Atlantic Division: New Jersey Nets, Philadelphia 76ers, Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors, New York Knicks

Boston (33-49): This team will be returning re-energized and ready to play. Much like the Raptors, this team is very young and it will be up to Paul Pierce to carry them into the playoffs. They have 3 explosive young point guards in Delonte West, Sebastian Telfair and Rajon Rondo. They brought in a couple of veteran big men in Brian Grant and Theo Ratliff to go along with their young blossoming big men Al Jefferson and Perkins. Unlike the Raptors, I see this team having trouble putting the ball in the basket without a true second scoring option (for some reason I don’t consider Wally to be that).

New Jersey (49-33): By far the best team in the Atlantic, with a true point guard in Kidd and two explosive wing players in Jefferson and pansy, this team will be hard to stop. If the Nets can stay healthy (or if Vince can stay healthy) I don’t expect them to lose a beat. One player who will be interesting to watch is Nenad Krstic, who is coming into his third year. If only the Nets could get a true center to go along with Nenad the 7’0 beast…
The Nets will win the division easily.

Philadelphia (38-44): This is a team that hasn’t done much in the offseason and is loaded with large contracts (Iverson, Webber, Dalembert). They drafted Carney (doesn’t he play like igoudala??), and made no major changes. There game plan is to once again ride AI to a 9th place finish in the East. When will the GM be fired?

New York Knicks (23-59): They have talented big men (Curry, Frye) explosive guards (Starbury, Francis) and good role players (Jefferies, Lee, Crawford, Jalen). But yet they are the worst team in the East. I see this team improving (they cant get any worse). There are too many egos on the team and no chemistry whatsoever. If Isiah could some how unite this team, and make them focus on something they all want, winning, this team may not finish last in the atlantic. This team will surprise people, book it.

How do you all see the Raptors doing? Which teams are we better then?

nice post

I'm not sold on the Nets.

The only reason the Raptors have a shot at making the playoffs is because their division is crap.

-Boston got the most overhyped point guard in the NBA by trading away a pick that could have gotten them either of the 2 players who will be fighting it out for Rookie of the year (Roy and Foye).
-Grant and Ratliff are beyond washed up, Jefferson is all potential, Perkins has shown promise but isn't ready to be a big minute performer.
- Wally and Pierce didn't seem to perform very well together last year.
- Rondo won't have an impact due to the crowded point guard situation (West, Rondo, Allen and Telfair).

Philadelphia did nothing to improve their team and as Webber and Iverson get a year older their team is going to get a hell of a lot worse.

Knicks are the Knicks. The scary thing is that they do have a shitload of talent and there's always a chance (small chance) that they somehow pull it together and amaze everyone. But not likely.

Nets are better than everyone, but they didn't get any better, RJ seems to be stuck in a constant state of being injured, and Kidd is getting old. I don't see how they could get better unless Nenad Krstic improves a lot, which I don't think will happen. Nenad will be better, but I don't think he will be good enough.

Right now, I'd say the order of finish will be:
1. New Jersey
2. Boston
3. Toronto
4. New York
5. Philly

But Boston and Toronto are huge wildcards and there's no telling how all their new players are going to play together. We should all be thankful that we're in this division because there's a chance we can win it, which is incredible considering the fact that we're still not that good.

Toronto Raptors will reach the .500 mark this season, or maybe even surpass it if the starting line up is healthy. I can honestly say everyone like the direction the team is moving towards, and like the players we have, compared to LAST YEAR… and the year before… and so on..

Something everyone knows, or already been posted…

Defense has improved slightly with the shot blocking abilities of Rasho, Slokar. Humpheries has shown some potential in the summer league, but we never take anything that happens in the summer league seriously.

TJ Ford, & Mo Pete will fight out to see who has the most steals between these people on the team.

#1 pick, I think we are at a time where we are sick and tired of all the videos and articles on this boy, and can’t wait to see him in action.

