ESPN East Rankings (Celtics ranked 13th)

[slamtheking]

The rest of the Eastern Conference has made great strides.

They've all drastically improved, and we've gotten worse. It should be basically impossible to say that the Bobcats, Raptors, Wizards, Cavs, Pistons, and Magic haven't improved and that we haven't gotten worse.

2 things - Hungry young players that are looking to have break-out seasons (John Wall/Beal/Porter, Kemba/MKG, Valanciuanas/DeRozan, Kyrie/Waiters/Bennett, Knight/Drummond/Monroe, and Harris/Harkless/Vucevic) and really good veteran free agent signings (Josh Smith, Big Al, Andrew Bynum).


And what did we do?...

Wake up and take off those green goggles - if you think we have better talent or a better team structure, you are going to be very disappointed. From a glance, you can tell that our bigs are going to be completely abused this season. People act like our back-court defense will make up for it - did it make up for it when KG was off the court? Defensively, the center is the most important position in basketball. Realize that KG gave our guards a lot of confidence. They could play as aggressively as they want because KG would always be there to help them. KG's gone now, and the offensive talent pool we are going to be facing down low is substantially higher. We are going to get destroyed in the paint.

I agree with most of this.  I think many people here who've stated this team will be in the middle of the pack/playoff chase are missing the fact most other teams in the East have improved.
Assuming everyone's healthy to start the season for these teams:
-Cavs are a playoff team.
-Pistons will probably make the playoffs now that they have Josh Smith
-Wizards have enough talent to be in the playoff chase as well.  Wall, Beal, Porter, Nene, Okafur is a better starting lineup than what the C's will put out there.
-Orlando has a lot of good young talent that could starting to gel this year: Vucevic, Oladipo, Harkless, Nicholson, O'Quinn, Afflalo.  These guys could make some strides this year.
-Bobcats, well they're run by Jordan so I think they'll automatically suck but even with adding Big Al, I still see them as worse than the Celtics. 
-Toronto, even with Gay, I don't see much talent here to get excited about.  We would seem to have the better roster.
-Philly, well, let's see what Noel can do and how the Holiday Leftovers can do.  I think they'll surprise the league and exceed expectations.  Thought they would be better than the C's but now I'm not so sure.

In the end, I think only the Bobcats, Toronto and Philly will probably be worse than us.  I think our D at the 1, 2 and 3 spots will be pretty good this year but I think we'll get killed at the 4 and 5 spots.  Only Sully and KH have shown they're at least good rebounders at those spots.  (if we're relying on Shav to play for us, we're really screwed)  We have no proven scorers that could put up 20+ points a night.  Sure Green and Wallace might get there but that's just a whole new level of optimism to think that will happen.

[manl_lui]

ESPN's Rankings:

1. Heat
2. Nets
3. Bulls
4. Pacers
5. Knicks
6. Hawks
7. Wzards
8. Cavs
9. Bucks
10. Pistons
11. Raptors
12. Magic
13. Celtics
14. Bobcats
15. Sixers

Tom Haberstroh -- "As is, the Celtics figure to be in the running for not just the league's worst defense, but I struggle to see how they will score enough to fight their way into the playoff picture. Remember, their offense was ranked 20th in efficiency last season, and that was with Pierce Garnett, Rondo & Terry. Who's their #1 scoring option next season? Jeff Green? Yikes."

I think it's fairly accurate with a few exceptions:
Bobcats- could make a jump after adding Jefferson and Zeller
Pistons- I think they're a playoff team this year
Raptors- will fall even further if they trade Gay, which I expect.
Bucks- ranked too high after losing so many pieces: Redick, Mbah a Moute, Ellis, Dalembert, Jennings?
Magic- could be a wild card playoff team if any of their young talent emerge

What do you guys think?

NO, NO NO NO NO NO! I know we just lost KG and PP by trade, but by no means, that make us worse than the Magic, maybe even the Raptors...and the Wizards at 7? There is something seriously wrong with this list

[Jon]

Well, the most interesting part of this season will be to find out.  I hope for the sake of clarity that Rondo and Sullinger are 100% by the beginning of the season so we can really get a feel for what we have. 

