1. The Cavs were the big winners of draft day...but that doesn't make them the front-runner in the East. They got rid of Sasha "I'm not really good enough to play any minutes" Pavlovic and Ben "I'm probably gonna retire" Wallace for an even less mobile Shaq. This is one of those things that could be a great success or a huge disaster. Shaq only has one year left on his contract, and LeBron can opt out at the end of this next season. That means now the Cavs have to worry about one more body to re-sign at the end of the season...especially if things do work out. In a struggling economy of a smaller-market team (as opposed to Boston, New York, or Los Angeles) the Cavs are going to be hard pressed to keep LeBron in town. Shaq has been fairly injury prone the last few years and is high in his NBA years. That said though - Kevin Garnett is coming off a major knee surgery and the Magic may be working with chemistry issues (more on that in a minute). I believe that the East is going to be a very close three-horse race this year, we'll give Cleveland the edge right now, but I'll withhold judgment until about 15 games into the season.
2. Last season (2009) the East ended up in the following order:
- Cleveland
- Boston
- Orlando
- Atlanta
- Miami
- Philadelphia
- Chicago
- Detroit
- Indiana
- Charlotte
- New Jersey
- Milwaukee
- Toronto
- New York
- Washington
Outside of the Big Three (Cleveland, Boston, Orlando), the rest of the East is wide-open next year. A .476 record was enough to qualify for the playoffs in 2009. It may actually be easier to get into the playoffs this next season - maybe with a record of .400. This is a season where the tough got tougher, and the weak got much weaker. Few teams made legitimate improvements to put them in the hunt for the playoffs, but there's a probability that some teams may be able to simply back into the playoffs by being mediocre rather than losing too much. For example - Miami is in turmoil - too many egos in one place and not enough minutes; Atlanta may not get Mike Bibby back; Milwaukee got worse by acquiring the dirtiest player in the league for their prized player (Kurt Thomas doesn't really factor in, since he's played for just about every team in the league I think); and Detroit's "Bad Boys" days were about 10 years ago.
What does this all mean? Well, Atlanta may have a lower seed this year because of chemistry issues - they just traded a couple of players, plus they are never consistent. Miami probably won't be 5th in the East again. Detroit - give me a break, they'd only make the playoffs this next year if they were playing in the Rexburg Nursing Home League. Philadelphia could actually get worse because of issues with Elton Brand (they played better without him last year). Ladies and Gentleman - in the playoffs for the first time in franchise history in 2010 - your Charlotte Bobcats. How will the East turn out? You heard it here first:
- Cleveland
- Orlando
- Boston
- Chicago(Taking Boston to the limit last year was no fluke!)
- Washington (If Arenas is back and well, along with their new players - they've got a chance)
- Atlanta
- Charlotte (You saw it here first)
- Philadelphia
- Miami
- New York
- Toronto
- Detroit
- Indiana
- Milwaukee
- New Jersey
My West predictions to come tomorrow!
No comments:
Post a Comment