Around the League - Beasley Boogies to Detroit

[engelmartin]

Twitter thinks the East shakes out like this now: 1) Celtics, 2) Sixers, 3) Knicks and the only time the Bucks are mentioned it's to say they're doing nothing to get better

NBA twitter is a joke. Half of those guys still think the Lakers are contenders in the west next year.

[ReasonablySober]

Jesus that Bridges deal is bonkers.

[machu46]

Jesus that Bridges deal is bonkers.

It's gross that he gets a deal like this. From a purely basketball perspective though, he and LaMelo had good chemistry together.

[SupremeHustle]

The only guy waived so far that I'd like to see us go after is Reed.

[tydett]

Shamet seems like the next in the line of "good open space shooter who turns into complete **** liability in the playoffs" that our GM likes to go for. I expect we'll have him on a minimum within the next few days.

[rilamann]

Can't say I blame anyway for thinking the Knicks and 76ers are above us now. They've had great offseasons and were already pretty good to begin with. Seems we're hoping our biggest improvement over the offseason is Lillard being in shape and if he plays like his usual self, we're probably right back in the thick of it.

You would have to be a pretty serious to homer to think the Bucks are better than the Celtics or Knicks at this point.

The Sixers are going to get the hype, but I think they're going to be overrated. Embiid can't stay healthy and even if he does, he'll choke when it matters anyway. PG13 isn't exactly a clutch spring chicken himself either. Maxey is awesome, but I deff think the Sixers will be the team everyone is hyped up about, but really has a 2nd round ceiling.

A lot can still change before October but as of right now my east tiers would look like this.

Legit Contenders.
1. Celtics
2. Knicks

2nd round ceiling. Could sneak into the ECF if the Celtics or Knicks screw up or have injuries.
3. Bucks
4. Sixers
5. Pacers - Kind of leery about putting the Pacers in this tier. I don't think they're all that good but just based on reaching the ECF, I'll put them here.

Playoff teams but not a real threat.
6. Cavs
7. Magic
8. Heat

The east is actually pretty bad IMO. You only have 2 real contenders in the Celtics and Knicks and it's not like those 2 teams are some sort of unbeatable juggernauts. The Celtics are really good but it's hard to get a real read on them after they had such an easy path to the title. They probably would have won the title anyway, but they got every possible favorable match up all the way to the Finals.

The Celtics would have had trouble with the Bucks, a healthy Knicks team and the Nuggets.

Odds are they would have had to of played at least 2 of the 3 if not all 3, but they avoided all 3. Due to injuries and due to the Nuggets blowing a 2nd half 20+ lead at home in game 7.

Boston deserved the title (I guess lol) but I still can't believe how much everything possible scenario fell their way.

[fansinceforever]

Can't say I blame anyway for thinking the Knicks and 76ers are above us now. They've had great offseasons and were already pretty good to begin with. Seems we're hoping our biggest improvement over the offseason is Lillard being in shape and if he plays like his usual self, we're probably right back in the thick of it.

Our biggest improvement will be having Giannis available for the playoffs. Anything else is a distant 2nd.

I do think Wright + Prince is a significant upgrade over Beasley + Crowder.

Add in a full offseason with Doc at the helms along with one or both of Green and Jackson taking a step forward and we should be much improved.

That's all fair but why would you expect Twitter or even basketball analysts to give us the benefit of the doubt after the off-season that the Knicks and Sixers had?

Both of those teams dealt with injuries last season too.

[fansinceforever]

If we hadn't already shed all of our seconds, we could've probably dumped Pat by now and brought in Trent and/or Reed.

[Balls2TheWalls]

I would argue that Doc actually getting to install offense would also be kind of a big deal.

Giannis, Dame, and Middleton being healthy has to be the baseline, but I haven't seen a team beat the Bucks with those players at full strength.

Unironically, the biggest improvement the Bucks could find is for Giannis to become an effective free throw shooter. If he could shoot 75% from the line, it would flip a lot of lost games on their heads.

[Daver]

Can't say I blame anyway for thinking the Knicks and 76ers are above us now. They've had great offseasons and were already pretty good to begin with. Seems we're hoping our biggest improvement over the offseason is Lillard being in shape and if he plays like his usual self, we're probably right back in the thick of it.

You would have to be a pretty serious to homer to think the Bucks are better than the Celtics or Knicks at this point.

The Sixers are going to get the hype, but I think they're going to be overrated. Embiid can't stay healthy and even if he does, he'll choke when it matters anyway. PG13 isn't exactly a clutch spring chicken himself either. Maxey is awesome, but I deff think the Sixers will be the team everyone is hyped up about, but really has a 2nd round ceiling.

A lot can still change before October but as of right now my east tiers would look like this.

