Its hard to judge, and it is early. Since I am the new haterade guzzler because I had the gall to question our magical GM's last two moves let me comment on what I see:

I see a current team that is one of the oldest teams in the NBA and has more money commited to players than any other team.

I see a current roster that has ZERO chance of competing for a title. I would give them about a 1-100 chance to make the playoffs and about a 1-100000 chance to advance. Heck, Shaq could break a leg and the Heat would still beat us.

And despite those odds I see a team playing over 30 players heavy minutes to win games while guys like Mike Sweetney and Trevor Ariza either get a quick hook or only get off the bench once.

I see one of the deepest drafts ever coming up. One that will be LOADED with talent especially with the pending age limit in the new CBA.

I see a roster of players with expensive deals that few to none other teams will have interest in. (thats our roster by the way)

I see myself hoping for scenarios to happen that havent happened to this team in 20 years. Scenarios that include winning the lottery, or trading for an explosive frontcourt player, or signing a FA that becomes a real steal. Well... theres always hope.

So please... hand me a glass of kool-aid man, because I need it. I'm NOT impressed by going 5-1 in our last 6 games, when Phili and Indy are missing their best players AND coming off a B2B. When the Wiz are missing their best player, an athletic 20/8 forward we have no answer for. Even the Laker win.. while winning in OT was great tell me again why the game went to OT?

Since we're talking about what we see: I see an impatient fan who's not willing to wait to see what Isiah can do with four first round draft picks and several expiring contracts over the next two years. (Maybe you can figure out who I'm refering too!)

Where do you come from with this I resent IT's power crap. I could care less who IT is, what kind of person he is, etc. As long as the team is improving I really don't care.

As for the money, no its not my money, but have you ever heard of the cap? Rose's deal goes past Houston's, and Mo Taylor is so overpaid the trade wasnt fare, we gave up too much with hat 2nd round pick.

I'm glad you weren't even to get the point about gettin players with questionable track records, just shows your level of understaning of the game, so futher argument with you is really pointless.

If they can beat Miami and Seattle in the Garden, I'd be impressed. But then, you have to look at the fact that there are 12 road games and only 8 home games after that. Making the playoffs is going to be very hard. I'm lamenting the lotto pick right now, as good as it feels to see the team playing well against short-handed teams.

a couple things.. you cannot deny that there is a HUGE talent difference from picks 1-6 vs. 7-14. Just look through the history on NBAdraft.net
Another thing is you look for patterns with GMs. Isiah has shown 2 patterns so far. One was taking back younger and more athletic guys, even if they costed more. Thats a good pattern, but another more scary one also is there. Rush moves. you could argue we overpaid for almost every big deal.

I dont resent Isiah... I think he's a good talent evaluator with the draft. His used car saleman snakelike personality doesnt bother me... I think its a positive for his job.

So far I'm neither impressed with the players he's brought in or the position we are in. we are in a bad position and the players he's brought in have been up and down at best. We arent winning more games and the pipeline isnt richer than any other team in the NBA.

fish, with all the euro players and HS guys comming out next year, I can say that picks 7 on are just as good as 1-7, if you look at the past with the exception of the 03 draft with lebron, wade, and melo, the latter picks have been just as good..

2004:
picks 1-7 included Okafor, Howard, gordon, deng, livingston, Devin Harris, Josh childres.

picks 7 on down included: Igudala, ariza, al jefferson, Telfair, JR smith, Kirk snyder, jameer nelson, chris duhon, Tony allen..

Here we can see with the exception of Howard and Okafor the later picks are just as good if not better, Childress, livingston and devin harris have been less than impressive, deng and gordon are looking decent.

2003
picks 1-7 included, Lebron, melo, milicic(bust, bosh, wade, Kaman and Hinrich.

this was one of the better top loaded drafts..

picks 7 onward included: TJ ford, sweetney, Jarvis Hayes, Peitrus, Ridnour, Josh Howard,

there are no superstars in this group but some damn good players, you can argue that Josh Howard is playing as well as melo, Ridnour as well as hinrich, sweetney is not that far behind bosh, and pietrus, Hayes and ford before injury all showed great promise.

2002 draft:
picks 1-7 included: Ming, Jay williams(lol),Dunleavy, Gooden,Dejuan wagner,Nene, Nikoloz skitizvili(big bust),

picks 7 onward included: Wilcox, Amare(stud) Caron Butler,jefferies, melvin Ely, Fred Jones, Tayshaun prince, Boozer and Gadzurich...

I would say for sure that the latter group is much better even with ming included in the first group. the latter group produced a star in amare, a great all around player in prince, boozer who is a stud , and a host of very good players..

This is why I have hope for this year, I think we can land some talented players with these picks and with our early pick a damn good player, I am really hoping we can parlay a pick and a player, and move up and take marvin williams, and with the late pick, take a big man and develop him....

call a spade a spade. RIGHT NOW we are one of the NBAs oldest teams. If you think we have a young core why not just count the guys we will draft in the next 2 years?

Are Rose and Mo Taylor (32 & 29) part of the long term plans? We just traded for them. Why is Ariza core but those two guys arent? They play more. Dont you want your core players who are your future playing the most and developing? Is this part of my misunderstanding of the game of basketball???

Someone please explain... Clearly I'm lost