Who is the most Overated team in the East ?

[Sam17]

Washington

[draps]

I've gotta go with Washington as well.
I think last year was their peak as far as what they can do with this lineup. They need to move on from gortat and nene while they still have value and find their big men for the future, even if it means taking a step back. They haven't left much of a future for wall and beal so far.

[mcHAPPY]

I'm going raptors on the assumption Casey sticks to his ways.

They might crack 50 regular season wins but come playoffs, they will be toast....probably versus a lower seed.

Now if Casey actually let's Greer control the D and Nurse take care of the O, then I change my tune entirely.

[Just Is]

I'm going raptors on the assumption Casey sticks to his ways.

They might crack 50 regular season wins but come playoffs, they will be toast....probably versus a lower seed.

Now if Casey actually let's Greer control the D and Nurse take care of the O, then I change my tune entirely.

Essentially, if Casey does as little as possible, things will be fine.

I voted Miami but if the Raptors were an option, I'd have considered voting them. I think we're talented enough (I always do think we actually underrate our talent) to make noise during the regular season but beyond that ... I mean, once you bring one of the best 3/D wings to your team on a pretty big question and immediately talk about using him at the 4...

[S.R.]

i'm not really sure why everyone is voting for the Heat

Dragic/Chalmers
Wade/Green
Deng/Winslow
Bosh/stoudemire/haslem
Whiteside//anderson

the starting lineup is very strong. with Dragic/Winslow/Stoudemire there it should take some of the burden off Wade and Bosh.

if you're asking me who'll be overrated in a couple years, sure. but if Wade/Bosh don't miss significant time they'll be a top 4 team in the east easily.

Because the Heat had Wade/Deng/Bosh last year + Whiteside for 46 games + Dragic for 26 games and they managed all of 37 wins because their health was terrible. It seems likely that those guys are going to have more years like last year.

[Uncle_Si]

Toronto is the most overrated team in the east. We have improved at the positions that CoJo and Carroll play but the primary reason why we wont improve havent changed

All we have done this offseason so far is put lipstick on our pig

I think this team is drastically different from last years and expect their style of play to be drastically different. And if it's not Casey will be gonezo. Masai has already said he expects a completely different defensive system and more movement offensively.

[raptors999]

I think this team is drastically different from last years and expect their style of play to be drastically different. And if it's not Casey will be gonezo. Masai has already said he expects a completely different defensive system and more movement offensively.

its not that different from the Gay team except with 2Pats and a veteran JV and without Amir.

[golden]

The Vegas oddsmakers have the Raps at 6-8th. Not good. They are picking Miami to make a big move to 3rd or 4th.

https://www.sportsbook.ag/sbk/sports...conference.sbk

http://www.raptorshq.com/2015/8/24/9...eap-in-2015-16

In the sports world, Las Vegas oddsmakers are notoriously accurate for predicting how a team's season will play out. If that trend holds true in the 2015-16 NBA campaign, Toronto Raptors fans could be in for another underwhelming year.
....
The Dinos once again find themselves in the same ballpark as the Pacers and Bucks - a clear indication Vegas is not expecting Dwane Casey's crew to take a badly needed step in the right direction

.

http://www.statfox.com/statfoxnews/n...A-Championship

Miami Heat - The Heat acquired PG Goran Dragic (16.6 PPG, 5.3 APG, 1.1 SPG) at the trade deadline last season and that gave them a lethal starting lineup that included Dragic, SG Dwyane Wade (21.5 PPG, 4.8 APG, 3.5 RPG, 1.2 SPG), SF Luol Deng (14.0 PPG, 5.2 RPG), PF Chris Bosh (21.1 PPG, 7.0 RPG) and C Hassan Whiteside (11.8 PPG, 10.0 RPG, 2.6 BPG). The problem was that Chris Bosh was lost for the season due to blood clots in his heart. Bosh, however, is back healthy for the upcoming season and the Heat are now one of the deeper teams in the East after drafting SF Justise Winslow out of Duke and signing both PF Amar’e Stoudemire (11.5 PPG, 5.6 RPG) and SG/SF Gerald Green (11.9 PPG) to team-friendly contracts. If this bunch can find some sort of chemistry then it will really give the Cavaliers trouble in the Eastern Conference. Outside of the elite teams (that also happen to be the favorites listed above), Miami offers the best value in terms of a surprise team coming away with a championship

[Demographic Shift]

its not that different from the Gay team except with 2Pats and a veteran JV and without Amir.

