Is the East wide open now?

[celticinorlando]

1. Bucks
2. Boston
3 philly
4. Indiana
5 raps
6 nets
7 heat
8 magic

[tazzmaniac]

Sixers and Bucks are way out in front for me. I think the Bucks are a better team thoughz can't see Sixers winning the series.

Next tier is the Celtics, Nets (this year, next year they'll be top tier favourites), Pacers, Raptors. People shouldn't sleep on the Raptors, they still have an excellent team even with their losses. The Pacers will be sneaky good again with Brogdon replacing Bogdanovic. I think we have a good regular season and maybe pip the others but we'll see.

Next tier doesn't really matter as they'll only be fodder..

Why are the Bucks better than the Sixers in the playoffs?  The playoffs provide plenty of time to rest between games which benefits the Sixers. 

Bledsoe, Hill/Mathews, Middleton, Giannis and Lopez
Simmons, Richardson, Harris, Horford and Embiid

Sixers look to have the better talent and better matchups in the starting lineup.  Bucks have no one to slow down Embiid. 

[Sketch5]

Sixers and Bucks are way out in front for me. I think the Bucks are a better team thoughz can't see Sixers winning the series.

Next tier is the Celtics, Nets (this year, next year they'll be top tier favourites), Pacers, Raptors. People shouldn't sleep on the Raptors, they still have an excellent team even with their losses. The Pacers will be sneaky good again with Brogdon replacing Bogdanovic. I think we have a good regular season and maybe pip the others but we'll see.

Next tier doesn't really matter as they'll only be fodder..

Why are the Bucks better than the Sixers in the playoffs?  The playoffs provide plenty of time to rest between games which benefits the Sixers. 

Bledsoe, Hill/Mathews, Middleton, Giannis and Lopez
Simmons, Richardson, Harris, Horford and Embiid

Sixers look to have the better talent and better matchups in the starting lineup.  Bucks have no one to slow down Embiid.

Everyone keeps worrying about Embiid. What teams should focus on is not letting Simmons in side the paint, and lock down Harris. Let Embiid get 30, but shut the other guys down. You're always going to have a weak mismatch. It's not having too many where you need to focus on. I think the Lopez Bros and Giannis can clog the paint enough to make it hard on Simmons. After that Sixers aren't really that good, decent, but you start having issues with who to go to.

[jambr380]

Are we just pretending that the Sixers didn't downgrade from Butler/Redick to Horford/Richardson? I mean, I am impressed with how they were able to pivot and acquire Horford after Butler bailed (much like the Cs did with Kyrie-Kemba), but, on paper, they are not even as good as last year.

MIL should pretty easily be #1, PHI should hang on to #2 (since TOR will drop a couple of spots), but I can totally see the Cs legit competing if the chemistry is right and Hayward is healthy and engaged.

The Nets were all chemistry last season - totally overachieving. They are switching out an All-Star PG who totally fit their system for another who very well may not (we should know). I can't envision a scenario where BKN is better than the Cs.

It looks to be a pretty obvious 2nd round match-up of Cs vs PHI...at least we have some big bodies now - hopefully we can get some more.

[tazzmaniac]

Sixers and Bucks are way out in front for me. I think the Bucks are a better team thoughz can't see Sixers winning the series.

Next tier is the Celtics, Nets (this year, next year they'll be top tier favourites), Pacers, Raptors. People shouldn't sleep on the Raptors, they still have an excellent team even with their losses. The Pacers will be sneaky good again with Brogdon replacing Bogdanovic. I think we have a good regular season and maybe pip the others but we'll see.

Next tier doesn't really matter as they'll only be fodder..

Why are the Bucks better than the Sixers in the playoffs?  The playoffs provide plenty of time to rest between games which benefits the Sixers. 

Bledsoe, Hill/Mathews, Middleton, Giannis and Lopez
Simmons, Richardson, Harris, Horford and Embiid

Sixers look to have the better talent and better matchups in the starting lineup.  Bucks have no one to slow down Embiid.

Everyone keeps worrying about Embiid. What teams should focus on is not letting Simmons in side the paint, and lock down Harris. Let Embiid get 30, but shut the other guys down. You're always going to have a weak mismatch. It's not having too many where you need to focus on. I think the Lopez Bros and Giannis can clog the paint enough to make it hard on Simmons. After that Sixers aren't really that good, decent, but you start having issues with who to go to.

Not sure why you are focused on Simmons when he's come up small in the playoffs offensively so far.  The Sixers really don't have weak mismatches against the Bucks.  They'll be able to defend the Bucks well.

[No Nickname]

I don’t think this is the same Celtics team we’ll see to start the season. 

Or after the trade deadline. I think we add big man help and will be significantly better (on paper).

