Grade Your Team (NBA) (logo, arena, coach, playoffs)

[JJG]

My team: San Antonio Spurs

Overall:
History and Tradition: B-
Division: A+
Uniforms: A
Ownership: A
Location: B+
Arena: C+
Fans: A

Comments: With 4 NBA titles in 7 years, they are the official NBA franchise of Texas, and arguably this decade's dynasty. Hopefully they'll pull it out and win it all this year if they can survive the West. The Spurs get points for being in the toughest conference and division. The uniforms are great. You just can't argue with black and silver. Even though they are the only team in San Antonio (a much smaller sports market than DFW and Houston), the Spurs are in a great city with a loyal fan following. Hey, that's all they have.... San Antonio is the Green Bay of the NBA. Have to give the arena a C+, because it has been compared to a barn. Other than that, the coach and ownership knows what they have been doing. Call them boring all you want.... they've been geting the job done.

2007-08 Season:
Regular Season: A-
Star Power: A-
Coaching: A

Comments: Toughest season for the West, no doubt. The Spurs will get to the playoffs, but they might be limping in.

[Canes2006Champs]

My team: Dallas Mavericks
Overall:
History and Tradition: B
Division: A+
Uniforms: A+
Ownership: A+
Location: A+
Arena: Never been but it looks nice so, A
Fans: A+

Comments: Just ten years ago, the Dallas Mavericks were the joke of the NBA, but on Janurary 14,2000, some dude named Mark Cuban purchased the team. Cuban helped bring in fan support almost immediately. The team made the playoffs in 2001 for the first time since the 80's, beating the Utah Jazz in Five games in the first round. The next year, the team thankfully got rid of those ugly green uniforms and cowboy hat logo and replaced them with cool midnight blue colors and a horse logo. The team continued to get better and made a trip to the finals in 2006. However, they would blow a 2-0 series lead to the Miami Heat. The next year Dallas won a team-record 67 games after a 0-4 start, grabbing the #1 seed out west, they faced the Golden State Warriors who somehow, sent Dallas back home. Dirk Nowitzki was named league MVP and received his honor almost two weeks after the last game against the Warriors.

2007-08 Comments: They appear to be weakening this year, it doesnt help now that Nowitzki is out indefinaltley with an ankle injury. Currently fourth in the strongest division in the NBA right now. Hopefully though, they'll make another run to finals this year and win it all Baby! yeah boy!

[TheWereRabbit]

Boston Celtics

Overall:
History and Tradition: A+
Division: How are we in our division or how is our division? A+ or C respectively
Uniforms: B+
Ownership: B
Location: A
Arena: B
Fans: A-


The West seems to think that's all there is and it'll be an easy win in the finals.
Didn't we just sweep Texas?

[Frank the Tank]

My Team: Chicago Bulls

Overall:
History and Tradition: A (MJ and Scottie dynasty)
Division: C (Detroit, Cleveland and Indiana have all been rivals at various points, but never all at the same time)
Uniforms: A (Classic and clean)
Ownership: C (Too often has a small market mentality for a large market team)
Location: B+ (United Center turned the neighborhood to the east from a ghetto into a trendy and upscale neighborhood, but it's still dicey west of the stadium)
Arena: B (The United Center isn't bad as a modern multipurpose set of skyboxes, but the old Chicago Stadium was a temple)
Fans: A+ (Even in those horrid post-MJ seasons, the Bulls consistently led the NBA in attendance - we aren't front-running Laker fans)

2007-08 Season:
Regular Season: F (Went from Eastern Conference contenders to 15 games below .500)
Star Power: D- (The Bulls have lots of role players but no stars whatsoever, which is very tough as a fan that grew up watching the biggest star of them all in MJ and the '90s teams being followed around like The Beatles all across the country)
Coaching: F (Interim coach Jim Boylan will be gone after this season, but he certainly hasn't improved his stock in the eyes of the rest of the NBA by letting the inmates run the asylum)

[ABM]

My team: Portland Trail Blazers

Overall:
History and Tradition: C
Division: C
Uniforms: B
Ownership: A
Location: B-
Arena: B+
Fans: A

Comments: 2 words: Greg Oden. This, coupled with NO MORE JAIL-BLAZERS!