Courtesy of the McHappy guy …This is the Gay team you speak of
PG: Lowry, Telfair, JL3
SG: DeRozan, Anderson, Fields
SF: Gay, Ross, Kleiza, Pietrus
PF: Amir, Acy, Bargnani* (injured)
C: Valanciunas, Gray

This is the team heading into this year.

PG: Lowry, Joseph, Wright
SG: DeRozan, Ross, Powell
SF: Carroll, Johnson, Bruno
PF: Scola, Patterson, Roberts*
C: JV, Biyombo, Bebe

Its far far better at PG .. far better on the wing.. jezzus the gay team had Kleiza and Pietrus who actually played minutes. There is a more experienced JV and depth on this years team at Centre. Its capability is far beyond the likelable but immobile 50 shades of gray and a very young JV.

Its slim pickings to find similarities between the two squads. Crap we even look better at PF than the RG squad which is the position most point to as being questionable this year.

[Demographic Shift]

The Vegas oddsmakers have the Raps at 6-8th. Not good. They are picking Miami to make a big move to 3rd or 4th.

https://www.sportsbook.ag/sbk/sports...conference.sbk

http://www.raptorshq.com/2015/8/24/9...eap-in-2015-16

.

http://www.statfox.com/statfoxnews/n...A-Championship

In season the Vegas lines are pretty accurate. The only thing they are interested in is making money and they are ruthless in that pursuit.
Don't confuse the opening lines being set right now with anything else other than to attract some business. You will see the more fan favourite or public teams having odds set to attract money. As the season kicks off there will likely be a shift in the odds..
New York and Miami are what I would call public teams and Vegas just wants their passionate fan bases money.
The Knicks in your links are rated as a better bets to win than Orlando and Detroit or Charlotte. You'd be hard pressed to find a GM that would go along with that line of thinking.

[2KJ]

Too bad you cannot vote twice, as there isn't one individual team, but 2.


First off: Miami. No question about this, the Heat are being overhyped easily. The roster has multiple holes, various guys coming off injuries and a player whose coming off a year that seems impossible to repeat itself.


Second, you got the Wizards. Once again, this is a team that really has questions. Yeah, I love the backbourt, but that frontcourt just got another year older, plus.... they once again have to deal with a change at SF. 3 different guys in 3 years, fellas (Ariza, Pierce and now Dudley)

Wizards however have the best pg in the east and a solid young sg who can actually shoot. I believe Porter will be the starting 3 for them. He has earned it. He went from Shaqtin a foo MVP to a serviceable long 3 who can defend and shoot.

[Superjudge]

Most often its the its the sainted New York Nix. This year along with the Knicks we have the Heat and the Bulls.
Whats your vote and why ?

The Heat

Being called to finish 2nd or 3rd ? Really ?
Both their stars are entering their 13th seasons. One, has had a serious medical condition. Last report from Chris Bosh was that he hoped to be 90% in NOVEMBER.
http://www.rotoworld.com/recent/nba/930/chris-bosh
Dwayne Wade too is gearing it up for year 13. Hard and heavy miles on Wade. Consider these 4 numbers...49, 69, 54, 62... Those are how many games Wade played in over the last 4 seasons. Like that small chip in the bottom of your windshield its eventually going to crack and bust for good.
Goran Dragic is now 29 and likes the clubbing. Who wouldn't at 29 with serious folding money at your disposal. Goran is now in South Beach. He also just might be only the 6th best PG in the East. Lots of hype but this guy hasn't really led anyone anywhere so far.
Justise Winslow is actually being counted on as a contributor by the pundits. He is a rook. He did slide down the draftboard to 10. Can 6 scouting departments be ALL wrong ? Kid has limited offense and got his points in college by outmuscling college kids. He will not be playing against college kids. He is up against the men now.
Luol Deng is in his 12th year .. has had a lot of injury woes ... Deng is on the downslope of a very good career.
There isn't much of a bench. Hasslam, Anderson and Gerald Green are in the twilight of mediocre careers. The Heat are being forecasted to finish 2nd or 3rd in the East.

