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Eastern Conference Predictions – Revisited

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GreenBear
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Eastern Conference Predictions – Revisited

Post by GreenBear »

Now that we’re midway through the season, I thought I’d revisit the preseason predictions made here. Below, I list out the order of the current teams in the East, along with that team’s record, and where I had them in the preseason prediction article.

1. Detroit Pistons (32-12, preseason prediction: #1)
Not a big shocker to see the Pistons in this spot. They’ve been the class of the East for some time now, and they’ve added perennial all-star John Wall to their roster to create a dynamite backcourt. They still have Kemba "conference finals guarantee" Walker on their roster, so they’re not going anywhere. Interesting to note that Kemba is averaging under 20 ppg for the first time in his tenure with Detroit, but this speaks more to Detroit’s depth than anything. He’s averaging the fewest minutes of his career and the Pistons have 3 other players averaging 15.5+ ppg (Murray, Wall and Okafor).

T-2. Chicago Bulls (27-14, preseason prediction: #5)
I was higher on the Bulls than most, but not even I thought they’d have this kind of turnaround so fast. This team was drafting #3 overall last year thanks to the interim GM between Marcos’s GM tenures. They had very little talent, but in true Marcos fashion, he found all sorts of deals and steals to get his team all the way up to the 2nd seed. There are a number of teams hot on the Bulls’ heel, but Marcos just made another nice trade to land 3&D CJ McCollum, who will make their bench that much stronger. I also have a feeling Marcos isn’t done upgrading this roster…


T-2. Boston Celtics (27-14, preseason prediction: #7)
The Celtics are tied with the Bulls for #2. The Celts have made me a believer. I knew their roster was stacked with young talent, but I thought they were a season away from looking this good. Fox has been nothing short of fantastic for the Celts and deserves all the recent praise he’s getting. The Celts could make a couple moves to acquire some available stars and move up even higher on this list, but Dennis is likely to stay the patient course and let his youngsters continue developing.


4. Miami Heat (26-16, preseason prediction: #4)
I got this one perfectly so far, as some of the Heat’s key youngsters have taken the next step forward like predicted, and veteran additions Lillard/Layman have helped propel this team into the Southwest divisional favorite. They have a pretty comfortable lead on the rest of the teams in their division and there’s no reason to think they won’t stay on top.


5. Cleveland Cavaliers (26-20, preseason prediction: #6)
I was very close to being spot on with the Cavs thus far. After a rough start to the season, the Cavs have righted the ship due in large part to a few trades to get pieces that fit better around megastars Kyrie and Blake. Crabbe, Rubio and Sanders have been nice complementary additions glue-like additions. None of them are flashy, but they are all low usage on offense while they do work in the ugly areas (defense and glass). Given their play the last ~20 games, I wouldn’t be surprised if they continue to move up the ladder.

6. Philadelphia 76ers (25-20, preseason prediction: #11)
I was a bit off on this one. I loved the Ball pick, but I did not think he’d have this big an impact so soon. I thought it would take a couple years, but it seems he’s the perfect fit alongside Parker, Payne and co. They’ve cooled off a little after a scorching hot start to the season, but their team looks sound and should make the playoffs.

7. Toronto Raptors (22-20, preseason prediction: #2)
Like the 76ers, I was a bit off on this team as well. The Raptors are pretty much the same team that reached the conference finals last year, but it appears Chili was a lot more integral to their success than I originally thought. Maybe Chili should win GM of the year even despite not being in the league this year. That’s how much this team has disappointed thus far. Even on auto-pilot, there’s no excuse for this team to be hovering around .500 halfway through the season.

8. Washington Wizards (21-20, preseason prediction: #3)
Given Gary’s near daily TB/sim result rants about his team, no one is more frustrated or perplexed about the Wiz than their front office. On paper, they look the part. They have an alpha in Milos. They added Jrue Holiday to play alongside Milos in the back-court (a seemingly great fit). They added Walter Tavares to Tristian Thompson to form a strong front-court that should dominate the glass each and every game. Yet something is clearly missing. Let’s see if Gary can right the ship.

9. Indiana Pacers (20-21, preseason prediction: #9)
This one I got right so far, although admittedly, they would probably be a little higher if Winslow were around. But with Conley breaking his wrist and seeing Draymond Green get sent out in a much-criticized trade (to put it lightly) for a rookie and a backup PG, I think the Pacers are going to fall down the standings as the season ticks along.

10. Atlanta Hawks (18-24, preseason prediction: #8)
I am a couple spots off with the Hawks so far, but to my defense, Exum missed a huge chunk of the first half the year. If Exum hadn’t gotten injured, I feel confident the Hawks would probably be in a playoff spot right now. Although some would point to Exum’s injury history and say I should’ve taken that into account a bit when making predictions, and they would have a point. That being said, Flaming Homer has done a nice job of keeping the Hawks in the hunt despite the lengthy injury to their best player. I think the Hawks have a decent shot to put a nice stretch of games together and make a run at the 8th seed.

11. Orlando Magic (16-26, preseason prediction: #12)
The Magic are right around where I predicted so far, but to Willy’s credit, they would certainly be higher if Embiid could stay healthy. Unfortunately, that’s been a knock on Embiid his whole career so far. There have been some bizarre things going on with this team, spear-headed by Wiggins playing PG and Covington averaging so many assists from the SF spot (despite a modest passing rating). So you can’t say this often about a team that is 16-26, but anyone would have to say that the Magic have been interesting so far. And we’re just 7 days away from seeing both Embiid and Drummond return from injury and watching Willy juggle them into his lineup. It could be a total disaster or become the ever-elusive twin towers dominance. But we will be entertained. Everything is on the table, including Drummond playing a combo-guard role.

