The season is all but here and it is time to lay all the cards on the line. And what a great natural segue, as where do you find playing cards and basketball? That’s right folks, at the casino. And while we do things with the fantasy tilt here at Razz, unfortunately it’s nye impossible to talk anything sports nowadays without the almighty dollar attached to it. You know because I brought out the Olde Ye English. The technical term for serious talk between us and you shan’t forget it. Anyways, we’ll have the usual “potentially” entertaining analysis and content below plus the New World Order (aka the Vegas SPREAD) and my takes on the O/U. So let’s get to the Eastern Conference, a setting that generally feels a lot less competitive than its Western counterparts, but still offers an interesting blend of playoff juggernauts, underperforming teams, and everything in-between. There’s also the Hornets, but really, that should be a category in of all itself. Maybe the “hide your women when they come to town” type of category.
| 2022-23 Eastern Conference Standings | 2022-23 Vegas Odds | ||||||||
| # | Team | W | L | PCT | GB | GP | Wins | Odds | Jay’s Pick |
| 1 | z – Milwaukee Bucks * | 58 | 24 | 0.707 | – | 82 | 53.5 | -114 | O |
| 2 | y – Boston Celtics * | 57 | 25 | 0.695 | 1 | 82 | 53.5 | -120 | U |
| 3 | x – Philadelphia 76ers | 54 | 28 | 0.659 | 4 | 82 | 47.5 | -115 | U |
| 4 | x – Cleveland Cavaliers | 51 | 31 | 0.622 | 7 | 82 | 50.5 | -114 | O |
| 5 | x – New York Knicks | 47 | 35 | 0.573 | 11 | 82 | 44.5 | -120 | O |
| 6 | x – Brooklyn Nets | 45 | 37 | 0.549 | 13 | 82 | 36.5 | 110 | O |
| 7 | y – Miami Heat * | 44 | 38 | 0.537 | 14 | 82 | 44.5 | -115 | U |
| 8 | x – Atlanta Hawks | 41 | 41 | 0.500 | 17 | 82 | 42.5 | 100 | O |
| 9 | pi – Toronto Raptors | 41 | 41 | 0.500 | 17 | 82 | 36.5 | -107 | O |
| 10 | pi – Chicago Bulls | 40 | 42 | 0.488 | 18 | 82 | 37.5 | 100 | U |
| 11 | Indiana Pacers | 35 | 47 | 0.427 | 23 | 82 | 38.5 | -144 | O |
| 12 | Washington Wizards | 35 | 47 | 0.427 | 23 | 82 | 24.5 | -110 | O |
| 13 | Orlando Magic | 34 | 48 | 0.415 | 24 | 82 | 36.5 | -125 | O |
| 14 | Charlotte Hornets | 27 | 55 | 0.329 | 31 | 82 | 30.5 | -115 | U |
| 15 | Detroit Pistons | 17 | 65 | 0.207 | 41 | 82 | 27.5 | -115 | U |
| z – Playoffs Home Court, y – Division Title, x – Playoff, pi – Play-in, * – Division Leader | |||||||||
Milwaukee Bucks – OVER 53.5 – So this one is largely a lock I feel. While I understand the new dynamic the Bucks have introduced in terms of making defense a bit more optional and of course bringing in a brand new coach, the idea of Dame teaming up with the Greek Freak should just scare about everyone in the East. I’m not really sure what you do with that pick n’ pop duo, but I know that offense will easily put up enough points to coast in the season. 53-54 wins generally seems to be the highest Vegas is willing to go, but they seem to be one of the safest teams to wind up in the Conference finals.
Boston Celtics – UNDER 53.5 – I’ve been going back and forth on this call and think a lot of the same elements that make up this new Celtics team has shades of the Bucks have done in their re-tool. Both teams have decided that offense, not defense will be the priority for their Championship push, but in terms of the Celtics, the risk seems a bit more palpable. This of course is all rooted in their literally biggest addition in Kristaps Porzingis, who I’m actually a bit higher on than most. But health and is health and we all know the risks here. And frankly, while I think the Celtics team is good enough to be just fine, even if KP is out for any amount of time, there’s probably going to be a team that surprises us a bit. I mean, where does Boston end up last season if they don’t have that incredible hot start right of the gate where they shot something like 8000% from the field? I mean, that’s not even a real number. Regardless, I still expect good things, but a small step back.
Philadelphia 76ers – UNDER 47.5 – I think it’s actually easy to pick the under here, yet I still contemplated going the over. Just ignoring the Harden situation for a moment, it’s still a team that has Joel Embiid and I actually think that Nick Nurse is more than a wonderful fit with this team and personal. How much that translates immediately, I’m curious, but I don’t think Tyrese Maxey is the answer at the one if Harden continues to either not play or play as poorly as possible. However that situation turns out is a mystery at this point, but with the season starting literally now, I have to assume that at some point he’s going to suit up and put up something like 20\7\7. Anyways, the point is, it’s a nice team, but I’m not quite sure the make it to 48 wins.
Miami Heat – UNDER 44.5 – I love this line because it really is at a place where you really just want to take both options. I can make an almost equal case that the Heat have a fair chance to make the over than the under, but I ultimately settled where I’m at because I just believe they will repeat what they did last year and just painfully linger around the play-ins all season just to make another run. I really don’t mean any disrespect to Jimmy Butler and the Heat, both have proven themselves as a very hard to team to compete against with one of best head coaches in the league (perhaps history?), but besides the return of Tyler Herro (which is not nothing), I just didn’t see this team do anything but yearn for Damian Lillard. It’s certainly an offseason, but a pretty barren one.
Washington Wizards – OVER 24.5 – I’m going to take this as my second lock. You can call me crazy, but I’m just calling myself a Wizards fan. Yes, many of you know that the Clippers are my first true love, but living in the DC Metro, you kinda just adopt the Wizards out of pity. And out of that pity, if there’s one thing you learn over time, it’s that whatever expectations you have of the team, they will always find a way to upset that process and so it’s just like them to be projected to an absolute clown-show by every expert across the industry and there very real effort to finally reset and rebuild around tanking for draft value. So you know that both Poole and Kuzma will make sure that never happens, and better yet, this is how it will play out. For half the season, with horrible rate stats but crazy-high counting stats, these two will keep them in the play-in conversation for at least two months, and they’ll meander themselves about 10 games back from that at end of the season for a low first round pick, rinse and repeat. Granted, they’ll be a lot of fun to watch (MAYBE), but I just don’t see any way this type of scenario does not play out…
Misc. Notes… I find both the Raptors and Bulls as mirror images of each other, but get the feeling that DeMar DeRozen is more likely to be flipped than Pascal Siakem. And I’m not really sure what to say about the Hornets that I wouldn’t also say about a dumpster fire. I do really like the Magic to take a step forward this year, but it’s still a very young team, but something ala the Thunder last year seems very possible. The Pistons are still a very raw and young team, but I’d like to see a bit more of Cade Cunningham before marking them a team on the upswing. An 11-win improvement just seems too steep a climb. I guess the Pacers kinda-fit that mold, obviously their a bit better, and while I think they no doubt improve this season, I think they just barely make the over.
Jay is a longtime Razzball everything who consumes an egregious amount of Makers Mark as a vehicle to gain wisdom and augment his natural glow. Living in the D.C. area, he also likes spending time visiting the local parks and feeding lettuce to any turtles he encounters, including Mitch McConnell.
