Can Bucks secure a higher seed than us?

[moiso]

Skiles did an awesome job and got them to overachieve last year.  The additions are just fair and any Jennings improvement will probably be offset by Bogut's injury.  I like the team personally because they seemed like scrappers last year, but I really don't see them improving much this year, if at all.

And the C's will be AWESOME!

[PosImpos]

I think the top 2 seeds will be what you'd expect - Heat, then Magic.  After that, a number of teams will fight it out for the next 4 spots, and it's pretty hard to say right now exactly how it'll pan out:

Celtics
Bulls
Bucks
Hawks.

If I had to guess, that's the order I'd put them in, but it will most likely be very close.  The last 2 spots will be a couple of pretty weak teams, hard to say which ones.  If I had to guess I'd say the Knicks and the Bobcats, but who knows.

[indeedproceed]

Celtics could and probably will drop as low as a 5th or 6th seed in the playoffs. Playing deep into the playoffs should make for some fatigue issues, Perk out hurts,  and the fact that they made the playoffs when they only tried lets say 60% per night from February on means the regular season will be quite painful at times.

The Bucks and Bulls on the other hand are thirsty to establish themselves as perennial eastern powers. They'll be giving 110% every night.

[indeedproceed]

Skiles did an awesome job and got them to overachieve last year.  The additions are just fair and any Jennings improvement will probably be offset by Bogut's injury.  I like the team personally because they seemed like scrappers last year, but I really don't see them improving much this year, if at all.

And the C's will be AWESOME!

Bogut now looks to be ready for full participation in camp. Ilyasova and Jennings should both improve.

Aside from that if they start Drew Gooden, I'm hatin.

[nickagneta]

Celtics could and probably will drop as low as a 5th or 6th seed in the playoffs. Playing deep into the playoffs should make for some fatigue issues, Perk out hurts,  and the fact that they made the playoffs when they only tried lets say 60% per night from February on means the regular season will be quite painful at times.

The Bucks and Bulls on the other hand are thirsty to establish themselves as perennial eastern powers. They'll be giving 110% every night.

IP, the only way the C's drop below 4th in the East is if one of Philly, NJ, NY or Toronto beats them in the Atlantic. Please tell me which of those pathetic teams are going to win the Atlantic instead of Boston which would allow the C's to finish below 4th?

[indeedproceed]

Celtics could and probably will drop as low as a 5th or 6th seed in the playoffs. Playing deep into the playoffs should make for some fatigue issues, Perk out hurts,  and the fact that they made the playoffs when they only tried lets say 60% per night from February on means the regular season will be quite painful at times.

The Bucks and Bulls on the other hand are thirsty to establish themselves as perennial eastern powers. They'll be giving 110% every night.

IP, the only way the C's drop below 4th in the East is if one of Philly, NJ, NY or Toronto beats them in the Atlantic. Please tell me which of those pathetic teams are going to win the Atlantic instead of Boston which would allow the C's to finish below 4th?

I meant record-wise. You are correct.

[PosImpos]

Celtics could and probably will drop as low as a 5th or 6th seed in the playoffs. Playing deep into the playoffs should make for some fatigue issues, Perk out hurts,  and the fact that they made the playoffs when they only tried lets say 60% per night from February on means the regular season will be quite painful at times.

The Bucks and Bulls on the other hand are thirsty to establish themselves as perennial eastern powers. They'll be giving 110% every night.

IP, the only way the C's drop below 4th in the East is if one of Philly, NJ, NY or Toronto beats them in the Atlantic. Please tell me which of those pathetic teams are going to win the Atlantic instead of Boston which would allow the C's to finish below 4th?

If Anthony Randolph suddenly achieves all of the potential people have been saying he has - in LESS THAN ONE SEASON - and forms a ridiculous front court tandem with Amare.  Only then could the Knicks challenge us for the division.

In other words, it ain't gonna happen.

[indeedproceed]

I'm expecting the win-loss record to look something like this though:

1) Miami, Orlando..high 60's
2) Chicago, Atlanta...mid 50's to high 40's
3) Milwaukee, Boston..mid 40's
4) Charlotte, then one of Philadelphia or NY...high 30's to low 40's.
5) Detroit, Indiana low 30's, high 20's
6) Toronto, Cleveland -3 wins a piece.

[PosImpos]

I'm expecting the win-loss record to look something like this though:

1) Miami, Orlando..high 60's
2) Chicago, Atlanta...mid 50's to high 40's
3) Milwaukee, Boston..mid 40's
4) Charlotte, then one of Philadelphia or NY...high 30's to low 40's.
5) Detroit, Indiana low 30's, high 20's
6) Toronto, Cleveland -3 wins a piece.

