Chicago is the third best team in the East.

Chicago is totally irrelevant with zero upside. And you know this.

Upside is immaterial. Chicago is still the 3rd best team in the East.

Speaking of Harden, the Thunder are better than ever without him. They turned Harden into Adams, Lamb, and a #1 to come. They also got a young guy Abrines they stashed in Europe, where they already have another very good player in Tibor Pleiss.

Add in that ditching Harden will allow them to keep Reggie Jackson, and this team is so deep going forward it is scary. I don't think most fans realize just how scary good Reggie is.

Perry Jones is the 11th guy right now and he'd get real minutes for a lot of teams. He's been great when he plays this year, and I don't mean in garbage time. Andre Roberson is 12th man and will replace Thabo. Dead weight Perkins being gone will open up some space too.

Presti is a genius, he really is.

Miami, maybe, but they are getting older. Indiana, please. Thunder are their worst nightmare match up wise.

Westbrook would have to go off, and maybe he would? George and Durant, pretty comparable....
I think whoever wins the East is the favorite over anyone out of the West.
So the NBA finals will be either Indiana or Miamia vs OKC or Houston or Golden St or San Antonio or the CLippers. See a problem here also? Much harder to come out of the West. Indiana and Miami will steamroll everyone until playing each other.

Ok then. And what does 3rd best team in the East mean? Very evenly matched series in round 1 and they get blasted away in round 2.... Thats best case.

George and Durant are comparable? Come on...George is really good, but there is a pretty big gap between the two of them. I can tell you this much, no way will Indiana be favored over the Thunder. Like I said before, it is a terrible match up for them, a nightmare.

Obviously the West is much tougher. It doesn't exactly take Nostradamus to figure that out. But if you get through it will all be pretty irrelevant. Further about the West, I see no way in hell GS or LAC makes it out, and Hou is only slightly more likely. Portland is better than all of them.

The Rockets are a bad matchup for Portland. They've split so far this year and Sampson made a big mistake having Terrence Jones continue to guard Aldridge last Thursday when they played in Portland. He was significantly less effective with Howard guarding him.

I don't think Portland has a great deal of long-term viability. I've also been very surprised at home poorly the Warriors are playing so far.

Yeah, I just think the Rockets need something else. If they can find someone dumb enough to take Asik and get something worthwhile in return, that could move them up.

I think Portland will continue to surprise. The coach is very good, and they are much deeper than last year. But yeah, it can be about match ups. Portland pretty much let Howard have whatever he could get and shut down the 3 point guys. This is where Howard is lacking. If a guy like Shaq was guarded like Howard was, he would have scored 50.

...my only point about the Thunder, and obviously I'm a homer, is a lot of people seem to think this is the same team as the one from the finals, or one that took a step back without Harden. That is simply not the case. They are clearly better this year. Westbrook, Durant, and Ibaka are all better players than they were, and the bench is very deep, much better than when Harden was here.

Jackson alone isn't that far off of Harden's numbers. He is a magician in the paint. If Westbrook could finish like Jackson does he'd be hands down the top PG in the NBA.

I prefer GS, Portland and Houston over LAC. Im not sold on LAC at all. I think Houston will be fine. And when the playoffs come around Im not sold on Portland being a real contender. GS has been a huge disapointment in my eyes. I had them as a top 2-3 team. Hopefully the get it going, they sure are fun to watch.
I dont think George is that far behind Durant and he is 2yrs younger. He took a huge step forward this year.
Durant is the better scorer right now, but if George is hungry and keeps getting better he will be as good by the time he is 25. George would be a rebounding machine if not for Hibbert and West. Durant is the 2nd best rebounder on his team, so the rebounding difference means nothing to me..... George plays better D.

I have read Varejo from Clevland is likely.

Durant is a good defender, very underrated. Ask any GM who they want for the next 7 or 8 years if they can have either, and every one will pick Durant.

I'm not knocking George, he is a great player. Durant is on another level, just like Lebron is on another level from everyone else.

Why is that?

Ok. I just dont see it. Durants your boy, hes your guy. I get the love. I guess Ill even give you that he is better, but its not that wide a gap. Thats how I feel. It was a huge gap last year, its not nearly as big now. And it 2yrs the gap might be totally gone. I think George is that kind of player.

Wow Joe Johnson was unconscious tonight in the 3rd quarter... eight 3-pointers and 29 points. Finished with 10 3's and 37 points on the night.

The Association may may need to start looking into some sort of mercy rule for the Sixers after the last few games.

3rd best team in East doesnt mean that much

The Warriors have a lot of issues that people chose to ignore for whatever reason.
Portland is a good team that's playing well but has no real depth. They are a jump shooting team and later in the season when teams are tired they are more apt to struggle at times.
The Rockets have defensive issues.

Asik could be a great pickup for the right team like Dallas or Golden State. Problem is NBA trades are hard to make and Houston supposedly wants a lot and his contract has a balloon payment of $15 million next year. There was a rumor that the Sixers were interested in trading Thaddeus Young for Asik and the money works but who knows?