[SwatLakeCityParticipant]

This is what some other Jazz Fan posted on a Jazz forum.
WEST

1. L.A. Lakers – After upgrading from Jordan Farmar, Shannon Brown, Josh Powell, and DJ Mbenga to Steve Blake, Matt Barnes, Theo Ratliff, and Derrick Caracter, the defending champs will improve from last year’s record even more from the off-season moves. They are even looking to resign high-flyer Shannon Brown. They will be the top team in the NBA. To quote Jazzbots writer James Seaman, “they are firing from all cylinders”. http://www.nba.com/lakers/roster/10players.html

2. Oklahoma City Thunder – The rising young-stars will be even better than last year and can get even better from their 8 Million in Cap Space. The Thunder’s strong set of 2nd string players with Eric Maynor, James Harden, and Nenad Krstic/Cole Aldrich leading will put up very high bench numbers. Kevin “The Durantula” Durant will once again be the Scoring Champion and also the 2010-11 Season MVP.

3. Dallas Mavericks – With the addition of Tyson Chandler, they finally have a big presence down low with Chandler and Haywood sharing minutes. Jason Kidd will be older, but J.J. Barea and Rodrigue Beaubois will successfully take the reins when needed.

4. Utah Jazz – As much as I would love to put them higher, I don’t think it’s going to happen. After losing Boozer, Korver, and Matthews; the Jazz added Al Jefferson, Raja Bell, and Gordon Hayward. Now, with someone that can actually play Center so Okur can rest (a 6′9 center in boozer does not work), Jefferson makes it so that the Jazz are able to bang down low with the other bigs in the league. They will fight OKC and Dallas for the #2 spot, if everything goes there way, they may even grab that spot. Andrei Kirilenko will not be traded and will play out his contract in Utah.

5. Phoenix Suns – Some think that they will drop dramatically from the loss of Amare Stoudemire, but I think that the addition of Josh Childress, Hedo Turkoglu, and Hakim Warrick with the help of Steve Nash will easily clinch the 5th seed for them.

6. San Antonio Spurs – After adding Euro-Giant Tiago Splitter, the Spurs resigned Richard Jefferson. Even though the team is getting older, the new addition of Splitter will let them fight for the 6th spot. DeJuan Blair will once again prove that teams made a huge mistake by passing him up.

7. Denver Nuggets – Having to start the season without Kenyon Martin, Chris “Birdman” Anderson, and their head coach, George Carl; the Nuggets will have to have a bad start to the season, but will bounce back once the whole team is back. Al Harrington will help fill the void slightly before Martin and Birdman fully heal. Ty Lawson will find himself playing better than Chauncey Billups in a few games.

8. Portland Trailblazers – Greg Oden will be back, Marcus Camby will play a full season with them, and Wesley Matthews will let Brandon Roy rest without having to worry. Look for them to trade Rudy Fernandez and for Luke Babbitt to have a better season than some of the other Rookies picked ahead of him.

9. Houston Rockets – With Yao Ming healthy, and a legitimate backup in Brad Miller, the Rockets will fight with the Spurs, Nuggets, and Blazers for the 6th seed, but will fall short in a few close games during the season. Having Kevin Martin for a full season will also make the team better. Aaron Brooks will again have a stellar season and he and Yao will make the All-Star team thanks to all the votes from China.

10. Memphis Grizzlies – After keeping the team almost exactly the same as last year other than switching Ronnie Brewer for Tony Allen, the Grizzlies will have another lottery-bound season. Hasheem Thabeet will show that he deserves to play in the NBA and will get close to 20 minutes a game.

11. Los Angeles Clippers – Now with Blake Griffin healthy and a good showing in Summer League, the Clippers will significantly improve from last year. Al Farouq-Aminu will emerge as the starting SF they have always been looking for. They will once again be lottery bound, but look for them to make some huge upsets against top teams during the season. Eric Bledsoe will learn a lot from playing behind Baron Davis and Blake Griffin will take home the ROY award.

12. Golden State Warriors – With a veteran-leader in David Lee, the Warriors will improve from last season on the backs of their own “Big Three” in Lee, Stephen Curry, and Monta Ellis. Jeremy Lin will get few chances to play, but when he does, he will have a good showing. Stephen Curry will be the Rookie-Sophomore Game MVP.

13. New Orleans Hornets – After trading Chris Paul for someone not equal in value(I predict), the Hornets will fall with no veteran leading the team. (Now that the team and CP3 are on “better” terms, I can see them get up to the 10th spot or even make a strong push for the 7th seed) If CP3 isn’t eventually traded, look for Darren Collison to be moved. David West will put up All-Star stats with the help from an actual All-Star, Chris Paul.

