bulls record prediction revisited

35-47 Tenth in the East

1 - Heat 2 - Bucks 3 - Pacers 4 - Magic 5 - Knicks 6 - 76ers 7 - Hornets 8 - Nets 9 - Celtics 10 - Bulls

West

1 - Blazers 2 - Lakers 3 - Jazz 4 - Spurs 5 - Sonics 6-10...who cares?

Jury is still out. I have faith that Tubby will prove you wrong!

Ah, you forgot the Raptors who look no worse then 7th.

11 - Pacers

I think the Pacers have pretty much crapped out of their hopes of a championship for another 2 or 3 years. Here is a quick comparison of the two top players most likely playing the position:

c: Perkins, Brezec vs. Miller, Tarlac pf: O'neal, Bender vs. Brand, Ruffin sf: Croshere, Harrington vs. Fizer, Artest sg: Miller, Walters vs. Mercer, Hoiberg pg: Rose, Best vs. Crawford, Drew

If there is a disparity between the two teams, it isn't large. Certainly not big enough for the Bulls to finish 7 places lower than a team that lost 3 starters, including their heart and soul Dale Davis.

1st prediction of the season: Isiah Thomas retires towards the end of the season, since he has never held down a steady office job for a period of time. (Raptors GM, CBA president, and now a quick stay as head coach of the Pacers)

I counted out the Jazz last season, so I will do the same this one. I do think they will make the playoffs, but most likely as a 7th or 8th seed. And the Suns might be way up there.

With the loss of Tracy McGrady, I am confident the Raptors will do far worse than 7th. They were good enough for 7th with McGrady! Also, I think the Pacers are rated way too high. They lost Larry Bird, Mark Jackson, Dale Davis and Rick Smits. They added who??????

But they did add Mark Jackson, a veteran point guard who will pay huge dividends with young stars such as Carter. They drafted Morris Peterson, from the NCAA champions and traded for Corliss Williamson, who is no superstar but is probably an upgrade over Christie.

I think the Raptors will be improved this year.

McGrady may be a star in the future but he certainly wasn't so important to the Raptors past success that they will fall from 45 wins to no better then 33 wins like the original poster seems to think. He wasn't even a starter for the 1st 50 games last season. Plus the Raptors have upgraded elsewhere (Jackson, Williamson, Peterson and the return of the injured Radojevic), still have Vince Carter and have finally added a major-league coach. They'll probably finish around the 42-47 win mark, somewhere between 5th and 8th in the east and lose in the 1st round. Losing McGrady has only hurt the Raps chances of become a future perennial contender in the east, not sent them screaming back to the cellar.

Jermaine O'Neal and Isiah Thomas (yuck). Unless Bender and Harrington take huge leaps forward, they've certainly fallen back to the pack. But the east is so weak they could certainly still finish as high as 3rd with Rose and Miller on board. But probably lower.

I have faith in the dream. 8th seed in the east