We're tied for 3rd worse again. If we can

[chillzatl]

lose a few of our head to head matchups against the other bad teams, we're right back in the thick of the lotto race!

[capstone21]

we can't finish forth because that will move us up one more pick to Five since Charlotte automatically gets 4th. Its amazing how bad Chicago and Phx considering how much talent they have.

[chillzatl]

That kinda sucks. But realistically, we have some matchups against those teams. We play chicago twice and orlando once. Most of our other games are against teams that "should" beat us. If we can lose two of the three matchups against orlando and chicago, we'll be sitting pretty.

[CBAreject]

I think finishing 4th would still be OK. We would have the same number of lotto balls as a 4 team usually has. However, we just can't pick 4th in the draft, since the Bobcats will pick there. We'd still have as good a shot at top 3 as a 4 team does.

CBA

[Lascar78]

well really we had as much talent as chicago has at the beginning of the year and hardly did better. Phoenix is a mystery though. Even when they still had Steph , they had Marbury, Marion, Stoudamire and alot of other talent... and were horrible. How does that happen?

As for chicago, we should clearly look at how chicago rebuilt and how denver re-built and try to follow the denver model. One of chicago's mistakes was to put too much on the back of two high schoolers. That's why I definitely wouldn't want us to get both high schoolers even if a team was dumb enough to take one of diesel's impossible trades. Also they found good veterans to lead they way. Getting Voshon Lenard, Jon Barry, and Earl Boykins for instance was huge. Not to mention andre miller. Chris Andersen has been big for them too. They obviously drafted very well also. Chicago didnt really try (or succeed) to get a good vet till this year, and pip got injured from the get go and is now retiring.

[Wretch]

Chicago, maybe they're as bad as they're playing. It's not like they NEED another hssr to groom for 3 or 4 years. Sh#t, they have rebuilt through the lottery 2 or 3 times since MJ left. I'm sure these guys want to win...

Chandler and his chronic ailments busted up their sync early on, and their last 10 games have been against some tough teams. Their remaining schedule looks weak. I can see Paxon and Skiles pushing these guys to finish strong...and I can see it happening.

Phoenix on the other hand, that's another story. I know they play in the West, and Marbury's gone...still, those guys are much better than the record indicates. They're purposely tanking. Why...I don't know. They don't really need sink as far as we do to get the player they need.

[CBAreject]

Phoenix is not the same team without Amare. Notice, they were a lottery team the year before he arrived (that's how they drafted him). He has been a non-factor until only recently, and, recently, Phx has won some big games. Of course, now Stephon is gone. I don't think they're tanking at all. They just happen to play in the West which has only gotten stronger since it acquired Allen for 25 games of Gary Payton and Antoine Walker for nobody. Do we have to keep dumping our good players over there?

Phx will be back next year, and they will be scary. They're going to have Marion, Stoudamire, Johnson, a pick and some cap to play with.