I think people are sleeping on Atlanta as well. They played well and challenged in the playoffs on coaching alone. And now they add back their best player while Teague I suspect will be in All-star conversations. Horford's freak injuries were torn pectoral muscles in back-to-back years based on too tough a lifting regimen, but he has changed his emphasis to core strength and changing his training routine could actually make him stronger -- I'd be concerned about reoccurence if he had leg or back injuries, but a torn pec is eminently fixable. Ask induveca who i'm sure will tell you more than you want to know on the topic of how massively huge he is and how he just got too strong for life
Budenholzer will manage this team to contention, and better believe he knows how to blend the big dominican into a team (no not canned ham induveca, the other one). Horford's temperament is about as close to Tim Duncan as you get in the conference, they havn't had much of a chance but I like the synergy potential between Horford and Millsapp's games, but can play face-up or down low, both rebound well for their supposed underheight.MIami will slip, depending on Wade's health. But they too look to have a tricky outside big man style that will confuse and frustrate some teams when they are on offense. Defense is more of a problem.
Indy? I don't know how they remain relevant this year with PG gone and Big HIbba as their workhorse. They have coaching and a sometimey big man and that's it.
One of the overlooked young teams will make an unforeseen jump. I think Philly will be better than they want to be, until they find a way to start tanking. ACW next to that lanky hightop cyborg will be a fun combo to watch. And they might get back Embiid late this year? Take the over on the Vegas line.
Orlando has a mix of talents I like, Aaron Gordon works his tail off on defense, ditto Oladipo, and they have bigs with skill and outside shots, I see them rising, showing streaks and flashes of what they may become, making a tough night for some teams even if they don't yet string it together long enough for a winning record.
No idea what's going to happen in Chicago. All depends on Rose. They have shown they can be good without him, and Taj Gibson has put on 15-20lbs of muscle. If Pau stays healthy then that frontline rotation (plus the rookie Doug McBuckets) will be dynamic and hard to handle, they have a more skilled version of what we have: size, length, finesse, outside options, interior scrappiness. They can contend for the ECF title, or they can fall apart from injuries. Hard to say.
And Toronto. Youth, depth, versatility, leadership, point guard play, developing outside players, young high motor bigs, ranged bigs. As far as top end talent hey have no one player who is transcendent (though DeRozan is rising) but I don't see a deeper more complete team in the league. I'm just glad David Blatt didn't land there since a chess-minded match-up magician could use the pieces they have to create exploitable match-ups in every game.
Against us. We added intriguing depth up front. Rebounding if not defense. I like the intangibles and leadership Paul Pierce adds. I'm eager to see youth develop in the backcourt and wings. I expect our regular season record will surely improve. I'm less sanguine that our post season advancement will be much better. As always much depends on health and our coaching staff's ability to manage veteran's minutes while getting the most out of the development of our talented younger players. Which in the past has been an area of concern on both counts.