Da Bulls

The band is all back on a good team. Lets peel the layers back a little. The band is back but the coach who willed them to be good is gone. New coach, new assistants, new system. This may take some time eh ?
Jimmy Butler is the real deal and a star. Derrick Rose was a star and now with two bum knees and very curious statements about commitment maybe he slides back to the pack. Maybe not. Taj Gibson and Joakim Noah are now 30 somethings and they too have bum knees. THis isn't being made up. Yet the ESPN boys are just passing this off as if nothing could go wrong. The Bulls are generally ranked 2nd or 3rd in the East.

The Knicks

They will struggle. Carmello is now 31 and is coming off yet another knee surgery. He is familiar with defense but actually hasn't any practical experience with it for a few years. The Knicks will struggle out of the gate and Carmelo who sees the clock ticking and will ask for a trade out of NYC. The NYC media circus will exacerbate an already bad situation and the season will be gone by December. The US pundits are forecasting the Knicks to finish 11th or 12th. It will be lower. Much lower.

So who do you think is the beneficary of lots of ink with not much substance to back it up .. the most overrated team in the east is ? and why. Poll attached.

Why is Toronto not a choice?

[Uncle_Si]

Courtesy of the McHappy guy …This is the Gay team you speak of
PG: Lowry, Telfair, JL3
SG: DeRozan, Anderson, Fields
SF: Gay, Ross, Kleiza, Pietrus
PF: Amir, Acy, Bargnani* (injured)
C: Valanciunas, Gray

This is the team heading into this year.

PG: Lowry, Joseph, Wright
SG: DeRozan, Ross, Powell
SF: Carroll, Johnson, Bruno
PF: Scola, Patterson, Roberts*
C: JV, Biyombo, Bebe

Its far far better at PG .. far better on the wing.. jezzus the gay team had Kleiza and Pietrus who actually played minutes. There is a more experienced JV and depth on this years team at Centre. Its capability is far beyond the likelable but immobile 50 shades of gray and a very young JV.

Its slim pickings to find similarities between the two squads. Crap we even look better at PF than the RG squad which is the position most point to as being questionable this year.

The Rudy Gay team didn't have any defensive studs either, unless you consider Anderson to be a stopper.

But defensively this team is far better than that team. And it has higher character players.

[Demographic Shift]

Why is Toronto not a choice?

I didn't include Los Raptors because the debate on the raps is ongoing year round on these threads.
However....I got the same question a couple of times, so in retrospect, I should have included them in the poll.
Feel free to post your thoughts and point of view either on the over rated or the under rated threads on how you see this years edition of the Raps fits.
Will resurect the poll(s) around Christmas to see who should be the recipient of free drinks and who should be buying.

[magoon]

Heat are most overrated, Bulls a close second for the same reasons that were well stated by OP.

Hawks are a slight question mark for me - they lost Carrol, who was an important player, and seem like the kind of team that other teams might "catch up to" i.e. figure out how to expose their super system (just as teams gradually figured out ways to exploit Thibs' defence in Chicago).

The Hawks got exposed last year because everybody figured out their Achilles' heel - they weren't a good rebounding team and you could eat them alive on the glass. That's how Toronto beat them in the regular season when they were pounding the rest of the league and that's how Cleveland ate them alive.

They've added Tiago Splitter and Walter Tavares this year and I dunno if they've fixed it at all. Splitter is a good defensive player but he's not a superior rebounder, and on top of that he's injury prone. Tavares is a giant question mark.

And the loss of Carroll is big. Thabo was his off-the-line replacement as the season progressed, and it sucked when Thabo was stabbed out of the playoffs, but he's a first-option bench wing, not a starter. Atlanta doesn't really have great wing depth at all: they've got Korver (great) and then a bunch of bench guys (Thabo, Kent Bazemore, Tim Hardaway Jr.), and then a bunch of marginal players.

They've got a top-five coach and that'll keep them in the hunt, but Atlanta takes a step back this year.

VERY underrated for me is the return of Paul George. Indiana has had tons of change, but if George is able to return to form? And he should be able to. The East is weak enough for Paul George and a well coached team to make some noise.

George is a great player, but people treat him like he's a superstar and he isn't - he's a "one rung below a superstar" player. And that makes a difference, especially when Indiana has lost all of their starting bigs and is trying to transform into a run-and-gun smallball team. This is a year for the Pacers to figure out what they have and to find the right complimentary pieces for George.