04/05 Season Preview - East
First, a look at the
Power Rankings (which you've already made me show you, you spoiler-hungry sluts).
Again most good teams with Cafites on them are in the West, so we might have another season of Cafite-on-Cafite action to decide who gets to represent the West, and then maybe no Cafites making it to the finals from the East. There are a couple with an okay chance, though.
Team Finances
I am not aware, game mechanics wise, whether teams can swap strategies mid-season or not. If they can, some of these might be read to be updated. If not, it's a weird choice by the newly founded Charlotte Bobcats to try to be bad
and also sign maybe the strongest player in NBA history.
Let's get to the players in the Eastern Conference.
@Salt Bailly on the
Washington Wizards (39-43)
Salt Bailly is like a fine vintage, he just gets better as he gets older. Actually, he was pretty good to begin with, but then I don't know a lot about wine so for all I know that's a thing they do too. He's spent his entire playing career in the 60s ratings wise. Not that he's
old, it's just that this is around the time when the game decides that getting better over the span of a few years is not at all a guarantee. With Salt Bailly's improvement comes the strong improvement of several other teammates, and no significant decline. That means that the Washington Wizards are actually a rather strong team, if one with a distinct lack of a good Center (FAO hobbers/The Cat/Stobzilla)
@V.O. and
@Skizzo on the
Cleveland Cavaliers (31-51)
The Cavaliers are a funny old team, if you ignore the fact that they're actually quite young. But they can't seem to decide if they're good or not. On paper they have no clear weaknesses and a borderline superstar in
V.O. - though borderline might be harsh given he just won the scoring and assist title. He got a little bit worse over the summer though, which he'll hope
Skizzo's improvement can compensate for. They fact that they both play in the same position seems not to bother them to any great extent, though it means Skizzo's stats are worse than they would have been otherwise. Can he carry a bit more of the burden this year?
@weetee on the
Indiana Pacers (45-37, Conference Finals)
The Pacers were actually quite decent last year, so you can imagine
weetee's surprise when he's traded there and they are suddenly not that good, on paper. I don't actually know exactly how the game calculates the rating, because they don't seem
that bad. Not good, certainly, but no very obvious weaknesses. Whatever the case, I think weetee is going to have to accept the fact that he won't be fighting for his third NBA championship this year, having been traded by Seattle. He had a good run though, and he's still 24, so let's not overreact. He's also hasn't seemed to happy with his stats so far, so maybe life without stat vampire Solius has
some benefits?
@sebsheep on the
New Jersey Nets (43-39, 1st Round)
sebsheep is another one who is slightly surprised that his ostensibly playoff-quality team - given they made the playoffs, I mean - is now counted among the worst in the entire league. I think the fact that several of the players declined a bit has something to do with it, and that includes sebsheep. Very similar stories to weetee, though, in that he's also 24, also has a contract for only two more years, and is on a team where he'll be pretty important. Also he won't win anything.
@oneniltothearsenal on the
Miami Heat (39-43)
The betting markets are predicting Miami to have their worst season in a while. Their case is different to the others though, as there's no dearth of top quality players. Both
oneniltothearsenal himself and his new teammate Tim Duncan are very solid players. But the rest of the starting 5 consists of two decent players and downright terrible player. oneniltothearsenal himself is bound to the team for a few more years, but there are a lot of expiring contracts otherwise, so this doesn't have to be the end of onenil's playoff ambitions. Just, you know, a hiatus of his playoff ambitions.
@BenitoSTARR on the
New York Knicks (41-41, 1st Round)
Speaking of playoff ambitions, here's the guy who has gone all the way twice. Last season his Knicks were suddenly not all that good, and they got swept by an almost-champions Chicago Bulls in the 1st Round of the playoffs. All of that despite BenitoSTARR becoming the regular season MVP, which should tell you how good they would be without him. This season they still have him (only
very slightly diminished), and even an improved Tyrone Nesby. Hell, Brad Miller is decent. But they are the only three players on the entire 16-man roster who have a higher than 50 rating. That's... not ideal.
@hobbers on the newly formed
Charlotte Bobcats
What is there to say, really? The Charlotte Bobcats are not good. Except... are they? The power rankings certainly seem to think they're not all bad. And the fact that now
hobbers-less San Antonio Spurs are
by far the worst team in the league makes you wonder, doesn't it? The current version of hobbers is incredibly even better than the Spurs one, so if anyone can drag a bad team to the playoffs, it's him. I have no idea what's going to happen here. Well, I'm pretty sure one amazing player isn't enough to make you title contenders, not in the West, but this should be interesting either way.
The West is going to come a bit later today, don't expect it right away.