I think Billups is leaving.With that said, I think the Bulls will be the best team in the East. I have a feeling they will acquire a solid post player this off season and they will be a complete team with some veteran experience and great young talent that is only going to get better.
Chicago will be #1. If the Pistons don't change anything, then them again. But it's between those two. I never had much faith in Cleveland because they're offensively retarded. They really need some type of offensive assistance coach that can set up a system for them.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (CavsRules @ Jun 13 2007, 10:19 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>We are not offensively retarded, Mike Brown is.</div>mike brown can only do so much
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (The Captain @ Jun 13 2007, 12:53 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>It'll be the Pistons again. Every year this happens."Oh, the Piston's run is over. They're too old and can't compete."This time we'll be getting some new blood to get that hard-working mentality back. I am 100% confident we will be the #1 seed. Again.</div>^^Perfectly said.Same thing happened last year. Detroit got hyped out, took a early exit and everyone said they were done. As long as we still have our core, we are still the top team in the East, no doubt.
I see Chicago as the best team in the east next season. Not only were we 1 game out of the 2 seed but now we have another offseason with another early draft pick to improve while Hinrich/Gordon/Deng are close to becoming allstar players. With even more time, I think starting next year(and for awhile) we will see the Bulls ontop of the east. I dont think the Pistons cant compete like most people saying they are too old(The Spurs are older then Detroit and they just won a title) but I have to question how much steam Rasheed and Cwebb have left in them. There are also questions of Billups leaving(If Billups leaves, The Pistons will officially be done but I dont see him leaving) I dont think Miami is out yet either, kapono emerged this year and Miami has a few young underrated players who might step up. You also have a healthy Dwade and a healthy shaq. The east will likely be stronger next season but homerism aside I still see the Bulls winning. No team can match the depth and talent we have in the east. I think last year was our last as ''baby bulls''.I would give predictions but its just too early. I think the east will stack up with the west very well in the coming season though. I also expect Raptors,Magic,and Hawks to improve alot. While you have teams like Boston,Charlotte,and New York who might move up also.
I really don't see Chicago as being the best team in the east, or in Championship contention in the near future until they get someone that can score in the post. They don't have to be a great offensive threat in the post, but a good enough offensive threat to take some pressure off of the wing players having to score so many points. Until they develop that, I will never see them as the best team in the East, or a title contending game.If Detroit all comes back, they are really the only team that I see as being able to beat one of the West's teams in a playoff series, and the best team in the East in my opinion.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (valo35 @ Jun 15 2007, 08:56 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I really don't see Chicago as being the best team in the east, or in Championship contention in the near future until they get someone that can score in the post. They don't have to be a great offensive threat in the post, but a good enough offensive threat to take some pressure off of the wing players having to score so many points. Until they develop that, I will never see them as the best team in the East, or a title contending game.If Detroit all comes back, they are really the only team that I see as being able to beat one of the West's teams in a playoff series, and the best team in the East in my opinion.</div>Tyrus Thomas is making strides. I wouldnt be surprised to see him at least get us 10-15 points in the post while Deng and Gordons scoring has improved every year of their career so far. I think next season we could beat them in as few as 5 games, maybe 6 if we didnt have home-court.
Tyrus Thomas is decent, but he won't be dangerous enough to really cause major concern. They know he is way to inconsistent and not offensively talented enough to do major damage. So it's not like he is going to stretch the floor that much and take alot of heat off of the perimeter players. I really see him being maybe a 10 point per game scorer, and that's about it for next year, not much past that. If Detroit returns Billups, they have easily the most offensively balanced team in the East. Then to add to that, they still have a very good defense, even without Ben Wallace there anymore. Chicago is not going to be able to beat them in 5 or 6 games next year, they won't be able to beat Detroit at all. Chicago while a decent defensive team, does not play good enough defense to stop Detroit when they make runs, they still won't have that one offensive guy that makes the shots that halts offensive runs and momentum, Detroit will still have an easier time playing defense because of Chicago not having an offensive threat down low. Detroit is a better team than Chicago right now, and if Chicago doesn't get anyone to help out down low with the scoring, they will be better next year to.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (valo35 @ Jun 15 2007, 09:13 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Tyrus Thomas is decent, but he won't be dangerous enough to really cause major concern. They know he is way to inconsistent and not offensively talented enough to do major damage. So it's not like he is going to stretch the floor that much and take alot of heat off of the perimeter players. I really see him being maybe a 10 point per game scorer, and that's about it for next year, not much past that. If Detroit returns Billups, they have easily the most offensively balanced team in the East. Then to add to that, they still have a very good defense, even without Ben Wallace there anymore. Chicago is not going to be able to beat them in 5 or 6 games next year, they won't be able to beat Detroit at all. Chicago while a decent defensive team, does not play good enough defense to stop Detroit when they make runs, they still won't have that one offensive guy that makes the shots that halts offensive runs and momentum, Detroit will still have an easier time playing defense because of Chicago not having an offensive threat down low. Detroit is a better team than Chicago right now, and if Chicago doesn't get anyone to help out down low with the scoring, they will be better next year to.</div>Chicago nearly beat Detroit THIS season. With another year of experience and another year of them to age and lose players I see no reason why we wouldnt win. We still scored on detroit even without a post-presence and if we hadnt lost our 20 point lead in game 3 we'd probably still be talking about the Spurs-Bulls series that is still ongoing. I dont know why you say we cant shut out detroit when we did just that in several games this year.
