Its your opinion but how are we going to end up at the same place in standings as last seasons team when this current one is better? Like much better, especially in bench depth
I wouldn't complain if you put Boston ahead of New York or even Indiana on my list.
But remember that just because it's the same spot in the standings doesn't necessarily mean our team isn't better. I expect us to win more games (in fact I also expect us to struggle out of the gate but have a good post-New Years or post-All Star stretch up until the last month or so of the season when the motivation wanes a bit), but I also expect the Eastern conference to stabilize a bit such that the teams ahead of us win a few more games as well. That is, the only teams ahead of us in the standings who definitely got worse are the Heat, Indiana, and New York. I don't see the Heat being worse than us this year; I see us being roughly on par with Indiana and New York. But I give the latter two an edge in the standings just because Carmelo Anthony will probably win a couple games on his own by scoring 40 points, and Roy Hibbert is capable of dominant stretches against the right match-ups.
By, to be fair, I'm expecting no less than 30 and no more than 35 wins for all 3 teams. I think it's going to be close.
Heat will not make the playoffs if Dwade or Bosh or both are out of the lineup a good part of the year. Look at their injury/health track record the last 2 seasons and the chances of them playing 75 percent of the season looks bad
Indiana lost PG and LS. You expect a team with RH (Jeff Green of Centers) and their only real consistent decent starter (David West) is going to help them stay in the playoff mix?
I say we will be about on par with the Knicks. No reason they should be considered head above shoulders better than us.
Hawks are solid but can be beat. Horford is still not back
So after Cle, Tor, Was, Chicago and maybe Charlotte , imo there are 3 spots available for the playoffs. And You can't say celts are def out (like with Bucks, 76ers) and not a shoe in either. We will surprise though. Our defense is better than last seasons and offense can come from a number of diff guys (so it doesn't matter if a few you expect to score struggle)