top teams in the west

Denver.

that's a huge advantage for okc come playoff time.

>They match up well w/OKC too...and they have more players that can score than Oklahoma

out of a game...

OKC is still the team to beat in the west but lets be honest here: they got some lucky breaks against both Dallas and LA..and I say that to say that they're not unbeatable.

At this point, I'd still favor them over Denver but I do want to see how the new players fit on Denver


>Denver.
>
>that's a huge advantage for okc come playoff time.
>
>>They match up well w/OKC too...and they have more players
>that can score than Oklahoma
>
>

>the only question mark is will they make a concerted effort on
>the defensive end...and if they do that, they are for sure one
>of the top teams in the west

For any non-superstar team to contend they have to be great, not just good, defensively. The Nuggs are typically middle-of-the-pack in defensive efficiency, so that would take a huge leap.

The other possibility is Lawson or Gallo taking the next step. The Nuggs' depth is great, but it ends up being a problem in the playoffs when you have to shrink your rotations and George ends up having to guess about who could have a hot hand any given night. Faried and whoever improving is great, but doesn't help the big problem that can only be solved with either Lawson or Gallo stepping up. Gallo's got the mentality but maybe not the ability. Lawson's got the ability but not the mentality.

>For any non-superstar team to contend they have to be great,
>not just good, defensively. The Nuggs are typically
>middle-of-the-pack in defensive efficiency, so that would take
>a huge leap.

ordinarily that's true, but I can't recall seeing a team of non or borderline stars as deep as this Nuggets team. I do think the addition of Iggy, though, will boost their perimeter defense and McGhee is a solid shot blocker which they haven't had in the last few seasons...in addition, they have Faried eating everything off the glass. I don't think they have to be great on defense to really contend w/the other western conference powerhouses, because their never going to be great on defense. Their offense is still going to be their defense sort of speak...their non stop attack on the offensive end wears teams down as it did w/LA as that series progressed

>The other possibility is Lawson or Gallo taking the next step.
>The Nuggs' depth is great, but it ends up being a problem in
>the playoffs when you have to shrink your rotations and George
>ends up having to guess about who could have a hot hand any
>given night. Faried and whoever improving is great, but
>doesn't help the big problem that can only be solved with
>either Lawson or Gallo stepping up. Gallo's got the mentality
>but maybe not the ability. Lawson's got the ability but not
>the mentality.

I think Lawson has the potential to reach that level this season moreso than Gallinari. He can be that 2nd option but I don't think he's ready for the next level just yet.

their coach can't even handle the egos of the guys who score in his scoring offense. he's not gonna shape them into a defense.

karl's main issue is that he doesn't play the right guys. it took him forever to get faried minutes and he doesn't give koufos enough tick.

at the moment they're healthier in the post, but philly had nice post depth at the beginning of the season.

there aren't minutes for all the talent. but few of them are talented enough to stand out.

i agree faried is a beast, but he already was. don't see a lot of upside from where he was in stretches last year. biggest change in chandler back.

i still think they need a guy. even if they want to be the pistons...they kinda have some guys who might be rip. they definitely don't have a wallace. i don't think ty+andre = billups.

they just have 16 guys that could get run as a 2 through 8 option on any nba team.

collapsed over the last month of the season
i'm guessing denver wouldn't mind having a top 3-5 defensive team with a top 5ish record for 3/4s of the season

nm

imo