Two Months Until Pre-season: Rank the West

[e_blazer]

I was going to start a new thread, but that would be wasteful. But my question is narrower than the thread title. Rank these 4 teams:

Portland
Denver
Utah
Minnesota

Yeah, that's the more difficult assignment. On paper, I'd go with Minnesota, Portland, Denver, Utah. In reality, I think that they're so close that it's going to be the old injury bug that decides the order of these teams.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Minnesota
Portland
Denver
Utah

See, that's perfectly plausible, but my guess is that Minny will be worst. They have the best talent, probably, but will the pieces fit? And they were horrible at D last year, and they had Rubio, who is a top 5 defensive PG.

 

[e_blazer]

I'm honestly torn. I think people will underestimate Utah because they lost both Hayward and Hill (whom I think will really help Sacramento). But they added Rubio and Udoh AND Sefolosha, all of whom are good-to-great defenders. Just about every player on their roster is better at defense than just about every player on ours. If this was the '90s they'd be kick ass. And they'll throttle all but the best offenses.

Maybe they can get Pat Riley to come and coach them. We can get back to those sweet 89-83 scores.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

I'm going with:
Denver
Utah
Portland
Minny

 

[Rastapopoulos]

(Also, if Summer League is any indication, Dante Exum is going to be much improved this year.)

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Maybe they can get Pat Riley to come and coach them. We can get back to those sweet 89-83 scores.

Donovan Mitchell will be their John Starks.

 

[H.C.]

I was going to start a new thread, but that would be wasteful. But my question is narrower than the thread title. Rank these 4 teams:

Portland
Denver
Utah
Minnesota

In todays NBA you need a point guard to win games consistently, so I think this is pretty easy.

Portland - Lillard, CJ
Minn - Teague is either going to show he is starter quality, or he's going to show the West is too stacked for him to compete.
Utah - Rubio is a downgrade from Hill. But he's still a quality NBA player. However Utah struggled to score before they lost Hayward. They'll struggle even more now.
Denver - Who's their point guard? Nelson? Murray? Jokic? They don't play good enough defense to have their center to their main ball handler.

 

[JDC]

It's a toss up with these 4 teams. But if I were to rank them by watchability, Minnesota is clearly last for me.

 

[Chris Craig]

I was going to start a new thread, but that would be wasteful. But my question is narrower than the thread title. Rank these 4 teams:

Portland
Denver
Utah
Minnesota

Portland
Minnesota
Denver
Utah

 

[Rastapopoulos]

In todays NBA you need a point guard to win games consistently, so I think this is pretty easy.

Portland - Lillard, CJ
Minn - Teague is either going to show he is starter quality, or he's going to show the West is too stacked for him to compete.
Utah - Rubio is a downgrade from Hill. But he's still a quality NBA player. However Utah struggled to score before they lost Hayward. They'll struggle even more now.
Denver - Who's their point guard? Nelson? Murray? Jokic? They don't play good enough defense to have their center to their main ball handler.

That's weirdly specific. I guess my answer to your question about Denver is "the same guy it was the second half of last season, when their winning rate was exactly the same as us and OKC" - meanwhile they added Paul Millsap.
Plus if CJ counts as a PG, then so does Jamal Murray. And Mudiay is still very young so his game is likely to improve.

 

[JDC]

That's weirdly specific. I guess my answer to your question about Denver is "the same guy it was the second half of last season, when their winning rate was exactly the same as us and OKC" - meanwhile they added Paul Millsap.
Plus if CJ counts as a PG, then so does Jamal Murray. And Mudiay is still very young so his game is likely to improve.

Yeah Denver's tough.

They're better defensively with Millsap but to what degree? My guess is they're still a bottom 10 defense and I think people underrate what Gallo did for them offensively. They were unguardable with him at the 4 and was a needed late clock scoring option. Faired and Jokic also played off each other really well last year and now I think it becomes pretty likely that Faried is not on this roster past the deadline.

I have no doubts that Millsap and Jokic will figure it out, just not sure any combination of Plumlee/Millsap/Jokic will be as lethal and Jokic+Gallo or Jokic+Faried were last year.

I also think there's a lot of pressure on Jamal Murray making a jump and Wilson Chandler staying healthy.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Okay, now let's complicate matters by throwing the Clippers in there!

 

[H.C.]

That's weirdly specific. I guess my answer to your question about Denver is "the same guy it was the second half of last season, when their winning rate was exactly the same as us and OKC" - meanwhile they added Paul Millsap.
Plus if CJ counts as a PG, then so does Jamal Murray. And Mudiay is still very young so his game is likely to improve.

I guess I should've been more specific with CJ. While not a PG he's shown the ability to at times create for others.
Murry during his rookie season showed one thing, inconsistency. 40% from the field and 33% from deep.
Imagine those numbers will improve, but to say it'll be enough to get close to Utah, Minn or Portland is a stretch.
Mudiay is in the dog house isn't he? Wasn't Denver looking to move him in off-season?
I seriously doubt 34/35 year old Nelson is going to be the answer for that team. If it is, they're lotto bound.

 

[BonesJones]

PDX
MIN
DEN
UTA

Millsap is the most overrated acquisition of the summer.

 

[THE HCP]

I look at predicting my Blazers like having sex with The Mrs. HCP........ Under Sell, Over Deliver. Keep those expectations low and realistic and you won't find yourself on a ledge mid December when we are the 10th team out west. Everybody talks smack about my super low precision 2 seasons ago, but I was right on last season when most on here thought we'd get home court advantage in the playoffs.

Quality fucking post right here! End of thread!

 

[Rastapopoulos]

(Also, if Summer League is any indication, Dante Exum is going to be much improved this year.)

Sigh.

 

[SIeepwalker]

Sigh.

Isn't that guy always injured ?

 

[Pinwheel1]

Sigh.

Usually it is only about a month or two for recovery time. He must have torn some ligaments if they think it is longer.

 

[andalusian]

That's a bummer, it was interesting to see if he could make something off himself. He was not a big part of their success, but he was intriguing

 

[JDC]

Sucks for Dante, but he hasn't been a positive contributor yet in his career so this doesn't really change Utah's outlook.

Mitchell/Neto will fill in just fine and they have enough wing ball handlers too.

 

[Pinwheel1]

Sucks for Dante, but he hasn't been a positive contributor yet in his career so this doesn't really change Utah's outlook.

Mitchell/Neto will fill in just fine and they have enough wing ball handlers too.

If he is actually out for the season then I think it hurts them a lot. IMO they needed him to have a breakout season in order fro them not to drop down.
He was the wild card I selected a couple weeks back for the Jazz. This does not make me sad.....

 

[tester551]

Sigh.

I'm wondering if this opens the door for someone to steal him from Utah. I wouldn't mind if Portland 'Wes Mathew-ed" him and offered a full MLE offer.