14. Minnesota Timberwolves – The Timberwolves will slightly improve from last year after drafting Wesley Johnson, and adding Michael Beasley and Luke Ridnour. After trading Ramon Sessions and Ryan Hollins to clear Cap Space, they will once again have a slow-improvement season until Ricky Rubio comes over.

15. Sacramento Kings – Tyreke Evans will again put up very good numbers, but the Kings will fall to last place in the West because of the trade for the overpaid Samuel Dalembert. Look for Dalembert’s minutes to dramatically fall with Jason Thompson, Carl Landry, DeMarcus Cousins, and even Hassan Whiteside taking the bulk of the minutes. Maybe even look for
a trade involving one of their bigs.

This guy has it completely wrong. How do the Thunder go from 8th place to 2nd in just one year after making no changes to their team during the offseason? What do you mean the Nuggets will be without Kmart and George Karl. They will have both of them, but will be without Nene. How do the Suns make the playoffs without Amare, and virtually no replacement. He must have a lot of faith in Warrick. Well let me remind you that Warrick was a backup last year, and has been his entire career. How do you expect a first year starter to propel the Suns to the playoffs, and Josh Childress has not even played a season in the NBA! How do you expect what seems like a rookie to lead them to the playoffs. If the Suns make the playoffs it will be because of Hedo and Steve Nash, but that won’t get very far, I project 8th place or lower. How do the Jazz get the same seeding as last year, after clearly improving their roster big time. Jefferson is an upgrade over Booz, as is Bell, and his experience will help youngins CJ Miles and Gordon Hayward. Im sorry but 4th is unacceptable for what the Jazz did this offseason. How do the Wolves not get last place? They have a horrible team, and have done nothing to improve this year. Made a lot of noise, but we all know what that noise will produce in the season,… a complete disaster. A train wreck is a more accurate description of what the wolves season will be this year. And how do the Spurs make the playoffs after barely making them this year, and again making seemingly no offseason changes? They are getting older, which does not produce championships or success. They added a another unknown that most people expect to do well, but please do not put your faith in unknowns. (Ricky Rubio, Josh Childress, Tiago Splitter) They could turn out to be excellent, but in most cases they don’t. How do the Rockets not make the playoffs after being so close this year Without YAO? They will make the playoffs guaranteed, now that he is back.

Here is my projection
1 Lakers
2 Mavs
3 Jazz
4 Blazers
5 OKC
6 Nuggets
7 Rockets
8 Suns
9 Spurs
10 Grizzlies
11 Kings
12 Hornets
13 Clippers
14 Warriors
15 Wolves

A review of the East will be coming soon as a comment to this thread.

[McWinningParticipant]

Heres my projections

1. La
2. Dallas
3. OKC
4. portland
5. Spurs
6. Jazz
7. Rockets
8. Nuggets

[SubZeroParticipant]

How could the Kings be behind the Hornets, Clippers, Wolves, and maybe even Hornets and Grizzlies? The Kings will be much better than they were last year. That dude’s acting like having 5 legit big men will make them lose games

[llperez]

hornets, clippers and grizz are all more talented then the kings

[BasketBalAllanParticipant]

The Kings are underestimated every year, last season people said they would have trouble winning 15 games, yet they won 25 even with 2 of their staring five getting injured for almost the whole season. I just hope they can prove people wrong again. You have to remember that just because people think that other teams have more talented rosters does not mean that they will stay that way as the season progresses, otherwise there would be very little point in playing.

[SwatLakeCityParticipant]

Timmahforprez: How do the Jazz do worse than this year when they have added 2 upgrades in the offseason? Jefferson will be a beast, mark my words, and Raja Bell will help the youth play well. CJ Miles for sure and maybe even Gordon Hayward will improve greatly because of Raja. They have to get 3rd or higher. I don’t expect anything less, and anything less than 3rd will be unacceptable for the kind of offseason they had. And again, how do the Thunder go from 8 to 3 after doing nothing in the offseason? If you are going to make that much of difference than the change has to be reflected in the offseason and it should a big change, not small like adding draft picks. Again do not base your projections off of a bunch of unknowns. (Draft picks included, unless its someone like John Wall or Demarcus Cousins) I expect the Thunder to improve but not so much to get home court advantage. I think 5th is just about right. I will admit your rankings are better than this so called Jazz fan, but still not close to what the standings will actually be.

[McWinningParticipant]

They lost Korver, Boozer, Matthews Jeffersons a good player but cant run the pick & roll at all which hurts them.

Not necessarily their getting worse, but other teams are getting better.

And the middle of the pack in the west is so tight most of those team could get 2 through 9. (even the Hornets could get a top four seed).