Legit Contenders.
1. Celtics
2. Knicks

2nd round ceiling. Could sneak into the ECF if the Celtics or Knicks screw up or have injuries.
3. Bucks
4. Sixers
5. Pacers - Kind of leery about putting the Pacers in this tier. I don't think they're all that good but just based on reaching the ECF, I'll put them here.

Playoff teams but not a real threat.
6. Cavs
7. Magic
8. Heat

The east is actually pretty bad IMO. You only have 2 real contenders in the Celtics and Knicks and it's not like those 2 teams are some sort of unbeatable juggernauts. The Celtics are really good but it's hard to get a real read on them after they had such an easy path to the title. They probably would have won the title anyway, but they got every possible favorable match up all the way to the Finals.

The Celtics would have had trouble with the Bucks, a healthy Knicks team and the Nuggets.

Odds are they would have had to of played at least 2 of the 3 if not all 3, but they avoided all 3. Due to injuries and due to the Nuggets blowing a 2nd half 20+ lead at home in game 7.

Boston deserved the title (I guess lol) but I still can't believe how much everything possible scenario fell their way.

As long as your being honest heres some more honesty.Cs may not of even beat tbe Cs if mitchell n allen dont miss 3 games n whole series.Cs won i think 3 of those games by less than 8 without mitchell who knows where that ends up if mitchell plays

[Daver]

I would argue that Doc actually getting to install offense would also be kind of a big deal.

Giannis, Dame, and Middleton being healthy has to be the baseline, but I haven't seen a team beat the Bucks with those players at full strength.

Unironically, the biggest improvement the Bucks could find is for Giannis to become an effective free throw shooter. If he could shoot 75% from the line, it would flip a lot of lost games on their heads.

You are correct whrn bucks are at full strength n the big 3 are playing there were damn near unbeatable and again your right.Ho bsck 2 years or so how many games have the bucks lost because of gisnnis bad FT shooting.Philly n new york come to mind im sure theirs many others

[machu46]

Can't say I blame anyway for thinking the Knicks and 76ers are above us now. They've had great offseasons and were already pretty good to begin with. Seems we're hoping our biggest improvement over the offseason is Lillard being in shape and if he plays like his usual self, we're probably right back in the thick of it.

You would have to be a pretty serious to homer to think the Bucks are better than the Celtics or Knicks at this point.

The Sixers are going to get the hype, but I think they're going to be overrated. Embiid can't stay healthy and even if he does, he'll choke when it matters anyway. PG13 isn't exactly a clutch spring chicken himself either. Maxey is awesome, but I deff think the Sixers will be the team everyone is hyped up about, but really has a 2nd round ceiling.

A lot can still change before October but as of right now my east tiers would look like this.

Legit Contenders.
1. Celtics
2. Knicks

2nd round ceiling. Could sneak into the ECF if the Celtics or Knicks screw up or have injuries.
3. Bucks
4. Sixers
5. Pacers - Kind of leery about putting the Pacers in this tier. I don't think they're all that good but just based on reaching the ECF, I'll put them here.

Playoff teams but not a real threat.
6. Cavs
7. Magic
8. Heat

The east is actually pretty bad IMO. You only have 2 real contenders in the Celtics and Knicks and it's not like those 2 teams are some sort of unbeatable juggernauts. The Celtics are really good but it's hard to get a real read on them after they had such an easy path to the title. They probably would have won the title anyway, but they got every possible favorable match up all the way to the Finals.

The Celtics would have had trouble with the Bucks, a healthy Knicks team and the Nuggets.

Odds are they would have had to of played at least 2 of the 3 if not all 3, but they avoided all 3. Due to injuries and due to the Nuggets blowing a 2nd half 20+ lead at home in game 7.

Boston deserved the title (I guess lol) but I still can't believe how much everything possible scenario fell their way.

Agreed on the Celtics. We'll see with the Knicks; certainly don't blame people for thinking they're better than us at this point, but I'd say our #1 is much better than theirs, our #2 is much better than theirs, and our #3 is about on par with theirs, maybe better. The latter two parts depends on our guys not falling off the proverbial age cliff this season, but if they're healthy and play like their normal selves, I'd take our top 3 over theirs pretty comfortably. Knicks will be good no doubt, but I think the East remains Boston and then everyone else competing for #2. I certainly don't think the Knicks are a tier above but they had a good postseason run until their injuries overwhelmed them and they got a significant upgrade in Bridges so again, I get why they're getting hyped.

I don't think this is me overrating our team so much as I just don't think New York has ascended to the Celtics tier.

[Profound23]

Anyone who wants Paul Reed, Doc never played him in Philly.


If we sign him, Horst better have made sure Doc is on board with that and will play him.

