orlando (lost at atlanta)
miami (blown out in home opener)
mavs (lost home opener, blown out by rival houston)
boston (0-3 to start season)
phoenix (1-3 start)
probably missing a few

at least we're in good company
well, it's been fun y'all... what's even worse than the bulls getting oden is having to wait almost a full year for next season to start

Orlando: Great young players, finished strong last year.
Miami: won a championship
Dallas: was runnerup.
Bulls: Playoff team last year now with Ty thomas AND Ben wallace
PHX: trying to fit in Amare, Has MVP, Stong contender last year also.

NYK: 5 coaches in 3 years, double payrole, pooly constructed, underachieveing, has no major players with leadership qualities, only player to be in playoffs is Marbury (Thats funny)and little reason to believe they can be good until otherwise proven on the court.

Yeah Tom, its a good comparison!

When the franchise has 6 straight losing seasons and a group of players that quit on their coach last year, you will have people who think the season is over, especially when they are seeing the same exact crapolla from last year.

Posted by wsdm:

Good thread! I don't think this team will make the playoffs, but I'm surprised how quickly people have lowered their expectations after 2 losses.

There is doubt, no doubt. But it's mainly carried over from last year and there ae signs that it's happening again. We are one starbury attitude from having another disaster here. Try to look at the bright side. We have a center who is showing he can dominate (finally) and we have a forward in Q, who can shoot the light out. We have another forward in Lee who is getting too much bench time, who we know' can rebound and score some points. We have a fire spark in Nate who comes in and throws in his 12, 14, and maybe even an occasional 20 in the game. Balkman seems to be the only one at this point who can be a real defensive threat. We know why' we are just losing these games within ten points already and why the first game was so close. Frye has not shown up yet. I think it has something to do with his roll and how they are playing him right now. We have a defensive stopper in Jeffries, but we know he is injured. We have Crawford who has dissapeared for some reason, but I expect him to come around soon. And the guards? Starbury and Franchise. At this point, i'd take Franchise, because he has been showing signs of putting some kind of offense up. starbury has had it, he's dug his own grave and it's just a matter of time. As with defense, it would seem such a simply no-brain thing to teach these guys some things about the little things on defense. For one 'stop standing around like a bunch of stupid idiots and put those damn arms up. Same on offense. MOVE! But Curry needs help from Jeffries and his coming will be very well recieved, when he's finally healed. We do' have a #15 spot open and maybe Zeke can find someone, but until the defense is improved, look for the Knicks to have more problems there. On the subject of handling the ball better, one of the reasons for all the turnovers, especially from the guards is simply. 'Quit hogging the damn ball'! They definately need to feed it into Curry more and do some pick and rolls with Frye (I forgot who said it earlier), but stop keeping the damn thing so much. Eventually, you start to turn it over. I will add, that the turnovers have in fact come down in the three games played 23, 17 and 16 against Indiana. But we know this teams problems there.

So my ponit is, we know why we're having these close games. The difference is a few fundamental things that could' be cleared up. I think they need a little more time. You know' Frye is going to start scoring and Crawford is going to start scoring. I mean you know' that they aren't going to be like this all season long. And when we get Jeffries, I think Zeke will be looking like a genius again. Theoretically, the only questions we should be having right now is wether starbury and/or franchise can come through as guards.

Be a little optimistic there people. We still have a lot of hope.

hey tom, if your ever in miami we could chill, hang out, whatever. but if you wanna play ball you ain't gonna be on my team if after '3' gms your that negative. you wanna play w/me i'll demand a little more positivity.

I really want the T'Wolves to implode so that Garnett demands a trade for Marbury.

/dreaming

Posted by Rich:

I really want the T'Wolves to implode so that Garnett demands a trade for Marbury.

/dreaming

tease!

larry brown wasnt completely to blame for last season after all.

[Edited by - slimpack on 11-06-2006 12:31 AM]

Well said.

Oops, my bad, Rockets made the playoffs once with Fran.

Then they traded him anyway.

I still think that too many of us are putting too much weight on what we look like early in the season. I've been preaching patience, but so many of us are going off the last 6 years as if it's been these players who have been here all that time. HEY MOST OF THESE GUYS JUST GOT HERE over the last season and off season. The only history most of them have here is under LB and the 5 games we've played. Just because this team looks bad so far in a similar way to what we saw last year doesn't mean the ENTIRE season is gonna turn out the same way.

Those other teams look as bad as we do, but they get the benefit of the doubt, which is fine, but this ain't last year or the years before so they don't have any guarantees either. We assume they'll play better and that's fine, but I think we KNOW that the players we have aren't yet playing at their best either. When they do, we should improve a lot.

Anyone notice that we have the same record as the Bulls after five games. Chicago suffers from the same problem it had last year, no consistent low post scoring and too much reliance on their guards. When the guards have off nights, Chicago loses. To be honest, I think NY has more talent than Chicago. It obviously is still early, but I am not convinced that we cannot finish with a better record that the Bulls.