Where does our roster rank in the Eastern Conference?

[Edug27]

As of today I'd say:

1) Nets
2) Bucks
3) Sixers
4) Heat
5) Hawks
6) Knicks
7) Celtics
8) Bulls
9) Hornets
10) Wizards
11) Pacers
12) Raptors

With that being said, we have some wild cards. Time Lord's health, how much of a leap langford/pritchard/nesmith make, Dunn is a wild card - he either gets traded, is a useless end of the bench guy or all of a sudden is a beast who shows why he was a top 5 pick in the draft.

If enough things break our way I can see us moving into the 5 seed, maybe even 4.. and if the Simmons situation in Philly turns out ugly, maybe even the 3 seed..

it should be a really competitive conference though..

I’m onboard with this. Though I’m not convinced the Knicks will be better than us again. Probably put Boston and Hawks battling for that 5/6 spot.. with Hawks having the edge.

[Hal14]

As of today I'd say:

1) Nets
2) Bucks
3) Sixers
4) Heat
5) Hawks
6) Knicks
7) Celtics
8) Bulls
9) Hornets
10) Wizards
11) Pacers
12) Raptors

With that being said, we have some wild cards. Time Lord's health, how much of a leap langford/pritchard/nesmith make, Dunn is a wild card - he either gets traded, is a useless end of the bench guy or all of a sudden is a beast who shows why he was a top 5 pick in the draft.

If enough things break our way I can see us moving into the 5 seed, maybe even 4.. and if the Simmons situation in Philly turns out ugly, maybe even the 3 seed..

it should be a really competitive conference though..

I’m onboard with this. Though I’m not convinced the Knicks will be better than us again. Probably put Boston and Hawks battling for that 5/6 spot.. with Hawks having the edge.

Yeah I can see, knicks, hawks (and maybe bulls) all battling it out, in the same tier.

we've gotten better, but so have the knicks and they were better than us last yr (although one could certainly argue that they were only better than us because of all the injuries/COVID we had). so i can see us and the knicks being pretty close. hawks finished right behind the knicks reg season but then beat them in 5 games in the playoffs because they clearly became a different team once McMillan was hired, if they had him as coach all year their record would have been better. they haven't really done much to improve, though. okongwu is gonna be out for most of the season with an injury. delon wright should help, and cooper and jalen johnson should help a decent amount too, although Cooper is on a 2-way so he probably won't play much, especially since they picked up Wright. So i'd probably put the hawks ahead of us and the knicks but it should be pretty tight.

Bulls, who knows? they were pretty bad last yr but now they have a full season of Vucevic, Patrick williams was good but raw as a rookie, he should take a leap in his 2nd yr, then you add Lonzo and Derozan. They should be right in the mix in that 4-8 range as well, depending on how they gel. Caruso and Dosunmo should be solid guards off the bench but without Theis IDK who they have off the bench for SF, PF and C..depth could be an issue for them..

[Curmudgeon]

Some rosters are less than the sum of their parts, some rosters are more. It's how guys fit and play together. Right now the Celtics are a huge question mark: new players, new coach. They are anywhere from third to seventh. Who knows? And anything can happen in a seven game series. That's why they play the games. The playoffs are not a popularity contest, except. perhaps, for the officials.

Philly is overrated. Embiid puts up numbers, but he is like a huge vacuum cleaner who sucks the air out of the rest of the team. It's not a well constructed roster, and they will be lucky to get 50 cents on the dollar for Simmons.

New Jersey is also overrated. There is only one ball and you know that someone will get hurt. But Patty Mills was a nice addition, so if Durant stays healthy, that's a very tough team.

Atlanta? Overrated team #3. Young and Collins aren't that good, and Gallinari isn't getting any younger. They had a nice run last year, but I don't see a repeat.

If I were a betting man I'd take the odds on Miami winning the East. If Lowry is still the same Lowry, putting him and Butler together is huge, especially with Adebayo and all the shooting they have.

Obviously Milwaukee is No. 1 until proven otherwise. They have their big three plus some very good role players, two of whom are 7 footers. It's a big team. Plus they will have DiVincenzo back. I think DiVincenzo is every bit as good as Tyler Herro.

[Spin Move]

We are somewhere between 5th and 8th

Heat
Bucks
Nets are significantly betters then us
Philly is better on paper but it depends who they bring back for simmons

Arguments can be made about
Atlanta, us and NY maybe even Chicago

Then Wizards Pacers, and Hornets

[old skool]

50+ wins, EC finals. The J's are the best duo in the East, and the defense has been fixed (on paper anyway). Brooklyn, Miami and Atlanta may have better overall rosters, but injuries and other unanticipated things can happen over the course of an 82 game season.

