Re: ESPN Insider Power Rankings

[Kestutis.Kveraga@dartmouth.edu (Kestutis Kveraga)]

--- You wrote:
Kestas, you missed my point.

I'm not saying this is right. I'm just saying we all tend to look only at
the Celtics and lose sight of the big picture. Here's someone trying to look
at the league as a whole, seeing the Celtics and still seeing a team with no
center, no point guard and a lot of players who play the same positions. You
say there's no reason to believe the Celtics will be worse, and that's true.
The point is, there's significant reason to believe other teams will be much
better. 
--- end of quote ---

I meant, they will DO no worse, i.e., they at least kept pace with the rest of
the league (with some teams possibly improving more, and others less, not at
all, or regressing). Looking at your examples, while Atlanta has a chance to be
better if their 'chemistry' is right, I don't see what the big deal is about
Detroit (unless Webber signs there; aside from that, is Rodney White likely to
do more for Detroit next season than our rookie trio for us?), New Jersey (how
did they improve relative to us?), or even Washington (unless Kwame has the
impact of Duncan and Jordan can still carry the team into the playoffs). Of the
teams that were already better than us, only Orlando seems poised to improve
substantially, perhaps Indiana with their maturing young talent, but the others
are looking like they'll stay where they are (Philly, Milwaukee, Charlotte), or
even regress (Miami, NY, Toronto). Whether these playoffs teams regress enough
to allow us to make the playoffs remains to be seen, but the chances that at
least one of them will do so are pretty good, IMO. In the West, only 3 teams
were worse than us, and only one (LAC) seems to have a chance to be better than
us next season (and even that's doubtful). 
Obviously, a major reshuffling of talent may change the pecking order somewhat,
but in a way, NBA talent is a 'zero sum game' - if say, NY gets stronger by
landing David Robinson, then SA gets weaker. Trades may improve both teams
somewhat (thus raising the overall quality of the league), but I'm guessing 
most trades actually don't accomplish that.
Kestas