[llperez]

jazz have made improvements, but so have other teams. And losing mathews and korver will hurt their perimiter shooting. Raja is a good shooter, but we dont honestly know what to expect from him at this point. He was slowing down and didnt even play last year. Jefferson is pretty much a wash for boozer. Boozer had a better pick and pop/roll game then jefferson which allowed him and dwill to really mesh. Jefferson is better on the low box and creating his own offense. Whats gonna be huge is the health of AK47 and memo. If those two are healthy, then they defenitely can finish ahead of anybody not named hte lakers. But lots of teams are improving also like portland, OKC, Houston(even if yao is a shell of himself) new orleans, dallas. Also, i dont think phoenix, san antonio or denver fall off much if at all.

[SubZeroParticipant]

Kings:

Udrih/Evans
Evans/Garcia
Casspi/Greene/Udoka
Landry/Thompson
Dalembert/Cousins/Whiteside

That team’s pretty good dude. Better than 25 wins

[llperez]

well, if that teams better then 25 wins (not saying they arent) then there are about 13-14 teams in the west that should win 25+ games. Somebody has to lose some games and i dont think the wolves are going 0-82

[SubZeroParticipant]

Yeah I thought about that too, I just think that the Kings are better than given credit for, especially if Cousins keeps his head on straight and produces like everyone knows he can, they might be a surprise next year. They definitely aren’t making the playoffs, but I think they could be the 10th, 11th best team in the West

[llperez]

i defenitely like the direction they are heading in. I was up in sac back in june telling all my kings fans friends that they would get cousins and he was gonna be great for them. SUrprisingly they all hated the idea of cousins and wanted anyone but him. After living there for 7 years, i honestly hope they get it turned around so there can be a little of that old lakers/kings rivalry again. It sucks when arco arena is 60% lakers fans these past few years.

[SwatLakeCityParticipant]

EAST

1. Miami Heat – “The Big Three” will lead the Heat to the Finals. With some strong veterans taking a pay-cut to be with a legitimate contender, the Heat will be the top team in the East right behind the Lakers for the top team in the NBA.

2. Orlando Magic – Same story as last year. Daniel Orton will not replace Marcin Gortat. JJ Redick will explode and become one of the most improved players of the 2010-11 Season. Dwight Howard will once again bring home the Defensive Player of the Year award.

3. Boston Celtics – Jermaine O’Neal will take some of the load off of Kevin Garnett, Kendrick Perkins, and Glen “Big Baby” Davis. Look for them to sign a veteran wing player during the season. Rajon Rondo will get his second All-Star appearance, but this time as the team’s main Point Guard.

4. Chicago Bulls – After adding Carlos Boozer, the new look Bulls will fight for the 2nd seed in the playoffs with their deep bench of experienced players. Kyle Korver will have a far worse shooting season than last year. Look for the Bulls to be the team that signs Tracy McGrady.

5. Atlanta Hawks – After resigning Joe Johnson to a Max Contract, the Hawks didn’t really do anything else to change their team. Jordan Crawford will have few chances to shine, but will shine brightly during those few games. Look for the Hawks to be one of the first teams to make a trade during the season. Maybe trading Mike Bibby for a Small Forward?

6. Milwaukee Bucks – The surprise team in the East last year have pretty much the same look, but with Corey Maggette and Drew Gooden and a healthy Michael Redd and Andrew Bogut. Larry Sanders will battle Gooden for the starting spot. The Bucks will fight the Hawks for the 5th seed.

7. Indiana Pacers – Tyler Hansbrough now healthy, add draft pick Paul George and Lance Stephenson, and then Gold-Medalist Danny Granger(I hope); the Pacers will sneak into the playoffs. A.J. Price will have shows of brilliance and might even steal the starting job from T.J. Ford.

8. New York Knickerbockers – Amare Stoudemire and Raymond Felton will be the defined leaders of the Knicks and the Knicks will make the playoffs for the first time since 2003. Eddy Curry will once again play as the lazy bum at the bottom of the bench ending his career in the Pros.

9. Charlotte Bobcats – After they waive Erick Dampier, Michael Jordan will try his best to make a big splash to get them into the playoffs, but will fall short.

10. Washington Wizards – The back-court of John Wall and Gilbert Arenas with Kirk Hinrich backing both up will work out well for them, but a team with little chemistry will be the cause of another lottery. John Wall will finish behind Blake Griffin for ROY.

11. Detroit Pistons – The Pistons will miss another playoff berth with a clog at the guard spots and no true center. Greg Monroe will not be able to thrive in the Piston’s style of play and will turn out to be a better version of Darko Milicic.

