With the Canadian dollar now worth more than the US dollar I could see Toronto becoming a big time franchise in the East. Their gate receipts are now worth 10% more than a US team so if the Raptors wanted to invest that money in going over the cap they could do it and not effect their bottom line at all.

Every team in the Atlantic looks better to me except the Celtics. The Heat are better. The Cavs are better. Who got worse in the Eastern Conference? The Hawks and Bucks? The East will be tough this year.

I really think the Knicks might make a run at the playoffs. The change of pace between Nate and Chris will be interesting, but starbury could potentially screw this team up, again.

But does it get any worse than having two overweight duds like Curry and Jerome James on your roster?

Don’t sleep on those Bucks. I don’t want to be a broken record about them, but they have a MUCH better coach (who is good until his third year of coaching, when his players want to kill him), they dumped Jianlian, picked up Jefferson— and have one of the best passers in the game in their unknown Ramon Sessions.

Expect Ramon Sessions to get a double-double tonight in their preseason opener against Minnesota. I’ve mentioned it on here before, but do you know who a) held the league record in assists in a single game last year? Who b) was one assist shy of matching the all-time record for assists in a game in their rookie year? Milwaukee Bucks’ Ramon Sessions. 24 in a single game.

The addition of Ridnour is for show, for insurance. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Sessions start by the season’s end.

The main question for the Buck’s playoff hopes— can Villanueva stay healthy, and if so— can he be relatively consistent.

Sure, they’ll fizzle out in the first round if they make the playoffs, but I wouldn’t suggest anyone write them off.

Mike Payne – I’ve always been way down on Richard Jefferson. I think his best ball was a product of playing next to Jason Kidd in his prime. He always has good stats but to my eye something doesn’t look quite right in his game. It’s like the game skips a beat when the ball is in his hands. He’s a lot better than Yi or Bobby Simmons but I don’t think he’s the kind of player that is leading you anywhere but mediocre. If Scott Skiles can get teach good shot selection and solid defense then the Bucks will be alright but if he can’t then the team is going to get absolutely rolled on bad shooting nights.

joejoejoe, the entire global economy is connected to the US dollar, and when the dollar goes down, everyone will go down. The dollar is the reserve currency of the world, and it’s not a question if it fails, but when and how hard will hit.

Anyways, I bought 6 tickets to go see the Pistons-Celtics game on November 9. If I’m going to spend $200 bucks on something while the dollar has purchasing power, I might as well go see the Pistons.

Fadel – I’m not bad mouthing the US or the US dollar. It’s just reality that the Canadian dollar has been valued less than the US dollar for as long as I can remember and now the reverse is true. That’s a relative advantage to Toronto, no matter the state of the global economy.

J3… The thing about Richard Jefferson is that he has one of the best basketball BODIES ever… like, I mean that, ever. It’s pretty much common knowledge around the NBA that the guy is a top 20 talent (as in top 20 players in the league)… the problem is A) he doesn’t have a killer instinct and relies too heavily on his jumper even though he has an absolutely GIFTED first step towards the basket… and B) he is NEVER healthy…

I agree with you that Richard Jefferson won’t be the answer in Bucksland… but it’s because he’ll be AWESOME for a month and then leave the team with a gaping void as he goes in and out of the lineup and is never at full strength until the end of the season…

Seriously though, it’s not for a lack of jaw dropping talent..

The weaker teams in the East got better, but there probably won’t be much turnover in terms of the actual playoff teams other than Atlanta.

Not buying Milwaukee as a real contender for the playoffs. Skiles is a great defensive coach, but he’s always had strong defensive players. With the Suns, he had Kidd, Marion, and Cliff. With the Bulls, he’s had Deng, Hinrich, and Chandler/Big Ben. He can make good defensive players shine, but he hasn’t been able to make fundamentally bad defensive players good (Ben Gordon and Marbury in his stint there). The only player on the Bucks who approaches respectability defensively is Bogut. RJ hasn’t been the same since his operation, losing lateral quickness and rebounding like a point guard.

Skiles also isn’t a very good offensive coach, so I don’t see the team meeting its offensive potential even if Sessions plays the majority of the season. Charlie V is an X-factor here, but he’s as bad on defense as everyone else.

Lots of teams always look like they’ve gotten better. Sometimes it just doesn’t work that way in the real season. Detroit and SA are the league’s only real constants. Kinda nice in a way, I suppose.

I should precede this with the fact that I’ve always loathed Jefferson. To me, he’s a whiny bitch of a player whom I’ve hated since 2002. Seriously, who has their own initials tattoo’d on their shoulder?

However, that whiny bitch of a player was 8th in the league in scoring last season, played all 82 games and put up career-high numbers. I understand all the knocks on the guy, but he’s making any argument against him pretty tough with his recent performance…

There’s nothing wrong with him offensively, and the fact that he can play so many minutes is good for a team without much depth. He’s just slipped badly on defense and rebounding.