Boston are the defending Champs and clearly top of the East
Okay here's some Eastern Conference Power Rankings
Second - Philadelphia
Third - Cleveland
Fourth - Orlando
Fifth - I have Detroit
Sixth - probably Washington
Seventh - Toronto
Eight - Miami
I'm going Pacers, Bucks, Hawks, Bulls, Bobcats, Knicks, Jersey in that order to round out the East.
Philadelphia are better than all the other Eastern Contenders. Cleveland were clearly the second best team in the East last year but Phily already match up extremely well with both LeBron and the rest of the Cavs. LeBron scored 25ppg against Phily so this isn't some team that can't defend him and will lose solely based on that (Washington, Toronto, possibly Detroit). Iggy can defend LeBron well. They played three times last year and every game came down to the final minute with Cleveland winning two games by 3 points and 1 point and Phily taking the other by 6. Elton Brand vaunts them ahead of Cleveland.
Orlando will be an interesting one. Dwight is a wrecking ball and his muscle causes Dalembert problems in the paint so that's not as good a matchup as one would hope considering Sammy's defensive ability. That said, Elton Brand will rip Rashard Lewis to shreds if Rashard is playing power forward. I'm going to take Elton's 5-10 foot shots over Rashard's 18 footers as a series decider. Iggy's defense again looms large and he'll be able to cause Hedo some problems. Thaddeus matches Pietrus. Miller is better than Nelson. Phily are far deeper than Orlando and their rebounding prowess will cause the Magic difficulties like Detroit did.
Detroit will be tough enough but I think Phily takes them. Brand is miles better than Rasheed and Dalembert is miles better than McDyess. Miller played Billups largely to a standstill last season. Iggy and Rip are two closely talented players who play very different games. Phily can match Detroit's bench punch for punch. I see Brand and Dalembert being the difference here.
Washington are soft in the paint and soft defensively all over the court. They'll be a threat against anyone because of their scoring/hot shooting but any of the Eastern teams with homecourt should be favoured against them.
Toronto have a very weak perimeter defense and no perimeter player who scores more than 12ppg, no perimeter player who'll create his own shot consistently enough. They'll struggle in the playoffs. Without some more moves following their Jermaine O Neal acquisition they're going nowhere. They're in dire need of reinforcements on the perimeter and yes losing TJ Ford is a huge blow to their already weak perimeter play.
Miami are an also ran team until they build a supporting cast around their players. I love the Chalmers-Wade-Marion-Beasley grouping though. Need a center desperately and quality off the bench, some NBA players not D-Leaguers. Lot of work to do.
I'd have more faith in Phily (I'd give them a lot more room to spare against Detroit/Orlando) if they had a head coach I was confident in. I'm still doubtful of Mo Cheeks but I'm looking forward to finding out more about him next season, this is a great opportunity for Mo. His type of ball club (hard working, defensive minded, athletic, talented).