You're the ESPN Analyst.

[AnthonyI11]

Choose your 8 playoff teams for both conferences and list two dark horses in each conference that you think are flying under the radar that have a shot at the playoffs.

Here is what ESPN guessed.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/s...-EastStandings

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/s...-WestStandings

East-

1. Miami Heat

2. Orlando Magic

3. Boston Celtics

4. Atlanta Hawks

5. Chicago Bulls

6. Milwaukee Bucks

7. New York Knicks

8. Charlotte Bobcats

Under the radar: Philadelphia 76ers, Detroit Pistons

West-

1. Los Angeles Lakers

2. Dallas Mavericks

3. Oklahoma City Thunder

4. Houston Rockets

5. Denver Nuggets

6. Portland Trailblazers

7. Utah Jazz

8. San Antonio Spurs

Under the radar: Memphis Grizzlies, Sacramento Kings

Sorry if people get mad that I posted this here. I'll remove it if wanted, but I thought it'd be fun.

Edited August 11, 2010 by AnthonyI11

[KB21]

I think in the East, Miami and Orlando will be the top two. Right now, I feel the Hawks and Celtics are a toss up at 3 and 4. The Hawks are still a young team with a chance to improve. The Celtics are a battle tested team, but they are also one of the oldest teams in the league and didn't help themselves by bringing in Shaq as much as people think they did.

At 5 and 6, I like the Bucks over the Bulls at this point. Right now, Chicago is very overrated for going out and spending a bunch of money on free agents. The fact is, the only player of consequence they landed was Carlos Boozer. Kyle Korver and Ronnie Brewer will have minimal impact on that team, IMO. With the Bucks, they get Andrew Bogut back healthy and added a solid young player in Larry Sanders via the draft. I do feel that John Salmons will fall back down to earth, and losing Luke Ridnour will end up being a big blow to them, as he was actually a statistically better point guard than Brandon Jennings.

[JJFAN4LF]

Choose your 8 playoff teams for both conferences and list two dark horses in each conference that you think are flying under the radar that have a shot at the playoffs.

Here is what ESPN guessed.

http://sports.espn.g....-EastStandings

http://sports.espn.g....-WestStandings

East-

1. Miami Heat

2. Orlando Magic

3. Boston Celtics

4. Atlanta Hawks

5. Chicago Bulls

6. Milwaukee Bucks

7. New York Knicks

8. Charlotte Bobcats

Under the radar: Philadelphia 76ers, Detroit Pistons

West-

1. Los Angeles Lakers

2. Dallas Mavericks

3. Oklahoma City Thunder

4. Houston Rockets

5. Denver Nugg

6. Portland Trailblazers

7. Utah Jazz

8. San Antonio Spurs

Under the radar: Memphis Grizzlies, Sacramento Kings

Sorry if people get mad that I posted this here. I'll remove it if wanted, but I thought it'd be fun.

Again, we can't be the 4th seed if Miami and Orlando are somewhere in the top 3 seeds. Anyway, it's way too early to be predicting seeds, but as of right now....here's what I think.

Eastern Conference

1. Orlando Magic

2. Miami Heat

3. Boston Celtics

4. Chicago Bulls

5. Atlanta Hawks

6. Milwaukee Bucks

7. New York Knicks

8. New Jersey Nets

Maybe a surprise team: Detroit Pistons

Western Conference

1. Los Angeles Lakers

2. Dallas Mavericks

3. Oklahoma City Thunder

4. Denver Nuggets

5. Houston Rockets

6. Portland Trailblazers

7. Phoenix Suns

8 . San Antonio Spurs

Could possibly make a run: Memphis Grizzlies, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers

[Diesel]

East-

1. Miami Heat

2. Orlando Magic

3. Boston Celtics

4. Atlanta Hawks

5.Milwaukee Bucks

6. Chicago Bulls

7. New Jersey Nets

8.Washington Bullets

Under the radar: Indiana Pacers, Cleveland Cavs

From 4 to 8 are easily interchangable. Here's how I see it:

