Take off your Celtics glasses for a change and look at it objectively.

KG, Ray, and Paul are a year older. The bench is much better, and our achillies heal last year (health, wear and tear) is still going to be a wild card throughout the season.

There are four, maybe five teams who are in line to have a shot at going for the title (Lakers/Spurs, Celtics/Cavaliers/Magic). To say the Celtics are the team to beat at this stage of the season is ridiculous. The best team in the NBA, on paper, is the Celtics. But a lot of things happen throughout the course of the season, and declaring "championship or bust" after one game is absurd.

It's not really fair to make judgments on Orlando and Cleveland based off of what you feel they'll do on paper, and one game (respectively). The Celtics are going to be a great team this year, but lets not overreact to one game and see how things work out to start the season between the contenders.

I have no problem saying the Celtics are the best team in the East. All I'm trying to say here is you can't really declare it based off of raw talent and how they look on paper. Before declaring this season anything you need to figure out what the Celtics identity will be, along with the Cavs and Magic. Are the Celtics one of the frontrunners for the NBA title? You bet your ass they are one of four or five teams with legitimate aspirations. But can you really get a reading of who the best team is going to be based off of one game? It's easy to sit there and say "Vince Carter is a cancer and makes the Magic worse", but do you really know that? On paper, sure, but how do you know the guy hasn't changed for the better? Do you even realize that the Magic bolstered their bench too? In getting Brandon Bass and Ryan Anderson it lets Lewis move to his more natural '3' position and he won't be having to guard bigger guys on a night in night out basis.

The fact is, is that the Magic are the deepest team of all of the contenders. They can play 1-11, whereas the Celtics and Cavs will usually end up playing their 1-9.

As for the issue of the Cavs needing a playmaking PG, I agree, they still kind of do, but LeBron pretty much gives them that service, especially at the end of games when he's having guys double and triple off him when he drives to the basket.

Again, I have no problem with saying the Celtics are the best team in the league. None at all. But you can't sit there and say it like it is such a foregone conclusion, because (1) its day 2 of the entire season, and (2) the Magic haven't even played a game yet (not minding their meaningless 8-0 preseason with a 17.8 average margin).

Which was why I called the preseason games "meaningless". I just thought it was interesting food for thought.

Edit: Also I feel that you usually don't see a teams 9-11 guys contributing because in most cases they just aren't that good. But this year the Magic have legitimate players 1-11 that will contribute not only scoring and defense, but keeping the starters well rested.

Another Edit: The Magic just put up 70 in the first half, for what it's worth.

WillyCoPapi3 wrote:

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So is it still too early to say that the Celtics are the best team in the NBA?

If you read what I wrote in the past, I never said they weren't. As of right now, they most certainly do look like the best team in the NBA. I just wanted to wait and see how other teams looked before declaring how great the Celtics would be just based off of how they look on paper. They're something else defensively, and it's awfully fun to watch. I'm still really intrigued though to see how the Magic integrate Lewis when he gets back from his suspension.