Another Pacific Division Preview

Here’s one from Bleacher Report’s Andrew Ungvari. Seems solid. Though I do think the Warriors will be a little better barring several injuries. And while the Lakers will be good, 60 wins seems like a lot to me, especially with Kobe’s pinkie the way it is. If he plays like he did in the Olympics, the Lakers will have a tough time making 50 wins.

Team Preview: Golden State Warriors

Key Additions

Anthony Randolph, Richard Hendrix, Corey Maggette, Marcus Williams, Ronny Turiaf

Key Losses

Baron Davis, Matt Barnes, Mickael Pietrus

Season Outlook

The Golden State Warriors will try to replace the production of Baron Davis with a bevy of players. At point guard, they had hoped to plug in Monta Ellis, but his mysterious ankle injury has cast a cloud of uncertainty over the team. Maggette and Stephen Jackson should wreak havoc on the wings, and both are solid defensive players. The Warriors have a relatively deep, if not quite spectacular frontcourt. I really like Andris Biedrins, and though his new contract seems a bit pricey, it’s probably about market value. I’ve read vague rumors around the Web about how the Pistons want Biedrins back in a trade for veteran guard Chauncey Billups, which says a lot about the up and coming young center. He nearly averaged a double-double last season in only 27 minutes of burn. Ronny Turiaf is a solid player with a good jumpshot and hustle out the wazoo. When I think Richard Hendrix, I think this year’s Paul Millsap. Anthony Randolph had a good summer league, and paired with Brandan Wright, gives Bay City some forwards long on talent and in the arms. I’m a Marco Belinelli fan simply because he looks like Rocky’s younger brother. He’s a pretty good player too. The question for me is, who is going to step up and lead this team? Stephen Jackson is their emotional leader on the court, but I’m not sure I’d pick him to mentor a group of young players. Al Harrington isn’t know for being a winner. And everyone else is pretty young. I’m sure they’ll get off to a good start, but I think they stumble a bit at the end with a rough last week of the season and barely miss out on the playoffs. Completely random guess on the record: 46-36. Hey, it was either them or the Suns…

How the Suns Match Up

I don’t know that anyone really matches up all that well with the Warriors defensively. There’s just so much versatility and talent on the floor, that a couple of their players should always have a mismatch. And I don’t think anyone has ever accused the Suns of matching up “well” with anyone, though I would like to point out that statistics show they’ve had a very average defense over the past few years. I can see the Suns getting out-rebounded pretty badly in these games, but still pulling out wins. I think the Suns take the first two consecutive games in February, because Golden State will have just finished a pretty brutal stretch of games. They split the next two, and the series goes 3-1 in favor of the Suns. At this rate the Suns will end up with 60 wins or so, so I’ll have to figure out how to lower that to something a little more realistic…

2008-2009 NBA All-Pacific Division Team

There’s still about a month before the preseason starts, and everything basketball-related has slowed to a Piston-esque crawl. I was browsing through other WordPress blogs, and I saw a blog entry about an all-Atlantic Division team. So I figured why not take a weeks or two to look at the Pacific division and some of the Suns’ competition in the division, both this year and in the future. To kick things off, here are my picks for the 2008-2009 All-Pacific Division Team.

Starters

PG: Steve Nash. Gotta go with the hometown guy. There’s been a lot of talk about Chris Paul and Deron Williams surpassing him, but they’re in a different divisions, so I won’t even go into that. Maybe later.

SG: Kobe Bryant. The consensus best player in the league. Has done a lot to improve his image by playing in the Olympics, with an injury no less.

SF:Stephen Jackson. Now I actually have to start explaining myself a little. He plays good defense and is may have been the MVP of his team even with Baron Davis. His rep has skyrocketed since the bral in the Palace incident. Last year I don’t know he makes this list with Artest and Marion in the division.

PF: Amare Stoudemire. One of the best offensive big men in the league. Has improved his shot drastically in the last few years. Hopefully his defense will follow suit with new coach Terry Porter.

C: Andris Biedrins. Toughest choice of the starting 5 and the most controversial. A monster on the boards, runs the floor, and I haven’t heard anything horrible about his defense. There’s several solid centers in the division, including Andrew Bynum, Brad Miller, Marcus Camby, Chris Kaman, and Pau Gasol, depending on how you classify each player. Biedrins is young and uninjured, which is why he got the spot. Bynum will get this spot in my book if he returns to form this year.

Bench

Baron Davis

Monta Ellis

Kevin Martin

Corey Maggette

Al Thornton

Pau Gasol

Marcus Camby

Andrew Bynum

The plan is to go a little more in depth on the other teams and players in the division in the upcoming weeks. Don’t worry though, I’ll still be writing about the Suns a lot. Even in the previews of other teams I’ll try to discuss how the Suns match up with them. I’ll try to get player analysis in the roster section eventually to, so we shall see.