NBA Power Rankings

Better than the SEC West

You put any of the teams in the East and they'd be, at minimum, a top 3 seed. Seriously, people have talked about the Mavs, Rockets and Griz from 4-8. Who doesn't think any of them wouldn't be the favorites to win the East?

It's ridiculous how loaded the division is.

This is what I said about the Pels preseason:

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You added Asik next to Davis. You have a healthy Holiday. Defense will be really good. But your starting lineup has no spacing. Eric Gordon is a good shooter but he wants to take it to the basket, and when he does he's not looking to pass. Even if he did the guys you have on the outside aren't going to consistently knock down 3's. Your SF and PG are the same player basically. Your center is big as hell but it's not like you'll be a running team.

I think teams are going to double AD and the guys he kicks it out to will want to catch it and take it in the lane instead of shoot open shots because that's not their game. So yeah, I think your team is different from last year when Reke was coming off the bench and your center was someone who could knock down a 15 footer. You guys will be a good team, but I wouldn't expect an elite offense.

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Your SG or SF need to be coming off the bench. Probably your SF, who is really a PG.

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Eric Gordon needs to come off the bench. We saw what happened last year with Tyreke starting and playing 35+ minutes, him and AD carried the team.

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You didn't have Holiday, Anderson or Asik last year when that was going on. Tyreke and Holiday are too similar IMO. I think he would be better running the second unit. If you bench EG you still have no spacing.

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You didn't have Holiday, Anderson or Asik last year when that was going on. Tyreke and Holiday are too similar IMO. I think he would be better running the second unit. If you bench EG you still have no spacing.

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Jrue is a 37.4% 3pt shooter for his career. His shot breakdown compared to reke is this:
0-3ft 26.4% (46.0%)
3-10ft 16.6% (19.8%)
10-16ft 14.7% (4.2%)
16ft<3pt 21.0% (16.8%)
3pt 21.4% (13.2%)

Jrue has shown the ability to play off ball and although reke can, Jrue does it better. We don't have spacing in the first unit as it is right now because no one can hit an open shot worth a damn.

I'm fine with Evans playing off the bench, that isn't a problem. I just have a problem with Monty playing him off the bench and only giving him 20mpg like last year before the injuries. It isn't a surprise as his mpg went up, his production actually improved PER36 as well.

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Memphis' front court is one of the best in the league. Randolph and Gasol play so well with each other its nice to watch, honestly. If we can get Asik/Davis playing like that mid-season, we can make a decent run at 45-50 wins imo.

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That is a tough task. They've built that through years of playing with each other. Plus Asik isn't 1/10th as skilled offensively as either of them. It works so well because Marc is so dangerous from the high post and Zbo knows how to get position down low better than anyone in the league to make up for his 1 inch vertical.

It won't take long for those two to be better defensively than Marc and Zach because Zbo has lost a few steps over the years.

Lastly it just takes a willingness to run the offense through the bigs to make it work and at times it seems like y'all have an issue with getting away from that.