Raptors might win the east.
- Philly is dangerous, but the much rumoured Simmons jumper didn't make it out of summer work outs apparently, he's taken less than 5% of his total shots from outside of 10 feet from the basket. Embiid and Horford will have a hard time sharing the court in crunch time and Horford's probably their 2nd best player. They're not particularly deep either and lack scoring punch off the bench. They're going to be an interesting team to watch at the deadline but as constructed right now I think we take them down again
- Boston is the biggest mirage in the league at the moment. They're deep and well coached but Tatum and Brown are still meh in overall. Mind you, I might be under rating Kemba and Hayward. I don't think Kemba is quite this good, and though it would be nice to see Hayward return to pre injury form (which this is pretty much the best version of), I don't know if it lasts all season. Well coached overall and can seriously shoot the ball as a group though.
- Miami deserves a mention. Jimmy has helped turn this into a group of absolute assholes on the defensive end and Jimmy is an early season candidate for MVP. This is a team that will struggle to score against any decent defence though. It's basically Jimmy and Dragic with stuff on the offensive end
- Still don't think the Bucks are built to win a chip, but Freak is ridiculous so who knows. Is hitting 32% from outside (when left wide open...he still has rather slow release) enough to get defenders actually closing out on him? Still don't love the supporting cast, neither of Middleton or Bledsoe are #2 options to be trust with a big game. It's the same as it was man, stop Giannis and you beat them.