Re: Simmons must be high

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Josh wrote:

either that or this is some kind of reverse jinx going on...

he has us sixth and (get this!) Washington and Detroit
third and second!

--- end ---

Josh, you of all people should appreciate someone willing to stick their
neck out in predicting the upcoming season. You have hammered "experts" for
repeating the same things and picking the same teams over and over. Now
Simmons, a bigger NBA junkie than any of the "experts" sticks his neck out
with a couple of picks and you jump him for it. Would you rather he go with
the typical "the Celtics finished second in the conference last year and
added Vin Baker... blah, blah, blah..." 

I think he has Washington too high, but the Wiz do look like a much improved
roster. I don't know about the team, but the roster looks better.

As for Detroit, I'm really coming around on them. They're deep, they're
committed to defense and I don't think they'll miss Stackhouse as much as
everyone thinks. One of the reasons they had success last year was Carlisle
was able to convince Stackhouse to take fewer shots. If you look at last
year's scoring stats, Hamilton isn't too far off of Stackhouse's production.
Obviously, Hamilton isn't the one-on-one player Stackhouse is, but he's very
capable of getting 18 a night. That, with their defense, depth and
unselfishness, makes the Pistons tough.

The East is hard to figure. Orlando adds Grant Hill to a team that won 44
games. Milwaukee, Toronto, Philly, Atlanta, New Orleans and Washington all
appear to be better. Jersey clearly is the class of the conference. Are the
Celtics better? I don't think they are. I don't think they're much worse,
but a drop of a few games could mean several spots in the conference
standings.

Anyway, my point is... you always want these "experts" to use their heads
and make predictions based on what they believe will happen and not simply
on what happened last year. Simmons is doing that, whether you agree with
him or not.

Mark