Help me pick an NBA team
 

A bit about me-

I was a fan of Golden State in the Run TMC days

Live in Virginia, so the Wizards might be a choice, I love Arenas

Other players I like, in no particular order- Shaq, Lebron, Wade, Kirilenko, Brand, Duncan, Garnett, Yao, AI, Ray Allen, Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh

Love the ACC, hate Maryland

Help me decide what team to root for, convince me your team is the team, Wizards are the early leaders, I guarantee a visit to a game played ny the team I root for an an undying live for them

Re: Help me pick an NBA team
 

I don't want you to root for my team...you cant just pick a team! if you rooted for gs in the early days you shouldnt stop.

Re: Help me pick an NBA team
 

May I suggest the Toronto Raptors. A young team with a decent upside, plus Colangelo seems to have a magic touch. Added bonus: You get to claim you have culture because you cheer for a foreign team.

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It ok to stop rooting for the trailblazers?

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The bucks will be good this year. Charlie V is a monster

Re: Help me pick an NBA team
 

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May I suggest the Toronto Raptors. A young team with a decent upside, plus Colangelo seems to have a magic touch. Added bonus: You get to claim you have culture because you cheer for a foreign team.

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Not a foreign team, just a foreign sport. Besides which, we cut the hole in the peach basket first. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

Bosh's solid, and he's committed to the build. Colangelo's going to bring an awesome focus to the franchise. And the corpration has deep pockets. I predict a 2-year resteal of the title within the decade. This Euro commitment in the early development might very well reap a gem like Nowitziki.

Re: Help me pick an NBA team
 

I am a legitimate NBA junkie, so I feel like someone who can chime in here with a good response.

You want to pick a team that isn't good right now, but will improve every year, and has a chance to be a champion soon. (sorry Bulls fans, your team is building itself to be a 55 win team that gets knocked out in the second round every year [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]) Here are my three selections:

Orlando Magic- Dwight Howard is the real deal. I am a HUGE celtics fan, and have seen his ridiculous game destroy us many times (howard dunk on celtics ). Moving on to Darko, he can knock down the mid range jumper, and he averaged 2.1 blocks in 20 minutes/game last year. This is very good. In the backcourt, they have Jameer Nelson, who has an insane handle, and shot a ridicullous 42.4 percent from the 3-range last year. With the addition of Redick, this team has a very young starting five, and will shoot a lot of 3's, block a lot of shots, and play some fast break ball. Their bench is pretty thin, but the NBA is a starters league, and they are still developing anyways.

Phoenix- I know this is trendy, but they are unbelievably fun to watch. I will not miss a Suns game that is televised. In terms of entertaining players, Nash is the best passer in the game, Raja Bell is a lockdown defender with an attitude, Barbosa is blazing fast and a really good outside shooter, Marion is Marion, and don't forget Amare is coming back next year. They also have the first five position player since Magic Johnson in Boris Diaw. Seriously, their team ball is incredible, and if Amare is healthy, they should be the favorites to win it all. But fast break baskebtall doesn't work in the NBA playoffs? With Amare back, it will.

Memphis Grizzlies- I "adopted" the Grizzlies last year for the playoffs when the Celtics didn't make it, only to see them get absolutely owned by the Mavs. Pao Gasol is such a graceful big man, who can pass really well, and shoot with both hands around the basket. He also is a fierce competitor with a nasty streak--he CAN break the european stereotype. Also, i LOVE when they did with their offseason. Drafting Kyle Lowry was very smart (I think he was the best point guard in the draft), and trading Battier for Rudy Gay and Stro Swift was an absolute steal. They have a perfect mix of veterans, shooters, defenders, a do-it-all player in Mike Miller, along with an awesome aerial attack of Swift, Rudy Gay, and Hakim Warrick. This team will be a lot of fun, and could improve on last years 49 wins, depending on how Gasol heals from his injury.

Good luck picking a team. The NBA is such a great league.

Re: Help me pick an NBA team
 

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I don't want you to root for my team...you cant just pick a team! if you rooted for gs in the early days you shouldnt stop.

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I HATE this attitude. The Warriors are doing nothing to improve their franchise, have the worst best player in the league (J-Rich), have two horrible, overpaid white guys (Murphy and Dunleavy), and they continue to let Baron Davis launch 6 threes per game at a 31 percent clip. What loyalty have the Warriors shown to their fans? If i were a Warriors fan, I would boycott the team compmletely until Mullin were fired as GM, and something was done to turn around that franchise.