2007-08 Season:
Regular Season: B (relatively speaking)
Star Power: B- (for now)
Coaching: B

[cooperwx]

My team: Charlotte Bobcats

Overall:
History and Tradition: D
Division: D
Uniforms: B
Ownership: C
Location: B+
Arena: A-
Fans: C

Comments: The franchise has done well not to ride the coattails of the Hornets, since that franchise is still around. And we have been getting gradually better. The division is OK at best with two mid-tier playoff teams, a playoff maybe, and the worst team in the league. The arena and location are the best things the 'Cats have going for them. The new arena uptown is state of the art and in the thick of all that is Charlotte. But I still can't see a first playoff berth in the next few years.

2007-08 Season:
Regular Season: D
Star Power: D+
Coaching: D

Comments: Ugh. The team seems to be interested at times, which is enough to be competitive in games but still not enough to win more than not. I'd venture a guess that many folks cannot name two players on the Bobcats. But Okafor and Felton are solid, and Wallace and Richardson would be much better known if they were on a contender. The coaching seems like it can't find the right lineup. I don't know if they're looking for the right combination or trying to decide which players to keep for next year.

[NooYowkur81]

My team: New York Knicks

Overall:
History and Tradition: A-
Division: C-
Uniforms: A
Ownership: F
Location: A+
Arena: A+
Fans: C

Comments: The Knicks are one of the most recognized NBA franchises in the world. Although they have only won two titles, they have a deep and rich history. Their famous 70's championship teams are amongst the most famous NBA teams ever. They also had very good to excellent teams during the late 80's- to late 90's. The Knicks uniforms have always been amongst the best in the league. Madison Square Garden is one of the most famous arena's in the world.

The Atlantic Division used to be consistently one of the better, tougher divisions in basketball, but has been in decline recent years.

The Knicks are currently in very bad shape, mostly due to bad ownership. James Dolan is a clueless egotistical owner.

Fans of the Knicks, from experience can be very flaky. New York is hardcore baseball, so I tend to feel that away about a lot of the other sports, also with maybe the exception of the hockey Rangers.


2007-08 Season:
Regular Season:F
Star Power: D
Coaching: F

Comments: Season was horrible, only ray of hope is possible Isaiah Thomas firing and getting a high lottery pick.

[mike0421]

New Jersey Nets:

Overall:

History and Tradition: B- (this gets a considerable bump from the recently ended Jason Kidd era)
Division: C-
Uniforms: C+
Location: F
Arena: D-
Fans: F-------

2007-08 Season

Goodbye Kidd, we hardly knew ye. Incidentally, I truly believe there is a corollary between fan support and retaining stars to a franchise. The Celtics were down and out last year, but partly in due part to an established franchise, were able to lure Garnett in a trade with his blessing. No stars ever are happy to go to New Jersey. That's because we have the worst fan base (along with the Devils) in professional sports.

Regular Season: D-
Star Power: C
Coaching: C-

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Originally Posted by ABM

My team: Portland Trail Blazers

Overall:
History and Tradition: C
Division: C
Uniforms: B
Ownership: A
Location: B-
Arena: B+
Fans: A

Comments: 2 words: Greg Oden. This, coupled with NO MORE JAIL-BLAZERS!


2007-08 Season:
Regular Season: B (relatively speaking)
Star Power: B- (for now)
Coaching: B

I'll bump the history & tradition to a B. We have a title and we made the playoffs and had sellouts for over 20 years. We may have fallen on hard times recently, but overall...

[beowulf7]

Originally Posted by mike0421

New Jersey Nets:

Overall:

History and Tradition: B- (this gets a considerable bump from the recently ended Jason Kidd era)
Division: C-
Uniforms: C+
Location: F
Arena: D-
Fans: F-------

2007-08 Season

Goodbye Kidd, we hardly knew ye. Incidentally, I truly believe there is a corollary between fan support and retaining stars to a franchise. The Celtics were down and out last year, but partly in due part to an established franchise, were able to lure Garnett in a trade with his blessing. No stars ever are happy to go to New Jersey. That's because we have the worst fan base (along with the Devils) in professional sports.

Regular Season: D-
Star Power: C
Coaching: C-

I'm a lifelong Nets fan. It is a shame that both NJ teams you mentioned have a hard time selling out during the regular season and also often the playoffs. It doesn't help that the Nets owner wants to move the team to Brooklyn, NY.