The Cavs will buy one of the Suns first round picks, so I'm not worried about not having a draft pick. The Pistons need to start playing Amir Johnson.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (PrimeTime @ Jun 15 2007, 08:19 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Chicago nearly beat Detroit THIS season. With another year of experience and another year of them to age and lose players I see no reason why we wouldnt win. We still scored on detroit even without a post-presence and if we hadnt lost our 20 point lead in game 3 we'd probably still be talking about the Spurs-Bulls series that is still ongoing. I dont know why you say we cant shut out detroit when we did just that in several games this year.</div>Come playoff time when it matters, you guys will not be able to beat the Pistons if they come back the same. You guys took them to six games this year, including a lopsided loss in Detroit, and two losses on your guys home court, which included an elimination game.Blowing a 20 point lead on your home court with all of the momentum on the Bulls side, also goes to show that when Detroit starts scoring there isn't much that Chicago can do to stop Detroit. They don't have the veteran enough players to step up and hit the big shot to halt momentum, nor can they make the defensive stop to halt Detroits momentum one they get it.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (valo35 @ Jun 15 2007, 09:32 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Come playoff time when it matters, you guys will not be able to beat the Pistons if they come back the same. You guys took them to six games this year, including a lopsided loss in Detroit, and two losses on your guys home court, which included an elimination game.Blowing a 20 point lead on your home court with all of the momentum on the Bulls side, also goes to show that when Detroit starts scoring there isn't much that Chicago can do to stop Detroit. They don't have the veteran enough players to step up and hit the big shot to halt momentum, nor can they make the defensive stop to halt Detroits momentum one they get it.</div>Only time will tell but the Bulls nearly came back to win the whole series. We are only going to improve so I have no doubt in my mind we have the talent and chemistry to take down the pistons. We may have lost the lead in that one game but we held them to a low score in every game we played. We can play detroit very hard defensively.
The Bulls were supposed to contend this year. See what happened?Personally, I think they're overrated. Sure they have a good young core, but they dont have any post scoring, and they havent proved anything.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MrBigShot_23 @ Jun 15 2007, 11:17 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>The Bulls were supposed to contend this year. See what happened?Personally, I think they're overrated. Sure they have a good young core, but they dont have any post scoring, and they havent proved anything.</div>The Bulls this year werent going to contend but we did prove alot. We Beat the NBA champions(something you guys couldnt do last season) and in a sweep and went toe to toe with the best team in the east. All the Bulls haters can look back on this topic next year when we make it to the finals(or at the very least, past the Pistons.)