Re: Help me pick an NBA team
 

I can see being a fan of a certain player, but being a fan of... the colors on the uniforms? That makes no sense to me.

Teams aren't bound to one location, they change their players, coaches, and owners regularly, and even build new stadiums. Hell, they even change the colors of their uniforms at times.

Why on earth would anyone be a fan of a certain team?

Re: Help me pick an NBA team
 

I recommend the Chicago Packers.

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Does it even matter? You'll just stop rooting for your new adopted team when they have a losing season. Just pick whatever trendy team strikes your fancy (Phoenix obv.)

Re: Help me pick an NBA team
 

Got to love the assumptions people have jumped to in this thread. I don't consider it giving up on a team just because they had 3 cool guys when I was 12 and I don't root for them anymore. Haven't really watched to NBA since Jordan retired (from the Bulls) but I enjoyed the playoffs last year and am going to try and watch more.

To those that gave actual suggestions I say thanks. I have narrowed the choices to the Wizards and Magic. I like the idea of the up and coming team.

I think I have narrowed it down to the

Re: Help me pick an NBA team
 

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Why on earth would anyone be a fan of a certain team?

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Hometown variance, man.

Re: Help me pick an NBA team
 

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Why on earth would anyone be a fan of a certain team?

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Hometown variance, man.

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That's part of the point. They move.

Re: Help me pick an NBA team
 

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A bit about me-

I was a fan of Golden State in the Run TMC days

Live in Virginia, so the Wizards might be a choice, I love Arenas

Other players I like, in no particular order- Shaq, Lebron, Wade, Kirilenko, Brand, Duncan, Garnett, Yao, AI, Ray Allen, Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh

Love the ACC, hate Maryland

Help me decide what team to root for, convince me your team is the team, Wizards are the early leaders, I guarantee a visit to a game played ny the team I root for an an undying live for them

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Based on the bolded above, the Clippers might work for you. They run a nice team offense (in the sense that there are distributed touches), which I think is enjoyable to watch, play hard D (with the exception of Cassell) don't whine alot (with the exception of Cassell) and Sam Cassell is on the team (and he is awesome).

Actually, forget it. I don't want you rooting for my team cause we have enough bandwagoners now.

-Al

Re: Help me pick an NBA team
 

Yeah. I suppose so. Then again I live in a major city with 3 major league teams, a huge population base, and major market stability and aspirations of getting a NFL team. Toronto, evidently. But even cities like LA and NY do have that instability. Ceded.

Re: Help me pick an NBA team
 

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I don't want you to root for my team...you cant just pick a team! if you rooted for gs in the early days you shouldnt stop.

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Re: Help me pick an NBA team
 

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I don't want you to root for my team...you cant just pick a team! if you rooted for gs in the early days you shouldnt stop.

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Thought I explained why this doesn't really fit. Cliff Notes- That was 15 years ago and haven't closely followed the NBA since

Re: Help me pick an NBA team
 

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Does it even matter? You'll just stop rooting for your new adopted team when they have a losing season. Just pick whatever trendy team strikes your fancy (Phoenix obv.)

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Their style is a ton of fun to watch, but they're also a bunch of bitches and get on my nerves. But the main problem with phoenix is when bill walton covers one of their games. I keep worrying splooge is going to pour out of my TV set. Man I hate Walton.

I think that now Dirk is somewhat shedding his European pansy boy weakness, the Mavs are a ton of fun to watch. I'd say them.

Re: Help me pick an NBA team
 

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Why on earth would anyone be a fan of a certain team?

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Hometown variance, man.

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That's mainly it. But it's also more fun that way. If everyone just rooted for whoever kicked the most ass, it just wouldn't be very interesting.

For me, there's always my main teams, then some other teams I enjoy watching but that I wouldn't pledge much allegiance to. I'm a Boston sports fan, through and through (semi-hijack.. seriously GKA, change your avatar. He SUCKS), and I'd root for them over anybody. But there's always some other teams I enjoy to watch. With baseball, I've enjoyed the privilege of getting A's games on TV. In the NBA, I've really enjoyed watching the Pistons play. But if they're facing the Celtics, I root for the green, only to watch Doc not cover the inbounds pass.