The Js are better than Durant and Harden? Better than Antetokounmpo and Middleton? Better than Young and Collins? Better than Embiid and Simmons? Better than Butler and Adebayo?

Better?

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[Feed Your Head]

50+ wins, EC finals. The J's are the best duo in the East, and the defense has been fixed (on paper anyway). Brooklyn, Miami and Atlanta may have better overall rosters, but injuries and other unanticipated things can happen over the course of an 82 game season.

The Js are better than Durant and Harden? Better than Antetokounmpo and Middleton? Better than Young and Collins? Better than Embiid and Simmons? Better than Butler and Adebayo?

Better?

Sent from my SM-N960U using RealGM mobile app

Definitely better than Trae/Collins, by a lot. Probably similar to Butler/Bam and Embiid/Simmons, though Butler is going to start trending down, and Simmons is broken mentally.

Definitely worse than Giannis/Middleton, and KD/Harden. Obviously lol.

[Bad-Thoma]

I think we'll be probably in a tight competition for the 4-7 spots with Mil and Brk obviously setting the pace and Miami and/or Phi potentially being good and taking up the other top spots. I'm actually a lot more optimistic than that about this deeper, better defending (on paper) roster but I don't want to get carried away.

[Parliament10]

If we can shore up that PF position, then we're a Top 4 in the East.
Otherwise, it could be a bumpy ride.

[BostonCouchGM]

As of today I'd say:

1) Nets
2) Bucks
3) Sixers
4) Heat
5) Hawks
6) Knicks
7) Celtics
8) Bulls
9) Hornets
10) Wizards
11) Pacers
12) Raptors

With that being said, we have some wild cards. Time Lord's health, how much of a leap langford/pritchard/nesmith make, Dunn is a wild card - he either gets traded, is a useless end of the bench guy or all of a sudden is a beast who shows why he was a top 5 pick in the draft.

If enough things break our way I can see us moving into the 5 seed, maybe even 4.. and if the Simmons situation in Philly turns out ugly, maybe even the 3 seed..

it should be a really competitive conference though..

I’m onboard with this. Though I’m not convinced the Knicks will be better than us again. Probably put Boston and Hawks battling for that 5/6 spot.. with Hawks having the edge.

Yeah I can see, knicks, hawks (and maybe bulls) all battling it out, in the same tier.

we've gotten better, but so have the knicks and they were better than us last yr (although one could certainly argue that they were only better than us because of all the injuries/COVID we had). so i can see us and the knicks being pretty close. hawks finished right behind the knicks reg season but then beat them in 5 games in the playoffs because they clearly became a different team once McMillan was hired, if they had him as coach all year their record would have been better. they haven't really done much to improve, though. okongwu is gonna be out for most of the season with an injury. delon wright should help, and cooper and jalen johnson should help a decent amount too, although Cooper is on a 2-way so he probably won't play much, especially since they picked up Wright. So i'd probably put the hawks ahead of us and the knicks but it should be pretty tight.

Bulls, who knows? they were pretty bad last yr but now they have a full season of Vucevic, Patrick williams was good but raw as a rookie, he should take a leap in his 2nd yr, then you add Lonzo and Derozan. They should be right in the mix in that 4-8 range as well, depending on how they gel. Caruso and Dosunmo should be solid guards off the bench but without Theis IDK who they have off the bench for SF, PF and C..depth could be an issue for them..

I think drafting Johnson, Cooper, getting Wright and having Nate for the full season IS doing a lot to improve. Johnson is a stud. He's a different animal. It's ridiculous that he fell. I liked him and had him #9 on my Big Board but I was mistaken, not realizing how big he is. I don't know if he grew since college or what but he was looking different out there in the SL. Like, no hyperbole, he's a Tatum level prospect and he went #20. There won't be more than 2-3 guys as good or better than him from this class. And Cooper, is the opposite, he's actually smaller than what I remember and was being reported, but considering he was taken #48, they got a guy who will definitely help going forward. The Hawks are loaded. They and Knicks had incredible offseasons and should finish ahead of us though anything can happen regarding health and injuries.

[captain green]

East could shake out as sneaky good. Lots of potential upgrades still with goggles off we could be damn good not elite but right around 4 max to 6 the worse imo. If healthy definitely a 1st round win in playoffs.

[Curmudgeon]

1) Celtics
2) Bucks
3) Heat
4) Nets
5) Hawks
6) Bulls
7) Knicks
8) Sixers
9) Hornets
10) Wizards
11) Pacers
12) Raptors

[Hal14]

1) Celtics
2) Bucks
3) Heat
4) Nets
5) Hawks
6) Bulls
7) Knicks
8) Sixers
9) Hornets
10) Wizards
11) Pacers
12) Raptors

Your ranking of boston, brooklyn and philly is well, interesting..

