“Battle of the Super Teams”

The West is stacked like never before as the ’03-04 season kicks off.

Never in the history of sports has there been a battle as epic as the one that is about to take place during the 2003-2004 NBA season. Never before has there been a group of teams this dominating all vying for the title at the same time. What we are about to witness over the next nine months will be the most pulse-pounding, adrenaline-filled clash of the titans the sports world has ever seen. Any one of these teams would have been an absolute lock to win the title five years ago. And now all five are battling in one season for one shot to win one title. This is it NBA fans – the basketball equivalent to World War II. Except there’s no Axis, and their sure aren’t any Allies. It’s a “every man for himself” free-for-all. And only the strongest, toughest, and most focused team will be left standing in the end.

This off-season, it’s been an veritable arms-race atop the Western Conference, with each team desperately trying to counter the moves of their opponents. A myriad of trades and signings have reshaped the entire foundation of these teams. This summer, each day revealed a new move as they hoarded talent to the point where no team outside of these five super-powers has a hope to contend for the title. And just in case you were in a coma for the past three months, here’s a quick recap of what went down.

The Timberwolves acquire Sam Cassell in a trade with the Bucks
The Lakers sign Gary Payton with their 4.5M exception
The Lakers sign Karl Malone with their 1.5M exception
The Spurs sign Timberwolves center, Rasho Nesterovic
The Timberwolves sign Michael Olowokandi with their 4.5M exception
The Timberwolves sign Lakers forward Mark Madsen
The Timberwolves acquire Latrell Sprewell in a four-way trade involving the Knicks
The Kings acquire Brad Miller in a three-way trade with the Spurs and Pacers
The Spurs acquire Ron Mercer and Hidayet Turkoglu in a three-way trade with the Kings and Pacers
The Mavericks acquire Antawn Jamison in a trade with the Warriors

And just in case you don’t understand the enormous implications of these moves, let me explain this further. This is a list of the teams with the five best records last season acquiring five All-Stars, plus six other high-quality players by giving up little or nothing in return. The result will be a playoff hunt that will send shockwaves throughout the sports world when these super-powers collide.

The chase for the title will be intense, and only when the Western Conference Champion in crowned in June will we truly know who the victors will be. But that doesn’t mean we can’t analyze, speculate, and scrutinize these five teams down to the very last detail in the mean time. After all, that’s half the fun. So DeROK.Net has set up a method to evaluate the five starters and sixth man on each team in an attempt to get a grasp on where they’re headed. Players will be matched up against each other based on position for the starters, and the sixth men as a group, with the best player receiving a score of ten. The remaining players will then be scored RELATIVE to the player who received a ten. The scores for each team will be then be combined for a final score.

Point Guard:

Team	Player	Score	Analysis
Kings	Mike Bibby	7	He’s injury prone, and he just doesn’t have the same type of weapons to work with like the other PG’s. There’s your explanation for the seven.
Lakers	Gary Payton	10	There’s no doubt that GP is the top point guard of the bunch. And he’ll have plenty of opportunity to pick up assists on his stacked team.
Mavericks	Steve Nash	8.5	I can’t say that Nash will put up stats like Sammy. But he’ll be close. Thus the half point deduction. I couldn’t give him an 8 knowing how he can seem super-human at times.
Spurs	Tony Parker	7	He may have won a championship, but his own team was shopping for Jason Kidd. Not a sign of confidence by his coach.
Timberwolves	Sam Cassell	9	There’s not a doubt in my mind that Cassell deserves this ranking. Watching him in action with KG in the pre-season was incredible. He’s going to flourish in his new home.

Shooting Guard:

Team	Player	Score	Analysis
Kings	Doug Christie	5	Would you take 2 Doug Christie’s or 1 Kobe? The five seems generous now doesn’t it?
Lakers	Kobe Bryant	10	He’s the ten without a doubt. Although I’m not taking his legal troubles into consideration. I have no clue how badly that will affect the Lakers, so I’ll just throw them out.
Mavericks	Michael Finley	8	He’s not Kobe, but Finley is without question the #2 SG on the list.
Spurs	Emanuel Ginobili	6	He was a good surprise for the Spurs, but the question is how much further he can improve. My guess is not enough to challenge Sprewell for the third spot.
Timberwolves	Latrell Sprewell	7.5	Spree may be aging, but he’s still got game. I expect thim to flourish now that’s he’s playing his nautral position of shooting guard.

