Official East Conference Prediction Thread - updated 10/25/16

[OFWGKTA]

Charlotte has multiple 2-way, 2-position players who can shoot meaning they'll always find a way to get their best players on the court compared to teams with heavily duplicated WARPS or players who don't fit.

For example, Chicago will almost never play "their 5 best." Or Milwaukee who can't play Henson and Monroe together, or MCW + Jabari + Giannnis which means they'll have 5-7 WARP chilling on the bench while Teletovic and Delly play.

And I think you'd be surprised how rapidly depth deteriorates around 7-8 for most teams. Toronto is the deepest team but even the Celtics drop off a cliff around 9. Charlotte goes 8 deep with WARPS > 1 and 7 deep above 1.5 of mostly young players who can eat minutes at multiple positions.

Bradley
Brown
Crowder
Green
Horford
Jerebko
Johnson
Olynyk
Rozier
Smart
Thomas
Zeller

That's 12 guys capable of playing rotation minutes, granted Brown is technically a question mark due to being a rookie.

[Bully6789]

predictions are great but if i felt that strong about any predictions I would be in Vegas right now

[dakomish23]

This is for playoff seedlings?

TOR
CLE
IND
BOS
NYK
WAS
CHI
DET

ATL
CHA
ORL
MIL
MIA
PHI
BKN

[Ville5]

CLE
TOR
BOS
NYK
DET
IND
WAS
ATL

CHI
CHA
ORL
MIL
MIA
BKN
PHI

[ken6199]

So, we are having a lot more votes for the East conference ranking. Among all predictions, I've seen everything - Brookland, Celts, Dets, obsession of adding LOLs next to PHI/BKN, pretty much all fans voted their own teams into playoff, except that one Miami guy ranked Heat at #15, you can only imagine what he has to go through.

Of course, we have quite a few ORD airports (supposed to be ORL).

Anyhow, here is the results updated till 8/1/2016.


Original document:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzaygCX5b1zHRzJGSVgycHdaQjg/view?usp=sharing

Results updated to 9/4/16.


With added votes, there are a few changes in the ranking:
- ATL/DET swapped places, now DET at 5, ATL at 6
- CHI leapfrogged CHA, now CHI at 7, CHA at 8
- NYK moved above ORL with half of the new votes having them on 4~8 seeds
- variances of CHI and NYK continue to rise, which reflect their uncertainties

[Blue_and_Whte]

So, we are having a lot more votes for the East conference ranking. Among all predictions, I've seen everything - Brookland, Celts, Dets, obsession of adding LOLs next to PHI/BKN, pretty much all fans voted their own teams into playoff, except that one Miami guy ranked Heat at #15, you can only imagine what he has to go through.

Of course, we have quite a few ORD airports (supposed to be ORL).

Anyhow, here is the results updated till 8/1/2016.


Original document:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzaygCX5b1zHRzJGSVgycHdaQjg/view?usp=sharing

Results updated to 9/4/16.


With added votes, there are a few changes in the ranking:
- ATL/DET swapped places, now DET at 5, ATL at 6
- CHI leapfrogged CHA, now CHI at 7, CHA at 8
- NYK moved above ORL with half of the new votes having them on 4~8 seeds
- variances of CHI and NYK continue to rise, which reflect their uncertainties

I agree with this, although I could see Orlando being the 9th seed next season.

[xNewYorkMadex]

1. Cleveland
2. Toronto
3. Boston
4. New York
5. Pacers
6. Pistons
7. Hawks
8. Bucks
9. Wizards
10. Bulls
11. Magic
12. Hornets
13. Heat
14. Nets
15. 76ers

You know, doing these rankings I realized how much talent there is across the league. Besides the easy Warriors and Cavs at #1, there is parity in both conferences. Its too bad the Warriors and Cavs are head and shoulders above everyone else. The NBA would be in much much better shape if they werent such heavy favorites.

[ken6199]

Its too bad the Warriors and Cavs are head and shoulders above everyone else. The NBA would be in much much better shape if they werent such heavy favorites.

Right, but we still appreciate the fact that it's not like the 13-14 season where West 1-6 seeds, all the way from SAS to GSW, had better SRS than any East team, or #9 (PHX) and #10 (MIN) seeds had better SRS and our Atlantic division leader (TOR), and we had the mentality of 'whoever comes out of West will likely win the whole thing'. At least we have a great final series to look forward to this year barring injuries, and a fairly competitive middle pack from the East more so than West.

[heat4life]

A little late, but here are my predictions:

1. Cleveland
2. Toronto
3. Indiana
4. Boston
5. Atlanta
6. Detroit
7. New York
8. Chicago
9. Washington
10. Miami
11. Charlotte
12. Milwaukee
13. Orlando
14. Brooklyn
15. Philadelphia

Yes, we finally get to see a LeBron vs Wade playoff series... just years too late to be compelling..

