Re: the state of the rivalry

[Donald_A_Liles@mail.bankone.com (Donald A Liles)]

Kobe Bryant played rather ineffectively most of last year if memory serves. In 
fact, I may be off base, but I still do not think that he is as good as his hype
has said that he is. Sure, he would have the occasional flash, but I remember 
reading articles late in the year with the authors questioning the logic of 
skipping college for Kobe. Even the new $120M man, Kevin Garnett, struggled 
prior to the all star break in his first year, he did not establish himself 
truly until the second year. 

It is the rare player, who comes into the NBA and is spectacular from day one. 
Let's see, has MJ ever had a bad game? No, I am not comparing Chauncey to 
Jordan, merely that every player has bad games. And with regards to Edney and 
Bowen being able to pick up Pitino's system, they also have experience playing 
at the professional level, whereas Chauncey has a little more than a month 
playing in the NBA. Edney has played for a couple of years now? and Bowen played
internationally and in the CBA.

Where would we be in the standings if we had drafted a different pg this year. 
Ok, so we draft Brevin Knight, this would give us automatically more wins? I 
think not. The only player who would have helped us win more games from this 
year's draft is wearing #21 at San Antonio. Great Bobby Jackson has looked good 
in Denver, and how many wins do they have? HMMM. Our team in general is young 
and they have plenty to learn, I think that it is unrealistic to compare 
ourselves to the Lakers as they have been rebuilding and retooling their team 
for a few years now, and let's see we started in June? Pardon the sarcasm, but 
your expectations are unrealistic at this point.

What do other people think?

Don