[BobboFitos]

Really good comments Billy. A few things:

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Magic - I agree this team is overrated but if Dwight Howard keeps progressing at the rate he has been then it's tough to see them not even making the playoffs. BTW, I can't imagine them starting Trevor Ariza at SG, because teams with SG's who can't shoot usually suck and Ariza is a SF anyway. I'm guessing they'll start Hedo Turkoglu at SG and make Ariza their 6th man. Did you overlook Turkoglu in your analysis? He's definitely below average as a starter but he's a nice rotation player and way better than J.J. Redick.

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I didn't really overlook Hedo - they're playing him currently at the 4, with Rashard at the 3, I think. I don't know, looks like the team is a mess with scarcity of quality players. They're going to count on Jameer to do more then he can handle.

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Heat - I'm even lower on these guys than you are. I realize that Dwyane Wade wasn't quite 100% when the Bulls swept them but I still think that series was a pretty good indication of how good they are. And if Wade misses 20 games like he's prone to do, they're a lottery team. LOL at their depth. Their best bench player other than Alonzo Mourning is who? Smush Parker? Dorell Wright? Wayne Simien? This isn't going to work, especially since Shaq is going to miss a ton of regular season games again and Jason Williams has injury concerns too. This team sucks.

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you're absolutely right, but here's the thing. They have dwayne wade. The heat are basically the poor man's cavs; LBJ is dominant, Wade is close. Shaq's value is basically close to that of Z. (A little better but misses a ton of games) Jason Williams is better then Snow, but Hughes is better then Antoine. (I guess he's a starter, eh???) As bad as the cast is, when you have a truly great player, you get into the post season, so unless Wade misses games too, they are a favorite to atleast make a token appearance.

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ets - This team always seems to look pretty mediocre in the regular season and better in the playoffs and I expect that to happen again this year. You didn't mention Nenad Krstic coming back but that'll help a lot. He was playing really well before he tore his ACL last year. Other than Jamaal Magloire, their bench is pretty awful, but they do have a few young guys in the backcourt who might be able to step up although IMHO they all suck. Like I said they'll get better in the playoffs when the starters get 40 minutes and these scrubs barely play.

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really good point, they're the anti raptors. They are better then their record indicates, and I actually did forget about Krystic. Alot depends on whether he is fully recovered; they'll prolly eek in as a low seed and have major chance to make a run. Good analysis.

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Cavaliers - I assume this team finds a way to bring Anderson Varejao back because they really need him unless they want to give starter's minutes to Donyell Marshall and...Ira Newble? On the other hand, LOL at Sasha Pavlovic holding out. The team obviously said [censored] you to him when they signed Devin Brown (who is better than Pavlovic anyway) and he'll end up in Europe before he realizes he's obviously not worth the money he's asking for. Hughes isn't great but he's better than you're giving him credit for and if Daniel Gibson can do anything close to what he did in the playoffs last year, this team has one of the best 1-2-3 in the East with good depth too. They're right there with anyone else in the East if they bring back Varejao.

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Varejao is obviously VERY important, but I disagree about Sasha; I think he is a nice player, and I'm kinda surprised they havent come to terms yet. Def. a solid rotation player... Really don't follow you on the 1-2-3 part. Who is supposed to be 2 and 3? "Boobie" ???

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Celtics - Putting them alongside the best teams in the West gets a huge mehhhhhh from me. James Posey is a nice player but I don't think you realize how bad Eddie House is and after that they're a joke. Their best backup big man is Brian Scalabrine and they'll probably eventually replace him with this year's Chris Webber -- an aging ring whore who gets bought out by a bad team -- but I guess I'm just not ready to crown their asses yet.

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Scot Pollard, man! Keeping Gomes would've been nice.
What I mean by putting them alongside the big three in the west is... I see it as Spurs/Mavs/Suns likely have a combined ~60 to ~75% chance of claiming a title. Of the remaining ~40 to 25% chance, the Celtics have a ~10 to ~20% slice, making them nearly equals. No other team has nearly the equity of those 4.