I disagree that we aren't more talented then we were at the start of last year... all the young guys are better players than when they were at the beginning of last year (ok, not for sure yet, but who thinks they wont improve?) and now we have Noc and Tyreke... not to mention Omri, Brockman, Sean May, Sergio Rodriguez and perhaps Desmond Mason... I would much rather have all those guys than Brad Miller and John Salmons.
Don't get my wrong, I in NO way am saying I thought the roster at the start of last year is better than what we currently have. I would much rather have the energy, hustle, and desire you see out of guys like like Nocioni, Omri, Brockman, Mason, etc. And I think this team is already gelling better than last year.
But from a pure talent perspective, the only real upgrade in my opinion is the addition of Tyreke. And as promising as he is, he hasn't played a game yet, so I'm holding off judgement about what type of impact he'll have and how well he'll work out with the rest of the team. Who among the new bigs actually is a more talented player than Brad. And the way Salmons was playing, we haven't really upgraded there with Omri, Mason, or Noc from a talent perspective either. On paper, the team we had last year shouldn't have been that bad, but we all know it's not about that. If these new players accept their roles, and work hard, you'll have a better result. If they give the same type of effort we saw last year, this team has actually gotten worse. Getting this team playing together and putting out that kind of effort goes back to the whole topic of this thread ... coaching.
(On a side note, I find it kind of ironic that Salmons is considered a ballhog who just took everyone out of the offense with his 1-on-1 play. However, everyone loves how Tyreke can "beat anyone off the dribble and get to the basket".) To me, until Tyreke shows that he can distribute the ball, they are the same player, except Salmons proved he could shoot last year.
