09/10 NBA Predictions Options

[ZoomSlowik]

I know it's a little early, but the off-season is winding down and there's nothing else to talk about before football starts anyways.

What teams do you think are going to be legit threats? Who are your sleepers? Who is going to underachieve? What players are due for a breakout?

[Sanitarium]

just gonna put my playoff teams down:

EAST:
1. Magic - I'm not sure if they are planning on starting Pietrus at the 3 or not, but a line-up of Nelson/Carter/Pietrus/Lewis/Howard might be the best all-around team in the league outside of Boston. Assuming Nelson fully recovers from his injury and their bench can keep the ship afloat, I think this team has a very good shot at the #1 seed if everything works out.

2. Celtics - With Baldy McTechnical and Shelden Williams on board, this team is loaded with forwards. Even if KG goes down early I don't think they will miss a beat. The only thing I question is their guard depth. I think if they keep their geezers off of the trainers table and keep a tight leash on Rondo and Wallace, they will be up here come May.

3. Cavaliers - Without Lebron playing 45 minutes a game this team is a fringe playoff team... Their bench is slightly improved from last year by adding Anthony Parker and Jamario Moon, but its still pretty terrible. I really hate putting them up here but adding Shaq was a good move.

4. Hawks - They are keeping their roster intact. Horford should get better but in my book Marvin Williams is still an underachiever. Jamal Crawford probably won't ruin what should be an easy run at this seed but this team doesn't make the conference finals. I think Jeff Teague will make a big impact coming off the bench.

5. Raptors - I think at this seed you are already entering 'best-of-the-worst' territory. Adding Jarret Jack I think will pay big dividends. He played pretty well on a terrible Pacers team last year and I wouldn't be suprised if he took a large chunk of minutes from Calderon. I think DeRozan is a bust. He's not a great shooter and he strikes me as somebody with attitude problems. Bargnani, Bosh, and Turkoglu will be this teams only offense unless someone else can step it up. Defense will be a question mark.

6. Heat - This team only goes as far as Wade takes them.

7. Bulls - We will be back, but at what strength i'm not sure. As long as we can win the games we are supposed to win we should be in.

8. I'm going to go with the nets here. I think the players they got in the VC trade will pay off. Alston coming off the bench and Lee starting at the 2 ahead of T. Williams. Along with Lopez this will probably be an exciting team to watch run by Devin Harris