12. Brooklyn Nets (16-27, preseason prediction: #10)
I thought the Nets would struggle to repeat last season’s success after seeing the entire conference become more competitive and Layman get poached during free agency, but I did think the Nets would at least still be in the playoff hunt. Adam has already thrown in the towel on this season and traded away stalwarts like Wall and Waiters, so don’t expect them to make a turn-around.

13. Milwaukee Bucks (15-27, preseason prediction: #15)
You don’t say this often about a team that’s currently 13th in the conference standings, but the Bucks have played pretty decently the first half the year (especially the last couple weeks). Some of their youngsters improved, and they added solid starters in Noel and Big V to their front-court. But the holes at the guard spots were so glaring that I had my doubts that the Bucks would be as competitive as they are. My hat goes off to Manu thus far. They’ve been surprisingly competitive for much of the year, and if Manu can have another offseason like last year (will be tricky with less CAP to work with), they could be making a push for a late playoff spot next year.

14. Charlotte Hornets (15-28, preseason prediction: #13)
The Hornets are right around where many expected them to be. Growing pains were to be expected with a young team and new GM, but they’ve been competitive despite a down season from Beal (shooting just 37% overall and 36% from deep) and an injury to Dunn that kept him out a couple weeks. Dunn has been great thus far and looks like a real nice building block.

15. New York Knicks (9-36, preseason prediction: #14)
We all knew this would be a tough year for the Knicks as they’re in an awkward transition, but Phil has done an underrated job of setting this team up for a quicker turn-around than I originally thought. They finally have what many believe is a good, young building block at a critical position in GDP, they have guys that already are or should become solid role players on good contracts (Wallace, Sabonis, and Rabb), they have a TON of cap space next year, and they’ve managed to avoid the temptation (thus far) of trading away one of their future picks for ready-now talent.
Last edited by GreenBear on Fri Oct 05, 2018 8:27 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Silogical
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Re: Eastern Conference Predictions – Revisited

Post by Silogical »

Pretty bold Boston and Cleveland predictions. So far the cavs prediction is accurate but they are surging even with injuries. I was wrong about the raptos and sixers too. Wizards are interesting. On paper they are great, but i think its tough to build around a player like Milos. I can see gary trading his entire roster looking for a better fit for Milos when it would be simpler to move milos. He's very valuable around the league so the return should be great.

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Re: Eastern Conference Predictions – Revisited

Post by Rizzo »

I actually believe that the only teams in the East that have a chance to finish with a worse record than us are the Knicks and Magic.
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Re: Eastern Conference Predictions – Revisited

Post by Flaming Homer »

Thanks Doug, always good to read some good opinions about the own conference.

The east looks indeed strong this year. Detroit probably one year more a little ahead of the pack, but the Cavs look impressive lately. It seems they found their groove.
Marcos job in Chicago is just amazing, great job as GM and coach.
And Boston and Miami (both teams even better equipped for the future) are also right there to slip in if one of the former struggles a bit. The playoffs will be a blood bath!!

For the Hawks, I concur that we would probably have a few wins more with Exum. But just a few.
We made the best of a kind of favorable schedule (most of the harder games with losses were followed by easier games were we could find a way to win), but then we fell in a slump during a tough stretch and struggle to get out of the funk.
Anyway, good to see the player react and hopefully we can find a way back to enter the race for 8.

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Re: Eastern Conference Predictions – Revisited

Post by hardenwithnod »

Good recap, and yeah we have been very inconsistent this year. We will go on a 5-6 games winning streak, and then all of a sudden lose that many in a row. It's getting frustrating for sure, but I will just have to keep trying things out.
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Re: Eastern Conference Predictions – Revisited

Post by emplep7 »

We could dip depending on if we move Wall in one of the potential deals, but there isn't much room to slip with Chicago and Boston right behind us.

Gary, you need to make some trades to get the right fit on your team, but you should still sneak into the playoffs.
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Re: Eastern Conference Predictions – Revisited

Post by WillyJakkz »

Great recap and lol "Drummond at combo guard", definitely looking forward to Embiid returning and Drummond debuting

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Re: Eastern Conference Predictions – Revisited

Post by Jestor »

Tavares continues to prove my long-held belief that he just doesn't add wins (a major problem I had with him here, and why I ultimately traded him). I think we're also seeing that GDP isn't a guy who leads a team (SCR is too low) but he can help make the players around him better. Problem is, Knicks don't have a lot of talent at the moment, and are particularly poor defensively - especially in the paint. But he's definitely a core piece.

I feel bad for Matty. He had a beautiful setup for the future that was already playing far better than young teams usually do, and then it got completely destroyed - a middling team that will be a a late playoff seed at best for a number of years, with no hope of getting into contention.

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Re: Eastern Conference Predictions – Revisited

Post by OneNole »

East still sucks. That is all.
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Re: Eastern Conference Predictions – Revisited

Post by Dennis »

Good predictions. It really looks like Toronto needs an active GM badly. I was expecting them to be way better. Same goes for WSH. Puzzling why they are so far behind at the moment. On the paper their team should be a top4 lock at least.

For us I wasnt expecting us to be in the top4. Somehow Fox is having the same impact for us like Taylor had for PHX last season.
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Re: Eastern Conference Predictions – Revisited

Post by Stockton12 »

thanks greenbear for the compliment....we are a bit lower then i thought but ill keep trying to add some more wins but i think you will have a top 5 pick ..im happy to stay with the team i have at the moment .

i hope the hawks make the playoffs they have a great gm..manu has done a great job with the bucks

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Re: Eastern Conference Predictions – Revisited

Post by Andrewu91 »

Looking forward to the west
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Re: Eastern Conference Predictions – Revisited

Post by hardenwithnod »

Slowly climbing our way back up!!
Big changes are coming in D.C.

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