Chase's Notorious NBA Blog Vol 5.5 East 2nd Half Preview | the guru's scrolls

Hello Basketball junkies, I am the basketball guru, Chase Ruttig giving you my dose of NBA wisdom. I waited until after the deadline to give you all my second half preview, Yesterday in Vol 5 i gave you my West Preview along with my predictions for the whole second half check that out if you haven't seen it. So i am going to get started.

I am going to start out with the supposedly improved Cavs, who added Big Ben and Wally S, Delonte West, and Joe Smith to their team in exchange for dropping Larry Hughes and my personal favorite Drew Gooden to the Bulls. People thinks this makes the Cavs better, but I think this made them worse. Wally S can't play D, they already had Daniel Gibson for 3's, they had 3 good post players who could rebound and score decently, so they traded one for a diminished former NBA Defender of the Year with a bad attitude and an even worse field goal percentage. The Cavs were in the mix before the trade and they are in the mix now, but in the future they will regret this trade.

Now onto the Atlanta Hawks a likely bottom seed who are now a dark horse with the addition of Mike Bibby to their team. They needed a PG and they got one without trading away any draft picks. I question Sacremento's front office on this one, but that isn't the point. Kudos to the Hawks who passed on so many good PG's in the draft for finally solving their point guard problems. They will move up in the standings and push their first round team to the limit and have a chance for the upset.

Now I have to talk about my Raptors. They don't get enough ink in the media or the fannation community and i think if they were in an average US market they would get more ink than a photocopier. They have one of the best down low players in the game, Chris Bosh, who can shoot, play D, grab boards, and has one of the brightest futures in the NBA. The best one-two pair of point guards in the NBA, TJ Ford and Jose Calderon, who should have been in the all star game, and is the East's best point guard this year. The Raptors will go far in the post season and I think have a shot to make the East finals but will fall to the Celtics.

We all know about the Celts and Pistons, but the Magic intrigue me. They have a Raptors like formula a big American power forward and a lot of foreign shooters, but they aren't strong enough at point guard to go deep this year.

Those are my thoughts, If you don't like them post a comment or challenge me to a throwdown. Have a good work week.

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February 26, 2008 02:05 PM ET

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Couldn't agree more about Cleveland.

Pimpston23

Grove City, OH

Total Comments (107)

February 26, 2008 05:03 PM ET

Did you say "in exchange for dropping Larry Hughes and my personal favorite Drew Gooden to the Sonics." They went to Da Bullz not the Sonics. It shows even Basketball Gurus make mistake in their specialties. Great Blog!!! very interesting just have to see how the trades really turn out a the end of the season.