The Nets and the Bullets pretty muched Tanked last season. Any team with Gilbert Arenas, Josh Howard, Andray Blatche, and Al Thornton was tanking to lose that many under the coaching of Flip Saunders. Watch and learn.. the Bullets will come back and be impressive with John Wall, Trevor Booker, and Yi all playing a role. The Nets... another team under the radar that is better than last season.. Let me mention: Brook Lopez, Devin Harris, and Derrick Favors can all be allstar level. Their major question mark is will Terrance Williams step up and will Anthony Morrow beat out Courtney Lee as starting SG. Avery is going to push this young team and get Good results. Sometimes, I think the Bulls took a step backwards. Milwaukee could easily be #4. It depends on Bogut. I think the one thing that they have is Coaching. Their coach will drive them through the frozen tundra and they will go because he knows how to motivate. I really want to put the Celtics higher but Orlando is too good. If Orlando gets Agent 0, you may as well pencil them in #1. The pacers are coming off of injury. With Granger, Murphy, and Hibbert back, this team is going to be a hard out. Add to that the unknown of Paul George and you have something intriguing. This dude could be the next Mayo, Tmac kind of guy. He's very athletic...and that will play well with Granger who is down right beastly. Their main question is.. can TJ Ford be the guy? He seems to be Mr. Glass right now. What do you do when you have replaced Lebron James with Joey Graham? The correct answer is you play them. This has all the sudden become Mo Williams and Antwain Jamison's team. However, that's better than nothing. They have one thing that people are forgetting. Byron Scott. Scott will have this crew loose and ready to play every night. They are going to be a tough out. Scott is going to play a lot of small ball and feature Hickson as the starting C (more than likely). With Mo at the controls and motion being the word of the day, I suspect that this team will confound some. Still, they lack defense and right now, FO is more willing to trade away the good peices for youth. So, I think Cleveland is a possibility albeit a longshot if trades start.

West-

1. Los Angeles Lakers

2. Dallas Mavericks

3. Oklahoma City Thunder

4. Portland Trailblazers

5.San Antonio Spurs

6. Memphis Grizzlies

7. Houston Rockets

8. Sacramento Kings

Under the radar: Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Clippers, Minny.

I don't think that things will really be clear until the fates of Melo and CP3 are known. Utah is off my list. I don't see a SG in Utah. Neither do I see work ethic in Jefferson (or fit). Houston is up in the air. I like Brooks, KMart, Ariza, and Scola.. but will Ming play? It doesn't sound like it. So you've replaced Ming with Miller? The Spurs will finesse their way to 5th and barely there. The Grizzlies have a very good squad on paper but can the coach pull it together? The Kings... They started off as my Dark Horse but with Evans, Cousins, Thompson, Landryand Udrih... why not. The real question with them is will Donte Green actually step up into his potential? I've seen enough turmoil in contracts to know that Denver is in trouble. First, Chauncey is getting older. 2nd, what is up with the 2 guard position. Third, anytime you add a Harrington and Shelden Williams, you're in trouble. Plus, Melo wants out.

[Swatguy]

East-

1. Orlando Magic

2. Miami Heat

3. Atlanta Hawks

4. Boston Celtics

5. Chicago Bulls

6. Milwaukee Bucks

7. New York Knicks

8. Charlotte Bobcats

Under the radar: Philadelphia 76ers,

West-

1. Los Angeles Lakers

2. Dallas Mavericks

3. Oklahoma City Thunder

4. Portland Trailblazers

5. Los Angeles Clippers

6. Denver Nuggets

7.Utah Jazz

8.San Antonio Spurs

Under the radar: Memphis Grizzlies, Golden State, Houston Rockets

[hawksfan8]

Order by record, not playoff seeding:

East-

1. Orlando

2. Miami

3. Atlanta

4. Chicago

5. Boston

6. Milwaukee

7. Philadelphia

8. New York

Under the radar: Detroit, Indiana

West-

1. Los Angeles Lakers

2. Dallas

3. Utah

4. Oklahoma City

5. Denver

6. Portland

7. Phoenix

8. San Antonio

Under the radar: Houston, Sacramento