I hope you're right, though

[Curmudgeon]

Well, a little wishful thinking. But I feel strongly that Miami will be very good and the Sixers will disappoint. As for Brooklyn, there is only one ball and someone other than Durant is going to have to play defense.

[moonie_mcgee]

I picked all of em. And that puts us in the top 4. I believe that the talent infusion and change in coaching will have us there if we play to our capability. Last year's poor effort and bad losses were rough. Can't have that again. And I'm bullish that it won't. We should have the offensive AND defensive punch this year to surprise alot people.

[sam_I_am]

The Nets on paper are far and away the best but as we have seen, age and injury issues are a perpetual threat to derail them.

No other roster is clearly better.

Bucks are champs and they have Giannis but there are a lot of iffy players on their roster including JRue, Middleton and Lopez. I think a healthy DiVincenzo makes them better than us but I would not be shocked if we shocked the NBA and were second best.

Sixers seem like a train wreck right now.

Miami is so well coached and Butler/Abedayo is a fearsome 1-2 combo. Did the Heat really upgrade losing Dragic and getting Lowry? Age could be a factor with Lowry. Miami is a dangerous but flawed team.

Charlotte and Atlanta could make huge strides and be better than I want to believe. If not they are likely 5 and 6 seeds.

So if Celtics click and Big Al has a lot left in tank we could easily be #3 team and challenge Bucks for #2. If Sixers make a solid trade and Hawks/Hornets surge we could also drop to 6 or 7th best.

I think the season comes down to Smart/JRich having career years, Tatum and Brown continuing development, RW/Nesmith/PP contributing and Big Al having a good year. Finally if Schroeder had a solid season and manages to fit in we could be special. Okay, that’s my drinking the Koolaid post.

[Fencer reregistered]

The Hawks worry me. What if Trae Young continues to improve rapidly? What if the optimism about De'Andre Hunter proves justified?

https://soaringdownsouth.com/2021/08/16/atlanta-hawks-expectations-deandre-hunter-injury-marred-2020-21/

The Sixers worry me a lot less. Embiid improved a lot. Now the league knows that and will try hard to adapt.

And when Thibs turns a team around in his first year as a coach, I don't necessarily project further upside from there ...

[moonie_mcgee]

The Hawks worry me. What if Trae Young continues to improve rapidly? What if the optimism about De'Andre Hunter proves justified?

https://soaringdownsouth.com/2021/08/16/atlanta-hawks-expectations-deandre-hunter-injury-marred-2020-21/

The Sixers worry me a lot less. Embiid improved a lot. Now the league knows that and will try hard to adapt.

And when Thibs turns a team around in his first year as a coach, I don't necessarily project further upside from there ...

If the Hawks can beat our roster I'd be disappointed to say the least. We removed Waker and added Schroder, JRich and Dunn, and still have Smart Brown Nesmith and Langford. If we can't beat TYoung with that forgetaboutit. Plus we removed TT and added Horford Kanter and Bruno. Imo we're better on paper. Now we gotta prove it.

[ajones9219]

I think it's going to end up

1)Bucks
2)Nets
3)Celts
4)Hawks
5)Heat
6)Sixers
7)Knicks
8)Bulls

[Fencer reregistered]

The Hawks worry me. What if Trae Young continues to improve rapidly? What if the optimism about De'Andre Hunter proves justified?

https://soaringdownsouth.com/2021/08/16/atlanta-hawks-expectations-deandre-hunter-injury-marred-2020-21/

The Sixers worry me a lot less. Embiid improved a lot. Now the league knows that and will try hard to adapt.

And when Thibs turns a team around in his first year as a coach, I don't necessarily project further upside from there ...

If the Hawks can beat our roster I'd be disappointed to say the least. We removed Waker and added Schroder, JRich and Dunn, and still have Smart Brown Nesmith and Langford. If we can't beat TYoung with that forgetaboutit. Plus we removed TT and added Horford Kanter and Bruno. Imo we're better on paper. Now we gotta prove it.

Young has a lot of teammates too, some of whom were injured last season. Tatum/Brown/Timelord could be better than Trae/Collins/Capela, but it could go the other way too, as neither Brown nor Timelord was a model of health/consistency last season, and Trae has a shot at Tatum-like leaps from one year to the next.

As is fitting for players 4-N, both teams have a lot of talet after those three, and a lot of question marks or limitations as well.

[zoyathedestroya]

We're a prime KG away from being the best team in the East.