Okur & Petro? Seriously? That team is dog shit other than D-Will & Lopez, who I said will miss 1/4 of the season, upon further review it's more like half. That team will not break 20 wins, not with this schedule.
You really shouldn't ignore that D-Will is a top 3 PG in the league and what Stevenson adds to the SG position that they had none of last year.
Didn't say they would be a 3 seed. For some reason, I feel their depth & Kobe's drive will keep them close to the top in the West.
40+ wins seems a little high to me. But we'll see.
I'll keep this mantra going for probably the first few weeks of season: Young & deep teams stand a better chance with this schedule. Houston is 3 deep at every position, with a roster full of young talent & hardworking role players. McHale has never had a full season as a head coach, so I'm holding out calling him a bad pro level coach just yet.
I'd say they'll have 6-8 less wins than you predicted. They are very weak at the SF position. They are deep at guard but none of them play effective team defense besides C-Lee. They only have Dalembert who is a decent center with Thabeet as a back-up. Not really liking that a whole lot.
Not even close. (Fernandez is a) Worse defender, scorer, athlete, prima-dona, you name it. Corey Brewer is better than Rudy & he will have a bigger role on this team than him.
Nene is a decent scorer, definitely not a #1 option. Neither are Lawson or Gallinari. They won last year by playing as one cohesive unit. This year they are missing two of those pieces for virtually the whole season.
That's assuming he's resigned with the Nuggets & seamlessly blends into a team that's been learning how to play & win without him for months.
Nene got them to a decent record as the #1 option last year. I'm not saying that he is ideal in that role, but he is capable of being a difference maker. Rudy isn't as good of a defender as J.R. Smith, but other than that there is hardly a difference between them whatsoever. They will be almost 33-33 for the season even without Chandler. And they will get him back in all likelihood anyway because they can match any offer for him. And his return will definitely help even if Gallinari stays as the starter.
Ariza is overrated, & Jack is not that good. Gordon I could see playing well, but I just don't see it from the rest of this group. Landry will be called upon to be a consistent scorer which isn't really his game. He's a hustle glue-guy like Taj. Other than at the 5 they have really no depth. I just don't see this team coming anywhere close to 20 wins.
Can't just ignore what they have at C. Those are a couple of the better starting centers in the league. They will be the worst in the West, but they won't be in the single-digit wins.
