Post by Mark on Jan 15, 2011 19:49:56 GMT -5
Pre-Season Rankings: Eastern Conference
The Eastern Conference is pretty clearly a step below the West this pre-season. In my opinion the West has been the superior conference top-to-bottom for a few years now. However, the gap in talent has widened with both LA teams entering their contract years. That said, the East still has a few elite teams (Chicago and New Jersey, followed by Charlotte, Detroit, and to a lesser extent Milwaukee) but the depth just isn’t there. The one seed should destroy the eighth seed in the playoffs in the East whereas the first round matchups in the West will likely all be toss-ups. Onto the rankings:
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14. Boston Celtics (37-45 last season):
[/b]The Celtics are in full tank mode having finally dealt off franchise stalwarts Zach Randolph and Boris Diaw this past season. I’m happy to see that Jeff is attempting a true rebuild. The team is obviously trash right now but it is supposed to be. Snagging Yao with the MLE probably nets him another first round pick from someone. They’ll draft high in the lotto.
13. Orlando Magic (27-55 last season):
[/b]I was surprised at how poorly this team played at the beginning of last season. I forget where I had them in the pre-season rankings but I know they were in the top half of the league. The team ended up completely sucking. It really shouldn’t be much better this season although Brandon Knight does look like he could become a borderline franchise talent at PG. I guess he will probably be a little better than the true tankers but the team sucks.
13. Miami Heat (16-66 last season):
[/b]I don’t know what to make of this team. The roster itself only has two players on it right now: Dwight Howard and Rashad McCants. My boy McCants’ defense went up during TC. A-/A-/B+ ratings from a wing is pretty sick. Dwight is obviously very good (albeit not elite). Does he have any trades coming? These two + 10 replacement level players is going to be a horrendous team. They’re not nearly good enough as currently constructed. That’s not an issue because he should probably tank though.
12. Cleveland Cavaliers (45-37 last season):
[/b]*Note: I wrote this before his Kobe deal and I’m not changing it. I’ll change the ranking though*
This is what I wrote about Cleveland prior to this past season:
I don’t know, I don’t feel like Cleveland has mattered for months. They had that fluke finals appearance but eh. He still has Gerald Wallace (and Kobe) so they won’t be terrible but I don’t see any reason for them to improve upon their win total from last season. Maybe 35-47? Maybe 37 wins if GWall is absurd? Not a relevant team though. Time to rebuild.
I’ll keep that again, although he did win 45 games. I’m being a little hard on him though since it’s pretty clear that he is about to rebuild. Oh well, he still has Kobe/Gwall as of this writing.
11. Toronto Raptors (33-49 last season):
[/b]I really don’t want to write about Toronto because the team is so boring. Is DJ trying to compete? I think so since he asked about Noah in my block. Holy shit AK did 4.7 BPG a few seasons ago. Wow. 76 games too so there wasn’t a sample size issue.
10. Indiana Pacers (33-49 last season):
[/b]He fucked me out of John Wall and has as expected done shit with him. I’m not writing about this team! Does Mops do anything?
9. Atlanta Hawks (34-48 last season):
[/b]I think Atlanta’s fortunes this year depends on what caliber player Blake Griffin is. Is he a superstar now? He went up in TC after having a very good season this past year. If he’s a true star then Atlanta can win 43+ games. If he isn’t then the team probably won’t improve much from this past year. It sucks for Styro that Fab Melo hasn’t become an instant stud. Side note, Styro quietly does a pretty good job overall. Look at that core he built in New Jersey!
8. Philadelphia 76ers (28-54 last season):
[/b]This is another team whose lack of success surprised me this past season. I didn’t think they would win 50 games but 28? That’s awful. I guess I didn’t realize Tyreke Evans would be such a TO whore at PG. 4.2 per game, yikes. TheNorth has a few good looking PG prospects as well as Quincy Miller and Kanter. He has assets to move but for this season he’s middle of the pack at best.
7. Washington Wizards (46-36 last season):
[/b]Apn did a good job getting past his contract year but the team has a weak future and present. Rondo is awesome but he is the only elite talent on this team. Maybe David West continues his late career improvements but even when he did 26 per game the team only won 46 games. I just don’t see much upside here. He needs to rebuild and hope for some lotto luck because his current core isn’t going to deliver a ton of assets in trades. And what the hell happened to Marvin Williams? This guy looked nasty with Nanz.
6. New York Knicks (45-37 last season):
[/b]I know Skillz has been trying hard to make trades today but as the team currently stands it is pretty weak. I think he is going Telfair/Sergio/Prince/Smith/Horford at the moment? Not terrible but obviously not elite. Horford is a step down from Noah as is Smith with Kaman. I didn’t hate either deal for him from a value standpoint (except the Noah deal lol, na just kidding) but he’s worse as a result. He’ll probably make five trades and change his position before I can even post this up though.
5. Milwaukee Bucks (53-29 last season):
[/b]Broph won 53 last season? Damn, I had no idea he got that high. That’s sick. It’s pretty much the same team as last year with the exception of the Nene/Pau deal. That’s an obvious improvement for Broph but I don’t see him winning more than the 53 he won last season. It’s probably a 50+ win team though if it was last season.
4. Detroit Pistons (54-28 last season):
[/b]I had them as the top team in the league pre-season last year and for a while they lived up to it. Since when did Brandon Jennings do 4 TPG though? What the hell? I never would have had them #1 if I knew ahead of time that his PG was going to do 4 TPG. Then again, I actually thought Phoenix was the best team and put Detroit #1 so no one would call me biased. Not making that mistake this season. Keep reading! Andy still has a really good team but they’re a step below the elite IMO.
3. Charlotte Bobcats (53-29 last season):
[/b]Why don’t we do GMOY voting anymore? We should do that again. Hype’s season last year is what got me thinking about it again. Didn’t he lose Blake and Tyreke in FA right before his CY? That is insane. To still win 53 games was impressive as hell. Maybe WillC was right 3 years ago when he said “WhiteHype would school 90% of this [meaning BBS at the time] league”… lol no he was not right at all. The GM pool at that time was probably the strongestr. Hype’s a good guy though and has a borderline elite core at the moment. Zach Randolph is still a beast. Anthony Randolph is awesome. McGee, Brown, Rubio. Shit, I like this team a lot.
2. New Jersey Nets (54-28 last season):
[/b]Everyone hated on his Noah trade last season but the basic idea (Noah for defense) was exactly what his Paul/Melo duo needed. His quiet addition of Caron Butler at the trade deadline was completely huge. He eventually took Play to 7 games without an injured Chris Paul. His ECF series was a little strange and I don’t have him as the best in the East. He’ll win his 55-60 again though and continue to be elite.
1. Chicago Bulls (56-26 last season):
[/b]The Bulls were the best team in the East this past season and I have them there pre-season this year as well. I really do think it’s a toss-up at the moment between Chicago and New Jersey though. I just don’t understand how Jeff hung so well without CP3 in the ECF. Could Butler have made that much of a difference? Who knows. Anyway, Play has a great FC and sick youth at 1/2/3. He’ll be active and get the most out of this team. Bulls-Nets/Bobcats are my top 3 in the East right now.
