Early Top 8 in the East projections.

[ThunderUp1234]

This again with the Bulls? It's going to start this early eh.

They won 48 games last year, and added Gasol, Mirotic, McBuckets and DRose.

I dont see whats so crazy about it.

[kerry kittles]

Pacers
heat
bulls
Nets
hawks
raptors
cavs
wizards

The Nets got worse this off-season...how are they now better than the Raptors who added two quality rotation players in Lou Williams and James Johnson?

Lost Livingston and Pierce. Garnett is a year older. Lopez and Williams coming off of major surgeries.

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Lopez and Jack could in theory replace Pierce and Livingston's production. The Nets were better than the Raptors after they went small 1/1/14 and on and were better when it mattered most, the playoffs.

There's two schools of thought with the Nets that make them so hard to pencil in:
DWill/Johnson/Wallace/Evans/Lopez and a terrible bench outside Blatche won 49 games

There's more talent around those 3 players this season, but bigger question marks, namely the health of DWill and Lopez. If Lopez plays 70+ games they'll be in the playoffs, if he doesn't they'll be fighting to get in.

[samuraix]

Yes but Bulls-Cavs-Pacers are all in the same division, all 3 can't be top 4, Raptors and the winner of the other division(Wiz?) would be above Pacers in this model, while Pacers would keep the HCA against Wizards.

There's three division's and only two are represented in the 1-4 seeds in his standings. The three division winner are placed in the top 4 seeds.

Oops. I didn't even look at that. I just noticed that the no team from Atlantic Division was in the top 3. You guys are right.

[Darkstar77]

This again with the Bulls? It's going to start this early eh.

They won 48 games last year, and added Gasol, Mirotic, McBuckets and DRose.

I dont see whats so crazy about it.

Until Rose proves he can stay healthy for a majority of a season the Bulls shouldn't be rated so highly.

[majortom71]

This thread is a bit premature, but I'll give it a shot

1. Pacers - The just need to get Lance back and they'll be a good shot to ECF
2. Bulls - They are known for being strong during the regular season plus they have Gasol. I am not confident that Rose will be the same as before injury.
3. Heat - They lost Lebron but looks like most of the others are returning plus they signed Deng. Wade and Bosh will have something to prove.
4. Cavs - I know they have Lebron but everything else is a question mark. Paper champs for now and also have to see if they get Love. That may bump them up a bit. The biggest thing is how they can gel.
****** This is where it gets murky ******
5. Hawks - if they are healthy they can compete.
6. Raptors - They have good chemistry and have more experience.
7. Wizards - They have great players, however they have a terrible coach. They also lost Ariza. They will be underachieving this year.
8. Knicks - This one was tough but they have Melo and if Stat is healthy they should do well enough. They did lose Tyson and have a rookie coach.

Pistons and Hornets can also fight for 7th and 8th spots it will be very tight race.

[mademan]

This again with the Bulls? It's going to start this early eh.

They won 48 games last year, and added Gasol, Mirotic, McBuckets and DRose.

I dont see whats so crazy about it.

Until Rose proves he can stay healthy for a majority of a season the Bulls shouldn't be rated so highly.

Forget staying healthy, he has to prove he's not gonna be a worse shooting Gilbert Arenas 2.0.

2 major knee surgeries in 2 years...Bulls fans should be happy if he comes back as "just" a top 8 pg.

[DarkXaero]

Pacers
heat
bulls
Nets
hawks
raptors
cavs
wizards

The Nets got worse this off-season...how are they now better than the Raptors who added two quality rotation players in Lou Williams and James Johnson?

Lost Livingston and Pierce. Garnett is a year older. Lopez and Williams coming off of major surgeries.

Sent from my SGH-I747M using RealGM Forums mobile app

1)Deron isn't coming off a major surgery, in terms of recovery.

2)Nets were without Brook for almost the entire last season. If they have him back this season, it's already a huge improvement.

3)Livingston has been replaced by Jarrett Jack, who is a much different player, but still a decent enough replacement. While Livingston was very solid defensively, his lack of shooting and playmaking was a major negative. Jack is nowhere near defensively, but he does bring the things that Livingston didn't. It's a trade off.

The Pierce loss sucks, especially given that Nets had the option to match. There's no denying that. KG is a year older, but I really like him in a backup role to Brook. 28-30 MPG for Brook, with 20 MPG for KG. Plumlee with minutes at PF and C. Plumlee should improve his game, and the team as a whole has gotten younger. Also, Nets have a better head coach than Kidd this time. Bojan Bogdanovic is a solid Euro prospect who might make an immediate impact.

[ThunderUp1234]

I swapped the Wiz and Pacers to make it more clear.

[Troubadour]

Pacers
heat
bulls
Nets
hawks
raptors
cavs
wizards

The Nets got worse this off-season...how are they now better than the Raptors who added two quality rotation players in Lou Williams and James Johnson?

Lost Livingston and Pierce. Garnett is a year older. Lopez and Williams coming off of major surgeries.

Sent from my SGH-I747M using RealGM Forums mobile app

Lopez and Jack could in theory replace Pierce and Livingston's production. The Nets were better than the Raptors after they went small 1/1/14 and on and were better when it mattered most, the playoffs.

There's two schools of thought with the Nets that make them so hard to pencil in:
DWill/Johnson/Wallace/Evans/Lopez and a terrible bench outside Blatche won 49 games

There's more talent around those 3 players this season, but bigger question marks, namely the health of DWill and Lopez. If Lopez plays 70+ games they'll be in the playoffs, if he doesn't they'll be fighting to get in.

So, their success was predicated on Pierce playing the 4 and Livingston playing the 2. The team also acknowledged how much better they were without Lopez.

