The Starters Eastern Predications

[rightsideup]

I just caught a glance of there thoughts Raps fourth by all four guys with Cleveland, Chicago and Washington ahead. Did not catch the final four/ Can anyone add them in that saw the show?

[KeonClark]

I dont get why everyone puts the wizards ahead of us. We were better then them last season, and now they'll be without beal for awhile and basically traded ariza for pierce which imo is a downgrade, whereas we upgraded our bench significantly. As well the Derek rose x factor i think he'll be a huge disappointment, all in all we should have plans to lose against lebron and the refs in the conference finals

[Chr1s1anL]

I dont get why everyone puts the wizards ahead of us. We were better then them last season, and now they'll be without beal for awhile and basically traded ariza for pierce which imo is a downgrade, whereas we upgraded our bench significantly. As well the Derek rose x factor i think he'll be a huge disappointment, all in all we should have plans to lose against lebron and the refs in the conference finals

Rose look good last night. The wizards made it a game away from the eastern conference finals and the added the guy who took us out the playoffs.

[iblastoff]

I dont get why everyone puts the wizards ahead of us. We were better then them last season, and now they'll be without beal for awhile and basically traded ariza for pierce which imo is a downgrade, whereas we upgraded our bench significantly. As well the Derek rose x factor i think he'll be a huge disappointment, all in all we should have plans to lose against lebron and the refs in the conference finals

1) last season they went to the second round of the playoffs. we didn't. also, both teams have been retooled for this season anyway.

2) defensively and floor spacing-wise, pierce isn't much of a dropoff from ariza. even shooting wise, pierce is overall better compared to ariza who played in a contract year and has more to play for than pierce does.

3) wizards did a good job with their bench too. they now have some bigs that can come in if/when nene goes down.

[Other Scott]

1) last season they went to the second round of the playoffs. we didn't. also, both teams have been retooled for this season anyway.

Playoff matchups matter. The Raptors got one of the three worst matchups for them in the conference in the 1st round, and still were a shot away from winning it. The Wizards got a team that was a great matchup for them.

If the Raptors got Bulls, Pacers like the Wizards did I'd give them a very good shot of making the conference finals.

[Jclaw]

I'm not sure if we were looking at the same list but from last night's show they emphasized that they were all just picking the 8 teams they thought would make the playoffs but not necessarily the order. That said, most had their picks all in a similar order.

[YoungGunRaptor]

I'm content with it. Obviously I feel like the Raptors should be 3rd, but there are plenty of reasons for those gentlemen to place the Wizards ahead of the Raptors at the 3rd spot.

Of course, come next spring time, I do expect to see the Raptors as a top 3 seed in the East.

[iblastoff]

Playoff matchups matter. The Raptors got one of the three worst matchups for them in the conference in the 1st round, and still were a shot away from winning it. The Wizards got a team that was a great matchup for them.

If the Raptors got Bulls, Pacers like the Wizards did I'd give them a very good shot of making the conference finals.

every game is about matchups. you make it sound like joe johnson singlehandedly beat the entire raptors team or something.

how were the wizards any more favourable in matchups vs the bulls or the pacers? everyone regarded their win over the bulls as an upset.

- the beal/ariza corner 3's from john walls penetrating and kicking out was one of their best weapons.

- bulls are best in the league in containing opposing teams 3 point attempts.

- nene is a tough matchup for most teams but joakim noah had huge success defending against him in the regular season.

theres going to be back and forth matchups between any team.

a very good shot at making conference finals if we had that playoff lineup? you make it sound like we could just easily beat the bulls and pacers to do that. a lot of just random useless blanket statements here.

[Mr.Z]

Rose look good last night. The wizards made it a game away from the eastern conference finals and the added the guy who took us out the playoffs.

Paul Pierce definitely did not single handedly knock the Raps out of the playoffs.

[nubreed000]

Paul Pierce definitely did not single handedly knock the Raps out of the playoffs.

Maybe it was a different series?

[NaijaBoy17]

The Wizards had an advantage in the playoffs because they played the Bulls.

Teams without shot creators do not advance far in the playoffs, and that's exactly what the Bulls were last year without Rose.

[Mr.Z]

Maybe it was a different series?

What? Lol

[yabadabayolo]

Maybe it was a different series?

I think joe penis had a larger hand of single handedly beating us hard out of the playoffs with his constant penetration of the d. And eventually we came out.

[ball4life]

I might be completely delusional but I really think Raps have a LEGIT chance to be the 1st or 2nd seed in the conference.

Put it this way,

we had the best record in the east after the Gay trade last year and that IS NOT a small sample size. 42-22!

Chicago's fate hinges on Rose's knees.. and even if it holds up, the rusty Rose and the new Gasol tandem will probably take a quarter of the season to pick up their games together on the same page. We can easily create some distance with them in the standings.

Next up Cleveland, this will be tough but one can hope they take time to gel. so again, its up to us to keep the momentum from last season going and establish ourselves early on.

This Raps team reminds me of that Nuggets team from 12-13 season. 57 wins and 3rd seed in the West with no all star in the team. That would be a number 1 seed with 2 all stars in the East.

[Shirokin]

Playoff matchups matter. The Raptors got one of the three worst matchups for them in the conference in the 1st round, and still were a shot away from winning it. The Wizards got a team that was a great matchup for them.

If the Raptors got Bulls, Pacers like the Wizards did I'd give them a very good shot of making the conference finals.

The Wizards had an advantage in the playoffs because they played the Bulls.

Teams without shot creators do not advance far in the playoffs, and that's exactly what the Bulls were last year without Rose.

Many people, especially analysts, thought that the Bulls had a large advantage in this series. Most believed the Bulls would be a shoe in. Remember when a bunch of those analysts and reporters came together, I forget if it was for like espn or NBA.com, and gave their picks for who would win the Bulls/Wizards series? Only one member voted for the Wiz and that was in seven games. So while you guys may think that the match up was advantageous for the Wiz, I don't think that many people agree with you.

@Other Scott I think saying that the match up was bad for Toronto is just a bad excuse. We were one shot away from making the second round. We also didn't utilize Amir and JV properly (although I think posting up JV as much as we did was a mistake due to his turnovers, we probably should have used multiple pick and rolls and looked for him there). Joe Johnson was a mismatch against us but JV was absolutely killing Brooklyn those first few games. Also Ross just laid an egg for the whole post season. There are no excuses for us, just have to make sure we are more prepared this year.

@NaijaBoy17 Technically DJ was there shot creator and before you ignore that he basically came into the Bulls roster and saved their season (it was multiple factors of course but his involvement was huge). Also Noah was a shot creator, in a sense, from the high post. Also Noah, Taj and Boozer got killed by Nene those first two games anyway sooo...