FanHouse

The Knights of the FanHouse Roundtable have assembled to consider the NBA in '08-09. In this dispatch, we discuss the bottom half of the Western Conference. On Thursday, we'll look higher. Be sure to also check out the hub of our NBA Preview activity.

Ziller: I think we all expect Memphis and Oklahoma City to grace the bottom of the standings. Everyone would agree Sacramento's absolute best-case scenario would be challenging for the eighth seed. There are 12 more Western Conference teams. Do they all have legitimate chances to make the playoffs? Which ones have the highest likelihood of joining the troika of suck at the bottom of the West?

Matt Moore:These questions are always hard for me because I always like the bad teams more than the good teams.

Well I for one think that the Grizzlies will be much bett ... sigh. Yeah, thirty wins. Sigh. Some day, Grizz. Some day.

Okay, let's get one thing clear. If there was a ten-point scale from stable to complete implosion, the Nuggets are at Spinal Tap. It goes to eleven. Superstar small forward with off-court distractions, expiring contract worth more than most financial firms are now worth in an aging superstar guard, no interior defense and a coach that looks like he just wants it all to end? Yeah, his team is over like snap bracelets. Unless this team gets a significant upgrade at multiple positions off a sucker team wanting AI, this could be an utter disaster.

NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. ESPN The Magazine The Blog, via BDL. Investigating the birth of Nightmare Ant.

2. Third Quarter Collapse. Everyone thinks Hedo Turkoglu could be a great fit on the Lakers. Here's an exhaustive look at possibilities.

3. Chicago Tribune, via Blog-a-Bull. "[Derrick] Rose is having the best training camp of anybody on the team."

4. 48 Minutes of Hell. Joel Kimmel, the guy that does those awesome NBA portraits, has an art book coming out in a few weeks.

5. Ball Don't Lie. One-time European player Dominique Wilkins thinks Josh Childress made a bad move this summer. Of course, 'Nique works for the Hawks ...

6. The Blowtorch. More life lessons with Brad Miller.

Greg Oden made his preseason debut Tuesday night, at home against the Kings. As you'd expect, Trail Blazers fans combusted on Oden's introduction and after just about every play he made. And he made plenty of plays ... ESPN's J.A. Adande and The Oregonian's Jason Quick talk about Rudy Fernandez's premiere, which had some irresistible moments, but Oden was everything that has been promised.

Within the first three minutes, Oden has hung three fouls on Sacramento starting center Spencer Hawes, a normally mammoth looking fellow who instead resembled an aardvark next to Oden's elephantine stature. But despite the overwhelming size and strength advantage, Oden was the player fighting for position and lunging after rebounds and twisting through traffic to get closer to the ball. He has David Robinson's size and Dennis Rodman's energy.

This isn't to crown Oden so early ... it was 20 minutes in a preseason game against, again, Spencer Hawes. G.O.'s offense is limited to getting good position and dunking the ball at this point -- he didn't show an inclination to face up or watch for cutters (not that Portland cut much around him). Defense, of course, is his calling card, and he showed real affinity for keeping Sacramento's bigs away from the rim. But he has a lot of work. And he needs to stay healthy.

Honestly, though: the Western Conference should be scared of this guy. Hawes should be scared, Chris Kaman should be scared, Shaquille O'Neal should be terrified, Mehmet Okur and Carlos Boozer should acquire some Advil. LaMarcus Aldridge has it right in a quote in Quick's piece: "Greg is a man-child." Greg Oden means business, and he showed Tuesday that he is finally ready to play.

UPDATE: Lest you consider me too prone to exclamation, the most rational writer in the land, Kelly Dwyer, has similar thoughts.

Houston's outgoing rookie class might have a touch of rhythm, but Sacramento's newcomers are surely taking over the throne this season. The dance contest starts at about 2 min 40 sec.



That's Jason Thompson up first, followed by Bobby Brown and Donté Greene. Thompson wins the crowd vote, but Greene's wilin' antics get my trophy.

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Yesterday we had the overview; today we have the predictions. The Pacific Division appears to be no better than a two-team race, with a third team potentially in the mix, and the last two teams, well, finishing in last. Let's start things off in the cellar and work our way up, shall we?

The Los Angeles Clippers (again, regal) are going to have a tough go of it due to the enormous drop off in talent they have between their starting lineup and the players coming off the bench. In fact, if you want a visual of said drop off, go watch this, and pretend the guy jumping off the building is falling in the space between the talent of the Clippers' starting players and that of their bench players. And the parachute not opening represents the gigantic FAIL that the Clippers can expect this season anytime the bench takes the floor to try and hold onto a lead. It's not going to be pretty, folks.

