LeBron James is No Longer in the East

There are still some very good teams in the Eastern Conference like the Boston Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers, and Toronto Raptors.  There are even some up-and-comers like Indiana and Milwaukee.  But with LeBron out of the East, one of the playoff spots that you could basically pencil in for the teams that he played for is now up for grabs.

There are a few teams that were on the outside looking in at the end of the season last year when it came to the playoff picture like the Detroit Pistons and Charlotte Hornets.  Those two teams will now be battling it out for one of the final playoff spots and a team like the New York Knicks could even throw themselves into the picture.  Even the Cavs could maybe find themselves in the mix depending on how much Kevin Love steps up. There could be a drop off from a team like the Miami Heat, but the bottom line is that there are now opportunities for some new blood in the playoffs with the departure of LeBron James to the Lakers.

The narrative is that the East is terrible. Obviously, it lacks the talent that is in the Western Conference, but there is now more incentive to try and make it to the playoffs with LeBron gone.  There are a few teams mentioned above that are better than the rest of the pack, but the rest of the pack is pretty even.  That means that anything could happen once you make it into the playoffs and gives even more incentive to go for it.

Some of the teams in the East that were cupcake games in years past have started to improve, so the East isn’t going to be the cakewalk it once was.  However, at the end of the day, the Pistons have the subsequent talent and coaching to get over the top and claim one of the newly available playoff spots.

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