Q5. With the first few weeks of the 2018-19 NBA season in the books, how do you see the East’s top four seeds shaking out come April?
DB: The number one seed should go to the Raptors. After that Brad Stevens’ Celtics are bound to pick it up and finish with the second seed. The 76ers just acquired Jimmy Butler and he could be the player to push them just ahead of the Bucks at third.
RC: So far, the Bucks and Toronto Raptors seem to have separated themselves from the pack. The Raptors were always a dominant regular season team and then they added Kawhi Leonard so 60+ wins is practically a given. I’ll say the Bucks keep that two-seed spot as they’re going to compete for each and every game and try to chase down the Raptors.
The Celtics are still the most talented team in the East, but they’re a bit dysfunctional right now and are playing with a regular season malaise that can attack teams that know they’re better and are just going through the motions most of the time in the regular season.
The Sixers with Jimmy Butler are interesting. It’s going to take a while for Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid to adjust to playing with Butler, and vice versa. Like the Celtics, they’re going to be more focused on working out the kinks during the regular season, and as long as they’re one of the top four seeds, they won’t worry too much about regular season wins and losses.
To sum up, 1-4 in the East will be Raptors, Bucks, Celtics and Sixers.
AM: Is this where I have to go on the record with all of my skepticism about the Bucks’ rivals? Those who listen to the pod will know that although I believe the Raptors are good, the health history of their stars is just a little too precarious to have me buy into them at their current performance level.
For any bumps in their start, I believe the Celtics will figure it out and maybe even enter the playoffs as the East’s best team. Their record may not show that, but in terms of tough playoff outs I’d feel confident it will play out that way.
As for the Sixers, I’m a lot less optimistic on them than I was a few days ago. Is Jimmy Butler talented? Sure. Is he the guy you bring into a locker room filled with young players on very different ends of the confidence scale to play in a lineup that was already lacking shooting? Absolutely not. Philadelphia’s depth also took a hit in that deal, and I can’t think of many teams that seems more important for than for a group whose three best players all have meaningful injury histories.
In summary, the Raptors and Bucks will be neck and neck for the top seed, the Celtics will come in third, and the Pacers will take fourth place. The Sixers will come in fifth and rue wavering from the process, which had served them so well up until now. Wes Edens may have the last laugh yet!
JT: It’s strange to see the two wild cards in the East heading into the season, those being the Bucks and Raptors, basically switching places with the 76ers and Celtics in the top tier in the East no less than a few weeks into the season, but alas, here we are.
In light of the 76ers putting all of their chips in the middle of the table by acquiring Jimmy Butler, I’m very pessimistic about how that will transform their season. That goes beyond just the perennial pot stirrer Butler seems to be at every stop as the three-man combo of Butler, Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, while very talented, is not a seamless fit by any means. Combine that with questions over their depth and there’s going to be a lot of on the fly changes that could swing their season on a week-to-week basis.
The Celtics have been mired with having to integrate all the pieces they lost throughout last season and although I was like many to pencil them in as the greatest challenge to the Warriors in June this season, their rocky start out of the gate has lingered on for a while now.
It wouldn’t be all that surprising to see either one or both find their footing sooner rather than later, but both the Bucks and the Raptors taking advantage of Philly and Boston’s respective stumbles could give them enough of a head start that the top four in the East could look relatively close to what it looks like now.
BR: To quote the great Michael Scott: “Well, well, well, how the turntables!”
Prior to the season, most had the Celtics and Raptors atop the Eastern Conference rankings, followed closely by the 76ers, and then one of the Bucks or Pacers in the fourth seed. One infamous journalist, who shall remain nameless, even had the Wizards in the top four in the East.
The landscape is looking a bit different now. While it’s only a few weeks into the season and a lot can change, the sample size is large enough to where we have a decent idea of what each team’s strengths and flaws are.
The Raptors have been great, even without Leonard playing in some games. The Celtics have struggled to fit their embarrassment of roster depth together into one cohesive unit up to this point, but they’re bound to figure it out sooner or later.
The Sixers have struggled after losing depth from last year and attempting to integrate a struggling Markelle Fultz into their starting five. I don’t think the addition of Jimmy Butler makes them significantly better as a team. Although the talent upgrade is significant, the loss of shooting makes them that much easier to game plan against.
My prediction is that the Raptors will snag the one-seed and the Bucks will finish second, just ahead of the Celtics. The fourth seed is difficult, but I’ll give the nod to the Pacers over the Sixers. Victor Oladipo has been playing out of his mind of late, and it’s going to take time for the Sixers to learn to play together after the Butler trade.