West
1. Spurs
2. Thunder
3. Nuggets
4. Lakers
5. Grizzlies
6. Clippers
7. Jazz
8. Warriors

East
1. Heat
2. Pacers
3. Celtics
4. Nets
5. Sixers
6. Hawks
7. Bulls
8. Knicks

The east was hard as **** me to map out. Nets could be real good or real mediocre, it just depends on their defense. Bulls lost a lot of depth and Rose for a half of season. Knicks are now the oldest team in NBA history and are already injured as ****. Hawks at sixth is because they may have lost JJ, but they also didn't have Horford for all but eleven games last season. I don't think they will fall off that much. Sixers improved with Bynum, but their fifth spot is more of a byproduct of the East being ****ing horrible. They made some silly moves like sign Kwame. They already rebounded and played defense fine. They needed to improve their offense including perimeter and slashing. Led the league in long two. Celtics and Pacers both have a lot of depth, they are basically interchangeable for me in the two, three spot. Heat are easily the best team in the East right now.

Lakers at four is not a knock on them as I expect them to be at least in the Western Conference Finals. Their age is already showing with Kobe missing the first game of the season and since their bench is going to cost them games. Warriors at eight assumes healthy, but if they are not healthy the Mavericks would easily be the eight spot. Jazz improved in the off season and basically every playoff contending team near them is suffering with injuries or huge question marks. Clippers will be real good, so the sixth seed is because the west is just ****ing deep. This might be the last time we see the Grizzlies line up the way it is set, so this maybe their last shot at a title chance (already very small.) But they will be ****ing tough. Nuggets at three is because they are ten deep and play in Denver. The iggy addition is by far the most underrated pick up. However, I don't expect them to contend for a title. Javale needs to take the next step if they want to contend. Spurs are much like the Nuggets right now in the fact they will be better in the regular season and worse in the post season when the rotations get shorter. Thunder are the best team out west, however, don't be surprised if the Spurs get the top spot.

This is a clusterfuck of explanations and I am sure nobody cares, but I am avoiding work, so everyone should make predictions in here.

Apparently, Deron Williams ankle is kind of fucked right now.

Wow more medicore from New York.

You know what I'd flip your Brooklyn for Knicks pick & you've got the east pretty much in order.

JKidd still got gas in the tank to pick and roll feed Melo & Amar'E

In fact i think JKidd will have more influence on New York then Nash will have on the Purple & Yellow.

Kidd sucks now.

The knicks are the oldest team in NBA history (No exhaggeration.) They already have a plethora of injuries.

Even if Kidd can't deliver anymore, they have Felton, who is pretty much a starting caliber play maker.

Disclaimer - It does matter if you think Lin will produce what he did in his 25 games last season.

Felton has less points per possession in every type of offensive play compared to Lin. Even if Lin ends up being bad now they are still down grading the PG position compared to the play last year. Which basically saved their season.

Also, Felton is just not that good anymore. His PER has declined in the last two years and it will probably continue to decline. His TS percentage went down last year and he had a career low FG percentage at .407.

Knicks are worse than last year.

1. Thunder
2. Lakers
3. Spurs
4. Grizzlies
5. Nuggets
6. Clippers
7. Jazz
8. Mavs


I'm going on a limb and say the Warriors don't make the playoffs. I think there'll be injuries, likely to Curry quite a bit, maybe Bogut a little, but also to one or two others, like Jack, that'll stop the team from making the playoffs. Hope I'm wrong on that.

Thunder to meet Spurs in West Finals and Thunder winning again.


East
1. Heat
2. Bulls
3. Celtics
4. Sixers
5. Pacers
6. Hawks
7. Nets
8. Knicks


Even without Rose for almost all season and Deng for a couple of months, Chicago is still very well put together and very well coached. They'll make it work and most East teams other than Heat and Celtics really are nothing special and could be anywhere on the list.

Heat to beat Celtics in East Finals again, but Chicago is the other team that could make it to go against Heat.

Blackfoot wrote:Disclaimer - It does matter if you think Lin will produce what he did in his 25 games last season.

Felton has less points per possession in every type of offensive play compared to Lin. Even if Lin ends up being bad now they are still down grading the PG position compared to the play last year. Which basically saved their season.

Also, Felton is just not that good anymore. His PER has declined in the last two years and it will probably continue to decline. His TS percentage went down last year and he had a career low FG percentage at .407.

Knicks are worse than last year.

At least Deron agrees with me:

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nets-willi ... --nba.html

I am moving the Spurs up.

Here are my predictions... no paticular reasons why, just gut feeling:

1. Thunder
2. Clippers
3. Lakers
4. Spurs
5. Nuggets
6. Grizzlies
7. Warriors
8. Jazz



East
1. Heat
2. Pacers
3. Celtics
4. Nets
5. Sixers
6. Knicks
7. Bulls
8. milwaukee

Bump.

A little premature, but most of the seeds are locked in.

Seems like all of us thought the Lakers machine would perform to reputation. New York surprised all of us as well, but in the opposite way.

Other than that, most of us got most teams right, with seeds a little off. Both conferences were pretty easy to predict this season.

Glad the Warriors made it, even without Bogut for most of the season.