So where do we rank in the east as of now

[MotownMadness]

As of right now I see the East like this

Bulls
Cavs
Raptors
Pacers
Heat
Hornets
Wizards
One of Hawks/Pistons/Nets

[Hooplah]

The Pistons are a more athletic and better shooting team than both the Heat and Nets. Both are walking MASH units as well. The East isn't looking that tough.

[cammac]

Division Winners
Washington, Cleveland & Toronto

1. Cleveland
2. Toronto
3. Washington
4. Hornets have upgraded talent
5. Chicago { assuming no year ending injury to Rose and Pau plays 60 games }
6. Atlanta { assuming Horford is healthy }
7. Miami { Bosh is a better #2 guy than Alpha Dog }
8. Indy { have PG & West not much else but should be enough }
possible 7th or 8th in order Nets, NYKs & Detroit

[Redeemed]

Teams that are probably better than the Pistons

Bulls
Cavs
Pacers
Raptors
Wizards


Could go either way

Hawks
Heat
Hornets
Knicks
Nets

Teams the Pistons are probably better than

76ers
Bucks
Celtics
Magic


Prediction: East Shake Up

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

WOW!! Raptors #1 and Pistons #6?

Those are BOLD predictions.

Pacers
Bulls
Cavs
Wizards
Raptors
Knicks
Hornets
Heat

The Pistons have the potential to leap a few of those teams and end up in the 6 to 7 range. That being said, we have a tremendously small margin of error. Our success hinges on complete buy-in to SVG's vision and a number of other variables aligning.

Knicks will be a far more stable team. Potential 4th or 5th best record in the east

Cavs will gel really quickly. Potential best record in the east.

Heat begin their slide with Bosh as the Alpha dog. Potential dip into lottery land.

Bulls play it same with ol' tender foot...I mean knee. Potential climb to #2 in the east

Pacers get buy-in and value out of Stuckey because David West punches him in the face. No worse than the 3rd best in the east

Wizards get an uber-confident Beal and a Wall with a chip on his shoulder to go with a cagey old Truth. Results in a potential battle for 5th or 6th spot.

Hornets are back and they've got Kemba, Lance, and Big Al. Along with that there's Cody Z. and Noah V. There's potential for scary goodness.

[No-Man]

Detroit is likely going to get a top5 pick in next years draft

You are clearly worse than many teams, and you will be fighting with Orlando, Philly and Boston for the last spots in the East.

Best case scenario you end up 15th with the 1st pick in the draft, worst case? end up 11-12th and out of the top5.

The roster is a joke, no balance, no team players, not creators... Detroit is going to be pretty bad, one of the worst teams in the league for sure.

There's good cause for us to expect less than a playoff appearance with our recent history. And if we ended up in the draft with a top five pick that would be better than not having a pick at all.

That being said, there's no way the Pistons are the 15th best team in the east. Our biggests problems last year were spacing and indecisive at best and incompetent at worst coaching. We have floor spacing role players to compliment Drummond. We have clear sighted coaching.

Right now I have us in the10th spot in the east with puncher's chance of making it as one of the top 8 teams.

I got the East as follows,v with only 10 teams with a realistic shot at the PO,

Chicago
Cleveland
Washington
Toronto
Charlotte
Miami
Indiana
Atlanta
New York
Brooklyn

And the bottom5 with no shot at the PO...

Detroit
Milwaukee
Boston
Orlando
Philadelphia

If you rank the Pistons 10th... ahead of whom over there? I think ranking the Pistons 11th is fair, they could end up 9th if they have a really good season, but I dont expect that, or they could be worse than Milwaukee and Boston and finish 13th, 11th is the most probable outcome.

Just if you want to compare I got the West like this

San Antonio
Los Angeles
Oklahoma City
Dallas
Golden St.
Houston
Memphis
Portland
New Orleans
Denver
Phoenix
Minnesota
Los Angeles
Sacramento
Utah

If Love gets traded or other FAs move it can change of course.

[Redeemed]

Detroit is likely going to get a top5 pick in next years draft

You are clearly worse than many teams, and you will be fighting with Orlando, Philly and Boston for the last spots in the East.

Best case scenario you end up 15th with the 1st pick in the draft, worst case? end up 11-12th and out of the top5.

The roster is a joke, no balance, no team players, not creators... Detroit is going to be pretty bad, one of the worst teams in the league for sure.

There's good cause for us to expect less than a playoff appearance with our recent history. And if we ended up in the draft with a top five pick that would be better than not having a pick at all.

That being said, there's no way the Pistons are the 15th best team in the east. Our biggests problems last year were spacing and indecisive at best and incompetent at worst coaching. We have floor spacing role players to compliment Drummond. We have clear sighted coaching.

Right now I have us in the10th spot in the east with puncher's chance of making it as one of the top 8 teams.

I got the East as follows,v with only 10 teams with a realistic shot at the PO,

Chicago
Cleveland
Washington
Toronto
Charlotte
Miami
Indiana
Atlanta
New York
Brooklyn

And the bottom5 with no shot at the PO...

Detroit
Milwaukee
Boston
Orlando
Philadelphia

If you rank the Pistons 10th... ahead of whom over there? I think ranking the Pistons 11th is fair, they could end up 9th if they have a really good season, but I dont expect that, or they could be worse than Milwaukee and Boston and finish 13th, 11th is the most probable outcome.

