The pacific division

[T4L3NT3D530]

I was watching some videos today and it struck me how tough this division is going to be in a couple years. There is tons of good young talent on the 3 bottom teams this past year and then the l#%$rs are there, they will generally always have a decent team. The only team that doesn't have any young talent to speak of is phoenix. Anybody else see this or am I insane?

 

[kingsboi]

Absolutely agree. Golden State is going to only get better and make a playoff run eventually as will the Clippers. Lakers are Lakers and Phoenix really is the only team that won't do much until they trade Steve Nash and get draft picks/prospects. So it's going to be tough to win this division but you don't need to win a division to do well in the postseason so that point is moot.

 

[Kevin's Good Feet]

The Jackson hire might set the Warriors back. And if we're lucky someone talented on that team is going to get shipped out for a crap veteran to make Jackson happy.

 

[Return To Glory]

The Jackson hire might set the Warriors back. And if we're lucky someone talented on that team is going to get shipped out for a crap veteran to make Jackson happy.

I completely agree. I just don't know what the Jackson hire means for the Warriors, but maybe he's a better coach than NBA basketball announcer/analyst. I live in the bay area and I always watch the Warriors sports talk shows (just cuz my family loves that team). Right now I believe the Warriors are at a crossroads. They need to figure out what they're going to do with Monta Ellis and Andres Biedrins. They also need to decide whether they're going to play Nellie type bball or something else.

The Lakers and Clippers have a chance to be competitive in the division in the future. Who knows what the Suns are doing. They basically remind me of the Kings right before they went into full rebuild mode (several years ago).

 

[Dreadnought]

With the way Golden State is, I feel like they are designed to make the playoffs, but never win. At least we've tasted success in the last 10 years, they've just been getting barely any more wins with far more rebuild years than our terrible teams these last few years.

I feel like Clippers are going to be scary.

 

[Telemachus]

With the way Golden State is, I feel like they are designed to make the playoffs, but never win. At least we've tasted success in the last 10 years, they've just been getting barely any more wins with far more rebuild years than our terrible teams these last few years.

I feel like Clippers are going to be scary.

Don't worry, the Clippers always find a way to screw things up.

 

[mac]

Don't worry, the Clippers always find a way to screw things up.

Amen to that.

 

[Return To Glory]

With the way Golden State is, I feel like they are designed to make the playoffs, but never win. At least we've tasted success in the last 10 years, they've just been getting barely any more wins with far more rebuild years than our terrible teams these last few years.

I feel like Clippers are going to be scary.

Yeah, I could see what you're saying. Golden State can be in the playoffs (probably a lower seed). The only recent Warriors team that I thought was good was the "I believe" team when they beat Dallas in that huge upset. The Clippers on the other hand have good talent, but you always wonder when Sterling is gonna strike.

Oh, and GO AGS! I hope our football team is good this year!

 

[Dreadnought]

Yeah, I could see what you're saying. Golden State can be in the playoffs (probably a lower seed). The only recent Warriors team that I thought was good was the "I believe" team when they beat Dallas in that huge upset. The Clippers on the other hand have good talent, but you always wonder when Sterling is gonna strike.

Oh, and GO AGS! I hope our football team is good this year!

Yeah, but even that was more than half a decade ago

And it's my senior year at UCD, I hope they give me a reason to go watch them play!

 

[swisshh]

The Lakers continued success relies on them swinging a huge FA that will force his way to the Lakers. If the new CBA provides smaller markets protection against that then the Lakers are left with Gasol and Bynum, and not much else.

Clippers look real good for the future, but coaching is always a problem there and retaining talent a problem as well.

The Warriors have some talent, but they need one of their bigs to become something meaningful, AND they need to decide what direction to go with playstyle.

The Kings have some young talent, but have questions of maturity and potential on court chemistry problems, and a complete void of direction.

The Suns will chug along until Nash leaves and then they'll go full rebuild.

The Pacific could be very bad as much as it could be very good in a few years. There is no solid team, not even the Lakers. Jerry Buss needs a sweet deal to stay competitive with all their contracts and age piling up.

 

[SacKings7]

The Jackson hire might set the Warriors back. And if we're lucky someone talented on that team is going to get shipped out for a crap veteran to make Jackson happy.