With the East this wide open I think Danny realizes he’s kept his powder dry for this moment.

[Who]

I think Raptors will be better than that. Even when they sat Kawhi last season the win a high percentage of the games. I think they’ll duke it out with Boston and Indy for 3rd spot. Those guys just won a championship and showed a lot of heart.

Yeah, me too. Although Danny Green is a big loss for them also. The Raptors defense is what carried them last year. Not only did they lose Kawhi but they lost Green too. Their two top wing defenders.

Siakam, Lowry and Marc Gasol is a good trio to build around. Three team orientated players who make people around them better.

Yeah but you have to look at Gasol’s 34 and Lowry’s age 33.  Stepping up here and there in games Kawhi missed is different than doing it for a whole season.  Gasol and Conley with JJJ couldn’t do much in Memphis before being traded away, and I don’t see it that much different with Gasol, Lowry, and Siakam.

Good points. They handled Kawhi missing 22 games. That is a 1/4 of the season. So I put a fair bit of stock in that. If it was less games missed, I wouldn't.

I also expect the Raptors to have much more quality in depth than the Grizzlies did. I expect the Raps GM to find some solid wings to smooth over their current weakness there.

[seancally]

The east is flatter. Best teams got worse, low playoff teams got better.

Miami with Butler should be a playoff team. Orlando night get development from their young guys. Detroit with Rose is probably a little better, esp. if Blake can be healthy. Those teams are not threats.

Raps will be solid. Not great but tough, well-coached, now with championship experience. Indy I think will be a mid-50s win team. Sabonis and Turner may take a step forward, they hope for a full healthy season from Oladipo, Brogdon is a great fit. Good team. Wouldn’t surprise me for boston to crack 50 wins. Milwaukee got worse and have to hope Giannis develops a passable jumper. Backcourt is weak. Philly... losing butler hurts. They don’t have a lot of creative offensive players. Simmons is in a “what’s he gonna be?” year.

[cltc5]

Yep.  We have a two year window

[Celtics4ever]

Good points. They handled Kawhi missing 22 games. That is a 1/4 of the season. So I put a fair bit of stock in that. If it was less games missed, I wouldn't

With Danny Green who is gone.

[droopdog7]

I think the east is a two team race between bucks and sixers.  I would easily take those two teams over the field.

[CptZoogs]

I would put Bucks and Sixers at the top right now with Bos and Ind being wildcards.  For Ind, we need to see how Oladipo comes back from injury.  For us, where will the chemistry be?  Can we recapture the magic from our playoff run two years ago?  I think the Nets will take a step back while they wait on Durant.  Toronto is still a playoff team unless they decide to sell off some of their older pieces.  Siakam isn't going anywhere.  Chi is still too young, but I like some of their pieces.  I bet they grab the 8 spot.

[tazzmaniac]

I don’t think this is the same Celtics team we’ll see to start the season. 

Or after the trade deadline. I think we add big man help and will be significantly better (on paper).

With the East this wide open I think Danny realizes he’s kept his powder dry for this moment.

It is not just the East.  The championship is wide open.  I expect that will tempt Danny quite a few other GMs to make some in-season moves. 

[LatterDayCelticsfan]

I think Raptors will be better than that. Even when they sat Kawhi last season the win a high percentage of the games. I think they’ll duke it out with Boston and Indy for 3rd spot. Those guys just won a championship and showed a lot of heart.

Yeah, me too. Although Danny Green is a big loss for them also. The Raptors defense is what carried them last year. Not only did they lose Kawhi but they lost Green too. Their two top wing defenders.

Siakam, Lowry and Marc Gasol is a good trio to build around. Three team orientated players who make people around them better.

Yeah but you have to look at Gasol’s 34 and Lowry’s age 33.  Stepping up here and there in games Kawhi missed is different than doing it for a whole season.  Gasol and Conley with JJJ couldn’t do much in Memphis before being traded away, and I don’t see it that much different with Gasol, Lowry, and Siakam.

Sorry but whenever I see the acronym JJJ here I think JaJuan Johnson. That aside it's very hard to figure what the top half of the Eastern Conference is gonna look like with so much roster turnover across the board. We have at least 6 objectively good basketball teams with lots of new personnel that it could feasibly go any number of ways.

[cman88]

its an "If", but if Tatum/Brown take leaps and can play like they did in the 2018 playoffs and Gordon Hayward can return to 80-90% of what he was in Utah I think we are right in it with the bucks/Sixers..

but those things have to happen...and im cautiously optimistic that they will. in regards to Gordon, it generally takes a full year to get over an injury like that. I expect him this year to be close to normal.

and Tatum/Brown being in top roles should hopefully get back to where they were in the 2018 playoffs...