Rony, let's not get on the "OMG Raps are so amazing this year with JO OMG we gonna win the East" bandwagon yet.
As you can seen, we are still pretty much the same team as last year, with the same weaknesses and lack of swagger, only minus TJ Ford's ball-hogging. But I hope JO can settle in sooner than never and that way our front court can perhaps make up for our embarrassing wings on a good percentage of nights. And, I'll say it again for the 3rd season in a row, Bargnani is a bust, trade that p*ssy!
I think Detroit did the right thing with the trade. Iverson is not going to win them anything, or even give them a better record, but that does not matter after his contract expires next summer. I personally believe Detroit has reached its maximum potential with the Chauncey-Rip-Prince-Dice-Sheed line-up, as it has been shown year in, year out. They were not going to win the championship this year, or the next, with the Celtics and Lakers around. With this trade, they totally opened up a field of possibilities. It's a trigger for their rebuilding. Iverson will be gone next summer, and they will have cap space. They probably won't make any big moves since everybody knows that they'll probably be waiting for summer '10. But even then, they will still have their core players (Rip, Sheed, Prince) to steer the ship, as well as the solid role players that are gradually becoming better and better, e.g. Maxiell the super Tractor Traylor. Whatever happens, as long as they don't touch Chris Bosh, I won't complain.
This season has opened up fairly unusually! Hawks 4-0, Wizards 0-5, Spurs 1-4... WHAT?!