Re: Help me pick an NBA team
 

Taking an example from hockey, there are national or regional considerations in sports sometimes. Footy fans over in Europe will recognize this too. America, not so much.

When the Leafs get knocked out or don't qualify for the playoffs, with the exception of Ottawa, which is a politician's town. Ugly freaking logos and arena too, but eh. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

I root for Canadian teams to bring the Cup home. I'm sure most fans in the UK thought of "You'll never walk alone" when the Scousers brought the silver home over AC Milan. That was an awesome match to watch.

Re: Help me pick an NBA team
 

First of all, Charlie Villenueva is not a monster. In fact, I doubt he is any better than a 15ppg/9rpg guy.

I think I get the point of your post. I think what you are looking for is a team with an interesting dynamic, that plays the game well, that has good player personalities (e.g., fun, but not deplorable like the Blazers), and that will probably be a contender to go deep into the playoffs.

The Chicago Bulls are going to be a great team this year. I don't know if they will be as fun to watch as the Phoenix Suns (who will be 65 wins good if Stoudamaire comes back healthy), but they will play solid, energetic basketball on both sides of the court. Their back court is young and aggressive - both Heinrich and Gordon can get into the paint, Heinrich plays great perimeter defensive. Andrew Noicioni is going to be a stud this year, Ben Wallace will play super defense. You got Tyrus Thomas coming off the bench; look for him to make some fun athletic plays during the year. Chicago will have some great games against the Cavs and Pistons; they will probably tangle with one of these teams in the playoffs and probably create a good 6 game or great 7 game series with either one. Good bench too. My first choice.

Phoenix you can't go wrong with, you should know why by now.

If Rudy Gay is as good as I think he is, take Memphis in two years (assuming they keep Gasol and get another star).

A'

Re: Help me pick an NBA team
 

ewwww bulls are so built for the regular season it's awful. who is their best player? deng? 1, they don't start a true point guard, and 2, they have no good offensive post players... two things which are VERY important for end-game and playoff basketball.

to the OP...if you are going to pick the wizards, please do it only because of location. their role players (hayes, haywood, daniels) are unbelievably weak, and this team has peaked IMO.

the pistons, cavs, heat, and nets are still better than the wiz, while teams like the bulls, magic, and bucks were close last year and improving a lot.

just me two cents.

Re: Help me pick an NBA team
 

GKA,

I wholly support your new avatar.

Re: Help me pick an NBA team
 

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I root for Canadian teams to bring the Cup home. I'm sure most fans in the UK thought of "You'll never walk alone" when the Scousers brought the silver home over AC Milan. That was an awesome match to watch.

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[img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

Re: Help me pick an NBA team
 

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ewwww bulls are so built for the regular season it's awful. who is their best player? deng? 1, they don't start a true point guard, and 2, they have no good offensive post players... two things which are VERY important for end-game and playoff basketball.

to the OP...if you are going to pick the wizards, please do it only because of location. their role players (hayes, haywood, daniels) are unbelievably weak, and this team has peaked IMO.

the pistons, cavs, heat, and nets are still better than the wiz, while teams like the bulls, magic, and bucks were close last year and improving a lot.

just me two cents.

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The mavs didn't start a true point guard the past two years, and they have been doing just fine.

Heinrich is going into his 4th year; no, he doesn't have the apg, but he has all the intangibles - good court awareness, good leadership up the court, defense, scoring ability. I think his assists will improve. Gordon has more upside left; Deng and Niocioni are still young and showed glimpses of becoming big time scorers.

the bulls also have scott skiles and I think it will be interesing to see what he does with players who are starting to full mature and the veteran leadership of wallace.

the bulls are not going to make it to the conference finals or the NBA finals; however, they will do very well in the 2nd round against whomever the play this year. Could be a nice pick.

Wizards, on the other hand, a terrible pick.

Re: Help me pick an NBA team
 

Phoenix Suns if you want to enjoy watching your team play.
Orlando if you want a startup team that you can follow for the next decade (assuming management doesn't blow it, which is a big assumption).
Bulls.

Re: Help me pick an NBA team
 

Dallas or Phoenix

Both play the same style as the Run TMC Warriors and are 10x as fun to watch as grind-it-out teams.

Re: Help me pick an NBA team
 

You might give heavier consideration to teams in Washington's division, so you'll be able to see more of their games live.

-McGee