7 of bottom 9 teams are in the East

[Who]

East = Washington, Charlotte, Chicago, Brooklyn, Detroit, Atlanta, Toronto
West = Utah, Portland

Gonna be a lot of easy wins in the East for Eastern playoff teams.

The West looks like a battle-field. A top 3. Then a dog-fight between the next 10 teams for 7 play-in spots / 5 playoff spots.

Maybe San Antonio should be in the Western group. Make it 7 of the bottom 10 in the East.

[Phantom255x]

The West IMHO only has like 2 bad teams. Utah and Portland. And even Utah might not be *that* terrible (they won't be good but might not be atrocious). That conference is a pure bloodbath. Even the 7-10 play-in teams may all be very tough.

But yeah, to me the East does have 6-8 legit playoff teams but after that it's mostly the usual mediocre teams (ATL, CHI, BKN, TOR) and then the atrocious ones (CHA, WASH, DET).

I do think the Top-3 in the East this year are no question BOS, NY and PHI in some order. Then I personally put the next tier as MIL, MIA, CLE, ORL, IND. MIL can sneak into Tier 1 but it still really depends on health as well as their bench (and coach).

[Goldstar88]

Charlotte should be quite a bit better this year. Ball, Miller, Bridges, G-Will, Mark Williams is talented starting 5. They don?t belong in a group with Washington, Brooklyn, Detroit. Neither does Atlanta when they have Trae, Bogdanovich, Hunter or Risacher(I?m assuming the #1 pick will be serviceable), Jalen Johnson and Clint Capela. Toronto probably doesn?t either with  Quickley, Bruce Brown, Barrett, Barnes and Poletl. Chicago might fall into that terrible group unless Lavine plays out of his mind. I don?t expect Utah to be very good in the West. Not a lot of talent on that team.

[GreenEnvy]

When last season started all the supposed power was in the East between Boston, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia. As the Bucks stumbled throughout the season and Embiid got hurt, the East was viewed as weak while the Celtics steamrolled ahead.

Then teams like OKC and Minnesota joined the Nuggets as contenders. I presume it had to do with their overall record more than the fact that they played in the WC but alas, by the playoffs it was basically Boston vs. the West. And we all know how that played out.

Bottom line: it?s too early to declare E v. W. Teams will emerge. Teams will severely underachieve. Injuries. Trades.

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

good. if we have an easy path back to finals to defend our title fine by me. whatever gives us the best chance to repeat and win as many as possible

[Surferdad]

A lot of people sleeping on ORL and CLE, and to some extent TOR. They are all definitely Tier 2, but any of those teams could make a major trade to put them in the top tier.

[SHAQATTACK]

good. if we have an easy path back to finals to defend our title fine by me. whatever gives us the best chance to repeat and win as many as possible

We got all the good players ..lol

[perks-a-beast]

The bottom of the east is putrid. Washington and Brooklyn are two of the worst rosters I?ve seen in a couple years.

[Moranis]

The bottom of the east is putrid. Washington and Brooklyn are two of the worst rosters I?ve seen in a couple years.

Nets have a whole bunch of #3 type players. No top end talent, but enough mid tier talent that I think they will be in a lot of games and will probably win more than they should.