Jose and Jorge will compliment each other, and if they win a gold medal, it will boost their morale.

Bosh is the main guy, and we all know he has automatic mid-range jumpers. He shouldn’t be surprised to see Anthony Parker, two-times MVP of Europe to drain unstoppable jumpers.

Bottom line, we will finally see the raptors with a good (best?) centre we had. It felt pretty awkward to see our team play with starting line up of Hoffa!! It felt like our team was playing with 4 players on the court.

That's a pretty positive outlook...I would say we finish a few games below .500 simply because Sam Mitchell is nowhere near a good enough coach to get good chemistry out of the team. I think next year when we get a new coach, one with more experience, commands more respect, and can bring together team chemistry we will have a great year

I just don't think Mitchell can unite this team

Mason_Tr: If there is one thing that Mitchell DID do well last year, was unite his players.

Boston and Philly are still stuck in the same 'good but never good enough' quagmire. The Raps could come anything but 1st but at the very least, they will be interesting and having watched the FIBA tournament, I'm a fan of Garbajosa...here's hoping the f***er can speak anglish.

I don't think it was him...I think it was the players individual personalities...There was no fight for who was the team leader, no fighting for minutes, and the team was very young, and complain much less than veterans

I don't really think michell had a huge amount of talent, chemistry wise. Mitchell's stregnths were getting young players to play hard, even when we were on up to 15 game skids, and both CV and Bosh had improvement over the year.

I think somewhere around .500 is about right. Anything more is some pretty good homerism, considering how few years of NBA experience our roster will have.

30 Team Analysis

I think anything above 30 wins right now would be considered optimistic. I'm not saying it won't happen, it's just the amount of experience our core has and the fact none of these guys have played together and the fact that we're still not that talented.

I think that the team is talented enough to reach .500 and I am REALLY excited to watch.

Even if they tank the season I very much apreciate this team and what BC is trying to do here. It is refreshing given past efforts.

If our guys give the effort the wins will come, when they win they'll be happy and chemistry will further develop.

I don’t think coach can really teach you how to communicate effectively with your team mates. (unless there are some sort of drills that the coaches do with the players). In basketball, all it takes is practising with players, to understand their strengths and weaknesses.(for example, giving a player a ball inside a paint, if he doesn’t really have an outside game etc.)

I think team chemistry comes from practising. Only thing coaches can do is help them how to communicate, teach them how to look out for one another etc.

I agree with MSK and Pennington above. The World Championships have proven beyond a doubt something most of us already know: great basketball teams need continuity to succeed--if you know your teammates, your plays, and your coaches, it's that much easier to win.

The Raps will have more talent this year, but I think they'll only be marginally better in the win column. I say 33-36 wins. The big improvement will come in 07-08 with one more lottery talent added, 1 more year of maturity for the young guys and either a Sam Mitchell improvement or a firing, and we're on to something.

Of course, the downside to Mitchell getting fired is that it would be another setback to continuity, and they'd have to learn a new system again. 2009, anyone?

teams gelling can also come down to some of their early games and how well the playing styles of all of them come together. if the team gets off to a decent start, the chemistry will develop faster and the boys will gain some confidence. if things start off rough, then it could snowball into a bad season. i'm hoping for the best though, then at least i'll be in a good mood until proven wrong.

The knicks are so damn talented, but what the hell is wrong with them. If Marbury could be a cool-headed point guard, and really lead the players on the court, and doesnt mind seeing a drop in his scoring, this team would improve immediately. Francis has proven he can be the scorer of any team (without much problems) easily putting up 17+. They certainly dont lack size in the smaller East, with Curry, (overweight) James and versatile Frye. I just think this situation is to much for Marbury to handle.

They have THE BEST CENTER in the division!? Agree?

Unless you count Nenad Krstic as a centre, then I'd probably agree, at least as far as offensive production goes. In terms of rebounding and defense he's probably the worst among starting centres in the division (Perkins, Dalembert, Nesterovic)

Sure, but who needs rebounding and defence from the 5 when you've got potential?