Let the man coach before you write him off. Bad analyst doesn't mean bad coach. Whoever thought Avery Johnson would be a good coach one day?

 

[bajaden]

Let the man coach before you write him off. Bad analyst doesn't mean bad coach. Whoever thought Avery Johnson would be a good coach one day?

I agree 100%. Marc Jackson = 10,334 assists. That puts him number three on the list behind Stockton and Kidd, but ahead of Magic Johnson, Oscar Robertson, Steve Nash, Isaiah Thomas, and Gary Payton etc. So I think he knows something about basketball. How good a coach he'll be is anyone's guess. But if I were to venture a guess, I'd base that guess more on his basketball knowledge, than how well he's able to articulate on televison.

As for the Pacific division. I'd say its reaching a point where its up for grabs. The Suns are in serious decline, with or without Nash. The Warriors, while talented in some areas, are a mish mash of players that don't add up to a team that can win in the playoffs. They're a poor halfcourt team, without a real center. They don't rebound well, nor do they play good defense.

The Lakers, for now, are still the Lakers. Good enough to win the division, and make a big splash in the playoffs. But without some changes, I don't think they're quite good enough to win a championship. I never count them out, because by the time the season starts, it wouldn't shock me to see them find a way to aquire Dwight Howard. They always seem able to make their own luck.

The Clippers look very good on paper. Now here's a team that adept at making their own bad luck. So I'm not about to predict a bright future. But they should be a contender in the pacific division. With Bledsoe, Aminu, Gordon, Griffin, Jordan, Kaman and Mo Williams, they have a pretty solid core. A lot of youth as well, which will hurt them. But where they do have more experienced players, its in positions that matter. Trey Tompkins is a nice addition from the draft. I guess we shall see.

Lets also remember that we haven't gone through a freeagency period yet. So some things could significantly change. Especially for the Kings.

 

[MassachusettsKingsFan]

Mark Jackson .. I dont see it.

I dont want to write him off, but lets just say I wouldnt hire him. Its not just that he is a bad analyst (how he projects his voice and how he talks on TV) but the things that he actually says about basketball.. the subject he should know all about just seem off.

If the Warriors hired Adelman I'd be much more scared of them. In fact, now that the Wolves have adelman I think that team will be much improved.

As far as the pacific division goes, The Clippers really scare me. The NBA loves Blake Griffin. They really, really love him. He already gets every damn call and it was only his first season last year. Stern will want him to win. Everyone wants him to win. They will be good.

 

[Kevin's Good Feet]

Let the man coach before you write him off. Bad analyst doesn't mean bad coach. Whoever thought Avery Johnson would be a good coach one day?

Avery Johnson is a bad coach and his stint with the Mavs shows it. Don Nelson completely Jon Grudened him and he lost the team the season after. No one would touch him after Dallas except an extremely desperate New Jersey.

Bad analyst doesn't mean bad coach. Bad analyst who has absolutely zero coaching experience on any sort of level (amateur, collegiate, professional, overseas, whatever) means that he has extremely long odds of doing well. There is so much he has to learn which he hasn't even touched on. The fact that he viewed being an assistant or working in the lower ranks as beneath him doesn't lead me to believe he'll put in the work necessary to be a good head coach. He probably just thinks that talking really loud and pointing to his experience will get the job done.

To his credit he's hiring competent assistants so he can fill in a Doc Rivers role, but even Doc Rivers put in a lot of work before he found huge success with Boston.

I agree 100%. Marc Jackson = 10,334 assists. That puts him number three on the list behind Stockton and Kidd, but ahead of Magic Johnson, Oscar Robertson, Steve Nash, Isaiah Thomas, and Gary Payton etc. So I think he knows something about basketball. How good a coach he'll be is anyone's guess. But if I were to venture a guess, I'd base that guess more on his basketball knowledge, than how well he's able to articulate on televison.

Having basketball knowledge doesn't mean you'll be a good coach either. How many other former players flamed out in a coaching role? You just listed Isiah Thomas and Magic Johnson after all

The fact that JVG routinely shows up him during broadcasts doesn't make me think he has a treasure-trove of valuable coaching knowledge either.