The success will continue with Lopez back and the loss of two of their starters from last season. Jack is fine, but does not offer any of the defensive play Livingston offered.

The Nets lost two starters and as many as two rotation players. They're being replaced by Jarrett Jack, a rookie, and the 59th pick in the draft....

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[ThunderUp1234]

This again with the Bulls? It's going to start this early eh.

They won 48 games last year, and added Gasol, Mirotic, McBuckets and DRose.

I dont see whats so crazy about it.

Until Rose proves he can stay healthy for a majority of a season the Bulls shouldn't be rated so highly.

Probably fair.

[flash22]

Stopped reading after I saw the Bobcats mentioned 3 times. That isn't our name. Keep up with things.

Bobcat fans are real touchy lately.

Cavs
Wizards
Pacers
Raptors
Bulls
Hawks
Heat
Celtic

[Massamba]

1- Cavs
2- Bulls.
3- Pacers.
4- Heat.
5- Wizards.
6- Raptors.
7- Hawks.
8- Hornets

[RNsteve]

dammit guys. we aren't the bobcats! we are the hornets!

Hey...I kept looking at the first few 2014/2015 division rankings and thinking people screwed up & posted a Western team in Eastern rankings.

[qm22]

Also, the number of people who don't understand how the conference rankings work is shocking

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The thread didn't say playoff seedings it said top 8. I prefer to rank top 8 on record because there is less ambiguity about a rank being due to conference or record...

[Troubadour]

Pacers
heat
bulls
Nets
hawks
raptors
cavs
wizards

The Nets got worse this off-season...how are they now better than the Raptors who added two quality rotation players in Lou Williams and James Johnson?

Lost Livingston and Pierce. Garnett is a year older. Lopez and Williams coming off of major surgeries.

Sent from my SGH-I747M using RealGM Forums mobile app

1)Deron isn't coming off a major surgery, in terms of recovery.

2)Nets were without Brook for almost the entire last season. If they have him back this season, it's already a huge improvement.

3)Livingston has been replaced by Jarrett Jack, who is a much different player, but still a decent enough replacement. While Livingston was very solid defensively, his lack of shooting and playmaking was a major negative. Jack is nowhere near defensively, but he does bring the things that Livingston didn't. It's a trade off.

The Pierce loss sucks, especially given that Nets had the option to match. There's no denying that. KG is a year older, but I really like him in a backup role to Brook. 28-30 MPG for Brook, with 20 MPG for KG. Plumlee with minutes at PF and C. Plumlee should improve his game, and the team as a whole has gotten younger. Also, Nets have a better head coach than Kidd this time. Bojan Bogdanovic is a solid Euro prospect who might make an immediate impact.

Williams had surgery on both ankles! Lopez had one of the worst injuries van have (Big Z and Yao both had it).

The entire Nets style last season relied on causing turnovers and getting out in transition. Lopez does neither. The Nets are also probably going back to a conventional line up w Hollins as coach.

They'll probably with 42'45 games, but I wouldn't expect anything more.

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[kerry kittles]

The Nets got worse this off-season...how are they now better than the Raptors who added two quality rotation players in Lou Williams and James Johnson?

Lost Livingston and Pierce. Garnett is a year older. Lopez and Williams coming off of major surgeries.

Sent from my SGH-I747M using RealGM Forums mobile app

Lopez and Jack could in theory replace Pierce and Livingston's production. The Nets were better than the Raptors after they went small 1/1/14 and on and were better when it mattered most, the playoffs.

There's two schools of thought with the Nets that make them so hard to pencil in:
DWill/Johnson/Wallace/Evans/Lopez and a terrible bench outside Blatche won 49 games

There's more talent around those 3 players this season, but bigger question marks, namely the health of DWill and Lopez. If Lopez plays 70+ games they'll be in the playoffs, if he doesn't they'll be fighting to get in.

So, their success was predicated on Pierce playing the 4 and Livingston playing the 2. The team also acknowledged how much better they were without Lopez.

The success will continue with Lopez back and the loss of two of their starters from last season. Jack is fine, but does not offer any of the defensive play Livingston offered.

The Nets lost two starters and as many as two rotation players. They're being replaced by Jarrett Jack, a rookie, and the 59th pick in the draft....

Sent from my SGH-I747M using RealGM Forums mobile app

Things are different, different system, different coach.

DWill/Johnson/Wallace/Evans/Lopez won 49 games more than last season with Avery/PJ coaching

DWill/Johnson/AK47/Teletovic/Lopez with Hollins can't do the same if healthy?

It all depends on health for the Nets, mainly DWill and Lopez. I'm not predicting them to finish higher than the Raptors FYI because I'm not supremely confident they can stay healthy, but there are posters that believe they can (DWill get his ankles cleaned out, Brook getting the Ilgauskas surgery is what they harp on) and that was the position I was defending.

[JoseRizal]

Bulls
Cavs
cRaps
Pacers
Heat
Wizards
Nets
Hawks/Hornets

[deneem4]

Wizards
Bulls
heat
pacers
Cavs
Knicks
pistons/nets/hornets/hawks

wizards are the most all around team
bulls have health issues
pacers have issues
heat will suprise
Cavs will struggle defensively
knicks will make the playoffs
pistons will be good

[Bubstubbler]

ranked in order of wins

1) Cavs
2) Indiana
3) Toronto
4) Chicago
5) Washington
6) Miami
7) Brooklyn
8) Charlotte

I expect Rose to either get hurt or be disappointing, but Thibs is Thibs, so they'll win anyway. If Rose happens to come back and play at an MVP level for the whole season, I think they'll battle Indiana for the 2nd highest win total.