isn't that young. They have kidd at the point. If Kidd is injured they are pretty much cooked. Dirk and Howard can't carry the team by themselves.

Though I don't think Denver will last too long. Look at how  much they are paying and the results? They have so many great players yet they can't make it out of the first round. Same with Houston. How long is Houston going to continue paying big bucks for BOTH yao and mcgrady who both gets injured for huge chunks of time.

Portland is scary. They burned themselves out this year but next year they'll have experience and probably a motivated Oden.

we go for the jugular and try to get a 7th seed. Basically in the first down we really need to avoid the lakers, they would destory us in 4 or 5 games and it wouldn't even be close. I feel like the spurs, lakers and the utah jazz are the only teams that will gurantee us a 1st round exit. Every other team we have a shot against, come playoff time our team will ball, playing their best. I guarantee it.

...we might be able to take the Spurs. We play them pretty tough. Same with Phoenix, who to my mind just got weaker against us by ditching Marion. Shaq won't  be able to keep up, Nash can't defend, Ellis can get whatever midrange J he wants against their man defense.

     We have two excellent young players in Monta and Biedrins. Wright has shown that he may be a keeper. And it's not like Baron and Jax are 38. Our future looks pretty good. We could make some minor tweaks with our role players, like getting better percentage 3-point shooters for instance. But there's no reason to make any drastic moves under the assumption that we're nothing but a perennial 7th or 8th seed. The Lakers are ridiculous (thanks Memphis), but outside of them I don't see anyone that will be better than ours for sure 2-3 years from now.
     

he could be doing what he did against Seattle defensively all game, and he will do that if the Warriors get into the playoffs, but Baron paces himself. He realized the Warriors were slipping against Seattle so he turned his effort up.

But we can't expect the most injury prone man on our team to play all out all the time when he is going 40+ minutes a night, that would be too short term. Baron might play soft defense in the first quarter, but if a possession matters in the fourth he's going to be the best defender the Warriors have (besides Jack).

It sucks because he could drive to the hoop at will all the time, but because he is so injury prone, he settles for perimeter shots.

But as we saw last year, come playoff time there is no game afterwards to save your energy for, every game could be your last, and Baron knows it so he plays like it.

This year and next are probably going to the the last years of the dominant Western teams.  We worry about the future, but it's not really so scary:

Phoenix - After two years, Steve Nash (the motor that makes them go) and The Big Cactus are going to be shadows of what they are now.  Giving up Marion was a big hit on their future, now they only have Amare as their superstar of tomorrow.

Dallas -  Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, Dirk Nowitzki, Diop, Jamaal Magloire, Stackhouse.. these guys aren't getting any younger or better.  After getting rid of Devin Harris, they're only rising star is Josh Howard.

San Antonio - Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili are still going to be there and be good, but Tim Duncan isn't going to play at this level forever.  Does San Antonio know how to survive without a dominant big man?  They've had one (or two) to rely on for as long as I can remember.

Houston Rockets - Yao Ming is what he is.  The fact that he's expected to play hard for the China national team and shoulder the load for 37 mpg on the Rockets means he's going to have a very injury-plagued career (as history has shown.)  TMac is going to go the route of Vince Carter soon.  After those two, they don't have much star power to carry them.

The next big five in the Western Conference are going to be the Lakers, the Hornets, the Blazers, the Utah Jazz, and our beloved Golden State Warriors.

Future Eastern Powerhouses:

Miami - Dwyane Wade, Shawn Marion, Dorrell Wright, Daequan Cook, and a bunch of expiring contracts and salary cap room mean this team has a bright and promising future.  Getting rid of Shaq's contract was probably the deal of the century, right next to the Lakers getting Gasol for nothing.

Cleveland - Lebron James made it to the NBA Finals with no supporting cast.  Imagine what's going to happen now that he has some decent teammates.

Orlando - The Man-Beast Dwight Howard is only going to become manlier and beastlier.  I think they're going to regret giving Rashard Lewis so much money, but they're always going to be a competitive team in the East.

Atlanta - This team just oozes with talent.  Right now they're just a young talented team where nobody knows how they fit in with eachother.  This team will only get better with time.