I think this division will be fun to watch this year...just dying for ball to start.

The Knicks will be more competitive this year. The difference being; Brown is gone...I pick them to be the front runners...<flame suit on!>

As for our Raps, I believe it all comes down to team cohesion. I think Brian put together a great team. And I honestly think Bargnani will be the future face for Toronto...sorry to those who love Bosh's game, but I'm not sold with his game. All the pieces are there for a high powered offensive and defensive minded team.
They will be competitive...

You guys are giving way too much credit to just putting the right pieces together. This team has undertaken a HUGE overhaul. What makes you think chemistry will be there? Chemistry takes time, time takes a season, and you people seem to think the raps are ready to make the playoffs.

Yes, we have a centre now. Yes, we have tonnes of new talent that actually works hard. Yes, we have a pass-first point guard. But how many NBA games have they played together? Hell, how many practices have they had together? We are entering our transition season, our record does not matter. What matters is which players are going to fit in, and which aren't.

I agree with Pennington and Davenags (except on the win total).

I believe the raps will do well to win even a couple more games than they did last season. Anyone saying they can make the play-offs has not looked at the full league picture.

There are reasons both internal and external to the Raps that support this:

Internally, others have made the points already. Lack of talent and cohesion, the coaching situation etc.

Now it's possible some great chemistry could develop and the improved positional construction will have a great impact. Here's why I think that still won't matter:

Externally.

This is the most important. Wins don't exist on their own. They are connected to a loss. There are a finite number of wins available in the league in any given season. If a team wins an extra game someone else has to lose an extra game. So it is never enough to just look at your team, you have to look at the whole league. Here's the reality of the upcoming season... it's gonna be a killing field. It's also going to be very interesting. A quick survey of the league will reveal that all but 2 teams are poised to hold their current win total or improve. Only two teams are clearly in a rebuilding decline (as opposed to just rebuilding but on the upswing): Portland and Seattle. Now it could be argued that Philly is likely to implode, and I would agree. So let's move them to the downslide. It could also be argued that Memphis will fall back due to Gasol's injury. Agreed again. So we now have a situation where everyone else is theoretically holding or taking steps forward. I ran some numbers to come up with a balanced zero sum projection of the league for next season. And I have to say, do the math. All of you. Even if your projections are different from team to team, it doesn't matter. You'll see that the trend is overwhelmingly towards improvement. I could not in this situation see any reasonable scenario under which the Raps even come close to making the play-offs. For that matter, I had previously been prone to saying: "they might win 10 more game" or throwing out a number like 35 wins. I think that's unlikely. Probably 30 wins is the upper limit, and that's counting on some major injuries to other teams (think Washington sans Arenas) and a monumental step backwards for Detroit.

Because I am feeling optimistic about the Raps I am picking them to hold their same win total. How weird does that sound?

Let me also say that I am 100% fine with this. We need that extra high lottery pick. This year more than ever I think positions 4-9 in the lottery will be all bunched in with each other right up until the last week. There will be a lot of value to punting a few games at the end like what they did with Bosh last year, as one win or loss may be enough to determine as much as 4 or 5 lottery positions come June.

Anybody curiuos about what they said about this team at the beginning of the season? Lincoln, especially, should be proud of his accurate, scientific mumbo jumbo..

It's really not fair to bring back old threads like these, in fact, I'm pretty sure the Raptors have exceeded everyone's expectations, including the most optimistic.

(My post seems to make me look like an idiot too , but hey they did need time for chemistry! It just took half the time I expected).

I was looking at these threads a couple days ago. I had them topping out at 40 wins and I'm the King of the Blind Optimists.

Needless to say, they have exceded everyones expectaions...I wonder if Brian C feels the same?

Oh well, the Raps exceeded everyone's expectations, but the thread itself comes back to tease those who though they knew too well. It's fair.