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NBA: With a new season, all have reasons for optimism — and concern

Yeah Lakers look fabulous. Clipper beat them. They do not deserve #1 spot.

I'd promote Dallas a couple of spots. They look good with Marion in their lineup.

You say Nash seems to have lost a step... I guess you haven't seen these last 2 games in which he got 15 fourth quarter points (including the winning bucket), then shredded the warriors with 20 assists! how can you possibly call that "losing a step"?

QBizzle, It's long been standard sports journalistic practice to call any white guard "a step slow," and any white guard past 30 is said to have "lost a step." I watched Stockton during his entire career in the NBA, and frankly got sick of hearing these criticisms of him. I will admit that he slowed down his last year, and that is why he retired. He could still kill the opponents on offense but could not longer stay in front of top-tier point guards when he was playing defense. Yet I challenge you to find anybody who could guard the supposed all-time speed demon, Allen Iverson, during the peak of his career any better than did John Stockton. I clearly remember a game when Stockton was 38 or 39 years old and plain smothered AI with his amazing defense. Coaches worldwide would do well to get a tape of that game and show it to their players in order to demonstrate what heart, effort and desire can accomplish on defense. Iverson got benched after Stockton so outperformed him that only a newly coined word could describe adequately how AI felt: "flustrated."