We've been debating for years whether Rondo is a transcendent player who can carry a team or just a nice ancillary star to have around.  Now is the time to find out if he can carry a team by himself. 

Same with Jeff Green.  He had a nice end of the season and looked at times like he could be a go-to scorer in this league.  And with PP gone, he no longer has anyone to defer to. 

You can also throw in Avery Bradley.  He now has the chance to be the third option.  With a whole summer healthy (the first time in his young NBA career), can he rise to the challenge? 

So I'm excited to see what the answers to these questions are.  And since we don't know, it's really hard to predict how good we will be.

[Snakehead]

I won't be surprised if this ranking is more or less right.  Our defense without KG the whole time.  That's really going to hurt the team.

I could see us being a couple ranks higher but otherwise we should be low in the East and I'm at peace with that.

[rondoallaturca]

For everyone wondering why Washington and Toronto are so high, both of them were .500 teams, if not better, when John Wall returned and Rudy Gay was acquired, respectively. Both of them have young talent who will get better simply by time, so it's not a stretch at all for them to be better than Boston right now.

[Fred Roberts]

I think our squad could compete for the bottom of the playoffs IF Rondo and Sully were healthy from the get go, Gerald Wallace & Hump have a resurgence and one of the young Centers steps up (Fav, Fab or Shav).

That said, I don't see it happening. Particularly, because of the center position and the fact that it's gonna take at least a year for the young core to gel and find their identity.

I think they'll finish 9th or 10th in the East.

Rondo, Green, Bradley, Sullinger, Olynyk & Lee all should be kept around to grow up together.

[PhoSita]

I'd suggest people head on over to sofutomygaha's "who will score?" thread and take a look at a fairly realistic projection of the amount of points this team is likely to score per game, barring a drastic change in pace or a major increase in offensive production from multiple players (e.g. Rondo, Sullinger, Green, and maybe an Olynyk ROY season).

This team as constituted is going to struggle mightily to score.  That's the most reasonable prediction when you look at this roster.  Without any true rim protectors aside from guys who are probably not NBA players right now (Faverani, Melo), the defense is unlikely to be better than league average, and pretty likely to be significant worse than that.

I don't know if that makes them likely one of the 4 or 5 worst teams in the league, but they surely won't be much better than that.

[dreamgreen]

ESPN's Rankings:

1. Heat              1. Heat
2. Nets              2. Bulls
3. Bulls             3. Pacers
4. Pacers            4. Nets
5. Knicks            5. Knicks
6. Hawks             6. Hawks
7. Wzards            7. Detroit
8. Cavs              8. Wizards
9. Bucks             9. Cavs
10. Pistons         10. Celtics
11. Raptors         11. Bucks
12. Magic           12. Raptors
13. Celtics         13. Bobcats
14. Bobcats         14. Magic
15. Sixers          15. Sixers

That's my guess. I'd love to see us develop our youth and be as bad as ESPN thinks we will. But right now I just don't see that. Our inside defense will be bad, it was last year too. Our rebounding can only be better, where the offense comes from will be the question, but IMO that wont be much worse than last year either. This team was brutal to watch offensively last year, how many games did they score 35 in a half? How bout in the playoffs where they couldn't score 80 against a team that doesn't play defense? IMO young legs will help a lot, hopefully they stop walking the ball up and attack the rim more than 6x a game. 

[eugen]

I think Bobcats are better than us

[Vermont Green]

When I look at this, what strikes me is how big a drop off there is after Miami, Brooklyn, Indiana, Chicago, and maybe NY.  The middle of the pack should include teams like Atl, Cle, Wash, maybe Detroit but these teams are a lot weaker than the top 4 or 5 (at least on preseason paper).

As currently constituted, the Celtics are in the lower tier in my opinion.  I also think that they will be “sellers” as the season goes along and that will weaken the team further.  Their best player early in the season may be Wallace and all playing well will get him is traded. (I say this assuming Rondo starts the season with some injury impact).