Let's play a game...

[DavidSomerset]

Name ANY team in the league that could play near .500 ball while losing their BEST player, and their 3rd best player (I consider JJ our best overall player, and Chillz our 3rd best overall player...considering all things).

Everyone wants to blame Woodson, or whoever else...THERE IS NO ONE TO BLAME...this is a very young inexperienced team, what the heck did you expect without JJ and Chillz?

We are just as bad as the Heat without Wade and Shaq...just as bad as the Suns would be without Nash and Stoudamire...just as bad as the Mavericks without Dirk and Josh Howard...just as bad as the Cavs would be without James and Gooden.

The truth of the NBA is that a lot of teams are built around ONE player, and if that player goes down, they are screwed (Heat, Cavs, Wizards, Lakers,)

I think people here are overreacting and putting the blame in the wrong places, if you're going to blame it on anything, blame it on bad luck.

Chill out guys, when we get JJ and Chillz back, we will get back to playing about .500 basketball, which is all that we could realistically expect out of the team this year.

[gsuteke]

seriously i respect the spirit of your post and agree with you. after looking through rosters the only one i could come up with is Utah. subtract Boozer and Okur and they probably could field a competitive team.

btw what's up with AK47's stats?

link

[VarsitySlacker]

For the record, we played the Heat without Wade and Shaq last year. I seem to recall us winning by one point.

Trust me, we're much worse (I agree though. Don't blame Woody until the team is reasonably healthy)

[DavidSomerset]

I didn't think of the Jazz...otherwise, I don't think there are many other teams though.

[VarsitySlacker]

I think the Suns or the Mavs would have a chance

Suns would lose Nash, and either Marion or Stoudamire. They'd still have the other of those two (who can carry a team) as well as a team of gifted scorers. And Boris Diaw (hah)

Mavs would lose Dirk and Terry (Howard is their second best) and would still have Howard, obviously, with a legit point in Devin Harris and a plethora of big men.

The Nets could make a case too, losing Kidd and Jefferson and hoping Vince Carter could carry the team.

On an arduous west coast road trip? Perhaps not. Playing soft teams on the east? Probably (Yes, I know the Hawks were playing the west to start off JJ's injury)

[gsuteke]

Mavs were the other one i had considered. no way on the Suns because they sucked a fat egg the last time Nash went down with back spasms.

Varsity, what's up with calling me stupid?

[VarsitySlacker]

I was joking. Hence, the after it. I figured if everyone else could show disdain for your thread rules, I could show disdain for you.

And I seem to recall the Suns playing a fairly hard schedule when Nash went down. No doubt he increases that team a thousandfold, but if they played Sac-Den-NY, I think they could hold their own. I agree it is pushing it, though.

[Johnnybravo4]

Quote:

---

Name ANY team in the league that could play near .500 ball while losing their BEST player, and their 3rd best player (I consider JJ our best overall player, and Chillz our 3rd best overall player...considering all things).

Everyone wants to blame Woodson, or whoever else...THERE IS NO ONE TO BLAME...this is a very young inexperienced team, what the heck did you expect without JJ and Chillz?

We are just as bad as the Heat without Wade and Shaq...just as bad as the Suns would be without Nash and Stoudamire...just as bad as the Mavericks without Dirk and Josh Howard...just as bad as the Cavs would be without James and Gooden.

The truth of the NBA is that a lot of teams are built around ONE player, and if that player goes down, they are screwed (Heat, Cavs, Wizards, Lakers,)

I think people here are overreacting and putting the blame in the wrong places, if you're going to blame it on anything, blame it on bad luck.

Chill out guys, when we get JJ and Chillz back, we will get back to playing about .500 basketball, which is all that we could realistically expect out of the team this year.

---

Man please, the Magic have been winning with their best player hurt for 5 years. Not only that but their 1st round pick has been out most of the year. Howard is a young player who they still really don't run plays for. The difference is that their peripheral players step up when they need them to. Ours don't.

[bootsybug]

well i can tell you this, memphis was a playoff team last year, they lost pau, and now they are 5-17. and that is with a proven coach.

i really believe chill is our 2nd best player, and his stats so far this year before his injury back that up.

so we have lost our 1st, 2nd, 4th (marvin), and speedy (supposed to be a top 5 player for us) all for extended periods. on top of that, shelden's arm is falling out of his socket.

the point is that some people will say that injuries aren't an excuse, but if you take pau off the memphis team they suck, take jj off our team and we suck, etc.

jj has never missed any time before, so let's hope he heals up fast.

[Nicholasp27]

we are a banged up team and haven't played ONE game with our top 5 guys in the game

we haven't even played any with 4 of our top 6 healthy

first it was marvin+speedy...then marvin+speedy+chill...some games marvin+chill and a 40% speedy and 60% shelden....now a rusty marvin+40% speedy+chill+joe+60% shelden....this weekend an improving marvin+?% speedy+chill + 60% shelden....after the all-star break, everyone healthy, speedy/shelden hopefully both above 80% and marvin/chill no longer rusty and smoove being consistent after the break...

yeah, i expect to be >.500 the 2nd half of the season...hopefully we don't dig too large of a hole for ourselves in the first half...i don't think we will, as i think we'll go basically .500 from this saturday until the break

bottom line: we are the most injured team this year so far and still are barely outta the playoffs right now

[TheDude]

mark me down as agree with Nicholas, Lord of the Corndog