while Wade isn't as dominant as he once was, he is still a beast.
Thing is, he takes a lot of contact, charges, and his game needs his physical attributes to make him the All Star that he is.
He is still a top 5 player in the league but I do see some of his concerns with the way he takes contact throughout his career.
Many teams will still love to opportunity to add an ALL Star of his caliber.
Carmelo should be in the same category as Wade, even though Wade may be in decline, so is Melo...
More importantly, Wade is a great defender, with the ability to penetrate, versatile, dominant force, with great athleticism/size, and just plays very strong.
Melo ball does not win you championships, our trio + Lin isn't even as good as many teams.
We barely have draft picks, salary room, the ability to keep/add talent on FA, and our players do not mesh well.
We need an identity and the players that can support it.
Our weakness includes shooting, versatility, players that can penetrate/facilitate, and great defensive players outside of Tyson Chandler and Iman who blew 2 knee's out.
Championship Contenders
-------------------------
OKC
Miami
Chicago
Spurs
are far superior to us, have "All Stars/Stars" that are much more dominant on both ends, and that is the truth.
Many young teams have draft picks, cap room, players to develop, and the ability to acquire more talent, while we are very limited.
Playoff Contenders
------------------------
Memphis
Lakers
Dallas *depends what happens this off season*
Bucks
Clippers *team totally changed when Billups went down, I think they will come back a lot stronger this off season*
Young Teams that will climb the ladder
---------------------------------------
Wolves
Indiana
Philly
Houston
Denver
even "horrible" teams like
--------------------------------------------
Brooklyn Nets
New Orleans
Bobcats
Kings
Golden State * if they find a way to remove the salaries of Andris Biedrins and Jefferson *GM should be fired for using amnesty on Reggie Williams
They are going to have huge improvements, if not this year, in another 1-3 years.
While we have little room to improve, unless we at least move one of our big 3 to acquire cost efficient talent that FITS/Meshes together.
Many have or will have plenty of cap room to go with their rookie deals to build on, while we might not be able to retain ours and actually need quality improvements.
Veteran minimum deals may be limited in skills but that what we can only afford, more importantly is to have the players that we can use to build an identity, and team chemistry...
Like any Coach, for their system/philosophy to work, they need the right players that can execute it.
This season was weird, with our injuries, changing of coach, lack of 2 way players, and players that are limited in skills, it was very hard to execute.
We need players that have the ability to penetrate in multiple positions, while being good/great defenders to compliment Tyson Chandler, and shooters to space the floor.
All 3 things above, then we need players that MOVE and play well OFF BALL, with good spacing, which requires a high bball iq.
Linsanity was based on our defense and the ability to penetrate from Lin, with the above.
We were playing with 2nd/3rd players that executed.
No, they are not good enough to make us contenders, but that is the style/identity that we need to play in to take us to the next level.
Woodson and Team Melo
vs
Dantoni and Team Lin
our team was divided on 2 different identities with different priorities, while each have their own pros and cons.
We need a balance of both, with Woodson's ability to make our "stars" become at least a good defensive team, while being a good offensive team with Dantoni.
however, their beliefs on how to get the those points are completely opposites...
We need players that can balance both out, while understanding their roles as individuals and as a team.
Our 1st unit and 2nd unit should be cohesive and be able to execute their philosophy which may be different.
We need players that play to make each other better and attack/defend as a whole......
NOT STATS
6/11/2012 12:39 PM
You never give up