East teams should be trying everything in their power to compete next year

[mcfly1204]

Did I see someone call Garland a fake All-Star? A fake, two-time All-Star? Interesting take.

[bkkrh]

My question. Are we sure East is weak? I keep hearing it is weak, but Eastern bracket was probably more competitive than West one, at least past first round it was, and Eastern team was very close to winning it all, they didn't, but they could have. Knicks, Pacers, CAVS, ORL are very good, are we selling East short when saying how open it is?

Are you not considering the very bad injuries of Tatum, Dame, Hali, Embiid to be factors why the East just go weaker?

I do consider it, but still, would I rather play series against Lakers and Minny, or CAVS and Knicks? I would rather play Lakers and Minny, OKC is clearly best team now, but other than that, I do not see any other advantage West would have. Some teams on the East are getting underrated, CAVS, Knicks and Orlando have huge potentials IMO if they fully figure everything out.

Besides that, we don't even know how teams will look after the offseason. With the current rosters I wouldn't be surprised if Detroit turns out to be next season's Houston. If Orlando stays healthy they are easily a 50+ win team and most of their players are still developing,

[BigDan245]

Leagues going to be dominated by OKC because of the way the CBA is structured.

Thank you Silver you moron

THe Thunder were just pushed to a 7 game series by a team that nobody considered to be the best team in the East at any point of the season.

Yeah and plus you only have to play 1 western team to win the title. I don't see any good reason why a team like Detroit or Philly shouldn't attempt to win right now. Life is too short and injuries are so unpredictable. Just waiting and hoping for your chance later on is very risky.

Unless you are rebuilding or are at the tail end of your rebuild, not trying to win is just wasting everyone's time. Expecting gift wrapped injuries in the playoffs and cinderella runs is hopeless.

[MrTribbiani]

Teams always be trying to win as many games as possible. Teams who tank are pathetic.

[Lalouie]

every team but that moribund poster child hornets should feel they have a chance

[uncleoswald]

My question. Are we sure East is weak? I keep hearing it is weak, but Eastern bracket was probably more competitive than West one, at least past first round it was, and Eastern team was very close to winning it all, they didn't, but they could have. Knicks, Pacers, CAVS, ORL are very good, are we selling East short when saying how open it is?

On the Simmons podcast last week, Doc Rivers came very close to saying that the East was better than the West, top to bottom. I don't think he wanted to say that explicitly, perhaps in order to not give anyone bulletin board material - and of course, Simmons didn't press on it. Simmons never presses anyone.

But it was interesting to me, as someone who has believed for most of this year that the East is better than the West, save for OKC, at least the 1-6. I'll take CLE, BOS, NYK, IND, DET and MIL all day over OKC, HOU, LAL, DEN, LAC and MIN. Granted, the West play-in teams were way better than the East, and their cellar offers more hope.

As of right now, I think that difference is going to hold. OKC will continue getting better as their young guys improve. Houston will might better, too, although I don't think Durant is a needle-mover. As of right now, it looks like the window's closing on these incarnations of GSW, LAL, LAC and MEM. DEN is not looking promising. Who knows what MIN will look like next year.

Meanwhile, save for MIL and MIA, it looks like the playoff teams in the East are all on the upswing. It's an exciting time. I've spent most of my basketball fandom hearing that the West is better than the East. Shoe might be on the other foot now, for once.

[NZB2323]

I think the Bulls could win it all next year; we could win the entire play-in tournament. Not just 1 game, but 2!

[tamaraw08]

Are you not considering the very bad injuries of Tatum, Dame, Hali, Embiid to be factors why the East just go weaker?

I do consider it, but still, would I rather play series against Lakers and Minny, or CAVS and Knicks? I would rather play Lakers and Minny, OKC is clearly best team now, but other than that, I do not see any other advantage West would have. Some teams on the East are getting underrated, CAVS, Knicks and Orlando have huge potentials IMO if they fully figure everything out.

Besides that, we don't even know how teams will look after the offseason. With the current rosters I wouldn't be surprised if Detroit turns out to be next season's Houston. If Orlando stays healthy they are easily a 50+ win team and most of their players are still developing,

Top 3 ECF teams are good enough to contend but teams that lost a key player would really struggle finding ample replacements to stay competitive.
Boston without Tatum, Bucks with no Lillard and Indiana losing Hali would find it tough to really contend.
Not a few have really believed that the main reason Detroit really flourished and looked good last season was because their young players have matured so much that they carried the team. Well, 3 vet acquisitions have combined for 42 pts/game, 2 of them are free agents while the other will turn 33 this year. Not only do they need Malik to resign, but Beasley would really need to sustain his 43% from the 3pt area to stay competitive.

