East is WIDE OPEN

[Quetzalcoatl]

First, it's crazy how much more competitive the league is across the board this year coming up.  The East made a decent step forward over the second half of last season and this offseason, plus the West is just bonkers.  Even the 8th seed out West - Dallas - looks like a fringe championship contender now.

Secondly, I would rank us 11th on that list and move Detroit and Milwaukee down.  At the very least - assuming Wiggins gets traded - we have the 4th best guard rotation in the East and it's a really close race.

1.) Toronto - Lowry & DeRozan
2.) Washington - Wall & Beal
3.) Charolette - Walker & Stephenson
4.) Boston - Rondo & Bradley

[BudweiserCeltic]

Tier 1: Toronto?

You lost me right away.

I defined tier 1 teams as near locks for 50+ wins. After the Rudy Gay trade, Toronto was a .650 team, which is a 53-win pace in a 82-game season. Their core is extremely young, and there's tons of internal improvement to be had. Their "veteran" leaders are DeRozan (24), Lowry (28), and Johnson (27), the other two starters are promising young players in Ross (23) and Valanciunas (22), and outside of Hayes (31), every bench player is 28 or younger. Beyond this, Ujiri has already improved the bench significantly, swapping out John Salmons and Landry Fields for Lou Williams and James Johnson. They still have flexibility and space on the roster to accommodate another move. Unless I lost you again, tell me how these circumstances won't lead to a 50+ win season for Toronto.

I just think they overpeformed last season. So one can argue that their roster might be better, but do you expect their players to play at that high level again? I have a lot of doubts about that.

In my opinion, which is how I think most people use this rankings for, they see how they did last season see who they added and go "5+ wins right there!!!" which I think is a complete fallacy to approach it that way.

Personally, I think the chances of Toronto's players mirroring the level of play they exhibited last season, and by extension the team's level of play, is not as guaranteed as being made out to be.

So no, I recognize Toronto for what they accomplished last year, but I don't envision their success carrying over as guaranteed, it'll be very tough.

[rondoallaturca]

I just think they overpeformed last season. So one can argue that their roster might be better, but do you expect their players to play at that high level again? I have a lot of doubts about that.

In my opinion, which is how I think most people use this rankings for, they see how they did last season see who they added and go "5+ wins right there!!!" which I think is a complete fallacy to approach it that way.

Personally, I think the chances of Toronto's players mirroring the level of play they exhibited last season, and by extension the team's level of play, is not as guaranteed as being made out to be.

So no, I recognize Toronto for what they accomplished last year, but I don't envision their success carrying over as guaranteed, it'll be very tough.

Well, with that kind of thinking, I understand why you wouldn't rank Toronto as one of the East's top teams, but I think you'll be very, very surprised this year. In my eyes, not only is Toronto a safe guarantee to match last year's success, I am more than confident they'll exceed it. It's very rare for such a young team to buy into a defense-first, team-first style of play, and not only have they embraced it, they've embraced it well. Their team chemistry was one of the best in the league, and they did nothing to mess with it. And, like I mentioned earlier, all their players are young with lots of untapped potential. Players don't suddenly lose their skills when developing; it's the other way around. Why wouldn't they be able to play at that high level again next year? All things considered, I'm really struggling to identify anything that would suggest they overachieved last season, aside from the fact that they could benefit from having a better coach. Perhaps you can enlighten me. Otherwise, I think it's going to take some very unlikely and/or unfortunate acts for them not to meet their success last season.

[Who]

I thought Toronto was right about their level last season. A middling playoff team. I think Valanciunas is key to Toronto growing. He needs to do a lot more. Toronto doesn't get enough out of him or out of their big man rotation as a whole because of him.

Charlotte is the team that I think overachieved last season but they have done a nice job this off-season in acquiring Lance Stephenson so maybe they can hold onto that playoff spot they got last year.

[rondoallaturca]

I thought Toronto was right about their level last season. A middling playoff team. I think Valanciunas is key to Toronto growing. He needs to do a lot more. Toronto doesn't get enough out of him or out of their big man rotation as a whole because of him.

Charlotte is the team that I think overachieved last season but they have done a nice job this off-season in acquiring Lance Stephenson so maybe they can hold onto that playoff spot they got last year.

Valanciunas just turned 22. In his second season last year, he demonstrated an expanded offensive repertoire, a much improved rebounding prowess, and reduced fouling rates. The consistency is still lacking, but the development and work ethic are there. Unfortunately, you can't really speed up time, and I think even more instrumental to Toronto's frontcourt strength is being able to keep Amir Johnson healthy over a full 82-game slate. He is one of the best defensive PFs in the league and is a vital cog of Toronto's successful defensive schemes.

I love Stephenson's addition in Charlotte, as the SG has been a weak point for them for quite a while now. Defensively, Kemba-Stephenson-MKG will be a very tough matchup, but at the same time, floor spacing will be tough with the departure of McRoberts, who has become slightly overrated as a shooter but nonetheless was able to spread the floor with his playmaking ability from the perimeter. However, with gain at the SG position comes loss at the PF position. I'm not too high on Vonleh, and Zeller didn't show much his rookie season. Barring significant improvement, both young men are going to be unreliable options for a playoff team, and without McRoberts, they're very likely staring at Marvin Williams as their primary PF.

[Tr1boy]

Valenciunas is a decent center. He has legit size, wingspan, reach and quickness/athleticism for a center

But zeller has a higher iq and can shoot that 15 ft jump shot. There is a reaso  val didnt play majority of the time in the 4th quarter

[BballTim]

Tier 1: Toronto?

You lost me right away.

