Best Eastern Conference in over a decade this year?

zeebneeb · Post #1 » by **zeebneeb** » Sat Sep 3, 2016 3:13 pm

Looking at the East from top to bottom there are a whole bunch of teams that while certainly not world beaters, they will all be competing for a playoff spot.

Cleveland
Toronto
Boston
Detroit
Atlanta
Charlotte
Indiana
Washington
Orlando
Milwaukee
Chicago
New York

The only truly bad teams will be New Jersey and Philadelphia.

I omitted Miami from the list as I don't know if they will actually have Bosh back and that's a big difference. I am of the feeling that they are truly going to be the only middling team in the conference this year. Directionless and in between rebuilding.

Arguments for each team can be made on if they will make it but to me, there are legitimately 12 Eastern Conference teams that will be vying for 8 playoff spots.

I can't remember the last time this happened in the EAST and I've been watching NBA basketball since around 1986.

I'm not yet ready to make my picks, but holy hell what a competitive conference the East is going to be this year! It may take 45 or more wins to grab that 8th spot this year which is even crazier to me.

MotownMadness · Post #2 » by **MotownMadness** » Sat Sep 3, 2016 7:46 pm

Yeah it's going to be a tight race in the playoffs. We should win 50 games this year and get a HCA. We will have a upper edge on a lot of these teams by bringing back or same core. Our exeution should be a lot better with the continuity and improved depth.

I really like where SVG has this young squad right now. Could be battling in some ECFs soon.

DBC10 · Post #3 » by **DBC10** » Sat Sep 3, 2016 8:56 pm

In comparison to the Western conference of a few years ago, it's certainly a lot more competitive than originally thought. I remember the Eastern conference was basically Lebron walking to the FInals each year. Not that he won't this year, he might actually have another one at that.

tmorgan · Post #4 » by **tmorgan** » Sat Sep 3, 2016 10:31 pm

zeebneeb wrote:Arguments for each team can be made on if they will make it but to me, there are legitimately 12 Eastern Conference teams that will be vying for 8 playoff spots.

I can't remember the last time this happened in the EAST and I've been watching NBA basketball since around 1986.

I'm not yet ready to make my picks, but holy hell what a competitive conference the East is going to be this year! It may take 45 or more wins to grab that 8th spot this year which is even crazier to me.

I agree with your facts, and disagree with your conclusion. With far fewer easy wins in the conference than usual, I expect the 8th seed to be about 41-41 this year. Other than Brooklyn and likely Philly, every team in the conference should win 30 games, and only Cleveland is likely to top 55 wins (and that's if LeBron cares enough to try). Balance leads to a lot of win totals in the 40's and 30's.

Rastas · Post #5 » by **Rastas** » Mon Sep 5, 2016 8:06 am

Don't sleep on Philly too much either , they just added the GOAT rookie class including probably the only NBA guy who can monster Bobo and some other point forward dude who nobody on the Pistons will match up well with.
In 2 or 3 seasons I see both Pistons n Sixers fighting for the ECF after Lebron fades.

ImHeisenberg · Post #6 » by **ImHeisenberg** » Mon Sep 5, 2016 6:50 pm

Less wins will get your farther in the playoffs this year, as people aren't going to be picking nearly as many easy wins against the bottom of the east as in year's past.

It's going to be competitive, and if we're only as good as we were last season- we're probably out of the playoffs. Hopefully Smith and Leuer step up for us.

Kilo · Post #7 » by **Kilo** » Mon Sep 5, 2016 7:10 pm

I think it's a year away still. But with Timmy retiring in the West and Durant heading to Golden State for their Supernova Team, I do think it's much more even, or getting there.

Statlanta · Post #8 » by **Statlanta** » Mon Sep 12, 2016 12:43 am

Besides Cleveland and your own team their has been a lot of turnover here. Many teams are taking risks while the champs can rest on their laurels. You guys can bank on internal improvement while everyone has to hope that their positives in their gambles outweigh the negatives. I'm guessing this is why you guys believe you can be a top 4 team because of such immense changes. The Eastern Conference will be very interesting here this year.

hoophabit · Post #9 » by **hoophabit** » Mon Sep 12, 2016 3:12 am

OrlandoTill wrote:Besides Cleveland and your own team their has been a lot of turnover here. Many teams are taking risks while the champs can rest on their laurels. You guys can bank on internal improvement while everyone has to hope that their positives in their gambles outweigh the negatives. I'm guessing this is why you guys believe you can be a top 4 team because of such immense changes. The Eastern Conference will be very interesting here this year.

I wouldn't say it was the changes that other teams made that make folks here prone to optimism. How all that works out remains to be seen. The stability of our starting core is a plus, but a number of us feel the natural growth of young talent along with the unspectacular but targeted bench improvement makes it seem as though the team could take another step.

Warspite · Post #10 » by **Warspite** » Thu Sep 15, 2016 2:48 am

tmorgan wrote:
zeebneeb wrote:Arguments for each team can be made on if they will make it but to me, there are legitimately 12 Eastern Conference teams that will be vying for 8 playoff spots.

I can't remember the last time this happened in the EAST and I've been watching NBA basketball since around 1986.

I'm not yet ready to make my picks, but holy hell what a competitive conference the East is going to be this year! It may take 45 or more wins to grab that 8th spot this year which is even crazier to me.

I agree with your facts, and disagree with your conclusion. With far fewer easy wins in the conference than usual, I expect the 8th seed to be about 41-41 this year. Other than Brooklyn and likely Philly, every team in the conference should win 30 games, and only Cleveland is likely to top 55 wins (and that's if LeBron cares enough to try). Balance leads to a lot of win totals in the 40's and 30's.

History as shown that high win totals are the result of a lack of parity. When you look at the 60s and 70s (fewer teams) you see teams closer to .500. Its harder to win 60 games when your playing the Celtics, Lakers and Wilts 76ers 12 times each.

Zeebs conclusions would be more prophetic if the west is terrible and EC teams can run them over such as they did in the 80s. However that doesn't seem to be the case. Fewer teams with 60 losses absolutely translates into fewer teams with 50 and 60 wins.