Ok we are enough games in...

[westkoast]

Can we get an update from everyone's teams on the positives and negatives they see in there team so far into the season.  I believe we are like 25% or so games into the season.  I think alot of the teams have had enough time to show what possibly will be going on for a majority of the year.

Speak on it!  Dabods/Rick, Joe/Ted, all of us in the Laker nation, WoW/Reality with the clips,  NYKNICK where you at?, jn, anyone else I might have missed.....  

[WayOutWest]

I have yet to catch more than 5 minutes of a Lakers game except for the one against the Clippers.  I'll post about the Clips ASAP.

[ziggy]

Weaknesses  -  Our guards cannot shoot.  All 3 Damon, DA, and NVE have shot horribly all year.  Theo has been a major dispointment.  I'm sorry but 5 pts, 4 rbs, and 1.5 blocks is not what we should get from a $10 million center.  Zach can't pass and when he doesn't the offense stops and watches him.

Strengths  -  The defensive intensity off the bench of Patterson and Miles.  Zach and Shareef down low have been pretty effective.  For the first time in years we have become a good FT shooting team.  Sebastian Telfair running the break.

[Guest]

Weakness - Defense.  Big time!  Lakers cannot play solid defense for a long period of time or for many games at a time.  They blow big leads also....which has to do with being unable to turn the defense up a notch when teams know they have to make huge runs.  Lack of communication on the defensive end.

Strengths - Balanced scoring.  Good ball movement.  Kobe is doing a good job of getting the ball to the right spots.  Odom is starting to realize he needs to start attacking the rim.  

[rickortreat]

The Sixers are still an undeveloped team, and far from being a finished product.  O'Brien still hasn't established a set rotation.

But it is clear that the Sixers lack shooters.  They have scorers, and a few players who can create their own shot, but no-one who can set up outside and shoot an open shot at a high percentage.  Korver may develop into one, but he is not a good shoooter yet.

On offense, they are impatient and undisiplined.  Iverson forces too many early shots, and any team that plays solid defense will frustrate them as they do not have an effective half-court offense.

Defensively they're nowhere near where they were with Brown as a coach.  Dalembert is a force in the middle, but too inexperienced, and is easilly drawn into foul trouble.  They are too short to compete on the boards unless Dalembert and Jackson are in at the same time.  This happens rarely since O'Brien is unwilling to do this often, or bring Skinner in off the bench to enable two bigs on the floor at the same time.

They do force turnovers, and teams that lack shooters or discipline on offense have trouble with them.  But they are sporadic in their effort, and let teams back into the game, particularly since they do not have a good offense.

With time and further development, I think they have the talent to win the Atlantic, but that's more a reflection of the lack of talent, than the Sixers abilities.  As a young team, it's hard to know how good they can be, but they're a long way from being an elite team.  

[Guest_Randy]

Can't add much more to the Lakers assessment:

The defense is simply attrocious -- the Lakers have ZERO answer in the post especially and while they have a couple of decent defenders (and Kobe IS a very good defender) -- they don't have the talent to run a defensive zone (see Minnesota, Portland, etc.) and they don't have the abilities to defend man-to-man.  Add to this that the Lakers don't rebound very well and no matter how many points they score, they seem to allow their opponents to score more.  
   The Lakers also struggle a great deal against teams that rebound well and have quick big men (see Chicago, etc.).  Teams with big men who are fast in the post and rebound well simply kill the Lakers.

Offensively, with the exception of any post offensive threat (and I wouldn't call Odom a post scorer -- rather a scorer who can take his opponent off the dribble and finish inside), I like what I see from the Lakers.  Great ball movement, moving well in the open court -- I would, however, like to see some better shooters in the Lakers rotation.  No one, besides Kobe and Brian Cook seem to be able to shoot very well and Lamar will be fine as long as he continues to attack the basket.  I am okay with the team the Lakers are putting on the court this year but I DO expect improvements in their team next year.

[Lurker]

For the Spurs....

Weaknesses:  Tendancy to fall in love with their jump shots rather than attacking the basket.  Also they have contracted a bad case of Lakeritis....they feel they can just flip a switch at any time instead of playing hard for 48 minutes.

Strengths: Tim Duncan.  Team defense.  Better team passing.  Good bench depth.  Multiple offensive weapons.

[Joe Vancil]

Jazz strengths:  young, developing players, consistency of form, toughness, all the things you'd expect of Jerry Sloan

Jazz weaknesses:  overly reliant on the defense of Kirilenko, lack of experience, inability to win close games, tendency to stagnate on offense, rigidity of Sloan's substitution patterns.

One week, we look like we're one of the best teams in the league, a week later, we're losing to the Bulls at home.  When Kirilenko went down, our defense came completely unglued, and the lack of veteran experience has really hurt us - as Sloan predicted it would - especially at crunch time.

With Kirilenko going down, Boozer has gone south, however Mehmet Okur has really stepped up his game.  But since we got Arroyo back, the Jazz offense has looked rather bland compared to the explosive offense we had in the early season.