[bkkrh]

I do consider it, but still, would I rather play series against Lakers and Minny, or CAVS and Knicks? I would rather play Lakers and Minny, OKC is clearly best team now, but other than that, I do not see any other advantage West would have. Some teams on the East are getting underrated, CAVS, Knicks and Orlando have huge potentials IMO if they fully figure everything out.

Besides that, we don't even know how teams will look after the offseason. With the current rosters I wouldn't be surprised if Detroit turns out to be next season's Houston. If Orlando stays healthy they are easily a 50+ win team and most of their players are still developing,

Top 3 ECF teams are good enough to contend but teams that lost a key player would really struggle finding ample replacements to stay competitive.
Boston without Tatum, Bucks with no Lillard and Indiana losing Hali would find it tough to really contend.
Not a few have really believed that the main reason Detroit really flourished and looked good last season was because their young players have matured so much that they carried the team. Well, 3 vet acquisitions have combined for 42 pts/game, 2 of them are free agents while the other will turn 33 this year. Not only do they need Malik to resign, but Beasley would really need to sustain his 43% from the 3pt area to stay competitive.

Yep, the vets were definitely a big factor, exactly like in Houston's case. To also point out, all of those vets were really easy to get. Schröder already said that he wants to stay in Detroit and resigning Beasley and THJ seems pretty realistic. Jaden Ivey and Marcus Sasser will also be back from injuries, so that's already 2 more 3 point shooters threy didn't have on their roster during the playoffs.

Alternatively it might also be an option to make a big trade or signing this offseason. If they'd trade Harris they'd have over 50 Million in cap space with 9 players still on the roster. They also own all their draft picks from 2026 onwards and have a few additional 2nd rounders, so they could make a pretty solid trade over while keeping all their young players.

[tamaraw08]

Besides that, we don't even know how teams will look after the offseason. With the current rosters I wouldn't be surprised if Detroit turns out to be next season's Houston. If Orlando stays healthy they are easily a 50+ win team and most of their players are still developing,

Top 3 ECF teams are good enough to contend but teams that lost a key player would really struggle finding ample replacements to stay competitive.
Boston without Tatum, Bucks with no Lillard and Indiana losing Hali would find it tough to really contend.
Not a few have really believed that the main reason Detroit really flourished and looked good last season was because their young players have matured so much that they carried the team. Well, 3 vet acquisitions have combined for 42 pts/game, 2 of them are free agents while the other will turn 33 this year. Not only do they need Malik to resign, but Beasley would really need to sustain his 43% from the 3pt area to stay competitive.

Yep, the vets were definitely a big factor, exactly like in Houston's case. To also point out, all of those vets were really easy to get. Schröder already said that he wants to stay in Detroit and resigning Beasley and THJ seems pretty realistic. Jaden Ivey and Marcus Sasser will also be back from injuries, so that's already 2 more 3 point shooters threy didn't have on their roster during the playoffs.

Alternatively it might also be an option to make a big trade or signing this offseason. If they'd trade Harris they'd have over 50 Million in cap space with 9 players still on the roster. They also own all their draft picks from 2026 onwards and have a few additional 2nd rounders, so they could make a pretty solid trade over while keeping all their young players.

Okay, IF...Detroit makes good Offseason moves, that makes it 4 really good ECF teams with NY (looking for a coach), Cleveland that flamed out in the last 2 playoffs, the young and inexperienced Magic and the Pistons.
Now who are the teams from the 5th to 10th ranked teams in the East again? and compare them to the projected 5th-10th team of the West which probably be Lakers, GSW, Dallas, Spurs with Wemby and Fox, Clippers.

[bkkrh]

Top 3 ECF teams are good enough to contend but teams that lost a key player would really struggle finding ample replacements to stay competitive.
Boston without Tatum, Bucks with no Lillard and Indiana losing Hali would find it tough to really contend.
Not a few have really believed that the main reason Detroit really flourished and looked good last season was because their young players have matured so much that they carried the team. Well, 3 vet acquisitions have combined for 42 pts/game, 2 of them are free agents while the other will turn 33 this year. Not only do they need Malik to resign, but Beasley would really need to sustain his 43% from the 3pt area to stay competitive.