I defined tier 1 teams as near locks for 50+ wins. After the Rudy Gay trade, Toronto was a .650 team, which is a 53-win pace in a 82-game season. Their core is extremely young, and there's tons of internal improvement to be had. Their "veteran" leaders are DeRozan (24), Lowry (28), and Johnson (27), the other two starters are promising young players in Ross (23) and Valanciunas (22), and outside of Hayes (31), every bench player is 28 or younger. Beyond this, Ujiri has already improved the bench significantly, swapping out John Salmons and Landry Fields for Lou Williams and James Johnson. They still have flexibility and space on the roster to accommodate another move. Unless I lost you again, tell me how these circumstances won't lead to a 50+ win season for Toronto.

  I'd think that most people could list plenty of circumstances that won't lead to a 50+ win season for Toronto, and I doubt any of those circumstances made your list. They might win 50, but they're far from a lock to do so.

[More Banners]

Okay, let's look at our playoff prospects for next year as presently constituted.

Neither Philly nor the Knicks are going to win the division.

3-way race with the Nets and Toronto.

Nets have serious problems with a lineup of What's Left of Deron Williams at PG, Iso Joe, and Lopez coming back from a lost season.  If Rondo comes back as good or better shape as Lopez, or sooner, I think we can finish with a better record than the Nets, though they may make the playoffs.  Or not.

So it's us and Toronto, and I can root for us to finish with a better record honestly believing it can happen.

And that's worth a 4th seed.

We may ride Rondo, Bradley, Green, and Bass along with Zeller/Olynyk/Sully to do it, but I'd say we'd have a puncher's chance at winning the division.

I agree, the East Talent at the top diluted and the bottom actually improved a bit, Danny has made some improvements as well with the team.

Overall, this team may not look good based on their 2013/14 record, but you can throw that out of the window now with RR expected to be back to 2012 or even better Rondo (it is a contract Yr.). And I don't know about you but I somehow see Turner making a big leap in proving his detractors wrong. And with AB improving, KO, and Sully, yes I see this team as an 8th seed.

The good part of being an 6th to 8th seed is that because the East is so wide open, an upset is really not that far to happen.

6-8th seed for us assumes Toronto wins the division.

Read back through this thread.  The only team anybody on the blog thinks is a lock for the playoffs in the Atlantic is Toronto, and I don't see them being any/much better than we are.

[Smitty77]

Sorry but at least you guys have Dez and Lee still.

Yea, but Lee is OUT for the year:-(((((

Smitty77

[celticslove]

eastern conference - battle for the 2014-2015 runner up trophy. if paul george man-up and shed his rich man's uncle snooze play i expect them to take the east. cleveland (with the referees as sixth man) and chicago can also battle for the east title. washington, toronto, atlanta, charlotte and toss-up between ny-det probably completes it.

[kg is king]

We are essentially the same team as last year. Last year's team was one of the worst in the NBA. If anyone thinks Marcus Smart and Tyler Zeller are going to save the day, then they are wearing the biggest green teamer goggles ever existed.

Some food for thought.

Who's going to score for us? Our offense was putrid last season. So unless Rondo all of a sudden transforms into a scorer, we're still facing the same problem.

Interior defense and preventing opposing players constantly getting into the paint at will. Zeller is the only big man addition and he's certainly not going to wow anyone with his defense.

Pretty much, the east is wide open for Cleveland, Chicago, Indiana, Washington, Atlanta, and Toronto. Unfortunately, we're contenders for spots 10-12.

[Eigild]

Yes, I get the East is wide open after Lebrons return to Cleveland, but it doesn't mean our own team will be in contention for a playoff spot. We have a solid guard rotation, some talented offensive bigs, but really lack a true scorer, who can take over in the 4th plus the obvious lack of rim protection.
We are more or less a lock for the lottery again, with the roster as it is now.

[Csfan1984]

Sorry but at least you guys have Dez and Lee still.

Yea, but Lee is OUT for the year:-(((((

Smitty77

I knew lol

[LB3533]

I am pretty confident, we will not make the playoffs next year, with our current lineup.

If we make some more moves before next year's trading deadline....then that's a different story.

Just because other teams lost key players does not equate that the team will suffer enough from those losses.

The losses of players by other teams has to be a greater enough loss to bring that team down to somewhere in the vicinity of our team.

Another team's loss is also = another team's gain.

That means other teams who are in competition with us for playoff spots got a positive gain.

Even if those gains were not better than the gains Danny made for us, this offseason, doesn't mean our gains were strong enough to vault us ahead of the other teams.

[Tr1boy]

We are essentially the same team as last year. Last year's team was one of the worst in the NBA. If anyone thinks Marcus Smart and Tyler Zeller are going to save the day, then they are wearing the biggest green teamer goggles ever existed.

Some food for thought.

Who's going to score for us? Our offense was putrid last season. So unless Rondo all of a sudden transforms into a scorer, we're still facing the same problem.

Interior defense and preventing opposing players constantly getting into the paint at will. Zeller is the only big man addition and he's certainly not going to wow anyone with his defense.

Pretty much, the east is wide open for Cleveland, Chicago, Indiana, Washington, Atlanta, and Toronto. Unfortunately, we're contenders for spots 10-12.

can you be anymore negative??

Smart was the 6th pick of this years draft (top 3 in any other).  Top 3-5 picks usually are ready to make an impact from day 1.   When AB/Rondo have off nights, Smart can pick things up for the team. We didn't even really have a proper backup SG last season

We also didn't have a legit center last season.  Kris Humphries, Sully , KO are not centers.  This season we got Zeller who will be at worse a long term center off the bench. He has a chance to be a starter at the center position like Bosh, Splitter can for their teams.

Add Thornton, Turner for bench help and this team is a much better version than last seasons.  We have a realistic chance at 7th-8th