Early Top 8 in the East projections.

[bwgood77]

1. Wizards
2. Bulls (with fully healthy Rose all year they could be one, but I have my doubts for good reason.)
3. Raptors
4. Hawks (with fully healthy Horford all year they could be 3)
5. Cavs (if they get Love, they could be 1)
6. Hornets
7. Pacers (implosion year...no, not really....the east will just be tougher at the top...I think 3-7 will be close like the west was last year)
8. Pistons (SVG the man)

[bwgood77]

Wizards
Bulls
heat
pacers
Cavs
Knicks
pistons/nets/hornets/hawks

wizards are the most all around team
bulls have health issues
pacers have issues
heat will suprise
Cavs will struggle defensively
knicks will make the playoffs
pistons will be good

Just posted mine...was scrolling through to see if anyone else picked the Wizards. Heat 2nd? I actually forgot about them...how quickly you can forget. I guess that will depend on Wade...if he has a resurgence, being able to be the primary ballhandler, they could probably be really good if he stays healthy.

[DG88]

while we lack quality individual defenders I think we'll be much better as a team defensively

Phil is running this team not Woodson that alone tells me the effort will be there

As long as we stick to our assignments, limit how much we gamble and meet guys at the rim I think we'll be okay defensively

How can you play good team defense when the majority of your roster is inept defensively?

Phil isn't coaching the team Derek Fisher is and he's no Phil Jackson.

Meet guys at the rim??? You lost your rim protector and best help defender in Chandler.

You have a lot of this to look forward to:

you're judging us based off last year, we'll have a completely different approach

I can pull out a few gifs of Toronto sucking ass and it would mean nothing

I'm not proclaiming us to be an Elite defensive team, we'll just need enough to get by

As for losing Chandler you obviously didn't watch the Knicks as the man barely tried

Bro when Chandler got injured your team fell apart defensively. Melo had to go into god mode to give your team a fighting chance.

[dolphinatik]

Miami 7th and not making it at all?? SMH.. Miami will *still* be at least top 4 in the east.

[kingkirk]

1. CHI
2. CLE
3. WAS
4. CHA
5. TOR
6. MIA
7. IND
8. ATL

[MoneyMitch]

How can you play good team defense when the majority of your roster is inept defensively?

Phil isn't coaching the team Derek Fisher is and he's no Phil Jackson.

Meet guys at the rim??? You lost your rim protector and best help defender in Chandler.

You have a lot of this to look forward to:

you're judging us based off last year, we'll have a completely different approach

I can pull out a few gifs of Toronto sucking ass and it would mean nothing

I'm not proclaiming us to be an Elite defensive team, we'll just need enough to get by

As for losing Chandler you obviously didn't watch the Knicks as the man barely tried

Bro when Chandler got injured your team fell apart defensively. Melo had to go into god mode to give your team a fighting chance.

He sucked when he came back

Dude wouldn't try to block a shot for 90% of the year it was ridiculous then he'd throw guys under the bus to make matters worse

Phil will not have us relying on one man defensively

[deneem4]

Wizards
Bulls
heat
pacers
Cavs
Knicks
pistons/nets/hornets/hawks

wizards are the most all around team
bulls have health issues
pacers have issues
heat will suprise
Cavs will struggle defensively
knicks will make the playoffs
pistons will be good

Just posted mine...was scrolling through to see if anyone else picked the Wizards. Heat 2nd? I actually forgot about them...how quickly you can forget. I guess that will depend on Wade...if he has a resurgence, being able to be the primary ballhandler, they could probably be really good if he stays healthy.

Because of there lesser roles last season people are forgetting how good wade deng and bosh are...they're getting older but all 3 are way vets, the half court offense can be more efficient as well simply because u have natural starters at each position considering if has lem comes back they're main weakness would be point guard. And Napier should be able to handle that playing with wade deng and bosh

[chocodog]

Still not closing talent gap with the west, but it's great to finally see the east field eight respectable teams. In terms of seedings...

Bulls
Raptors
Wizards
Cavs
Heat
Pacers
Hornets
Hawks


Bulls are top team so long that rose is healthy. They have great depth and are one of the better defense in the conference. w/o rose as the first option on offense, however, they disappear in the pack

Raptors aren't as good as this standing but if I recall correctly, the three division winners get the top 3 seeds? and they will be ahead of the wizards in wins because they can inflate more wins in the abysmal atlantic

Wizards will just scrape past the heat for the southwest crown. they'll prove to have one of the best backcourts in the league and already have a big, able frontcourt. improved bench and defense and pierce will provide much needed leadership.

Cavs may take some time to gel but will probably finish the season as the one of the hottest teams.

Heat probably rank at top of next tier of teams, which will make for the most exciting first round matchup in the whole league.

