The Eastern Conference will be littered with horrible teams this year

[indeedproceed]

Funny thing about this subject is that most everyone agrees on the top 6 and no one else is even close to be able to make a definitive argument that any other team is going to be good. We all are like, well this team could do this or might do that. But no one is truly convinced.

I all think that the consensus of us would probably agree that the team that makes the last spot is going to have a really bad record. And by that I mean 5 or 6 games under .500.

I could see three teams in the East winning 60+ games and 2 others winning 50+ games, one or 2 teams winning between 40-47 games and everyone else at 36 games won or less.

That's a whole bunch of really bad teams in one conference.

I believe that NY will exceed expectations, and take somewhere in the 5,6,7 spot.

I think they're going to come in right around 45-48 wins. The Bucks will be either the 7 or 8. They won't get worse, they just didn't really get better, and NY did.

[Birdbrain]

I'm not sure if your point is the strength of the conference or not but, the East is much stronger the West in totality.  They have been for the past few years as well but, this year the Easter Conference playoffs are going to be off the charts.  I just hope the C's make it to the playoffs relatively healthy because the C's are a team that would love to knock Miami out of the playoffs.  The story lines in the Finals against LA (another cakewalk for them) will be for lack of a better term off the charts.

[StartOrien]

I actually think the Nets could suprise a lot of people and sneak into the playoffs. Pretty decent young unit.

Lopez
Favors
Webster/Morrow
T-Will
Harris

[dark_lord]

while the east might be weak from top to bottom, of the top 4 teams in the entire league, three of them are in the east, imo

[action781]

Nice post, Nick.  The same exact thoughts were going through my head when I read ESPN's predictions.  "wow, the east is really weak on the bottom"

[indeedproceed]

while the east might be weak from top to bottom, of the top 4 teams in the entire league, three of them are in the east, imo

Nobody in the West really got significantly better in my mind. Utah made the biggest positive move, and even replacing Boozer with Al Jefe is just probably breaking even.

[Snakehead]

while the east might be weak from top to bottom, of the top 4 teams in the entire league, three of them are in the east, imo

I think that is not really disputable.  Boston, Orlando, and Miami will be a good deal better than all Western teams but the Lakers.  The West might be more consistently good, but it's funny to look at who might be the second best team in the West, because all of those teams I think have no chance of winning an NBA title and I would laugh at facing in the Finals.  
 

There's the old favorites:

The Mavericks?  Have always been and will always be a regular season team.  
Suns?  Maybe they can get back to the Western Conference Finals but I seriously doubt it, with the loss of Amare all they have is shooters, they will be too weak.  
The Jazz? At best similar to last year but probably a little worse.
Spurs I think Splitter will be good and will help the team out, but not put them over the top.  I expect another solid year but not a deep playoff run.



Then the up and comers:

Thunder: Will be a contender in the future and may have a breakout year, but will not be able to get over the hump.  They probably will have a better seed and won't have to face LA out the gate, so I imagine they get to the 2nd round, maybe farther, but they still aren't good enough inside.  I think Cole Aldridge could be quite good for them but not good enough this year.

Blazers: They've been an up and coming team for years now and I am wondering when they will really put it together.  But the answer is when and if Greg Oden is healthy.  With Oden healthy this team has the best Center in the West, one that can dominate rebounding and defensively ala Dwight Howard.  If he is healthy this could be a much scarier team, but unfortunately he has not been yet.  I hope that changes. If it does the Blazers may be the 2nd best team in the West.



And then there is my favorite Western team and the one I hope could maybe rebound after a lackluster season:

The Nuggets.  Two seasons ago they were truly great and could have beaten the Lakers if they hadn't fell apart at the end of close games.  Melo was phenominal and outplayed Kobe in a head to head matchup in the Western Finals.  Last year they looked like they didn't care really.  I know Carl had his cancer issues, and it's good to see him healthy now.  I hope they make a push to return to old form.  They need to get their bigs healthy, but Al Harrington will be a solid guy to hold off until then and should be a nice offensive weapon to bring off the bench.

The Melo situation regarding his Free Agency and the Nuggets possibly trading him before he leaves could blow up the whole team. I am a big fan of Carmello and if Denver doesn't have what it takes I would like to see him go somewhere else (in Green would be my dream). But it would be nice if they  get it together for the Nuggets to make one last run.  I think they have enough talent to seriously challenge the Lakers.

[fairweatherfan]

Likely back in the day a team won only 15 games and made the playoffs because otherwise, this might have been the year for a record breaking bad record to make the playoffs.

I was curious about this so I Googled it - worst record by a playoff team is 16-54 (.229), Baltimore Bullets, 1952-53.  This translates to about a 19-63 record today.  Of course, there were only 4 teams in a conference and 2 made the playoffs, so that'll never be broken.  I think the record since 16 teams started making it was about 35 wins.

I had a hard time picturing this (and maybe I'm just reading it wrong), but for anybody else confused like me, there were 10 teams in the league (2 conferences with 5 teams each), and the top 4 teams in each conference made the playoffs.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_1953.html


And looking at basketball-reference, it also looks like since the league expanded the playoffs to 16 teams in '84, the '86 Bulls is the team with the fewest wins to make the playoffs with 30, followed by the Spurs in '88 with 31 wins (and looks like several teams snuck in with 35 wins).

Right on both counts - I didn't look anything up but the record...thought there were only 8 teams at the time.  TP for clarifying.

[indeedproceed]

Likely back in the day a team won only 15 games and made the playoffs because otherwise, this might have been the year for a record breaking bad record to make the playoffs.

I was curious about this so I Googled it - worst record by a playoff team is 16-54 (.229), Baltimore Bullets, 1952-53.  This translates to about a 19-63 record today.  Of course, there were only 4 teams in a conference and 2 made the playoffs, so that'll never be broken.  I think the record since 16 teams started making it was about 35 wins.

I had a hard time picturing this (and maybe I'm just reading it wrong), but for anybody else confused like me, there were 10 teams in the league (2 conferences with 5 teams each), and the top 4 teams in each conference made the playoffs.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_1953.html


And looking at basketball-reference, it also looks like since the league expanded the playoffs to 16 teams in '84, the '86 Bulls is the team with the fewest wins to make the playoffs with 30, followed by the Spurs in '88 with 31 wins (and looks like several teams snuck in with 35 wins).

Right on both counts - I didn't look anything up but the record...thought there were only 8 teams at the time.  TP for clarifying.

You got clarification on non-specific facts-burned.

[Celtics4ever]

I doubt Oden will ever be healthy.   I hope MIA is one of the horrible teams.