12. Cleveland Cavaliers – The Cavs will take a huge punch in the gut after losing King James. Look for Dan Gilbert to make a couple of trades to make the Cavs “better”.

13. Philidelphia 76ers – They will once again try to experiment with Allen Iverson and will fail. Evan Turner will have a bad start, but will get a boost sometime around the Trade Deadline. He will have the best finish of the Rookies, but his bad start will cost him the ROY award.

14. New Jersey Nets – Derrick Favors will have a very strong season and will finish behind Griffin and Wall for ROY. The Nets will double their wins from the previous season.

15. Toronto Raptors – The Raptors will try to replace Chris Bosh with Ed Davis and #1 Draft Pick Stats from Andrea Bargnani, but the failed efforts will put them into the last spot in the East. Not sure who will finish last overall; Kings or Raptors?

This guy has to be the most complete basketball idiot ever. How do the Pacers make the playoffs after still not having a legitimate PG. Ford is always hurt and Price, is an unknown. Again, DO NOT base your projection on unknowns, they will disappoint you. Just because the Heat have the three headed monster(Lebron, Bosh and Dwade) does not mean they will get first place. They are the new ones to the top of the ladder, so you would have to think that they will struggle against the regular leaders, Boston and Orlando. The Hawks are not going to trade Bibby for a SF. That would make no sense, they already have 2 in Josh Smith and Marvin Williams why would they need a third one. If Bibby is going to be traded, its going to be for a center. Which will push Horford to the 4, Smith to the 3 and Williams to the bench. But I don’t expect them to make any trade until Jeff Teague proves his worth and can in fact start a playoff team. What do you mean the Bucks have pretty much the same look. They actually have a legitimate 3. Corey Maggete. They will still struggle with the 4, and yes Gooden and Sanders will fight for starter minutes but I think Sanders will win in the end, but the Bucks will improve. Jennings is the answer and the clear leader of this team. I expect 4th or 5th place for the Bucks. And how do the Cavs not get last place by loosing not only Lebron but also seemingly every single battle to “replace” him and get “better” and then “win a championship before Lebron does.” Gilbert and the Cavs need to pay for their disrespect and disownership to King James. That punishment is last place, and a formal apology from Gilbert himself (maybe even a complete resignation)

Here is my projection of the East
1 Magic
2 Heat
3 Celtics
4 Bulls
5 Bucks
6 Hawks
7 Knicks
8 Wizards
9 Bobcats
10 Pacers
11 Pistons
12 Sixers
13 Nets
14 Raptors
15 Cavs

[Mr.Knick 32Participant]

Lol, Indiana in the playoffs.

For your Western Comparison- Portland is better then Utah tenfold. Oklahoma City will not be a 2nd seed. Dallas and Portland are better then OKC.

[SwatLakeCityParticipant]

I guess I will be the only one that thinks Jefferson is a huge improvement for Booz, and Bell will help out the young guys. That’s just fine with me, but trust they will do better, in about 3 or 4 months we will see who is right. Remember the offseason isn’t over yet, we still have 2 experienced Centers that are free agents. (Pryzbilla and Mohammed) I hope the Jazz will sign one of them to help Fez improve and to help soften the blow of an injured Memo. I am sticking with the Jazz finishing 3rd, just trust me, the Jazz will do much, much better than last year. Jefferson will have an outside shot by the time the season rolls around (heck maybe even Malone will help him develop it, or he may not even need to, because he will play Center while Millsap starts at the 4)

[Mr.Knick 32Participant]

Pryzbilla picked up his option. Mohammed is good but I don’t see him be able to be a solid guy anymore. He’s more defense at best.

I don’t doubt the Jefferson deal but I can think Portland will be better. Portland is the better overall team.

[Mr.Knick 32Participant]

Pryzbilla picked up his option. Mohammed is good but I don’t see him be able to be a solid guy anymore. He’s more defense at best.

I don’t doubt the Jefferson deal but I can think Portland will be better. Portland is the better overall team.

[SwatLakeCityParticipant]

Knicksboy: finally someone is making some sense. Im not quite sure if Portland has really improved enough to go from 6 to 3. They need to be healthy and who knows if that will ever happen with Oden, and Matthews is not that much of an improvement. This is the only move they have made this offseason, other than the draft which wasn’t much. (I did not put OKC at 2, I put them at 5. Some idiot jazz fan put them at 2. This post is really just making fun of his ridiculous thoughts and also postings my projections of the seeding of teams next year.)

[Mr.Knick 32Participant]

I think Utah needs another wing. I think there getting Okur back in December, Fez should be back and maybe add someone like a Rasho or Steven Hunter and there frontcourt is good.

The backcourt needs someone like Kieth Bogans.

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