Who will come out of the Eastern Conference to appear in the NBA Finals: I'm gonna go with the New Jersery Nets: Jason Kidd is still a great point guard and Vince Carter can put up 20-25 points a game and Richard Jefferson and Nenad Kiristic are now 100% healthy. Marcus Williams is good point guard to have come off the bench too relieve Jason Kidd when Kidd gets tired. Aqquiring Jamal Magloire is a good signing.

Who won't come out of the East: I hate to say it but the Detroit Pistons just don't have it anymore I mean no Chris Webber or no Ben Wallace I don;t see Detroit winning the East. Detroit is betting on Jason Maxiel to be their Ben Wallace and I don;t know if that will work out for the Pistons. Chauncey Billups is still one of the best point guards in the NBA and thats why he got that big contract in the off-season from the Pistons. Richard Hamilton is still a sold player and I like the way Rip plays the game. You know what to expect from Rasheed Wallace: he'll play every night but he'll lead the league in technicals and will step out of huddles in Detroit time-outs because of his shaky relationship with coach Flip Saunders. Detroit should have signed Grant Hill in the off-season and to me that would have been good enough for them to make the NBA Finals. Detroit needs another player thats going to score 15 points a game and also a couple more good role players. Detroit must make some moves before the trading deadline to compete with New Jersey and Boston in my opinion. Detroit would be smart to re-sign Chris Webber because having Chris Webber is better than not having him at all.

The Western Conference:

Who will come out of the Western Conference to represnt them in the NBA Finals: I pick the Phoenix Suns: If not for Amere Stoudimere being suspended for Game 5 of the Western Conference Semi-finals the Suns would have probably beat the Spurs last year. They are going to miss Kurt Thomas no doubt. I think this is the year that the Suns will win the NBA championship and finally knock-off the Spurs in the playoffs. I mean this team has too many good players: Steve Nash, Amere Stoudimere, Leonardo Barbosa(he would start for any other team), Shawn Marion(he wanted to be traded though) I think he'll come and play every night though. If the Suns start slow bet on Marion being unhappy.The singing of Grant Hill is great for them though.

Who won;t win the Western Conference: Utah or Houston. Lets start out with Houston: Ok they got a new coach in Rick Adelman who is a good coach. I think Houston has too many questions. I mean can Steve Francis return to playing like he used too in his first stint with the Rockets or even he was with Orlando? Is Shane Battier ready to take his game to the next level? Ok Yao and Tracy McGrady are superstars but I don't see who their 3rd scorer is after those 2 and I don;t think Battier is there yet to be the consistent 3rd scoring option on this team? Maybe next year he will be good enough to become the consistent 3rd scoring that the Rockets are looking for. I think the Rockets are a couple years away from being an NBA Finals team. I mean Rick Adelman did take Portland to the finals twice in the early 90's and almost did it with Sacramento in 2002. There should be a championship Banner in ARCO Arena that says "Sacramento Kings 2002 NBA Champions" but we covered that subject on another thread. Of course Laker fans will be upset at me for my previous sentence about the Sacramento Kings.

Utah: Ok so Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams are the next Stockton and Malone. I like Deron Williams alot and Boozer is solid but the next Malone? not yet I mean Karl Malone is the best power foward to ever play the game of basketball. Can Paul Mislap step up his game? I don;t know. Andre Kirelinko wanted to be traded in the off-season and doesn;t like the way he fits into coach Jerry Sloans system. Center Mehmet Okur is good but did not have a good playoff series agains the Spurs last year. Hopefully Okur will return to being his old self after that Spurs series last year. In my opinion the Jazz just lack something to get them over the hump vs teams like the Spurs and the Suns. The Jazz have not won a game against the Spurs since 1999 in San Antonio and that does not bode well come play-off time.

I'd like to see either New Jersey or Phoenix win.  Jason Kidd is a great point guard, though he has a bad rep sometimes off the court, he's a good sport and always makes his teammates better with playmaking.  Steve Nash is the same.

There should be a championship Banner in ARCO Arena that says "Sacramento Kings 2002 NBA Champions" but we covered that subject on another thread. Of course Laker fans will be upset at me for my previous sentence about the Sacramento Kings.




Truer words have never been spoken!  Call me a dreamer but I am still holding out hope that they can pull off a win in my lifetime!  And if it happened over the Lakers... even sweeter!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell...the Kings kind of decided to roll over and die and complain after getting screwed in the foul-biased games, and then there was that Robert Horry 3 that totally destroyed any momentum...not that I like the Lakers, but I believe that if a team truly deserved to win, they should be able to overcome those mental barriers and say "Well, even though the refs screwed us, we'll find a way to win anyway".  But that's just me.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell...the Kings kind of decided to roll over and die and complain after getting screwed in the foul-biased games, and then there was that Robert Horry 3 that totally destroyed any momentum...not that I like the Lakers, but I believe that if a team truly deserved to win, they should be able to overcome those mental barriers and say "Well, even though the refs screwed us, we'll find a way to win anyway".  But that's just me.


Nah it was Doug Christie... he totally choked and Adleman for whatever reason didn't pull him out of the game... personally I think he was bribed to throw the game.  ;)