NBA Power Rankings, EAST.

[Billy Bibbit]

Even though I'm a Pacers fan, my best memory of Scot Pollard is when he was in the playoffs with the Kings, he got three or four offensive boards in a row right under the basket and didn't even hit the rim on any of his layup attempts. I wish I had a video of it, it was beautiful. He played pretty good defense back in the day but not anymore. Absolutely one of my favorite players, but he's awful dude.

Fun Pollard quote: In the ECF against the Pistons, Rasheed Wallace guaranteed a win and Pollard said "I guarantee that there's going to be a Game 2, and that someone's going to win it. And I guarantee that Rasheed will probably be in the game and I won't. I guarantee we'll be wearing white jerseys and they'll wear their road jerseys. If nobody wins, the fans will get their money back -- that's a guarantee."

[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] Pollard.

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F the Heat, y'all.

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It is my opinion that everyone who knows anything about the NBA hates the Heat. Agree/disagree?

[Pudge714]

Bobbo,
I was disapointed Toronto was so low and than realized barring Barnagi turning into a very good player the or them running good/ other teams running bad the best they can do is 6.

[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.

[Artdogg]

Celtics are the best because of Scalabrine. You guys forgot the 17 threes he hit against the 2004 Pistons in double OT to help seal the deal. That experience should be the difference.

[kidcolin]

i had to do a double take. well played sir.

[rakes.a.beach]

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And yes, they are in the same league as the Mavs, Spurs, and Suns.

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Coaching lesson says no way celtics beat mavs, spurs, or suns in a seven game series.

[Victor]

cavs will be down this year without sasha and esp varejao. id say 4 or 5 seed.

[Victor]

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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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they havent come to terms bc sasha asked for 6m which is outrageous and the cavs dont have the cap space. further, he refused to sign the "qualifying offer" for like 1.2m or something and said he would play in europe. however (and i may be wrong about this), if he plays in europe and tries to come back i believe the cavs still own his rights and he is NOT A FREE AGENT.

also, rumors are varejao wants 10m and a ton of years.

im hoping the cavs come to terms with av for like 6m a year.

[T_Mac]

I see no reason to believe Bargnani will regress this season. Far from slumping in the latter half of the season he was on a solid upswing in play until his appendectomy, and he still busted out a great game or two in the playoffs while rusty. He's supposed to have ridiculous mental toughness, and hes shown better rebounding and post play in the pre-season so I expect more from Bargnani this year. If Bosh can continue to be the best PF (pre-KG) in the East and our deep bench chips in, I expect us to be more in the 4,5,6 range then battling for 8.

[Hornacek]

anyone want to make a prop bet over under 5.5th place for the Pistons? Nothing huge, just something fun.