Moderators: dVs33, Cowology, theBigLip, Snakebites
Boston recently became my pick to come out of the East. They've been smothering teams defensively and Tatum has been consistently putting up 30-35 ppg. Nobody has been able to slow him down. I really like what they are doing as a team. Obviously you've still got the defending champs and with Irving now eligible to play all their games it's not exactly an easy path, so it's still kind of a toss up. But the Nets defense is not even close, MIA is melting down and the Bucks just aren't playing as well at either end of the floor. The Celts remind me a bit of some of the grindier & more balanced teams from the early 2000's Nets/Pistons/Pacers style. They are going to wear teams down over a 7 game series and keep coming at you in waves.bstein14 wrote:
Pistons have been about as average as you can be on offense and defense. Slightly below average on offense and slightly above on defense.
Magic have been really good defensively lately.
Portland has been horrible lately.
Boston elite on offense and defense in their last 15 games.
I think we're a slightly below .500 team next year if we can carry this momentum over, even without any big moves.
And this while missing Stewart for a handful of games. Cade & Grant have both missed games. We played without Hayes/Diallo, benched CoJo/Olynyk and trotted out Lee/Garza/Pickett and now Key. And we're still *almost* winning games.Cowology wrote:We are 7-7 over our last 14 games. Our PPG has moved from less than 103 ppg (dead last) to about 110 ppg (league average). That may not sound like much, but it's actually a huge deal. Our PPG differential has gone from being over 8 to about 2 ppg. And every single one of those 7 losses was decided in the 4th quarter. This is how we looked after 3Q's in each of those losses...
Up 91 to 84 vs. CHI (lost by 6)
Up 72 to 70 vs. LAC (lost by 4)
Up 73 to 68 vs. MIA (lost by 7)
Down 81 to 82 vs. CLE (lost by 4)
Down 85 to 87 vs. WAS (lost by 3)
Up 82 to 78 vs. BOS (lost by 9)
Down 90 to 92 vs. BOS (lost by 11
We were in every single one of those games. Either up or down by 2 or less heading into the 4th. It's not surprising that a young team would struggle to close games, but I don't think it's fair to point out how close our W's were without doing the same for our losses. These are not blowouts. Even games where we've been severely short-handed we are making teams earn it. While Casey runs out his terrible tank-a-thon lineups. And winning 50% of those close games isn't too shabby.
I don't think it's crazy to say we could actually have at least another pair of wins if Casey wasn't deliberately trotting out some garbage lineups and holding out players who would otherwise be suited up. We've got a stealth-tank going and are STILL almost winning.
Piston Pete wrote:Add a lottery pick to the mix, maybe a FA signing or two, and I think we will be in playoff contention next season.
This is a very big offseason for Weaver.
1) who do we go after in free agency?
2) what do we do with Grant?
3) do we make big moves or moves to slow-play the rebuild?
kpt wrote:Piston Pete wrote:Add a lottery pick to the mix, maybe a FA signing or two, and I think we will be in playoff contention next season.
This is a very big offseason for Weaver.
1) who do we go after in free agency?
2) what do we do with Grant?
3) do we make big moves or moves to slow-play the rebuild?
We go after Ayton and Bridges. If not available the be patient no need to spend money just bc we have it.
If there is a deal out there that meets our asking price or above we take it.
Depends on what Is given to us. We are in a good spot if we are smart.
Cowology wrote:We're now 11-11 in our last 22 games. Which is kinda crazy considering the lineups we've been rolling out there. We were 12-45 prior to that. The league still hasn't really taken notice, but we could very well be next years Cavs. It's kinda ridiculous how anxious I am for the lottery. And the draft. And FA. And training camp. This offseason is going to feel soooooo long. I just wanna know what our roster will look like come opening day and that's still 6+ months away.
NYPiston wrote:Cowology wrote:We're now 11-11 in our last 22 games. Which is kinda crazy considering the lineups we've been rolling out there. We were 12-45 prior to that. The league still hasn't really taken notice, but we could very well be next years Cavs. It's kinda ridiculous how anxious I am for the lottery. And the draft. And FA. And training camp. This offseason is going to feel soooooo long. I just wanna know what our roster will look like come opening day and that's still 6+ months away.
A lot will depend on what they do this offseason but I could also see a Cavs like jump.
Think about how active this offseason could be. The draft, plenty of cap space now that a lot of the SVG stink is coming off the books, the Grant and Bagley decisions. On a lesser scale, I doubt that both Olynyk and CoJo will be here.
It's a critical offseason where winning will start to be an objective especially with the young core still on their cheap rookie contracts and being able to use that to their advantage in a cap sense. I'd be curious to see how serious Weaver is about fielding a serious roster next season or if he will continue with the slow build because he'll have the resources to vault this team into play in contention, at minimum. Exciting times ahead, either way.
bstein14 wrote:Obviously a lot will depend on the draft, trades, and FA... as well as how our young guys improve internally. That said, when you look at the top of the East its hard to see which top 10 team falls out next year. I think we're in a position where we could jump teams like Indy, New York, and Washington but its hard for me to see us being better than teams like Atlanta, Charlotte, Toronto, Cleveland, etc.
Right now I'd predict about 36-38 wins for us but of course a ton will change and its way too early.
Last year I predicted we'd win 30-32 games this season and we obviously fell well short of that win total this season.
Cowology wrote:Yeah we've had a number of things go wrong this season. But can you imagine how pissed all these people would be if we actually won 30-32 games? People losing their damn minds over us winning games 21, 22 & 23. We'd probably be looking at Cade running away with ROY and us picking somewhere between 7th-10th.
All things considered we're in a pretty good spot.
bstein14 wrote:Obviously a lot will depend on the draft, trades, and FA... as well as how our young guys improve internally. That said, when you look at the top of the East its hard to see which top 10 team falls out next year. I think we're in a position where we could jump teams like Indy, New York, and Washington but its hard for me to see us being better than teams like Atlanta, Charlotte, Toronto, Cleveland, etc.
Right now I'd predict about 36-38 wins for us but of course a ton will change and its way too early.
Last year I predicted we'd win 30-32 games this season and we obviously fell well short of that win total this season.
Kalamazoo317 wrote:bstein14 wrote:Obviously a lot will depend on the draft, trades, and FA... as well as how our young guys improve internally. That said, when you look at the top of the East its hard to see which top 10 team falls out next year. I think we're in a position where we could jump teams like Indy, New York, and Washington but its hard for me to see us being better than teams like Atlanta, Charlotte, Toronto, Cleveland, etc.
Right now I'd predict about 36-38 wins for us but of course a ton will change and its way too early.
Last year I predicted we'd win 30-32 games this season and we obviously fell well short of that win total this season.
Atlanta has one good player. Charlotte has two. I'm not sure what Chicago did this year is super sustainable. Miami looks like it could implode at any time.