I think Boston will stay near 50 wins.  If the Spurs can do it, we can.  I think we may have a slightly better regular season than last season.

I don't think there's any way the Hawks have a 50+ win season again.  They peaked, and didn't get any better in the off-season.  They're ripe for a bit of an off year, I think.  Miami may get mid to high 60's, but there's no way a team with Vince Carter as its second best player gets more than low 60s (probably high 50s).

[indeedproceed]

I'm expecting the win-loss record to look something like this though:

1) Miami, Orlando..high 60's
2) Chicago, Atlanta...mid 50's to high 40's
3) Milwaukee, Boston..mid 40's
4) Charlotte, then one of Philadelphia or NY...high 30's to low 40's.
5) Detroit, Indiana low 30's, high 20's
6) Toronto, Cleveland -3 wins a piece.

I think Boston will stay near 50 wins.  If the Spurs can do it, we can.  I think we may have a slightly better regular season than last season.

I don't think there's any way the Hawks have a 50+ win season again.  They peaked, and didn't get any better in the off-season.  They're ripe for a bit of an off year, I think.  Miami may get mid to high 60's, but there's no way a team with Vince Carter as its second best player gets more than low 60s (probably high 50s).

Ahhhhhhh nuts. Twice in one thread.

I meant Miami Orlando low 60s. I originally typed high 59's to low 60's and kept the wrong adjective.

[moiso]

You guys seem to have very low expectations for the Celtics this year.  We won 50 last year and I expect us to be better than last year.  We are much deeper and more talented.  I expect us the compete harder this year minus Rasheed and with Shaq and JO trying to make good first impressions.  The loss of Perk is definitely a negative, but I think all of the other positives far outweigh the negative. 
Also now Nate has a year under his belt; we added Delonte.  I'm very excited about this year and I don't anticipate us being an average team.

[indeedproceed]

You guys seem to have very low expectations for the Celtics this year.  We won 50 last year and I expect us to be better than last year.  We are much deeper and more talented.  I expect us the compete harder this year minus Rasheed and with Shaq and JO trying to make good first impressions.  The loss of Perk is definitely a negative, but I think all of the other positives far outweigh the negative. 
Also now Nate has a year under his belt; we added Delonte.  I'm very excited about this year and I don't anticipate us being an average team.

I don't expect us to be average either on the nights we need.

I am excited though. I will be watching the games. I have high hopes for Delonte and the rest of the back-court.

But there are other things at play here. Perkins won't be back until February at the best, and even after that he'll take a while. Best case scenario is healthy for playoffs. The lackluster play I saw during the regular season isn't going to improve by adding 2 older post players and depth at the 2. Fact is, the guys who are going to playing the most regular season minutes are going to be the same guys that mailed in a lot of minutes during the regular, and since that actually seemed to work pretty well, why would they do any different?

They just want to get to teh dance, they don't care where the party is or who they're going to boogie with.

[GreenEnvy]

Barring any unforeseen events, I would expect a much better regular season from this group. Injuries are a part of the game, but last season we saw 'Quis, BBD, Pierce, KG, etc. all miss a significant portion of time, and all but BBD played many more games still bothered by that injury.

So even factoring minor injuries here and there, we have a much deeper team and we can actually get quality minutes from the bench. That will help us net regular season wins and keep the starters fresher for the postseason.

50 wins last season was, IMO, a surprisingly low number, but forgettable because of their postseason run. I expect a significant rise in win total, more along the lines of the 2008-09 team. We withstood major injuries that season because of our depth, which last season was a major question mark.

They should also be extremely motivated (a la the 2007-08 season), the rest of the league could be in for a major surprise.

[jdub1660]

It's sad to see that out of 10-15 posts, not a single person remembers that Michael Redd didn't play a role at all last year. Add him into the mix and that team could be sick
Salmons is good, but he's not a go to guy as a SG. Push him over to SF or 6th man where he excels

Jennings,Redd,Maggette,Gooden,Bogut
Dooling,Salmons,Delfino,Ilyasova,Sanders

Add in another center or 2 for insurance, and that team looks great for a playoff push

[PosImpos]

It's sad to see that out of 10-15 posts, not a single person remembers that Michael Redd didn't play a role at all last year. Add him into the mix and that team could be sick
Salmons is good, but he's not a go to guy as a SG. Push him over to SF or 6th man where he excels

Jennings,Redd,Maggette,Gooden,Bogut
Dooling,Salmons,Delfino,Ilyasova,Sanders

Add in another center or 2 for insurance, and that team looks great for a playoff push

Redd didn't play a role for a reason.  The guy can't stay healthy.  He also hasn't played consistently in like 2 years.  If he's more than a role player for them I'll be surprised.