Yep, the vets were definitely a big factor, exactly like in Houston's case. To also point out, all of those vets were really easy to get. Schröder already said that he wants to stay in Detroit and resigning Beasley and THJ seems pretty realistic. Jaden Ivey and Marcus Sasser will also be back from injuries, so that's already 2 more 3 point shooters threy didn't have on their roster during the playoffs.

Alternatively it might also be an option to make a big trade or signing this offseason. If they'd trade Harris they'd have over 50 Million in cap space with 9 players still on the roster. They also own all their draft picks from 2026 onwards and have a few additional 2nd rounders, so they could make a pretty solid trade over while keeping all their young players.

Okay, IF...Detroit makes good Offseason moves, that makes it 4 really good ECF teams with NY (looking for a coach), Cleveland that flamed out in the last 2 playoffs, the young and inexperienced Magic and the Pistons.
Now who are the teams from the 5th to 10th ranked teams in the East again? and compare them to the projected 5th-10th team of the West which probably be Lakers, GSW, Dallas, Spurs with Wemby and Fox, Clippers.

Well we will see. Only thing I can say is that at the beginning of this season there were endless posts and threads about how much the East sucks and that there are only 2 good teams with Boston and Cleveland. In the end we had 5 and 2 young teams on the rise. The West on the other side had more talent, but a lot of teams went into kind of a transition phase due to injuries, trades or coach changes that made it feel more like that there were a lot of good teams, but not many that could really make it out of the West when the Playoffs finally started.

Other teams in the East, I guess the main question is what will happen in Philly. Otherwise, does Miami bounce back, does Chicago finally manage to stay healthy and for Atlanta do their young players continue to improve. Toronto has a pretty solid cast of talented players, question is just if they finally figure out to translate that into winning. Lastly, Charlotte could actually become a surprise team next year (meaning getting around 42 wins), since they had an insane amount of injuries last season, their actual rotation is pretty decent if healthy (Ball, Green, Miller, Bridges, Mark Williams, Nurkić, Grant Williams, Okogie + their prospects), just again as with Chicago the question if they finally can stay healthy.

So those 5 teams have a lot of what ifs, but it's realistic that 1 or 2 of them get it together. Also I wouldn't fully count out Boston, Indiana and the Bucks. They won't be contenders, but they will most likely still be a solid playoff team. And who knows, maybe T. J. McConnell becomes the new Steve Nash and winds up being MVP .

[The Servant]

lebron might be considering a move to the east right about now.

With the sale of the Lakers and the bad fit with overlap of Luka and Bron...

Does LeBron for Mitchell work for both sides?

Cleveland gets their home town hero back who can maybe be surrounded by pieces in an all time weak Eastern conference, Luka gets a side kick and Mitchell gets to be a 2nd option.

[tamaraw08]

lebron might be considering a move to the east right about now.

With the sale of the Lakers and the bad fit with overlap of Luka and Bron...

Does LeBron for Mitchell work for both sides?

Cleveland gets their home town hero back who can maybe be surrounded by pieces in an all time weak Eastern conference, Luka gets a side kick and Mitchell gets to be a 2nd option.

Wait, so you think the strengths of Luka and Bron overlap and a bad fit and pairing another ball dominant Mitchell to Luka in LA would work?

[Nyce_1]

I think Bos still being slept on. They can get home court in the 1st round. I also feel Tatum returns for their playoff run.

If they move $ then they'll fall.

[GrandTheftRondo]

Leagues going to be dominated by OKC because of the way the CBA is structured.

Thank you Silver you moron

THe Thunder were just pushed to a 7 game series by a team that nobody considered to be the best team in the East at any point of the season.

Sure but they are far from the finished product and did win.

Chet was basically in his second season and missed a large chunk of it.

Jalen Williams was in his third.

SGA remains in his prime and they have a heap of assets to continually replace role players.

This was basically the worst version we’ll see of them.

[JujitsuFlip]

I think Bos still being slept on. They can get home court in the 1st round. I also feel Tatum returns for their playoff run.

If they move $ then they'll fall.

Both of their best players had surgery and there are rumors they're looking to trade other core pieces.

It's a fine projection for now until we get closer to media day in late September.