Baku wrote:
Watched a little of the Kings-Raptors game last night. They got Bibby and Artest back last night. With Martin back now as well, they have a pretty nice squad. I won't go as far as to say they'll make the playoffs or anything since it seems a foregone conclusion that they're going to trade Artest and Bibby. Still, a team with Bibby, Artest, Martin, Salmons, Garcia, Brad Miller & Udrih seems pretty solid. I look for them to be a pain in the ass to some of the top tier teams and their future looks pretty damn good, should be interesting what they can get for Bibby & Artest
With a healthy squad of Bibby, Martin, Artest, Miller, and then some of their role players who have played well this season (Salmons and Udrih), this is a team that's going to win it's share of games. I don't see a very athletic team, but one that knows what it's doing, and could out-execute other teams.
The Western Conference playoff picture is very interesting. Only about 5 games seperate the top 8 teams, and then there are teams like Houston or Utah not even in the playoffs currently. I believe New Orleans is at the top, and it's so fluid that one loss by them drops them to 4 or 5 depending on what the rest of the conference does.
Injuries will probably determine if somebody falls out, but it's looking like every game matters out there for earning a spot as well as playoff positioning.
It will be interesting to see how the Lakers play without Bynum for the next 2 months. Kuame Brown is bad. He's got no touch around the basket and LA is really going to miss the consistent numbers that Bynum was producing. So far, they struggled to beat Seattle, and got slapped by Phoenix at home.