wait till next year!

Da Realist:

as presently constituted, who in the west is gonna
beat the spurs next year?  i don't see anybody out
there.

Waldini:

Right now...no one. I broke down the top contenders to
overtake them.

Phoenix
I know folks are savoring Kurt Thomas going to Phoenix for
Quentin Richardson but do you think that will be enough to
unseat the Spurs. They need to add depth to the bench to
make me a believer.

Dallas
Folks talk about how much better they are on defense but
I still think this team is a pretender and not contender.
Can you honestly say Dirk will put a team on his back and
carry them to glory when needed? They got lucky when he
nutted up against Houston and Terry bailed him out.
But against the Spurs, I dont think they can win with
his inferior play.

Houston
People are waiting for T-Mac and Yao to be the latest
version of Shaq and Kobe. Sorry folks it aint happening.
Not with Bobby Sura, Juwan Howard, and David Wesley as
your additional starters. Plus Tracy has yet to show me
the same hunger as his counterpart, Kobe, and will his
team to victory. And did I mention Van Gundy is OVERRATED :-)

Minnesota
This was the team that was supposed to challenge San
Antonio but we all know what happened at the end of
this movie. And to make matters worse, Sam I am and
Spree are gone leaving the team with an horrible center
(Kandy man), a slow shooting guard that should be a small
forward (Wally Z) and point guard who is injury prone
(Troy Hudson). Garnett is one of the top 5 players in
the league but he can't beat the odds with a team like
this.

Sadly, the other teams would go down quicker than the
4 listed above and that's not a good thing. Some people
believe Golden State will make the move to decent squad
next yr but I dont buy it.

Da Realist:

no one to push the slightly-better-than-average spurs,
huh?  except maybe the slightly-better-than-average
pistons.  where's the competition?  oh well, i'll
worry about that next year.

Waldini:

Sadly my friend, you are right, the league is in decline.
I think both teams get put out in 5 by the top teams of past.
But that's the state of the NBA and its hard to see the other
teams beating the 2 finalists.