Predicting the Eastern Conference standings: Where will the Pacers finish?
The Eastern Conference looks a little different going into the new season. Where will the Indiana Pacers (and everyone else) finish when it’s all said and done?
Last season, the Indiana Pacers were without Victor Oladipo for a large portion of the year and still were able to grind out a 5th seeded finish in the Eastern Conference. With many players coming and going from the team over the summer, it’s a bit of a challenge to predict where the team will end up next.
However, the Pacers aren’t the only team that got a bit overhauled in the offseason. With all the player movement of free agency now slowing down, how will all 15 teams be ranked once the playoffs roll around next spring? We took our best shot a predicting the final Eastern Conference standings. Let’s get the non-playoff teams out of the way first:
15. Charlotte Hornets
With the departure of both Kemba Walker and Jeremy Lamb, the Hornets are going to be bad. Like, really bad. Simply put, there’s just no one else on this team to lead them to any sort of success in the immediate future.
14. Cleveland Cavaliers
This Pacers’ divisional foe had a rough go of things last season, and things aren’t looking much better in 2019-2020. A hopefully healthy Kevin Love will win them a few games, and they’ve got a couple of exciting young guys, but Cleveland is still rebuilding.
13. New York Knicks
With some of their acquisitions via the draft and free agency, the Knicks should start to see a bit of positive improvement next season. Not enough to get them anywhere close to the postseason, however.
12. Washington Wizards
Bradley Beal can only do so much. The Wizards were one of the biggest failures a year ago, and being without franchise point guard John Wall for another whole season will keep Washington stuck in the mud.
11. Chicago Bulls
The Bulls should be on the upswing at this point. Their young players are good, rookie Coby White looks to have a ton of promise, and Thaddeus Young will inspire a winning culture. This team still just seems a year or two away from real competition.
10. Atlanta Hawks
Trae Young, John Collins, and company are going to be exciting to watch moving forward. Expect the Hawks to make a big improvement with these kids simply getting more professional reps under their belts.
9. Orlando Magic
The Magic were one of the feel-good stories of last season and should more or less be the same team in the coming year. However, a non-playoff team from 2018-2019 made a noticeable improvement this summer, unfortunately booting Orlando back into the lottery.
With these teams out of the way, let’s predict the playoff seeds.