Better and worse than your expectations

[Swish]

Topic stolen from another forum (mine)

There have been many teams expected to do good things, that flopped, and there have been a few that have done things that no one thought was possible, list opinions and reasons!?



What I think:


Positive:

76ers

This team doesn't have a lot of amazing players like the Lakers, Celtics, Mavericks, Knicks or Heat but they manage to be 40-32 at the 5th spot in the Eastern Conference standings! They're above Knicks who in my opinion are the better team on paper! They've been really surprising to me this season and I think they've made a good choice of keeping Iguodala in town since they've been really successful this season. I think Doug Collins should get coach of the year.

Spurs:

Even though they've had a very good team for lots of years with Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili in the same team for lots of years, they are old right now and I wasn't expecting them to make it to the 1st spot in the Western Conference standings! They've been really surprising me and they will end up with a 60+ record despite Duncan's loss. At the beginning of the season, I was saying that the Spurs wouldn't go far because of their age and everything but they really surprised me.

Negative:

Bucks:

Nothing really happened this season for them to have an excuse for missing this year's playoffs.. they made it last year! This year they've added some players to their roster like Chris Douglas McRoberts and Maggette but couldn't even manage to take the 8th spot! It's true that Brandon Jennings was injured for lots of time but I was still expecting them to grab a playoffs seed.

Warriors:

Man! Every year, I expect them to become better and they actually had a chance to make the playoffs! I think they're still in the playoff race mathematically but in my opinion they won't make it and it's only because of their lack of focus on the defensive part of the game. In the summer, when the Warriors signed David Lee, I said that they would make the playoffs since Curry improved, Ellis is a beast and then they have David Lee. I was expecting these three to make a good trio but nothing of that really happened. To top it all off, Dorrell Wright improved a lot! (even has a chance to make the most improved player of the year) but the Warriors still can't manage to be close to the playoffs. AGAIN.

 

[Swish]

BUMP FOR NOTICE

 

[bestkeptsecret13]

I'd say Milwaukee and Houston underachieved the most. There were some idiots out there that expected Milwaukee to compete for the Central Division title, and while I think that is stupid, I did actually think they could compete for the 5th/6th spot in the Eastern Conference. I think Skiles is running out of time in Milwaukee, because things have just been a mess up there this season.

As for Houston, with the return of Yao I'm pretty sure a lot of people thought they would be a lot better. Yao-Scola-Martin-Brooks was a pretty nice core group of players, so I doubt anybody expected them to be out of the playoff picture at the beginning of the year. I know Yao got hurt and they've made some trades, but I'm just basing this on where I had them predicted before the season started.

As far as over achievers go, I don't think anybody expected the Bulls and Spurs to be #1 in their conferences. I'm also surprised to see Memphis and New Orleans in the playoffs (at the beginning of the year I would have given those spots to Utah and Houston). Indiana could also be an over achiever making the playoffs, even though they don't have a .500 record. I can't remember anybody predicting them to make the playoffs this season.