[vannzee]

1. Cleveland
2. Toronto
3. Detroit
4. New York
5. Boston
6. Indiana
7. Chicago
8. Atlanta

9. Miami
10. Charlotte
11. Milwaukee
12. Washington
13. Orlando
14. Philadelphia
15. Brooklyn

[MotownMadness]

Cleveland
Boston
Toronto
Detroit
Indiana
Atlanta
Chicago
Orlando

New York
Washington
Milwaukee
Miami
Charlotte
Philly
Brooklyn

[165bows]

So, we are having a lot more votes for the East conference ranking. Among all predictions, I've seen everything - Brookland, Celts, Dets, obsession of adding LOLs next to PHI/BKN, pretty much all fans voted their own teams into playoff, except that one Miami guy ranked Heat at #15, you can only imagine what he has to go through.

Of course, we have quite a few ORD airports (supposed to be ORL).

Anyhow, here is the results updated till 8/1/2016.


Original document:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzaygCX5b1zHRzJGSVgycHdaQjg/view?usp=sharing

Results updated to 9/4/16.


With added votes, there are a few changes in the ranking:
- ATL/DET swapped places, now DET at 5, ATL at 6
- CHI leapfrogged CHA, now CHI at 7, CHA at 8
- NYK moved above ORL with half of the new votes having them on 4~8 seeds
- variances of CHI and NYK continue to rise, which reflect their uncertainties

Very interesting presentation. My initial impressions are that the pendulum has swung too far regarding Washington, in relation to them sliding behind NY and Milwaukee. Could well be true regarding Miami to a lesser extent.

[ken6199]

Very interesting presentation. My initial impressions are that the pendulum has swung too far regarding Washington, in relation to them sliding behind NY and Milwaukee. Could well be true regarding Miami to a lesser extent.

It's Kief's 2nd season with them (1st full season) so if he can get something going with Gortat, Washington's front court problem which has been slowing them/Wall down for the past couple years due to the aging Nene should be solved. They lost depth in Nene but Mahinmi very well compensated that. Also watch out for Thorton, Ariza had his only 40% 3pt career year camping outside next to Wall, I expect Thorton to also shoot lights out there - faster, much quicker release, little inconsistent but got full set of weapons in his repertoire - he will play a huge role if Beal goes down again injured. The key lies in Scott Brooks if he can repeat the magic he did on Westbrook on Wall who is a similar player in lot of ways, I can see Washington sore up and fight for 6-8 seed in the East.

[165bows]

Very interesting presentation. My initial impressions are that the pendulum has swung too far regarding Washington, in relation to them sliding behind NY and Milwaukee. Could well be true regarding Miami to a lesser extent.

It's Kief's 2nd season with them (1st full season) so if he can get something going with Gortat, Washington's front court problem which has been slowing them/Wall down for the past couple years due to the aging Nene should be solved. They lost depth in Nene but Mahinmi very well compensated that. Also watch out for Thorton, Ariza had his only 40% 3pt career year camping outside next to Wall, I expect Thorton to also shoot lights out there - faster, much quicker release, little inconsistent but got full set of weapons in his repertoire - he will play a huge role if Beal goes down again injured. The key lies in Scott Brooks if he can repeat the magic he did on Westbrook on Wall who is a similar player in lot of ways, I can see Washington sore up and fight for 6-8 seed in the East.

I like the Mahinmi add for WAS though I don't know they will be significantly better. To me people are underestimating how easy it is to jump 8-9 wins like NY and MIL need to do to leapfrog WAS (and even more for Miami though remains to be seen how far they fall).

I don't see part-time players like Dellavedova or Teletovic making that up, it's too big a gap. They could do it with internal improvements, everything breaking right etc but that seems like the much less likely outcome.

[basketballRob]

I think the Magic will surprise some people this year. Half the rotation is different and I think they may be able to snag home court in the playoffs.

[MotownMadness]

I think the Magic will surprise some people this year. Half the rotation is different and I think they may be able to snag home court in the playoffs.

That could be a good reason why they won't snag home court. It's going to take time for that in my opinion. I think getting into the playoffs would be a successful season and then trying to build on that next year towards HCA.

[basketballRob]

I think the Magic will surprise some people this year. Half the rotation is different and I think they may be able to snag home court in the playoffs.

That could be a good reason why they won't snag home court. It's going to take time for that in my opinion. I think getting into the playoffs would be a successful season and then trying to build on that next year towards HCA.

Vogel in every interview says, we will not only make the playoffs but we'll make some noise once we get there.

[MotownMadness]

I think the Magic will surprise some people this year. Half the rotation is different and I think they may be able to snag home court in the playoffs.

That could be a good reason why they won't snag home court. It's going to take time for that in my opinion. I think getting into the playoffs would be a successful season and then trying to build on that next year towards HCA.

Vogel in every interview says, we will not only make the playoffs but we'll make some noise once we get there.

They will be a team to watch but the east is going to be competitive and like most newly assembled teams it can take halfway through a season before everyone gets comfortable and things really click on all cylinders. That's why I'm thinking Detroit has a good shot at taking that 4th spot this year for HCA. There shouldn't be too much of a getting used to each other period bringing back the same core and all.

[j-ragg]

I think the Magic will surprise some people this year.

Every fan base believes this, it's getting to the point where the season needs to hurry up and get here so we can have some kind of results damn it.

[basketballRob]

I think the Magic will surprise some people this year.

Every fan base believes this, it's getting to the point where the season needs to hurry up and get here so we can have some kind of results damn it.

You have a good point, even if you are a Michigan fan.