What if we DO get by Washington?

[cam1218]

We might have to go against Lopez, Portis and Zipser instead of Whoreford.

[LamarHampton]

Whoreford amazingly had E-L-E-V-E-N (yes 11) reboards.

only 7 points tho. He is about to get it from those C fans!!!

[cam1218]

6 minutes ago, LamarHampton said:

Whoreford amazingly had E-L-E-V-E-N (yes 11) reboards.

only 7 points tho. He is about to get it from those C fans!!!

I guess sometimes those misses bounce off the rim right into your hands no matter how hard you try to avoid it. 

[Lurker]

Here's your difference between the two clubs this season (Boston/Atlanta):

Boston: Gets Al Horford and basically stays the same. A team that wins due to their effort which doesn't work in the playoffs.
Atlanta: Gets Dwight Howard and gets a lot worse. This was an Eastern Conference that was a lot weaker, and if it was last year's Eastern Conference, Atlanta is likely a 33-49 team.

This is not clamoring for Horford, but I'd really rather have a willing dive center, they don't even need to be a passer.

[SalvorMallow]

4 hours ago, Lurker said:

Here's your difference between the two clubs this season (Boston/Atlanta):

Boston: Gets Al Horford and basically stays the same. A team that wins due to their effort which doesn't work in the playoffs.
Atlanta: Gets Dwight Howard and gets a lot worse. This was an Eastern Conference that was a lot weaker, and if it was last year's Eastern Conference, Atlanta is likely a 33-49 team.

This is not clamoring for Horford, but I'd really rather have a willing dive center, they don't even need to be a passer.

Wow Lurker thanks for your typical shallow, lopsided analysis.  Who could have anticipated you would be taking shots at Howard, even as Horford disappears in yet another playoff series?

[macdaddy]

I've seen that a couple times.  That these hawks would have been a 33 win team in last year's EC.   Obviously there is no way to really tell but I'm just not seeing anything to back that up.   There were more teams actually trying to make the playoffs in the east this year.   The Cavs were great last year and are stumbling this year but outside of that a lot of teams improved.   

[AHF]

Top of the East was definitely better last year.  Bottom definitely better this year.

9-15 seeds 2017:  222-352.  

9-15 seeds 2016:  184-390.  

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, macdaddy said:

I've seen that a couple times.  That these hawks would have been a 33 win team in last year's EC.   Obviously there is no way to really tell but I'm just not seeing anything to back that up.   There were more teams actually trying to make the playoffs in the east this year.   The Cavs were great last year and are stumbling this year but outside of that a lot of teams improved.   

Charlotte, Detroit, NYK were supposed to be all better than the Hawks this year. Same story, different year.

[Lurker]

8 hours ago, SalvorMallow said:

Wow Lurker thanks for your typical shallow, lopsided analysis.  Who could have anticipated you would be taking shots at Howard, even as Horford disappears in yet another playoff series?

I don't even like Al Horford at all! I'm just saying, the 1-8 in the Eastern Conference is a lot weaker than it was last year.

[JSmooooove]

2 hours ago, Lurker said:

I don't even like Al Horford at all! I'm just saying, the 1-8 in the Eastern Conference is a lot weaker than it was last year.

Based on what? This is how I see it:

1 Seed - 2016 Cleveland > 2017 Boston (obviously)

2 Seed - 2016 Toronto < 2017 Cleveland

3 Seed - 2016 Miami < 2017 Toronto

4 Seed - 2016 Atlanta < 2017 Washington

5 Seed - 2016 Boston < 2017 Atlanta

6 Seed - 2016 Charlotte < 2017 Milwaukee

7 Seed - 2016 Indiana < 2017 Indiana

8 Seed - 2016 Detroit < 2017 Chicago

So... basically the only seed you can definitely say was stronger last year was the 1 seed. I'd take all of my picks straight up in a 7 game series. 

[Lurker]

16 minutes ago, JSmooooove said:

Based on what? This is how I see it:

1 Seed - 2016 Cleveland > 2017 Boston (obviously)

2 Seed - 2016 Toronto < 2017 Cleveland

3 Seed - 2016 Miami < 2017 Toronto

4 Seed - 2016 Atlanta < 2017 Washington

5 Seed - 2016 Boston < 2017 Atlanta

6 Seed - 2016 Charlotte < 2017 Milwaukee

7 Seed - 2016 Indiana < 2017 Indiana

8 Seed - 2016 Detroit < 2017 Chicago

So... basically the only seed you can definitely say was stronger last year was the 1 seed. I'd take all of my picks straight up in a 7 game series. 

2016 Toronto is weaker than any version of Cleveland with LeBron, even this one.
2016 Miami is stronger than this year's Toronto.
2016 Atlanta is weaker than this year's Washington.
2016 Boston is much better than this year's Atlanta, it's not even close.
I agree on Charlotte vs Milwaukee.
2016 Indiana is much stronger than 2017 Indiana.
I agree on Chicago.

It's not a case in which its like SEC football in "oh, we all beat each other up and it hurt some teams' records!!!!!" The East is Cleveland, maybe Washington, and six or seven weak sisters that are much, much worse than maybe two teams.

Edited April 19, 2017 by Lurker

[JSmooooove]

9 minutes ago, Lurker said:

2016 Toronto is weaker than any version of Cleveland with LeBron, even this one.
2016 Miami is stronger than this year's Toronto.
2016 Atlanta is weaker than this year's Washington.
2016 Boston is much better than this year's Atlanta, it's not even close.
I agree on Charlotte vs Milwaukee.
2016 Indiana is much stronger than 2017 Indiana.
I agree on Chicago.

It's not a case in which its like SEC football in "oh, we all beat each other up and it hurt some teams' records!!!!!" The East is Cleveland, maybe Washington, and six or seven weak sisters that are much, much worse than maybe two teams.

So you agree with me except for the 3 seed, 5 seed and 7 seed. We'll just have to agree to disagree on those. But either way you're saying 4 of the seeds this year are stronger then last year so I can't see how last years east was clearly stronger in any way. 

[ViewsFromTheSquawk]

27 minutes ago, JSmooooove said:

Based on what? This is how I see it:

1 Seed - 2016 Cleveland > 2017 Boston (obviously)

2 Seed - 2016 Toronto < 2017 Cleveland

3 Seed - 2016 Miami < 2017 Toronto

4 Seed - 2016 Atlanta < 2017 Washington

5 Seed - 2016 Boston < 2017 Atlanta

6 Seed - 2016 Charlotte < 2017 Milwaukee

7 Seed - 2016 Indiana < 2017 Indiana

8 Seed - 2016 Detroit < 2017 Chicago

So... basically the only seed you can definitely say was stronger last year was the 1 seed. I'd take all of my picks straight up in a 7 game series. 

Ok pause.... Detroit last year was better than Chicago this year. Miami was better than Toronto this year and the Pacers should equal each other out considering they're the same team just different pieces

[macdaddy]

No matter how you slice it I don't see anyway to make the case that the Eastern Conference overall in 2016 was so much better than 2017 that a 5 seed this year would have been 15 games under .500 last year.   

[Guest]

What's that saying - you are what your record says you are.

However, come playoff time - forget all that, just play.

[NERMAN]

The thing about this year's East is I thought the Wizards were our worst match up.  That's mainly because of Wall and Beal.  Its why I like our chances if we could somehow get by them.