Sacramento,
Most people have ranked you behind Buffalo, Phoenix, and/or Golden State. Why is your team better than those teams, both over the course of a season and in a playoff matchup?
Well I think were better than those three cause we got two superstars and I believe thompson could be a third superstar, a potential rookie of the year in Flynn and a nice vet point guard who a lot of teams wanted in blake. Everyone is bagging on Thabeet but no one I'm sure looked at his numbers, they went up evey year at Uconn as well as his time playing baskeball did, he's only played about 5 years or so of basketball I think. I also think were better cause were younger then most teams and I believe roy and hedo can take a team to the playoffs with there play alone.
You have a good duo, no doubt about it. However, look at some of the player combinations that you're going up against:
Buffalo: Dwight Howard / Antwan Jamison / Ray Allen
Golden State: Mehmet Okur / Carlo Boozer / Steve Nash / Luol Deng
Phoenix: Big Al / Andris Biedrins / Rajon Rondo / Josh Howard
Unfortunately, you're in a very tough division. Brandon Roy is arguably the second best player in the division, but I think some of the other teams may have more depth of talent. Still, I'm open to being persuaded, because I really like Roy and Hedo.
Well for starters I think I'm pretty even with Buffalo as long as thabeet steps up. His length should bother dwight howard similar t Perk.
Golden State has nash who is getting old, I think Okur is a stiff. Thompson will be just as good if not better than boozer. Deng was Hurt last year and Hedo runs circles around him in his sleep
As far as the Suns go well I think Biedrans isnt much better than thabeet at this point. Josh Howard is injury prone. Rondo is slightly better than blake but I think flynn might better than nate rob. Big Al has injury concerns as well and I think thompson could be as good as AL
I don't think you're within shouting distance of my team, no matter where Nick votes you.
Explain that one then my team is as young as yours but doesnt have as many injury oncerns. I dont think your bench is much better than mine.
Big AL Jefferson is in another class than Jason Thompson right now. 23 points and 11 rebounds is a little different than 11 points and 7.4 rebounds. Its not like Thompson doesn't play either, Al does all that in just over 8 mins more per game than Thompson, so its not like if you just played JT 36 mins per game he's do what Al does. Jefferson averages more pts per 48 mins, and more rbs. Thompson rebounds at a rate about like Kosta Koufos or Jason Smith do for my team, which is good by not elite.
Thabeet has been called a project player by everyone single sports analyst including but not limited to Hillary Clinton. We all know he's gonna take a few years, and we all know he's not going to average about 12 points and 11 rounds in 30 mins of play and shoot at a career clip of 60%. Not for a few years anyway.
Flynn and Rondo? Come on. He's a rookie! He's 5'6! Nate Robinson is gonna eat up Flynn, Rondo won't even get a full meal out of the kid.
Blake is a good player for your system, esp with Brandon Roy and Hedo on the wings. That doesn't mean that he can hold a candle to rondo, but he's a good fit.
Brandon Roy is a top 3 shooting guard in the NBA. I have little to no confidence in Roger Mason Jr to be able to do much beyond contain him. It should be said however that Brandon Roy blow up on Mason Jr this year, settling in at about his average numbers for the season.
Hedo Turkoglu was a great clutch player for the Magic this season. But I think on your team he becomes about average. Here is why:
1) Hedo is about an average defender. per Hollinger:
At the defensive end he has the size to bother shooters but isn't particularly quick or tough; in general, not much is asked of him at that end.
2) Hedo's shooting last season was good, not great. He shot around 35% from 3, which is even with Josh Howard, and overall he shot 41% from the field, his worst since 2004. He also turned 30 in august.
3) Hedo's recent (last 2 years) success is a product of a system, not an evolution in his game. Stan Van Gundy stopped letting Hedo Turkoglu be a sometimes iso, spot up shooter and forced him to be involved intimately on practically every possession of the half court offense. Hedo can do this because he's a very, very good ballhandler and passer for his size. When Van Gundy forced the ball into Hedo's hands, he forced Hedo to be more effective Just to show how great an effect this had on the guy, his ppg went from 11.3 from the year after his rookie season (he didn't play 20mpg until after that first year) to 2007, to 18.3 from 2007-2009.
So if you need Hedo to handle the ball every possession, who suffers? Steve Blake doesn't need the ball much, but he needs it some. He's the PG. Brandon Roy has the ball in his hands every single possession. Logically Brandon Roy's touches are going to suffer.
Plus you have no inside out threat. Hedo works best with a dominant big man, and you've got a hustle guy and a 7'3 project with hot dog fingers.
If you want to talk benches, I guess you could say that my frontcourt bench is just as unproven as yours, but all my guys have NBA experience. They all showed something promising in their career and have per minute production to support what I'm projecting for them. Your guys excepting Craig Smith, are all rookies or career bench warmers.
Topic: CB Draft '09 Mock Press Conference: Pacific Divison (Read 57684 times)