[MiltownMadness]

Eh, Knicks are probably looking at a little regression. Losing Hartenstein hurts bad and the addition of Randle will make them worse. Brunson prob regresses a bit because a too many cooks situation. I dont think they will beat a healthy Bucks or Sixers

[MiltownMadness]

Honestly going all in for Mikal was such a Knicks thing to do. They look to be in very good but not contender category to me, idk why they targeted Bridges outside the Nova thing. The logjam of Randle/Bridges/OG/Hart does not scream championship to me. Shopping Randle would've been smart, they're quite a bit better without him. Brunson getting the free reign was everything for them

[bdpecore]

Can't say I blame anyway for thinking the Knicks and 76ers are above us now. They've had great offseasons and were already pretty good to begin with. Seems we're hoping our biggest improvement over the offseason is Lillard being in shape and if he plays like his usual self, we're probably right back in the thick of it.

Our biggest improvement will be having Giannis available for the playoffs. Anything else is a distant 2nd.

I do think Wright + Prince is a significant upgrade over Beasley + Crowder.

Add in a full offseason with Doc at the helms along with one or both of Green and Jackson taking a step forward and we should be much improved.

That's all fair but why would you expect Twitter or even basketball analysts to give us the benefit of the doubt after the off-season that the Knicks and Sixers had?

Both of those teams dealt with injuries last season too.

Did either the Knicks or 76ers lose their best player for an entire series and their 2nd best play for 1/3 of the same series?

I think people are putting too much stock in the new paper rosters for both of these teams. The Knicks have a lot of very good wings but you can only play two at a time in the playoffs and they are very small in the front court.

[MiltownMadness]

You can look at many recent champs and see the top 3 of Dame/Giannis/Khris (We won our chip with Giannis/Khris and Jrue downgrading into a Pat Bev level player in the PO's)is better than many of them if not most. That top 3 can get you a chip its about plugging the holes in the ship. Putting lots of stock in the debacle that was last season is funny, as if these dudes arent talented out the ass. Health is the main concern everyone should have

[fansinceforever]

Our biggest improvement will be having Giannis available for the playoffs. Anything else is a distant 2nd.

I do think Wright + Prince is a significant upgrade over Beasley + Crowder.

Add in a full offseason with Doc at the helms along with one or both of Green and Jackson taking a step forward and we should be much improved.

That's all fair but why would you expect Twitter or even basketball analysts to give us the benefit of the doubt after the off-season that the Knicks and Sixers had?

Both of those teams dealt with injuries last season too.

Did either the Knicks or 76ers lose their best player for an entire series and their 2nd best play for 1/3 of the same series?

I think people are putting too much stock in the new paper rosters for both of these teams. The Knicks have a lot of very good wings but you can only play two at a time in the playoffs and they are very small in the front court.

The 76ers had Embiid miss the majority of the season and still finished two games behind us. The Knicks dealt with injuries in the RS and in the playoffs, overhauled their roster mid season and still had a better record than us. They also got considerably better this offseason.

Again, I'm not even saying they're definitely better than we are. Its not shocking & definitely not insulting that the NBA world has them above us though.

You have to remember, Giannis was healthy and great all year... The Bucks just couldn't get out of their own way.

[MiltownMadness]

That's all fair but why would you expect Twitter or even basketball analysts to give us the benefit of the doubt after the off-season that the Knicks and Sixers had?

Both of those teams dealt with injuries last season too.

Did either the Knicks or 76ers lose their best player for an entire series and their 2nd best play for 1/3 of the same series?

I think people are putting too much stock in the new paper rosters for both of these teams. The Knicks have a lot of very good wings but you can only play two at a time in the playoffs and they are very small in the front court.

The 76ers had Embiid miss the majority of the season and still finished two games behind us. The Knicks dealt with injuries in the RS and in the playoffs, overhauled their roster mid season and still had a better record than us. They also got considerably better this offseason.

Again, I'm not even saying they're definitely better than we are. Its not shocking & definitely not insulting that the NBA world has them above us though.

You have to remember, Giannis was healthy and great all year... The Bucks just couldn't get out of their own way.

Name a worse coaching situation than the 23/24 Bucks in the last 3 years, go. Big 3 were not able to play together and were GREAT when they did. We know what we have, it's not a big mystery box it's just about health and stable coaching situation. Knicks are the hype beast pick rn and it's fair to put them higher than us because last year was a disgusting Bucks season, but actually looking at the talent on the rosters the Bucks are as good as anyone. We know it's about the top of the roster in the PO's we've all seen hundreds of playoff games

[MiltownMadness]

I could easily see the Knicks struggling because trying to integrate Mikal/Randle and losing a rock in Hartenstein, then if they struggle Thibs will wear on the players, there is potential for disaster there. As we've seen many times it usually takes a full season to build chemistry with star additions (oh look another rreason Bucks will be better next year than last )

And I don't jive with using the injury excuse for the Knicks, they are better without Randle and were healthy enough to win that series until game 7