Small Forward:

Team	Player	Score	Analysis
Kings	Pedrag Stojakovic	6.5	Stojo’s close to Wally, but he won’t be in nearly as good an environment.
Lakers	Rick Fox	5.5	Yeah, he kicked Wally’s tail in the playoffs, but Wally’s going to be in a completely different situation, he can’t score like Wally, and he’s injured. Don’t complain.
Mavericks	Dirk Nowitzki	10	He’s heads and shoulders about the rest in this group. Not even close.
Spurs	Bruce Bowen	4.5	Bruce just isn’t getting much love from me here. He’s not giving me much to work with.
Timberwolves	Wally Szczerbiak	7	Wally is going to be more open than CVS with the guns on the T-Wolves squad. I doubt he’ll be an All-Star again, but I’m guessing he’ll have better numbers than the year he made the team.

Power Forward:

Team	Player	Score	Analysis
Kings	Chris Webber	8	I’m being generous here. He’s going to miss half the season at best.
Lakers	Karl Malone	6.5	He’s not what he used to be. His effectiveness is going to be limited playing next to Shaq. What a lousy Ring-Ho!
Mavericks	Antawn Jamison	6	Antawn isn’t going to make a dent against the elite power forwards of the West.
Spurs	Tim Duncan	10	Nobody’s accomplished single-handedly as much as Tim Duncan in a long time.
Timberwolves	Kevin Garnett	10	That being said – I still believe KG’s the better player. He’s just a victim of circumstance. But that’s in the past. I’ll give him a tie with Duncan.

Center:

Team	Player	Score	Analysis
Kings	Vlade Divac	5	Gettin’ old. Good luck withut Webber for half the season.
Lakers	Shaquille O’Neal	10	There’s no arguing this. Even if he is a meat-head.
Mavericks	Raef LaFrentz	4.5	You can shoot the three, but can you match up with a real center? Don’t think so.
Spurs	Radoslav Nesterovic	6	I’ve watched this guy for four years, and he’ll fold like a cheap lawn chair the second he faces Shaq.
Timberwolves	Michael Olowokandi	7	Olowokandi was about to break out last year. Fortunately for the Wolves, he got hurt and fell under the radar. So the stupid Spurs threw money at our soft center instead of signing the Kandiman for a measely 15 million.

6th Man:

Team	Player	Score	Analysis
Kings	Brad Miller	8	All-Star Center in the East. The East. He’s going to get his tail kicked in the West.
Lakers	Derek Fischer	6	A good player, but nothing special.
Mavericks	Shawn Bradley	6	Raef or Bradley. Pick your choice of worthless, soft center.
Spurs	Robert Horry	7	Nobody’s hit more big shots then Horry over the years. Plus he’s won five titles. Might be on the decline and a jerk, but he’s good for seven.
Timberwolves	Troy Hudson	10	You take Hudson over any other sixth man on this list. He has the power to explode at any second. Plus he can play SG next to Cassell or PG next to Spree.

Totals:

Team	Score	Analysis
Kings	39.5	Hurt. Injuries are killing this team. Plus, they did the least to improve out of all these teams. The window is closing quickly.
Lakers	48	They pulled in two Hall-of-Famers for nothing. They’re going to be better than last year. But Malone isn’t going to be as big a factor as he was on Utah, and after the big four, nobody scares me. This is their score without considering the Kobe situation, and that’s definitely going to take its toll.
Mavericks	43	Dallas has talent. They’ll shoot the lights out on you. But look at their glaring weakness in the big man positions, and this is a very deceptive 43.
Spurs	40.5	They’re better than the Mavs regardless of the score. This team is notorious for being greater than the sum of its parts. Plus they’re probably the deepest team, and that wasn’t taken into consideration. But honestly, how much do your eighth and ninth men help you? Their real score is probably around 45.
Timberwolves	50.5	I had no idea how the scores would total before I wrote this article. I just scored as I went and this is how it added up with me trying to be as unbiased as possible. I even had an outsider evaluate this for me and he agreed. And when he didn’t agree, it was that people like Rick Fox should be ranked lower. This team has players who fit into their role perfectly. They have four All-Stars among the five starters. Sam Cassell looks amazing in his new role. I expect Sprewell will do the same since they’re in similar situations. They probably don’t have this much of an edge since they have the weakest bench. But with such great interchangeable players it shouldn’t be an issue, barring injury.

So there you have it, a preview to the Battle of the Super-Teams. And the greatest player in the game with his new squad of Fun Police are primed and ready to take on any challenger.

About Derek Hanson