Da East 2006

Curly Morris

1.Pacers  2.Heat  3.Celtics  4.Cavaliers  5.Pistons  6.Nets  7.Bucks  8.Sixers

                At the start of last season I predicted that the Boston Celtics would win the Atlantic Division, and that the New York Knicks would not make the playoffs. Most Knick fans were so high on Stephon Marbury having a full season in New York that I was accused of blasphemy. Unfortunately, I was correct in my assumption, and you know what? Nothing's has changed. Contrary to popular belief, the New Jersey Nets will not win the Atlantic division. Why? Well take a load off and let me tell you why.

The Atlantic:

                Aside from the very likely possibility of either, Richard Jefferson, Jason Kidd, or Vince Carter getting injured for any lengthy stretch during the season, the Nets don't play very good defense. They will try to force the tempo, but any team with the ability to put pressure on the Nets' interior defense, will get many trips to the foul line and keep the Nets big three from easy fast break opportunities. On that note everybody else in the division has better interior players than the Nets. Even with Krstic making great strides for New Jersey, their frontcourt is re-enforced with that mighty whirlwind Marc Jackson, and sixteen year vet, Clifford Robinson. While Philly, New York and Toronto simply have better low post players (don't sleep on Villanueva), Boston will initiate a lot of their offense from the post position with LaFrentz, and Al Jefferson this year and they have a couple of guards, including draft steal Gerald Green who will drive at will against the Nets big men, none of whom strike very much fear in offenses. While Philly and New York have good names on paper, each team is starting the season with a new head coach, and many questions concerning things like egos, and, chemistry, and other non-basketball related nonsense promise more soap opera than focus. As much as the Knicks have improved, they still don't have a single player that commands a double team, ever. There are at least eight other teams in the conference that have one of those type players if not more than one. If they want to sniff the one of the top three spots in the division, they are going to have to be able to shut down middle of the pack type teams like Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Washington, and Chicago. Marbury has never taken the next step to "franchise player", but either he or Crawford better take charge, fast. The Sixers have about the same talent level as New York, but they have Iverson and the Knicks do not. The Knicks will finish ahead of Toronto and battle Philadelphia for the eighth seed. While I've read in a few places that Danny Ainge is still entertaining trade offers for some players, Paul Pierce included, the Celtics are young, deep, well coached, and the defending division champs. I think they win the division again.

The Central:

                This is the best division in basketball, with the Southwest Division a close second. All five teams in the Central are playoff caliber teams, and if they could play outside of their division all year, all would indeed make the playoffs. The worst team in that division now is probably the Chicago Bulls, and they were the number four seed in the East last year! Usual suspects, Detroit and Indiana will punch it out (no pun intended) for the division crown, with home court advantage in the playoffs at stake. Both Cleveland and Milwaukee upgraded their rosters significantly, whereas the Bulls lost Eddie Curry who led them in scoring last season and was second in rebounding. Chicago also gave up veteran big man and locker room leader Antonio Davis along with Curry in exchange for the perpetually underachieving, yet extremely well paid, Tim Thomas, and youngster Michael Sweetney. I have no idea what plans the Bulls have to shore up their inside presence, but I'm sure they won't find very many teams in the Eastern Conference looking to help them return to last year's form. The Cavs surrounded LeBron with shooters giving him many more options on offense as he strives to show the world that he is more Magic than Jordan. The Bucks have T.J. Ford back and having him being on the court with Michael Redd, and Bobby Simmons will make it very difficult to stop the Bucks underestimated offensive firepower. Thrown in adequate rookie Andrew Bogut and recent All-Star caliber center Jamaal Maqloire, and the Bucks are one of a couple of teams that wish they were playing in the Atlantic Division. There are a lot of expectations for LeBron to lead the Cavs into the playoffs this year, but just to do that he needs to navigate through two teams who are certain to challenge for the conference crown, one of which, Detroit, has just come off consecutive appearances in the finals. The other, Indiana, is the pick of many, present company included, to represent the East in June. I think that the Pacers squeak by in this slugfest, and while it might be mathematically impossible for all five teams to make it into the post-season, four of them will.

The Southeast:

There is only one team in this division that matters and that is the Miami Heat. While Bobcats' rookie Raymond Felton may have guaranteed a playoff appearance (how cute), he will find out the difference between the ACC and the NBA soon enough. In Mr. Felton's division alone he has to face Joe Johnson, Steve Francis, Gilbert Arenas, and some guy named Dwayne Wade. In the immortal words of Jim Mora, Playoffs?! Playoffs?!  I really don't know quite what the Wizards off season philosophy was. While picking up Caron Butler could be viewed as a nice addition, the unceremonious departure of Kwame Brown didn't do much for energizing team morale. As much as Kwame was painted as being the bad guy, it's worth noting that LeBron notwithstanding, Larry Hughes appeared as eager to get out of D.C. just as fast as Kwame did. Losing Larry Hughes will hurt the Wizards but losing Steve Blake and Juan Dixon will hurt them just as much. Orlando may not be better than Atlanta now, and if the Hawks tripled their win total from last year, that would still only be only 39 wins and not enough to make the playoffs. The only question in this division is whether or not the Miami Heat will get to play the Spurs in June. Just like last pre-season, I say no. Shaq had an incredible year last year when you consider he played in 73 games and averaged 34 minutes per game. Expect those numbers to decline this season, which is what explains the thought process behind Pat Riley trying to bring in some scoring help in the forms of Antoine Walker, Jason Williams, and James Posey. Doesn't this sound eerily similar to the last dream team Shaq was on in Los Angeles? You know, the one that had four future hall-of-famers on it and was considered a shoo-in for the title? I see three major miscalculations on Riley's part. Number one, taking D. Wade of the ball is a monumental mistake. Wade is rapidly becoming one of the best point guards in the league, and easily the most effective scoring threat from the point position. At the two spot he is a sub-par defender, and struggles to score against much bigger two guards in the half-court offense where Miami needs to be consistent, in order for O'Neal to be effective. Number two, gambling that either Jason Williams or Gary Payton will be satisfied coming off the bench is ludicrous. I wonder how these guys will even co-exist in practice let alone in a game. Neither of them is an effective defender anymore so they are stuck playing point, which is what really freezes Wade to the two spot. Number three, signing Antoine Walker to any team other than Celtics has any shot at making your playoff team better. I watched Antoine's tenure in Atlanta, cool guy off the court. On the court, I'll take my uncle Russell before I take Walker, and my uncle Russell is fifty years old with a bad back. It's not that Walker doesn't have any talent, he just can't play basketball. He can shoot (sometimes), he can rebound (sometimes), he can pass (sometimes), his best defense is for the opposing team, and that's when he's jacking three pointers from the bench with twenty seconds on the shot clock. Walker would shoot from the locker room if he thought the coach wasn't looking. The Heat don't even know who will be coaching them for their title run, okay yes they do. Here's a hint, he's not their head coach now. I think this team got suckered by Jerry Buss and Shaquille O'Neal and after this failed run at a championship, D. Wade is outta there.

So, there I go blaspheming again, sorry. I want the Knicks to win the Atlantic Division and challenge for the East, and as soon as they put together the team to do it, I'll tell you about it. For the time being however, I believe that the Indiana Pacers will be this year's Eastern Conference's sacrificial lamb for the San Antonio Spurs. It should be a fun season to watch, until the finals.

The West: 1.Spurs 2.Sonics 3.Nuggets 4.Rockets 5.Mavericks 6.Lakers 7.Kings 8.Jazz

And I'm out like Stan Van Gundy after the All-Star break!