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I know its very early but I was just curious too see how you guys think the east will pan out this year. I think it will go something like this. I do not think will squeeze in this year. What are your predictions?
1) Bulls
2) Cavs
3) Wizards
4) Raptors
5) Hornets
6) Pacers
7) Hawks
8) Heat
9) Pistons
10) Knicks
11) Nets
12) Celtics
13) Bucks
14) Magic
15) Sixers

I think we are a better team then the hawks even with horford back

The heat chances depend of wade and deng health

Hornets got better but it all depends on lance and how he jell with the team

I'd go with a tiers approach:

Tier 1: Cavs, Bulls (early favorites for conference champ)
Tier 2: Pacers, Wizards, Raptors, Heat (could each win two playoff series)
Tier 3: Hornets, Hawks, Nets (could each win a playoff series if things go well)
Tier 4: Knicks, Pistons (could make the playoffs if things go well and things go badly for above teams)
Tier 5: Celtics (can beat good teams sometimes)
Tier 6: Bucks, Magic (rebuilding teams with young talent that will mostly be horrifying to watch)
Tier 7: 76ers (probably one of the worst 20 teams in NBA history)

Every team could jump up or down a tier due to injuries, chemistry, some guy breaking out, etc (besides the Sixers, who will be abysmal no matter what happens). I obviously think the Nets and Pacers are better than people are giving them credit for, even if they're on the decline. For the Nets, Pierce wasn't great last year and Lopez will be back, so they'll probably actually be a bit better than last year. And the Pacers still have a long, athletic, skilled team that can beat anyone if they're clicking. I also don't see why the Heat aren't a likely top-6 team; even if Wade is at 50% or less, there's enough talent and experience there to put them that high (also Deng isn't particularly old or injury-prone, not sure what aad is worried about).

aad wrote:I think we are a better team then the hawks even with horford back

The heat chances depend of wade and deng health

Hornets got better but it all depends on lance and how he jell with the team

The Hawks were really good before the Horfors injury and the 3rd best team in the East. Now that the Pacers lost Lance I think the Hawks might be better than the Pacers.

Notanoob wrote:

aad wrote:I think we are a better team then the hawks even with horford back

The heat chances depend of wade and deng health

Hornets got better but it all depends on lance and how he jell with the team

The Hawks were really good before the Horfors injury and the 3rd best team in the East. Now that the Pacers lost Lance I think the Hawks might be better than the Pacers.

Yeah but the east was so weak plus we have better shooters and a better coach

I believe Detroit has a legitimate chance of being a really good team if the Monroe situation resolves in a subtraction.

Playoff seeding:

1. Cleveland (assuming Kevin Love is on the team)
2. Toronto
3. Miami
4. Chicago
5. Indiana
6. Washington
7. Brooklyn
8. Charlotte

aad wrote:

Notanoob wrote:

aad wrote:I think we are a better team then the hawks even with horford back

The heat chances depend of wade and deng health

Hornets got better but it all depends on lance and how he jell with the team

The Hawks were really good before the Horfors injury and the 3rd best team in the East. Now that the Pacers lost Lance I think the Hawks might be better than the Pacers.

Yeah but the east was so weak plus we have better shooters and a better coach

We still have Josh Smith and Brandon Jennings on this team. We don't have a starting caliber PG, we lack a starting caliber SF as none of them can defend their position. On the other hand, the Hawks were on a 45 win pace and have decent players at every position who can shoot and defend. Caron Butler's corpse and Meeks coming off the bench isn't going to turn us into a 45 win team, SVG or no.

So who is the hawks starting sg and sf and aint no way svg is gonna let smith and jennings jack up shots like last season we won 29 games last season and lost 14 game when leading in the fourth

Why do people think the hawks and nets are better than us? They both are bad

RasheedTupac wrote:Why do people think the hawks and nets are better than us? They both are bad

Samething I wanna know

aad wrote:

RasheedTupac wrote:Why do people think the hawks and nets are better than us? They both are bad

Samething I wanna know

The Nets have a coach this year, so perhaps the talent will be properly utilized.

The Hawks have Horford back. Korver and Carroll are the SG/SF. Neither are spectacular, but then neither are ours.

Brooklyn actually had a winning record last year...44-38...Hawks were 38-44 and Horford only played 29 games.

I'd put the Pistons below them if we're taking off the goggles.

aad wrote:

RasheedTupac wrote:Why do people think the hawks and nets are better than us? They both are bad

Samething I wanna know

The Nets went to the second round of the playoffs last year, and they lost their 4th or 5th best player (Pierce) while getting back their 1st or 2nd best player (Lopez). We lost a bad coach and gained a competent coach and a couple of solid back-ups. Not sure how that means we're likely to make up the 15 game gap between us and them last year. The Hawks lost nobody of importance and gained their best player back, and they were significantly better than us last year.

Unless there's serious bias in play, no objective NBA follower is going to say our season looks more promising than those other two teams right now. Of course it's possible everyone gels on our squad and the wheels fall off an aging Nets team or an injury-prone Hawks one, but it aint likely given how we played last year. If y'all were fans of either of those teams, you'd like at us and say: 'Smith and Jennings are worthless chuckers, Drummond's can't shoot FTs and is still too young to dominate, KCP had a nice summer league but was still crap his rookie year, Meeks can sort of shoot but was a joke of an overpay, and Monroe hasn't improved since his second season.'

We will just see when the season gets here

Everything that could have went wrong for us last season did I dont expect that samething to happen here with van gundy in charge hes the best coach we had since larry brown I dont expect us to be great or anything but I dont expect us to be right there with the hawks heat nets and hornets in the playoffs mix

One thing to think about not only is van gundy the coach he the team but hes also in charge so if players not buying in he can bench them or trade them jenning or smith

I'm an optimist.