Just if you want to compare I got the West like this

San Antonio
Los Angeles
Oklahoma City
Dallas
Golden St.
Houston
Memphis
Portland
New Orleans
Denver
Phoenix
Minnesota
Los Angeles
Sacramento
Utah

If Love gets traded or other FAs move it can change of course.

East solid 8:

Chicago
Cleveland
Indiana
Washington
Toronto
New York
Miami
Charlotte

On the outside battling:

Brooklyn
Detroit
Atlanta

Singing "Happy" and a few years away:

Milwaukee (Greek Freak is going to be REALLY good, Jabari Parker is a beast, Kendall Marshall was an insanely good aquisition, Brandon Knight is a scorer who will benefit greatly from Kendall Marshall, OJ Mayo is dead)

Boston

Orlando (Oladipo & Payton are going to be a nightmare for ballhandlers)

Philadelphia (Organizational commitment to tanking)

West:

There is absolutely no way Dallas has a reasonable shot at being the 4th best team in the West. That's a drug induced assessment right there. LOL! I'm just kidding (about the way I said that)...but seriously they are probably somewhere around the sixth or seventh range in the West.

San Antonio
Oklahoma City
Los Angeles Clippers
Houston
Golden St.
Portland

Barely hanging on to 7

Dallas (look in the rearview because those teams are right on your heels)

Raise for 7 & 8

Memphis
Phoenix (depends heavily on getting the Bledsoe deal done and whatever else they have brewing personnel wise)

New Orleans (dark horse team; could shake things up in the West)

Denver (Arron Afflalo, Gary Harris, Randy Foye...I love those guys)

Los Angeles Lakers (Ed Davis, Julius Randle, Carlos Boozer, Jordan Hill...so what's the plan here?)

Minnesota (will probably have a Love triangle for the season causing all sorts of drama for them)

Sacramento (Message to the Kings: if you get Josh Smith you could leap up into playoff contention. LOL)

Utah (Dante Exum, Gordon Hayward, Alec Burks, Derrick Favors, Enes Kanter they've got some pieces)

[Redeemed]

I've been thinking through the personnel moves from the various teams and the potential parody it could bring to the Eastern Conference standings. Those thoughts have forced me to shift some of my predictions a bit. While my top 4 teams remain the same, I do believe there will be a bit of shift with Chicago coming out with the best record in the East.

The addition of Gasol is going to be huge for them. My question is, will Gibson (who predicted starting this year) be cool with coming off the bench at the four? A four & five pairing of Gasol and Noah will be a matchup nightmare for teams. Dunleavy will punish the D with his range at the 3. A healthy Derrick Rose and a ever-improving Jimmy Butler makes this team scary good in the regular season.

The Cavs with their young talent and Lebron James will be an elite team good enough for the 2nd best record in the East. If they pull off that deal for Kevin Love, they will take the 1st spot.

Indiana will stay in the top 3, but I think they will feel the lost of Lance "Born to Blow in your ear" Stephenson.

The 4-6 spots are still Washington, Toronto, and New York.

The 7 & 8 spots are Miami and Charlotte (in that order). Still I wonder what Miami will look like with Bosh as their number one option. I also question if it is even reasonable to expect a healthy Dwyane Wade at this stage in his career. Oh and what about a Stephenson & Walker backcourt? What about Stephenson's maturity? Will Big Al still be the number option? He is after all, the best offensive post center in the league.

[Pharaoh]

On the Knicks:

Who plays C?

Amare, Bargnani, Melo, Shumpert, Calderon and Smith as 6th Man isn't fearsome...

Who am I forgetting?

Rookie head coach, new system

Sent from my GT-I9300 using RealGM Forums mobile app

[Redeemed]

On the Knicks:

Who plays C?

Amare, Bargnani, Melo, Shumpert, Calderon and Smith as 6th Man isn't fearsome...

Who am I forgetting?

Rookie head coach, new system

Sent from my GT-I9300 using RealGM Forums mobile app

Dalmebert will start at center splitting time with Stat. Stat could get traded, in which case Bargs would play the five.

Calderon is a lights out shooter who will excel in the triangle system.

Rookie is a bit of a misnomer, since Phil Jackson will be coaching the team through Derek Fisher. At least that's one scenario. The reality is Jax & Fisher bring tremendous stability and direction to the Knicks franchise.

Bargs (major bum material) will do well in the triangle...if they keep him. Shump is an insanely talented defender who has been doing two days and studying the triangle since the end of the season (at least that's what being reported). JR Smith will get shipped as soon as they can find a sucker...I mean interested party.

Don't sleep on Cleanthony Early.

[Sheedpocalypse]

Haven't visited the board in some while, but all I have to say post-LeBron-coming-back is:

F*ck the Cavs man. They get three number 1 picks in four years and LeBron now too. There will be no end to my ridicule if they don't win a title now. And the same fans pissing on jerseys who have been crying on boards nationwide they would 'never ever forgive this betrayal' and that 'James is a wanted man', are the same ones who are slobbering all over him again. No pride, no shame.

If the gods are just, the city of Detroit gets this kind of decade up next.

/rant