1) Miami Heat - A lot of people thought they would be ECF contenders but now they are heading towards the lottery. 2) Chicago Bulls - WTF happened? Young team, plenty of options but they just fell apart. 3) Toronto Raptors/NJ Nets - One team out of playoffs and the other at .500, neither really challenged the Celtics for the division title.
I wouldn't put Miami or New Jersey on that list, because I really didn't expect a whole lot from them. Miami was on the verge of collapsing as it was and last year's playoffs showed that. I might've be in the minority, but I didn't see a whole lot of improvement with the Nets over the offseason and figured they'd regress a bit. My list would probably be: 1) Chicago : I had them at the top of the East in a couple seasons, but that team's a mess now. It's kind of sad to see how a couple big mistakes might've ruined what looked to be a promising team. 2) Toronto : My expectations were a bit higher since I follow them, but even objectively, this team has regressed a lot. If it weren't for Jose's emergence, they might be fighting for a playoff spot. 3) Dallas : It seems like they haven't been able to recover from last year's loss. They still had so much talent but the lack of production forced them to gamble on a big trade (which doesn't seem to have worked).
