doclinkin wrote:Hoopalotta wrote:I'm generally pretty optimistic, but I don't see how anyone can see this as being anything other than a total disaster.
Sure, something could go wrong for them, but we're hoping for cheap outs based on peripheral issues. Those guys are just going to crush on the court for five years or so unless someone blows their ACL. As a general rule, when you're considering injuries as a possible trump card, its not a good sign. Sorry, but this is horrible news.
As to "really" rebuilding, yes, I'm leaning towards bottoming out completely now as we can't kid ourselves about the long term impact here. Almost any other result would have been acceptable, but this is just too much. 2 top five players and a top 3 PF on one team? Wade is simply a sick closer as well, being just about the best in the world.
Waah waah waah. Jeez, no pamper wetting, steel yourself a little bit. Are you a Bullets fan or a frontrunning LA fan. Why act like you never met adversity before. That's what we do. We're the underdog. So? What else is new.
....*assorted points snipped for convenience sake*.....
F_ Miami. It would have been worse to spread our nemeses to multiple teams, I'd be more scared of a Chicago Wade squad than this experiment in bloviation and auto-fellatio. Miami? Really? Makes it clear to me MeBron is more about hiding behind a group of his pals than in winning in particular. At least in Miami no one can blame him alone for his inevitable shortfalls. Just injuries, or beach parties, or referees, etc. Fine with me if we consolidate all our villains on one Legion of Doom. Makes it easier to keep track of them 4 games a year instead of 8. Plus the playoffs.
Playoffs!
I don't want to drag everyone down and I don't particularly like my argument either, but the board here collectively reads like the everyman reaction to the start of a war with a “Don't worry lads, we'll be marching into Berlin and home by Christmas!” vibe. Let's not kid ourselves here, a spade's a spade, this ain't OK. This is not the result we should have been hoping for and every team in the East is going to adjust their strategy based on this. “I'm taking my talents to South Beach” deserves a mourning period with shawls and all. Straws too.
Every Eastern executive is reacting to this privately.
Top teams are like “I forget, what did the Bobcat's say about Captain Jack last time we called?”
Middle teams are like “more mustard on the hot dogs and less clothing on the cheerleaders!”
Bottom teams are like “so the third worst record is how many ping pong balls?”
Was Popovich saying “Oh, it's cool, Gasol to the Lakers, whatever”? What other teams do does matter and this is about equivalent to the Lakers collectively aging backwards five years and then suddenly moving to the south east division. It's simply delusional to act as if nothing substantial has happened and that this is not going to affect the Wizards decision making. We're not supposed to take notice and be alarmed? For the worst hit, look at the Magic board:
viewtopic.php?f=25&t=1031362&start=0Now, we're hardly a title contender, so the good news that occurs to me is that Wade turns 29 next year, but I just can't see this as being anything other than a volcanic reordering that leads to a “Da' Bullsian” type run, at least as far as the Eastern Conference is concerned. I had liked our position better than most anyone else in the East longterm (not many up and comers), but now I don't particularly like the position of anyone in the East. Admittedly we are less hard hit than most teams in that we've got a lot of really young guys, but I'm not ashamed to admit that the window on the HEAT is scary. It is. I don't see the point in masking that with sky pies or rosy monocles, which you've basically already conceded.
Anyway, it hardly matters as I'm not worried about what they do next year, but I'm really on the polar opposite of the idea that the Superfriends need to play anything like 45 minutes a night. What? The talent is so dominant that they can likely coast to sixty wins and peak late, year after year. Miller's probably the 6th man, so bring in Derrick Fisher, the Collins twins, Raja Bell and some Condotierri buyouts at the deadline and they're locked and loaded for a run, even this year. Center will be a problem for now, but I doubt it's going to stand as such long term unless the CBA clacks the gavel. But if U-Haslem can be Riley-otized into signing a one year deal, it's like they've got two MLE type guys in the first offseason, which is just a disgusting thought, though at least they're older. And I can't doubt Riley's powers of persuasion after he came in early with the cake.....
If anyone has serious doubts about the ability of that team to mesh, I can see how you'd be optimistic, but I just don't share that view – I think those guys will be ridiculous with Bron as the primary playmaker, Wade as the clutch scorer and Bosh picking his spots. As far as sacrificing numbers in the regular season, that's fine, but not particularly compelling in detracting from the Dynasty angle. A redundancy in elite shot creators is hardly a problem and I'm sure that Bron - douchey as he is - is fully committed to the facilitator role. These guys specifically chose to play together after a gold medal trial run, so I have a hard time seeing the chemistry cake crumbling. So, Injuries and the next CBA are the best means of disrupting five years of absolute dominance in the Eastern Theater of Operations.
Previously, I was seeing certain moves like “if we add Thaddeus Young and...” or “with LeBron in New York, Varejao might be available and then...” but now all of that sounds like “and with Ehlo at shooting guard...”. That's scrapped as far as I'm concerned. Anyone talking about acquiring Marvin Williams today - and yes, it was brought up elsewhere - is just fundamentally out of touch with the implications of this. Marvin Williams? Because Charles Smith isn't unavailable?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRFKhpMKX0E[/youtube]
From here, I would just back off any sort of moves that would peak in the next few years and go all in on a tank job that has us poking our honker out of the gopher hole after the brunt of the blitzkrieg has reaped the worst of it's sour carnage. Give me cap space and lottery picks for the next two years and we'll see if Dwight wants to jump ship. I can back the idea that we could test out mettle against those top teams, but it would seem to be prudent to have that take place closer to the point when the Zardians are in position to make a legitimate run (ie. When Wade is 32).
Sure, I'll sound more cheery later, but the idea that this should be universally met with a marching beat as we hum “Onward Christian Soldiers” seems a naive musing of the denial stage. I can't take anyone too seriously if they don't at least acknowledge this as being a gut punch, so you'll have to pardon me if I ain't lickin' a turd just because folks want to pretend that it's in an ice cream cone.
