Planting Playoffs Seeds

Number of games in the teens and time to make seeding predictions. Actual playoffs outcome predictions will be another entry.

Hawks

Calling all anti-jinxing spells and mantras: The Hawks will play out the rest of the regular season as the 8th seed and reach the playoffs for the first time this millennium!

-I was wrong about the Bulls, they've got nothin' and no one on the team seems to give a damn except Joakim Noah. Even the East 8th seed needs a little more than insert-Noah-ugly-joke-here and Deng and Gordon cruising for the rest of the season and Kirk Hinrich still asleep at PG.

-Indiana better take one or both of their week doubleheader (Wed., Fri.) with Jersey/Brooklyn. The Nets still seem alive and hungry and Devin Harris seems to have finally given this team (or Vince Carter) the boost it needed to compete. They are definitely still our biggest threat and my prediction of them entering tanking mode isn't likely to happen anytime soon. Thus, even though I just picked him up for my fantasy playoffs push, I really do not want Jermaine O'Neal to come back. The Pacers are doing fine without him and he'd just slow them down and ruin them with his inadequate inside game. The Pacers need to be O'Neal-less and beat the Nets with their white starters, who have not disappointed after receiving e-props from this blogger. Mike Dunleavy vs. Vince Carter? What a matchup. You may wonder, "Wouldn't Indiana be posing more of a threat to the Hawks if they beat the Nets twice and keep winning?" The answer is no way! Did you already forget they have four white starters?

-Did Kirk Hinrich and Travis Diener switch bodies for most of this season?


East

Predicted seeding (Current seeding)
1(1). Boston - No way KG is letting them lose home-field advantage.
2(2). Detroit - No way they're losing enough games to drop below Orlando.
3(3). Orlando - Superman!! Heeeedooooooo! Rashaaaaad. (I had nothing to say here)
4(4). Cleveland - Is Bron-Bron just coasting (by coasting I mean average like a 27-8-6) because he realizes they're stuck at 4th seed?
5(5). Washington - They got Caron Butler back and healthy. Enough said.
6(7). Toronto - They got Chris Bosh back. If the team can go back to pre-Bosh-injury form, which I think they'll do so quickly with Calderon running the show (even though his numbers severely dropped with Bosh out), they'll win enough games to overtake Philly.
7(6). Philly - Still love how this team is winning, and with just pure athleticism and no outside shooting whatsoever. However, I see the team coming down to earth a little bit nearing the end, and how about a two-day doubleheader in early April against the Hawks? The Hawks are athletic enough themselves that I'm seein' 2 L's for Philly!
8(8). Atlanta - Sliding in smooth and unnoticed. Larry Legend beware.

-The top 5 seeds are set. Not much movement going on there.

-The only fight I see is between Toronto and Philly, which will be interesting because the teams are polar opposites: Toronto has a bunch of sharpshooting Europeans taking 3's and Philly has a bunch of muscular and powerful black guys taking it strong to the hoop. I see both teams winning a lot until the playoffs start with their contrasting styles, but it was hard to pick against Chris Bosh-Jose Calderon which was so effective before Bosh got hurt. But since Philly plays such a strong inside game, that tends to be more consistent than perimeter-oriented teams like Toronto and that consistently could factor into close games when the two teams are a half game apart. Not that Toronto is completely perimeter-oriented when they have a freakin' beast inside in Bosh.


West

First, I'd like to state the obvious and say how absolutely insanely close the Western race is. It's absolutely ridiculous. And now with Golden State only a half-game above 9th seed Denver, this is absolutely insane. Oh, I already used that phrase. I'll let my seedings do the talking:

1(?). ???
2(?). ???
3(?). ???
4(?). ???
5(?). ???
6(?). ???
7(?). ???
8(?). ???

9(?). ???

Within two days the entire lineup could look completely different than it is currently. I have absolutely no idea which team is going to get hot and which team is going to have a Dirk-esque injury and which team will finally play to their potential. All nine teams are really really good, even Denver. I just don't know. Thinking about it makes my head hurt. And makes me giddy thinking about how awesome NBA games and highlights will be until the end of the season. And then the playoffs will somehow be even more amazing. Basically, no matter how shitty my real life is right now, the Western Conference playoffs race will make it just that much better.

Ok, that was a lame way to predict the West. It's too late (early?) and I'm tired. I'll make sure to engage in long, intense discussions with my colleagues and come back with a real prediction. Stay tuned.