| The Most Underrated |
|
|
| Written by Joe Buckley | |
| Friday, 29 August 2008 | |
 The Underrated: Philadelphia 76ers The Sixers, after half a season of usual and expected lacklustre performance, suddenly turned things around halfway through the year and put together a great string of wins, at one point winning something like 17 out of 21 games. Andre Miller and Andre Iguodala became the team leaders and the team followed suit with excellent performances from the likes of Louis Williams, Willie Green and rookie Thaddeus Young, who is a definite prodigy. This excellent streak was enough to get them into the playoffs, where they squared off with the Pistons. Of course, despite Philly’s recent success, people suggested sweeps and wouldn’t even give the Sixers a chance. However Philly shocked the world by going up 2-1 in the series, and coming extremely close to 3-1. In the end Detroit did overpower the young Sixers, but the statement had been made, and suddenly people were aware of Philadelphia. They gave one of the best performances that Detroit has had to face in a few years, and have improved tremendously from last year. With the addition of Elton Brand, they really could do great things in the East, and i believe after a year or two of developing chemistry and adding some more pieces (namely sharpshooters) to the mix, they could be serious title contenders. PG: Andre Miller SG: Willie Green SF: Andre Iguodala PF: Thaddeus Young/ Jason Smith C: Sam Dalembert. Golden State Warriors The Warriors, missing out marginally on the playoffs, were not a great team, but on their day they could hang with any other team easily. The Warriors ended up missing the playoffs only because of what seemed like a withdrawal of effort and some questionable decisions. What i am confident of is that they would have done better against the Lakers than the Nuggets did, they wouldn’t of advanced, but they wouldn’t have been swept either. The Warriors had some great talent, with Baron Davis, one of my favourite players in the league, Stephen Jackson who is another of my favourites and then young talent such as Monta Ellis and Matt Barnes. But seemed to lack a killer instinct and to put teams away, over the season they underestimated too many teams and that ended with them missing the playoffs at the end. Of course now, Baron has left and the Warriors seem to be headed downhill. But maybe only for a short time, with some talented youngsters that may or may not be able to transcend into stars. PG: Baron Davis SG: Monta Ellis SF: Stephen Jackson PF: Matt Barnes C: Andris Biedrins Houston Rockets This was probably the hardest team to place, as I was actually this close to putting them in the over rated articles, because let’s face it, there is a pretty big argument to make that they should be there. The Rockets are a good team, and generally most fans acknowledge this, they aren’t technically under rated. They could be called over rated because they are definitely capable of more than the first round exits they have endured for so long, but I’m taking the side that they are actually under rated because definitely no one expected them to win 22 straight games, most of them without their star centre Yao Ming. The Rockets are a great team, were a title contender last season until the playoffs began, and yet next season looks even better. The Olympics have proven that Yao is back at full strength, they have made a major acquisition in Ron Artest as well as adding other role players such as Brent Barry. The strongest team on this page. PG: Rafer Alston SG: Tracy McGrady SF: Shane Battier PF: Luis Scola C: Yao Ming The rest of the contenders: Atlanta Hawks: Though they are a weak team overall, no one ever expected them to take Boston to seven games in the first round, almost pulling off the biggest upset of NBA history possibly. Portland Trailblazers: They were way better than people projected, despite the youthfulness and several key injuries. They are a team on the rise and I think it is actually scary how good they could be. Sacramento Kings: Just barely under rated, but at the end of the season the Kings did actually look fairly solid and did upset a lot of teams as the playoff race got tight. Unfortunately this all happened after they had reached the elimination point. Miami Heat: No really I’m just kidding         Set as favorite Bookmark Comments
(1)
...
written by Smokey , September 03, 2008
I'd say Warriors is a bit overrated. maybe not but definitely not underrated.
Votes: +0
report abuse
vote down
vote up
|
Subscribe to this comment's feed
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
