| RANK | TEAM | THE RUNDOWN | LAST |
| 1 | HEAT (66-16) |
Dear LeBron: Did Savannah sign a pre-nup? Dear D-Wade: How can you make the same mistake twice? On a less snarky note, here is our Five Things to Watch For preview. | – |
| 2 | PACERS (49-32) |
Dear Luis Scola: How could you let Gustavo Ayon beat you? Mexico es numero uno? Si. ¡qué vergüenza. Pacers preview here. | – |
| 3 | SPURS (58-24) |
Pop’s assistants have scattered like the wind. Sean Marks is now the right-hand man. Can Pero Cameron be far behind? (Sean said his weight is still a bit of an issue.) Preview here. | – |
| 4 | NETS (49-33) |
Who will be taking the final shot in close games? Joe Johnson, that’s who. Kidd said so at The Swamp. Nets preview. | – |
| 5 | THUNDER (60-22) |
Clay Bennett is a cheapskate. And he is worth only a fraction of what minority owner Aubrey McClendon is worth. Five Things to Watch For. | – |
| 6 | GRIZZLIES (56-26) |
Hollinger went to Slovenia to watch his man Marc lose to the French. Shame on Spain. If Hollinger skipped a stopover in Belgrade on the trip home, he cheated himself. Preview. | – |
| 7 | CLIPPERS (57-25) |
Dear Doc Rivers. Do yourself a favor and spend the first five days of camp teaching Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan how to shoot FTs. Preview. | – |
| 8 | KNICKS (54-28) |
Is Woody on the hot seat? Well, some say so. But Beck of BR points out that Worldwide Wes (who reps Woody) is the real power broker post-Grunwald. Preview | – |
| 9 | WARRIORS (47-35) |
Over/under on number of days Andrew Bogut is described (as he is now) as 100 percent: 26. Biggest question: Will Harrison Barnes embrace Sixth Man role? Preview. | – |
| 10 | BULLS (45-37) |
Seems like just yesterday Nate Robinson was leading them into the second round and expecting a big payday. Then NaterTot flamed out, and the money never came. Preview. | – |
| 11 | ROCKETS (45-37) |
Attention Dwight Howard: You thought the traffic was bad in LA? Don’t say you weren’t warned. Preview. | – |
| 12 | WOLVES (31-51) |
Haven’t we heard this before? Key player injured. This time it is C.Budinger. And we would be remiss not to rib Ricky Rubio for allowing Tony Parker to drop 32 on Espana in Eurobasket semis. Preview. | – |
| 13 | CAVALIERS (24-58) |
They will be must-see TV. Take my word for it. We will all be saying “Get that weak stuff outta here.” Preview. | – |
| 14 | PELICANS (27-55) |
Holiday, Davis and Anderson make them West’s sleeper team. Dullest unis in NBA, which is a change, too. Preview. | – |
| 15 | PISTONS (29-53) |
Best front line in NBA with Drummond, Monroe and Smoove? An argument can be made. Preview. | – |
| 16 | HAWKS (44-38) |
The names have changed, the status has not: First-round playoff exit awaits. Preview. | – |
| 17 | KINGS (28-54) |
One of our newbies described Boogie Cousins as a superstar in the blog the other day. Maybe someday, but not yet. Preview. | – |
| 18 | NUGGETS (57-25) |
The Coach of the Year curse lives on. No team lost more in the offseason – not even the Lakers. Preview. | – |
| 19 | MAGIC (20-62) |
Will anyone sign Hedo Turkoglu after he is bought out? Preview. | – |
| 20 | CELTICS (41-40) |
Brad Stevens has the longest coaching contract in the NBA – six years. That’s enough time for The Decision II and The Decision III. Preview. | – |
| 21 | LAKERS (45-37) |
Two words: Dan Gadzuric. This may be the highest they will be ranked all season. Preview. | – |
| 22 | BLAZERS (33-49) |
When all is said and done, I’m guessing J.J. Hickson will have been more productive that Robin Lopez will be this season. Preview. | – |
| 23 | JAZZ (43-39) |
Trey Burke is this season’s Damian Lillard. Will run away with ROY award. Preview. | – |
| 24 | BUCKS (38-44) |
Plenty of seats available, as they say. Over/under on Mayo’s FG pct. is .420. Preview. | – |
| 25 | MAVERICKS (41-41) |
A lot of otherwise reasonable people think they’re going to be good. I don’t. Preview. | – |
| 26 | WIZARDS (29-53) |
Memo to Al Harrington: I will need to borrow your car in November when I relocate the site to Las Vegas. And you owe me a ride in that Rolls. Preview. | – |
| 27 | RAPTORS (34-48) |
I said this before and I’ll say it again. Steve Novak will finish the season with more made 3s than Andrea Bargnani. Preview. | – |
| 28 | BOBCATS (21-61) |
Will be paying Ben Gordon $13.2 million this season. More on that in our upcoming dead money column (starring Richard Jefferson, et al). Preview. | – |
| 29 | SUNS (25-57) |
They are owed three first-round picks (Pacers, Lakers, Timberwolves), and they don’t have any dead money on their cap after next season. The good news ends there. Preview. | – |
| 30 | SIXERS (34-48) |
I am going to make a lot of money betting against these guys this season. They will made gambling easy. Preview. | – |
Chris Sheridan is publisher and editor-in-chief of SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter.
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Nets were 49-23 (not 48). They were 3-0 vs. Pacers and finished season with the same number of wins.
I pick the Bulls, Rockets, Mavs and Pistons higher than you do, and the Knicks and Magic lower.
I haven’t seen a writer yet with the courage to say that Heat won’t have best record in East, because they don’t have the pressure/fire in belly this season. Still they will be formidable in post-season, but it should be anyone’s guess between Heat, Nets and Pacers, depending on injuries.
Key part of your first paragraph…3-0 LAST YEAR….This is this year, and the Pacers will have a healhy Granger back plus the edition on Sciola. They are basically the same young team that took the Heat to 7 games in the ECF. The Nets on paper should be good, but they are older and have the possibility of injuries all over the place( Not to mention a coach killer at point guard). I’m just glad theres teams emerging that’ll challenge the Heat more and more.
Thanks for correcting Nets wins to 49.
I agree that Pacers aren’t given enough respect, especially by the small number of Natl. TV games, whereas Knicks and Lakers are maxed out at 25 games (NBATV not included) and would be higher if allowed. Real basketball fans would rather watch the Pacers over Lakers/Knicks any day. The main reason Nix/LAL have so many TV spectators, is because people like me want to see them lose, so that in the future they will be irrelevant.
Once the Lakers are out of the playoff picture, interest will drop dramatically.
Soft Laker and Knick fans will start following Clippers and Nets.