Orlando
This is one of my favorite teams in the East and I think - if healthy - would be a clear cut favorite. How would you respond to a critic that says your team lacks the talent without Bryant and Stoudemire to make noise? I know injuries are a poor detractor to a fantasy team, but with those two players - who are vital to your team's success - it becomes a relevant issue.
Orlando:Discuss your team's expectations if Kobe's miracle drugs of healing do not work and he is out for an extended period of time. Also, even if he does return early, can Kobe, ay his age, still lead a team to the promised land?
These are similar questions so I'm grouping them together. First, thanks for getting the toughest question out of the way first.
I think in this kind of game, predicting injury recovery is probably second in difficulty to predicting how personalities will work together. We can guess at likelihoods, but the real outcomes are always a crapshoot. I think clearly if we don't have Kobe and Amar'e by the playoffs that we're sunk. But, I don't think there's any reason to assume that'll be the case.
Both Kobe and Amar'e are vets with tons of experience, and are very familiar with dealing with the grind of the regular season. Kobe also has the advantage of being probably the best-conditioned athlete in the league, and has shown a remarkable (some would say suspicious) ability to recover from injuries. This is the worst injury he's had, but he's already healed enough to run hard and
jump off a high dive. There's little info on a timetable, but is anyone who follows the NBA going to be shocked if Kobe's back and dropping 30 by December? His return is up in the air but I'd fully expect him to be back to full strength by the time the playoffs roll around.
Amar'e is a little tougher to estimate, but he was able to return (in a limited way) during the playoffs this year, and has been rehabbing hard all summer. Reportedly he was scheduled to work with Olajuwon again this summer, so he's clearly mobile enough for basic drilling and practice. Much like the Knicks, we'll be cautious with Amar'e's minutes early in the season, then try to ease him into a bigger bench role, then, if things continue to go well, possibly start him by the end of the regular season and into the playoffs. But even if Amar'e can't start, simply repeating the high-efficiency bench role he played last year with the Knicks will be more than enough to help us contend.
I expect both Kobe and Amar'e to be capable of filling the roles we're asking them to play by the playoffs. In the meantime, there may be a handful of early games where neither one plays. In that case, we've still got an excellent defense, and a number of guys who can put up respectable numbers on O. With Kobe's absence in particular, we'll be expecting Vince Carter to step up offensively. We believe he can replace ~70-80% of Kobe's production for limited stretches of the season. The rest of the offensive slack will fall on Millsap, Hill, and Jack, with Asik, MWP, Collison and Harkless expected to contribute here and there. It won't be enough to contend, but it will be enough to win games and stay in the playoff picture until we return to full strength.
And yes, Kobe is still more than capable of leading a championship team with a strong enough supporting cast, which is what we've tried to build here. There's no doubting his conditioning, his desire to win, or his ability to play at an elite level, no matter what his age.
Topic: 2013 CB Draft: Southeast Division Press Conferences (Read 24945 times)