Pacers are still a gritty, defensive team but they have unresolved issues in the backcourt, are a little weaker on the bench and have a lot of work ahead of them to regain team chemistry.

Hornets went from probably a 9-10th seed to 7th with the lance signing. Still are weak at PF but have a very deep bench, balanced bench.

Hawks were a surprise team in a weak conference last year and made enough solid moves to keep pace with an improved conference and not lose out to mediocre teams like the pistons, nets and knicks.

RD1...

Bulls
Hawks

Raptors
Hornets

Wizards
Pacers

Cavs
Heat

RD2...

Bulls
Hornets

Wizards
Cavs

RD3...

Bulls
Cavs

EAST CHAMPS...

Cavs

[dobrojim]

Chicago, Cleveland and Indy all being in same division also hurts their records because they have to play each other more times then all the rest of the teams in the east

That difference is marginal at best. They still play most of the other teams
in their conference the same number of games.

[Liver_Pooty]

Raptors Hornets in the first round would be an incredible series.

[dobrojim]

I don't get why so many folks think the chances of DRose playing even close
to an AllStar level are very good. It's a shame but I can't see him making
that much of an impact this year. It could happen but I would describe
it as miraculous if it did. There's just as much chance he ends up like
Penny Hardeway or Gilbert.

[scoechip]

Gonna keep tabs on this thread so I can get my kicks when a certain team is better than expected.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RealGM Forums mobile app

[eagereyez]

while we lack quality individual defenders I think we'll be much better as a team defensively

Phil is running this team not Woodson that alone tells me the effort will be there

As long as we stick to our assignments, limit how much we gamble and meet guys at the rim I think we'll be okay defensively

How can you play good team defense when the majority of your roster is inept defensively?

Phil isn't coaching the team Derek Fisher is and he's no Phil Jackson.

Meet guys at the rim??? You lost your rim protector and best help defender in Chandler.

You have a lot of this to look forward to:

So you're saying there's a chance we will have even more of these gifs?

[SunsRback4Good]

I hope Rose could finally remain healthy and the Bulls should easy finish top 3.

[Voice_of_Reason]

Cavs
Wizards
Bulls
Raptors
Heat
Pacers
Hornets
Pistons

[Waylon Mercy]

1. Cavs
2. Bulls (thinking 1 or 2 of the mystery boxes of Rose/McDermott/Mirotic workout)
3. Raptors
4. Hawks
5. Hornets
6. Wizards
7. Heat
8. Pacers


9. Nets
10. Pistons
11. Knicks
12. Celtics
13. Bucks
14. Magic
15. Sixers

[Illmatic12]

I guess I'm in the minority who thinks Rose will be fine.. maybe not superstar MVP level, but he should at least be around an All-Star level imo..


Bulls
Cavs
Wizards
Raptors
Pacers
Heat
Hornets
Hawks

[Prokorov]

I think Indiana will recover, they can still make some trades and will still be a very good team that plays really good defense. I think Rodney Stuckey would be a good fit for the team and possibly Shawn Marion to back-up Paul George.

they already were one of the worst offensive teams in the league and they lost arguably their best offensive player. I think they are going to decline in a major way. 40-45 wins

[Cliff Levingston]

1. Bulls. If Rose stays healthy, they Bulls will be #1. The defense, the improved shooting and the deep front court will be a lot for other teams to handle night in and night out.

2. Cleveland. LeBron will carry them to a great record. They won't be nearly as formidable a playoff team as the Heat were but they'll still be really good.

3. Wizards. Internal improvement from the back court along with Pierce to help close out games will make them one of the best teams in the East.

4. Raptors. Best of a bunch of underwhelming Atlantic teams. They've got some room for internal improvement from some young guys but don't sport much star power at all.

5. Heat. They'll still be formidable with Bosh taking a bigger role and Deng being a solid but underwhelming replacement for LeBron. Wade should miss plenty of games which will cap their ceiling during the regular season.

6. Pacers. Already weren't a good offensive team yet managed to get worse through losing Lance, although Stuckey makes up for it somewhat. Cliff Levingston is worried about how flaky Hibbert is.

7. Hornets. No improvement in the standings but only because the rest of the East got better. Solid, well rounded young team that plays defense and is disciplined.

8. Hawks. Could possibly be higher with Horford coming back and hopefully not getting hurt again.

Outside looking in:

- Brooklyn. Probably stands the best chance of getting in here, and if they miss, it'll be just barely.
- New York. Will struggle quite a bit with picking up the triangle and not being able to play much defense.
- Detroit. Should be better but still not good enough to get it done. They'll need another year under SVG.

Boston, Milwaukee, Philly and Orlando don't stand much of a chance at all.

[bgroban]

Lots of Bulls fans on this board. Winning the Conference? Finishing ahead of the Cavs/Wiz/Raps? Keep dreaming.