Re: Playoffs

[Roy Enrile <renrile@qualcomm.com>]

On Wed, 6 Oct 1999, Alex Wang wrote:

> When I look at this roster vs. the 97-98 roster, I feel like
> there's been an exceptional upgrade in talent. You have 
> 1. Potapenko as a significant upgrade over DeClercq.
> 2. Walker, Fortson, and Battie as your forwards as opposed to Walker 
>    and McCarty. 
> 3. Pierce instead of Ron Mercer. 
> 4. A deep bench of Cheaney, Williams, Battie, Barros, and McCarty as 
>    opposed to guys like Bowen, Travis Knight, and Tyus Edney.

To play devils advocate, the C's were a below average man to man defensive
and shotblocking team, and keep adding worse defenders, while losing
hard nosed hustlers like Bowen, Billups, Declerq (Fox, and Wesley in the
past).  

Though the team will be physical, they've become slower at almost all
positions, and the shooting-guards still don't have distribution skills
(Spree, Penny, Hornacek, Ainge).

> 
> he really did have to sit on the perimeter and dribble a lot while
> Mercer was running around screens. 

I agree Kenny will be better.  But the C's will still run that
play too often with Cheaney(I predict as a starter over Fortson).

> 
> Given the talent upgrade, I would expect them to win significantly more
> games and make the playoffs, and not necessarily as the 8th seed.

Agreed, even with the drawbacks, the C's should do extremely well,
because offensive firepower, and depth will be valuable in the East.