In this offseason, the arms race of the Eastern giants is obviously more intense than that of the West, and the main reason for their crazy reinforcements is that the Celtics won the championship, and the strong teams in the East want to fight out of the East, so they must form a better lineup to defeat the Celtics to kill the division, so this offseason the 76ers and the Knicks have made crazy reinforcements, and the current East is a three-legged situation at first glance.
The 76ers took Paul George to assist Embiid and Maxey, and the team also won the excellent pieces of the puzzle such as Zhuang Shen, Gordon and Caleb Martin, and the 76ers in the new season do have the strength to win the championship as long as they stay healthy. While the Knicks retained the core lineup, they also took Bridges, and their backcourt and forward line will be very extravagant in the new season, Hart + Brunson + Anunoby + Bridges + Randle, this lineup seems to be specially built for the Green Army.
The Celtics didn't make too many reinforcements in the offseason, they just took Lonnie Walker, and at the same time renewed a number of cores of the team, they retained the core lineup, as the defending champions, they have proven that they can succeed with the current lineup, so it is a wise choice to keep the core lineup, after the Lakers won the championship in 20 years, Pelinka did not retain the core lineup, and a series of strange operations are also speechless.
In addition to these three teams, is there any possibility that other teams will compete for the title? Let's talk about the Bucks first, I think it will be difficult for the Bucks to win the championship, first of all, the Bucks have no defensive system, and Lillard and Brother Alphabet have no chemistry. The Heat also do not have the strength to rush to the championship, although this team has reached the Finals twice, but they have too many injury problems, and the Heat's training is too hard, although they have worked hard to reach a certain height, but how can they impact the championship without top talent?
In addition to the Green Army, 76ers and Celtics, there is another team in the East that has a chance to win the championship, and they are the Pacers. Many fans here may have said that they don't have this strength! Is it true that the walkers don't? Let's take a look at their performance last season, with the Pacers finishing seventh in the East last season and Sika finishing in the top five in the division if he had followed the team early in the season.
In the regular season, they reached the midseason finals, eliminated the Bucks and Celtics, and although they lost to the Lakers, this team showed everyone what they are capable of. In the playoffs, they reached the division finals, although against the Bucks and Knicks had the advantage of the opponent's core injury, but against the Celtics, they did not have any advantage, and even said that the team's core Haliburton was injured and missed a few games.
As a result, in such a situation, the Pacers cornered the opponent, although it was the Green Army who swept the Pacers 4-0, but mainly because of the Pacers' lack of experience, many details were not handled well, otherwise the Green Army would not have won so easily, as Mazzulla said, he thinks that the game against the Pacers is their most difficult series, and he thinks it may be a tie-break. Although they were swept by the Green Army, the reality is that they only lost by 27 points in four games combined.
If you throw away the second game of the team's abnormal performance and lost by 16 points, the other three games only lost by 11 points combined, in the first game of the series, the Pacers could have won, but because some details were not handled well, they eventually lost, and the third game was also because of a mistake at a critical moment, which ultimately led to the loss, although it was 4-0, but the Green Army won not easy at all, and even said that they did not play the Finals as difficult as against the Pacers.
The Pacers team already has a very good system, they are the same as the Celtics are also a five-outside offensive system, Carlisle, the championship coach, is definitely a master of tactical research, and the Pacers still have two five-out systems, their starters and substitutes, so the team will not be unable to continue because of the absence of a player, even if Haliburton is absent, their system will still be very good.
It is precisely because of their excellent system that the Pacers' offense is simply unstoppable, and in the regular season last season, they ranked second in the league in offensive efficiency of 120.5 and first in the league in points per game of 123.3. In the playoffs, they averaged 113.9 points per game, first in the league in offensive efficiency, and first in the league in offensive efficiency. But it still can't guard against the Pacers, this team is too young and has no defensive system.
If they can improve their defense in the new season, they will definitely have a chance to challenge for the championship, they will have better experience in the new season, and the young core of the team will grow a year older, and their chemistry will be better, and they will be a headache for all the big teams. Speaking of which, what do you have to say about the current Pacers? Welcome to leave a message to discuss.