I am so tired of hearing this. First off, the Nuggets were better than us before the trade. They had better role players, I think their star was better than ours, and they were bigger. Then we gave them good young players, for their star and they are better than we are right now. Thats just the reality, we have some holes in our roster as a result of making the trade, and we'll have to resolve them via free agency and through the draft. But lets not kid ourselves that these kids are the 2003 Pistons.
Pistons 2003 Championship Team
Rip Hamilton - a guy who averaged 18 & 20 ppg his 2nd and 3rd year in the league. Good defender, in the reggie Miller sense.
Ben Wallace - Defensive player of the year 4 years 02-06, who also lead the league in rebounds 02 & 03
Rasheed Wallace - a guy who was the top dog/top scorer on a portland team that was winning 50+ multiple years. Almost winning 60 games one season, who was in his playing prime at 28-29 when traded mid-season to Detroit. Excellent man to man defender and protector of the paint. SUper long arms.
Chauncey Billups - an oversize scoring PG, who was known as a good defender.
Tayshaun Prince - rookie SF, good shooter, long arms good defender.
Larry Brown - Super defensive minded coach.
These Pistons were 2nd in the league in defense, playing the slowest of half court games you can imagine.
Their starting 5 are all good defenders. 2 of whom were also 20 ppg guys, one a big one a wing.
Denver has neither the defensive players, or defensive minded coach to do what Detroit did. They have a good, mainly young team,
and alot of good role players. They are extremely deep, Detroit wasn't but they had much better players.
Al harrington isn't leading anyone anywhere, but he's a great player to have come off the bench and light it up.
JR smith is a volume shooter, who isn't known for his defense.
Nene good, big, can score, should be a better rebounder, and defender, although I'd obviously love to have him.
Ray Felton - Solid on both ends of the court.
Will CHandler - Tweener, but good player on both ends.
Gallo - good on both ends.
Ty Lawson - Good fast, young PG, who is undersized
Kenyon Martin - past his prime, he's 33 and either won be effective or wont be around much longer.
All of these players excel in an uptempo game. None of them are monsters on defense or on the glass although some like Gallo and Will rebound well for their positions.
They are not half court players.
Again, this isn't to disparage their team, They've got alot of good pieces and they have the ability to turn those pieces into a star player. Thats what they will need to do to compete for a championship. They CAN actually do that, and it will be interesting to see it play out. But as presently constructed, I don't ever see the team they have competing for a chip against Durant, Kobe, or Duncan. Maybe they can beat Dallas, but thats a long shot,
I actually think Portland is a better team than them, and they are just as young, very deep and better defensively.
Good luck to the nuggets, especially to all of the young guys who I've watched develop for the past couple of years. I miss them, I hope they develop nicely, but I have no illusions about what they are as BBall players, and I do not think they are more championship bound then we are in the next 4.
4/4/2011 10:11 PM