The Starters Eastern Predications

[Uncle_Si]

The east is so balanced this year. After Cleveland there's probably 5 teams that can line up in any order behind them. And even the fringe teams could surprise.

I just hope they don't take for granted the hype and position they're in. Having expectations of making the 2nd round is as new to this group as making the playoffs was last year. I think it'll come down to the players buying in to Casey's message for this season to be a success.

[rightsideup]

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

that is correct he just made the block on the last shot. Joe Johnson had a greater impact although it was a team effort in a 1 bucket series that was oh so close.

[e_wheazhy_]

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.

Lol joe penis constantly penetrated the d?

There's your headline

[Mr.Z]

Lol joe penis constantly penetrated the d?

There's your headline

But D cannot penetrate D!

[thead]

But D cannot penetrate D!

its called docking and if you google it you will NEVER unsee it

[Mr.Z]

its called docking and if you google it you will NEVER unsee it

Did you google it?

[iblastoff]

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.

so how many shot creators does a playoff team need to advance far in the playoffs?

pacers had ONE in 2013 and went to the eastern finals.

[92TillInfinity]

Did you google it?

Worse. I tried it with my dad.


Seriously though, I think Raptors at 4 is a safe assessment and about on par what we should expect from sports writers and analysts. Wall has a lot to live up to in Washington, and I feel like a lot of them are giving washington and wall the benefit of the doubt. Washington and Toronto should be the 3 and 4 by playoff time.

[Fully]

It's not a slight guys, relax.

It's not as if people have them ranked as the 7 or 8 seed in the East. Most predictions I've seen have the Raptors in the 3/4 spot with the difference between them and Washington being very marginal.

[Mr.Z]

Worse. I tried it with my dad.


Seriously though, I think Raptors at 4 is a safe assessment and about on par what we should expect from sports writers and analysts. Wall has a lot to live up to in Washington, and I feel like a lot of them are giving washington and wall the benefit of the doubt. Washington and Toronto should be the 3 and 4 by playoff time.

Ew to the first part lol

[2KJ]

Wizards played well to their potential and exploited Chicago's weakness of missing their playmaker and scorer. Based on the Raps performance last playoffs, I think we would get past Chicago as well. I don't see anyone on their team who will kill us offensively, unlike BK who has Joe Johnson, Paul Pierce and Andray Blatche. When I saw them play at the ACC which we lost, it was Boozer who was carrying them. Note though that Amir was out with an injury, and 2Pat does struggle guarding true PFs one on one. The challenge with Chicago is scoring against their monster defense. And we also split the reg season series with them.

[mjt20mik]

I do not think the Wizards are better than us, but the pick for them to rank third has some merit.

I just think it is going to be hilarious to watch PP try and guard the elite 3s of this league. Dude is just old, and they will definitely miss Ariza on that end.

[iblastoff]

Wizards played well to their potential and exploited Chicago's weakness of missing their playmaker and scorer. Based on the Raps performance last playoffs, I think we would get past Chicago as well. I don't see anyone on their team who will kill us offensively, unlike BK who has Joe Johnson, Paul Pierce and Andray Blatche. When I saw them play at the ACC which we lost, it was Boozer who was carrying them. Note though that Amir was out with an injury, and 2Pat does struggle guarding true PFs one on one. The challenge with Chicago is scoring against their monster defense. And we also split the reg season series with them.

lol based on our 1st round exit in the playoffs you surmised that we would have gotten to the second round? sure.

i think you're forgetting the bulls game in the regular season when friggin dj augustin smoked us. theres a reason why his salary jumped from 650k to 3 mil a year now and that was directly in correlation with his performance in chicago.

but honestly who cares about regular season series? nets were 4-0 against the heat in the regular season.

its just ridiculous that after the playoffs in which we didn't even get past the first round, we're talking like washington had this super easy route with the bulls and pacers and nearly making it to the eastern finals was no big deal.

people need to give credit where its due. trying to downplay another teams performance just to try and make ours look better is just dumb.

[Shirokin]

Wizards played well to their potential and exploited Chicago's weakness of missing their playmaker and scorer. Based on the Raps performance last playoffs, I think we would get past Chicago as well. I don't see anyone on their team who will kill us offensively, unlike BK who has Joe Johnson, Paul Pierce and Andray Blatche. When I saw them play at the ACC which we lost, it was Boozer who was carrying them. Note though that Amir was out with an injury, and 2Pat does struggle guarding true PFs one on one. The challenge with Chicago is scoring against their monster defense. And we also split the reg season series with them.

See if we faced the Bulls and they beat us, people would say Chicago had elite defense and we couldn't score, if we had faced the the Nets we could have beat them, no low post presence, DWill, Joe Johnson, Paul Pierce and KG are all washed out, yada yada yada. Btw both Taj and Boozer are true PFs so it's not like 2Pat would have an easier time. Also we split the regular season with the Nets lol.

[Bendit]

What? Lol

Mr. Z, thats a funny avatar....but has ominous meaning dont you think? Are you predicting a titanic like season for Amir & the Raptors?