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (PrimeTime @ Jun 15 2007, 08:36 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Only time will tell but the Bulls nearly came back to win the whole series. We are only going to improve so I have no doubt in my mind we have the talent and chemistry to take down the pistons. We may have lost the lead in that one game but we held them to a low score in every game we played. We can play detroit very hard defensively.</div>The Pistons pretty much proved throughout that series, that they can score on the Bulls as they want to, when they actually feel like playing. You guys just didn't have enough offensive fire power to top them in the scoring category, no matter how well you played defense. Until they get someone that can do that, and spread balance on the floor, they will not be able to beat the Pistons in a seven game series because they won't be able to score enough points to help out their defense.As for almost coming back and winning this series, they just let up for two games, they was never in danger of loosing that series to you guys. They won the first three games of the series, including two games where they dominated you guys, and third game where they came from 20 down to win. They proved that they can score on your guys defense as they please, while being able to stop you guys from scoring throughout that series. Without major losses to their team, or an inside scoring presence to your team, you won't ever be able to score enough points to get ahead of the Pistons.<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (PrimeTime @ Jun 15 2007, 10:21 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>The Bulls this year werent going to contend but we did prove alot. We Beat the NBA champions(something you guys couldnt do last season) and in a sweep and went toe to toe with the best team in the east. All the Bulls haters can look back on this topic next year when we make it to the finals(or at the very least, past the Pistons.)</div>It was something the Bulls couldn't do last year either, beat the Heat, so it really isn't a valid point you bring up about the Pistons not being able to beat the Heat. The Bulls got lucky and played a Heat team with a completely banged up Wade, a banged up Shaq, and a team that didn't have enough time to get any chemistry going. Had the Pistons gotten that same matchup, they would have been able to beat the Heat this year also.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (PrimeTime @ Jun 15 2007, 11:21 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>The Bulls this year werent going to contend but we did prove alot. We Beat the NBA champions(something you guys couldnt do last season) and in a sweep and went toe to toe with the best team in the east. All the Bulls haters can look back on this topic next year when we make it to the finals(or at the very least, past the Pistons.)</div>You beat the Spurs in the regular season.Congrats. :worthy:
In all honesty, I see Chicago being the best team in the East next season. I mean come on, they already have a young and improving point guard in Hinrich, a long range shooter in Gordon, a versatile scorer in Deng, and their anchor on defense in Ben Wallace. Not to mention they have great role players who contribute night in, night out (Nocioni, Brown, Ty, Duhon, Sefolosha). They are a very deep ball club. All they need to do is add some more experienced NBA veterans around their young core and they could very well be a 60 win team next year. (Note: They also have the 9th pick in a stacked draft this year, and they could land a big man who can score in and out of the paint, maybe a guy like Spencer Hawes). As for the rest of the East, the second best team in the East could be either Cleveland or Toronto. But I have Toronto being the 2nd best team because they have their young, superstar PF in Chris Bosh, and a proven point guard in TJ Ford. They have one of the most underrated backcourts in the league with Ford and Parker. Not to mention they have some international flavor who can contribute any given night in Bargnani, Calderon, Garbojosa, etc. They are definitely headed in the right direction. The problem with Cleveland is that they need more scoring around LeBron James. As amazing LeBron James is on offense, one guy cannot do it by himself, and when the other guys on the team don't get themselves involved on offense, the Cavs go through long stretches without a single bucket. Cleveland is a great defensive team, yes - but if you look at all those great defensive teams out there in the NBA such as San Antonio, Detroit, Chicago, etc. They all also have great team offense, better than what most people think because they think all they stress is defense (which is not true). Cleveland ended the '06-'07 season on somewhat of a high note, despite being swept by San Antonio in the finals. They made it to the Finals in a very weak Eastern Conference, however, and Danny Ferry needs to get on the phone and look for some scorers in the FA market to surround LeBron James (they don't have any picks in the draft).
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Zards @ Jun 16 2007, 12:42 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>As for the rest of the East, the second best team in the East could be either Cleveland or Toronto. But I have Toronto being the 2nd best team because they have their young, superstar PF in Chris Bosh, and a proven point guard in TJ Ford. They have one of the most underrated backcourts in the league with Ford and Parker. Not to mention they have some international flavor who can contribute any given night in Bargnani, Calderon, Garbojosa, etc. They are definitely headed in the right direction.</div>What about Detroit? If they re-sign Billups, which I think they will, then they will still be one of the top 3 teams in the East. They still have a solid core (this is all if they re-sign Billups) with Billups, Rip, Prince, Sheed, and Webber. This team plays very good defense and can light it up on the offensive end. They have a good pick in the draft this year where they can get a player to come in and contribute off the bench, as well as two young big men, Johnson and Maxiell, who want a chance to prove themselves. They can use their MLE on a player such as Grant Hill, or any other free agent because the Pistons are a team many players would want to play for as far as having a good shot to win a ring. The only problem I see for the Pistons is getting all their players back. Billups can go elsewhere if he wants, and Webber is contemplating retirement.