Skander pointed this out to me yesterday, and I agree with him:  the Jazz rely on big runs to put teams away, or to get back into games that are slipping away.  With Kirilenko - getting steals AND blocks - you have lots of defensive stops, which allow you to get going on runs.  Kirilenko is really energized by such play, and if he makes a big defensive play, he's energized to make another big one - thereby making defensive plays IN GROUPS - which was definitely the case in the early season.   Without Kirilenko, the runs don't happen because you don't get several stops right in a row.

I was skeptical as to how important Kirilenko was to the Jazz offensively, but I think that it's obvious he's more important to that aspect of their game than I gave him credit for, though for the life of me, I still can't understand *HOW*.

[Guest_Randy]

Joe,

I don't like what I see with Arroyo leading the Spurs offense -- the Spurs, without him, focused on ball movement and players moving without the ball to break down defenses and get an open shot.  However, with Arroyo back it looks like player movement has almost stopped and ball movement has slowed down tremendously.  Couldn't help but wonder if this is the problem Sloan is having with Arroyo.

[JoMal]

King's strengths -  ball movement, experience that comes with keeping the same core players for up to five years, outside shooting, Doug Christie's uncanny sense on defense and all-round excellent play.

King's weaknesses - Webber's left knee, lack of true locker room leader with Divac gone, lack of overall team athleticism, interior defense, rebounding, having a core group together for five years and seeing the window of opportunity close as they all hit thirty-plus together.

I still like the team, but there is little they can do at this point to make them more athletic or to improve Webber's knee. Chris has altered his game to be more team oriented and it has worked for the most part, but I don't really seeing him as the match-up problem he once was for Garnett or Duncan, and that is all that matters. The Sonics, Suns, even the Lakers can run this team down in the open court and attack the interior at leisure without ever worrying about a hard foul, and that is going to be the story this year.

The team never has been very interested in getting athletic players, and have never developed any. They rely on team offense to overwhelm opponents, and against the majority of the League that works just fine. But a good defense will nullify them, and an attacking offense will beat them.

 

 

[Joe Vancil]

Randy,

       While I'd like the titles, if you keep calling my team "the Spurs," I'm going to have Genghis talk to his good friend Santa Claus and make sure that you're on the "naughty" list.

     Of course, I do appreciate the idea that our offense has looked very much like the Spurs of past years (translation:  lethargic), although I think this year's Rockets are a better comparison to old Spur offenses.


                                                     Joe
 

[Guest_Randy]

Sorry, Joe, that does have to be the worst insult I could have given the Jazz.  I humbly apologize!  Of course, I think I'm already on the naughty list so don't bother checking my references with SC.

 

[jn]

Wolves weaknesses: The most off court distractions since J.R. Rider left town.  Have had troubles with defensive rebounding.  Have lost by large margins in several games on the road in the second game of back to backs.  This was the Wolves problem during the Terrell Brandon/Chauncey Billups years when they were good but still first round fodder.  Hudson hasn't gotten into a good flow yet.

Strengths:  Garnett is still playing MVP caliber ball.  Cassell and Wally are heating up.  Eddie Griffin has been a HUGE addition.  Hoiberg and Hassell are the definition of quality role players.  The schedule will now have more home games and less back to backs.  

[Guest]

Wolves weaknesses: The most off court distractions since J.R. Rider left town.  Have had troubles with defensive rebounding.  Have lost by large margins in several games on the road in the second game of back to backs.  This was the Wolves problem during the Terrell Brandon/Chauncey Billups years when they were good but still first round fodder.  Hudson hasn't gotten into a good flow yet.

Strengths:  Garnett is still playing MVP caliber ball.  Cassell and Wally are heating up.  Eddie Griffin has been a HUGE addition.  Hoiberg and Hassell are the definition of quality role players.  The schedule will now have more home games and less back to backs.

Garnett is the best all around player in the league right now, bar none.  He's posting some crazy numbers.  Still, without good play from Spree/Cassell they will have a tough time against Spurs/Rockets/Suns/Sonics.  Garnett's been doing everything for years now, last year he had more help and they responded by getting to the WCF.

You forgot one weakness jn, those god awful haircuts that Spree and Hudson have been sporting.  Makes the opposing teams offense not so shook at the thought of grown men doing their hair like WNBA players.

[guest-koast]

Wolves weaknesses: The most off court distractions since J.R. Rider left town.  Have had troubles with defensive rebounding.  Have lost by large margins in several games on the road in the second game of back to backs.  This was the Wolves problem during the Terrell Brandon/Chauncey Billups years when they were good but still first round fodder.  Hudson hasn't gotten into a good flow yet.

Strengths:  Garnett is still playing MVP caliber ball.  Cassell and Wally are heating up.  Eddie Griffin has been a HUGE addition.  Hoiberg and Hassell are the definition of quality role players.  The schedule will now have more home games and less back to backs.

Garnett is the best all around player in the league right now, bar none.  He's posting some crazy numbers.  Still, without good play from Spree/Cassell they will have a tough time against Spurs/Rockets/Suns/Sonics.  Garnett's been doing everything for years now, last year he had more help and they responded by getting to the WCF.

You forgot one weakness jn, those god awful haircuts that Spree and Hudson have been sporting.  Makes the opposing teams offense not so shook at the thought of grown men doing their hair like WNBA players.

^---thats me

Where are the rest of our b-ball posters?  Reality/WOW?  NY?  Where is gaither?!?!?!