Up north where the Golden State Warriors play, it won't be pretty either, at least for the first few months of the season. That's because their best player (apologies, Mr. Maggette) decided to engage in low-speed moped riding during the off-season (this still amazes me ... the moped = injury part), which will lead to his absence from the lineup, and an unavoidably bad start for the Warriors.

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A season ago, the Pacific Division was able to send just two of its teams to the playoffs, but one of them went all the way to the Finals. And while that's not likely to change this season -- at least the part about the two playoff teams -- each club definitely has its share of intriguing story lines.

Let's start off in Los Angeles, where the Lakers' playoff run last season took place with one of the team's key components on the sidelines. There are always many stories in Laker-land, but a lot of the team's fans seem to be most interested in this one: With the return of Andrew Bynum, do the Lakers have a shot to win 70 games?

Despite the recent flood of positive Andrew Bynum stories hitting the L.A. papers lately (seriously, his P.R. machine is working overtime), I'm not convinced that his addition to the lineup automatically makes the Lakers unstoppable. There's the whole thing about figuring out how to co-exist with Pau Gasol, and how Lamar Odom will perform (likely) playing further away from the basket. When you add in the fact that even if the team was capable of winning 70 games, there's really no motivation to do so, unless someone else is on the same ridiculous pace and it would mean home court advantage.

NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. Posting and Toasting. The Knicks have given Seth from Posting and Toasting great access to training camp, and Seth is making the most of it.

2. NBA.com. Miami's Erik Spoelstra put the Heat playbook on iPods for the team.

3. You Been Blinded. Download Ron Artest's mixtape. It's inspirational, man.

4. MLive.com, via DBB. The renewed Pistons are knocking each other the [blank] out in Michael Curry's practices.

5. Boston Globe. Don't look now, but Darius Miles had, reportedly, a great first practice. So much for that 2009 free agent class, eh Portland?

6. Sacramento Bee. Spencer Hawes has refused to take the Kings' wind-sprint conditioning test. ... I'll be in the closet, with a plastic bag.

A sad week continues. First, Shareef Abdur-Rahim ends his career after 12 seasons. Then, Stephon Marbury and Allan Houston conspire to threaten the D'Antoni system in New York. And now: Jason Williams, a month after signing a small deal with the Clippers, announces he'll hang up to tap shoes. From a Clippers press release via Clips Nation:

Los Angeles Clippers point guard Jason Williams announced his retirement from the NBA today, ending his 10-year career. Signed by the Clippers as a free agent on August 7, 2008, Williams did not appear in a game for Los Angeles.

Hell, White Chocolate didn't appear in an official practice for the Clips. But he racked up enough notoriety over 10 big-league seasons, including a championship run with Miami's Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O'Neal tandem. Of course, all anyone remembers will be the littany of brilliantly erratic plays he brought to the Greatest Show on Earth: the 1999-2001 Sacramento Kings. Unsurprisingly, all top 10 plays in this lovely mix come from that era. (No. 4 is a particular favorite.)

NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. Ft. Worth Star-Telegram. Dirk follows Shaq's lead, announces his retirement date a few years ahead of time.

2. San Jose Mercury News. Chris Mullin doesn't seem at all mad at Monta Ellis. Turns out Mully is a Vespa enthusiast too.

3. Sacramento Bee. Randy Brown tried to punk Kevin Martin. It would have been a good one.

4. Indy Cornrows. Making the case for bringing Mike Dunleavy Jr. -- possibly Indiana's best scorer -- off the bench.

5. Blazers Edge. How trade sausage is made.

6. Toronto Star. The new Raptors road alts are pretty hot. Every fanbase wants black jerseys.

NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. TrueHoop. Spending a day with NBA referees. Tons of great notes in here.

2. Palm Beach Post. Michael Beasley comes ... err, clean: "And when asked if he was hiding in the hotel room when security first entered Beasley answered, 'Honestly, I don't know.' I'm not sure our young protagonist understands what that word means.

3. Ball in Europe. Highlights from Josh Childress' first preseason game in Greece.

4. OregonLive. Nate McMillan wants to dampen the high expectations facing the Blazers. Good luck.

5. Washington Post, via Bullets Forever. The Brendan Haywood-Etan Thomas war is over!

6. Sactown Royalty. (Self-link alert!) Investigating the causes of Sacramento's bloated salary.