A. I'm not sold on the bulls. Are they really that much better with Rose? Yes, Pau is an upgrade but he's getting older.

B. Will the hawks be the poor mans spurs again? I personally think it was a fluke more than anything...even with Horford coming back. I see them blowing it up this year and shipping out millsap at the deadline.

C. I see the Raptors as another team who over achieved. Lowry had a great contract year. They didn't add any pieces and have a bad a coach. Yeah they'll all be one year closer to their prime, but I don't see any improvements from Lowry or derozan.

1. Cavs
2. Washington
3. Indiana
4. New York
5. Chicago
6. Charlotte
7. Miami
8. Detroit


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aad wrote:So who is the hawks starting sg and sf and aint no way svg is gonna let smith and jennings jack up shots like last season we won 29 games last season and lost 14 game when leading in the fourth

You might have heard of Kyle Korver, he's pretty good. Demarr Carrol can at least defend his position and shoot, he's better than anything we have at SF by a serious margin.

I'd take either of those guys over any of our wing players for next season.

Notanoob wrote:

aad wrote:So who is the hawks starting sg and sf and aint no way svg is gonna let smith and jennings jack up shots like last season we won 29 games last season and lost 14 game when leading in the fourth

You might have heard of Kyle Korver, he's pretty good. Demarr Carrol can at least defend his position and shoot, he's better than anything we have at SF by a serious margin.

I'd take either of those guys over any of our wing players for next season.

Demarr Carrol are you serious?

Comboguard city I dont know about new york they got worse

1) Cleveland
2) Bulls
3) Raptors
4) Wizards
5) Pacers
6) Heat
7) Hawks
8) Hornets
9) Nets
10) Knicks
11) Pistons
12) Magic
13) Celtics
14) Bucks
15) 76ers


Cavs obviously jump way up the rankings. Bulls added Rose, Gasol, Mirotic, McBuckets while losing the "dumping Deng mid season" distraction. Raptors have a lot of positive momentum and a young squad gelling together. Wizards are another young team that gained some experience and should push for the division. Pacers have struggled in 2014 but still have an experienced team. Miami will have a huge chip on their shoulder and I'd place them higher if Wade was able to play a full year. The Hawks were the 3rd best team till Horford went down and play as a sum bigger than their parts. The Hornbobnetcats have the potential to be much better than 8th or completely implode. The Nets made it to the 2nd round but need a lot to go right health wise. The Knicks should be much better with Felton gone and Melo not looking for the door. Boston is likely tanking and will probably look to move Rondo. The Magic should be better. The Bucks & 76ers are still tire fires.


Lebron/Kyrie - Rose - Lowry/DeRozan - Wall/Beal - George - Wade - Teague - Walker/Lance - DWill - Melo

It's a perimeter driven league. Outside of Teague every single one of those teams have a better perimeter play maker then we do, some have two better. Until we've got a team that's not deficient at the 1-3 spots I don't see us as a legitimate playoff team. "Going to work" was a long time ago and I think a lot of people are either still caught up in our former mystique or Drummond's potential to not call a spade a spade and realize we are on par with the Kings & Wolves and tread milling in the 7-11 draft spots. We need to iron out the front court log jam/rotation and see if any of Jennings/Augustin/Meeks/KCP/Singler can actually play the style Stan wants. We've also got a ton of work to do defensively. This roster and team is miles away from being a legitimate playoff contender.

aad wrote:

Notanoob wrote:

aad wrote:So who is the hawks starting sg and sf and aint no way svg is gonna let smith and jennings jack up shots like last season we won 29 games last season and lost 14 game when leading in the fourth

You might have heard of Kyle Korver, he's pretty good. Demarr Carrol can at least defend his position and shoot, he's better than anything we have at SF by a serious margin.

I'd take either of those guys over any of our wing players for next season.

Demarr Carrol are you serious?

Comboguard city I dont know about new york they got worse

Melo played the whole year dreaming about Miami or Chicago
Felton was awful and a major distraction, Calderon will at least get Melo the ball in good spots
Chandler mailed in last year

Tier 1: Cleveland, Chicago

Tier 2: Indiana, Washington, Toronto

Tier 3: Charlotte, Miami

Tier 4: Brookyln, Atlanta, Detroit, New York

Tier 5: Boston, Orlando, Milwaukee

Tier 6: Flipadelphia

I would be surprised if Tiers 1-3 weren't all playoff teams. I think we'll be duking it out for the 8 spot with Brooklyn, Atlanta and New York.

aad wrote:

Notanoob wrote:

aad wrote:So who is the hawks starting sg and sf and aint no way svg is gonna let smith and jennings jack up shots like last season we won 29 games last season and lost 14 game when leading in the fourth

You might have heard of Kyle Korver, he's pretty good. Demarr Carrol can at least defend his position and shoot, he's better than anything we have at SF by a serious margin.

I'd take either of those guys over any of our wing players for next season.

Demarr Carrol are you serious?

Comboguard city I dont know about new york they got worse

DeMarre Carrol is a starting caliber SF who is better than any of our wing players. He's a decent 3 point shooter, but he can rebound well, defend his position, picked up more assists than our scrubs like Singler ever could. He is a perfectly competent starting SF, something we would all love to have. The Hawks are better than us unless SVG is a real miracle worker and not only teaches Drummond to play excellent defense, but also fixes two career headcases (Jennings and Smith) and convinces one of Monroe or Smith to come off the bench.