2012-2013 preview: Toronto Raptors

Eastern Conference #10: Toronto Raptors (36-46)

Point Guard: Kyle Lowry, Jose Calderon, John Lucas.
Shooting Guard: Landry Fields, Terrence Ross, Alan Anderson.
Small Forward: DeMar DeRozan, Linas Kleiza.
Power Forward: Andrea Bargnani, Amir Johnson, Quincy Acy
Center: Jonas Valanciunas, Ed Davis.

Playing together... but fighting for minutes

          What do you do when you have two point guards like Lowry and Calderon? Lowry developed into a solid point guard a couple seasons ago, and averaged 14.3 points, 6.6 assists, 4.5 rebounds, 1.6 steals, and 41% shooting in 32 minutes and moved from Houston to Toronto this offseason. However, Calderon has established himself as a top-5 passing point guard and an efficient shooter, averaging 10.5 points, 8.9 assists, 3.1 rebounds, and 46% shooting in 33.9 minutes. He finished third last season in assists per 48 minutes behind Steve Nash and Rajon Rondo. Calderon doesn't have the mentality to play shooting guard, and Lowry's only 6 feet tall and isn't the next Allen Iverson. That means they'll have to share the minutes. So... how do you split them?

2012-2013 preview: Detroit Pistons

Eastern Conference #11: Detroit Pistons (34-48)

Point Guard: Brandon Knight, Will Bynum.
Shooting Guard: Rodney Stuckey, Kim English.
Small Forward: Tayshaun Prince, Corey Maggette, Austin Daye, Kyle Singler.
Power Forward: Jonas Jerebko, Charlie Villanueva, Jason Maxiell, Khris Middleton.
Center: Greg Monroe, Andre Drummond, Slava Kravtsov.

Help us Greg Monroe. You are our only hope.

It feels like this Pistons team should get better, but I can't see it happening. Their top three players are Greg Monroe, Tayshaun Prince, and Rodney Stuckey. Monroe is a budding star, and is the shining star on this Pistons team. He averaged 15.4 points, 9.7 rebounds, and 52% shooting in 31.5 minutes in his sophomore season, and there's no reason to think he won't get better and average a double double this season. Other than him, the Pistons are stuck with a bunch of starters who should really be bench players. Tayshuan Prince, Rodney Stuckey, and Brandon Knight aren't necessarily bad players, but they're not guys who you want to depend on for a good portion of your points every night. Detroit finished 27th last season in points scored, averaging 90.7 points per game and allowed 95.7 points per game.

2012-2013 preview: Orlando Magic.

Eastern Conference #12: Orlando Magic (29-53).


Point Guard: Jameer Nelson, Ishmael Smith.
Shooting Guard: Arron Afflalo, JJ Redick, Christian Eyenga, E'Twaun Moore.
Small Forward: Hedo Turkoglu, Quentin Richardson, Moe Harkless.
Power Forward: Al Harrington, Josh McRoberts, Justin Harper.
Center: Glen Davis, Gustavo Ayon, Nikola Vucevic, Kyle O'Quinn.

The Orlando self-combusted from a team that made the Finals only a few seasons ago, to a team that will achieve success by not finishing at the bottom of their conference. They got rid of their superstar, Dwight Howard, and also parted ways with Ryan Anderson, who led the league in 3s made and was also 2012's Most Improved Player averaging 16.1 points and 7.7 rebounds in 32.2 minutes as Orlando's Power Forward. They leave the starting Center position to a guy who's nickname is "Big Baby" and will rely on Al Harrington, Arron Afflalo, Jameer Nelson, and Turkoglu to score the majority of their points.

2012-2013 preview: Washington Wizards

Eastern Conference #13: Washington Wizards (28-54)

Point Guard: John Wall, AJ Price, Shelvin Mack
Shooting Guard: Bradley Beal, Jordan Crawford, Martell Webster.
Small Forward: Trevor Ariza, Jan Vesely, Chris Singleton.
Power Forward: Emeka Okafor, Trevor Booker
Center: Nene, Kevin Seraphin.

The guy who could change it all

I'm not really sure what to think about this Wizards team. They started off last season just as bad as the Bobcats, winning just one of their first 13 games. After winning consecutive games just once during the season, they traded away Nick Young and JaVale McGee and got Nene from the Nuggets. They won eight of their last 12 games, including finishing the season with six straight wins, including two against the Heat. I'm not sure if this is because teams were slacking off at the end of the regular season to either rest player for the playoffs or tank for better draft seeds, or whether this trade genuinely signaled a turnaround for the Wizards.

2012-2013 preview: Charlotte Bobcats

Eastern Conference #14: Charlotte Bobcats (26-56)

Point Guard: Kemba Walker, Ramon Sessions.
Shooting Guard: Gerald Henderson, Ben Gordon, Reggie Williams.
Small Forward: Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Jeffery Taylor.
Power Forward: Bismack Biyombo, Tyrus Thomas.
Center: Byron Mullens, Brenden Haywood, DeSagana Diop.

          At the moment, the Bobcats don't have much. We all know that they finished last season with the worst record in NBA history. While 25-57 is still a bad record, that's a jump from .106 to .305, and I don't see them improving any more than that in a single season. There's several signs that they could potentially do better than that, but I'm going with the safe bet here. They've actually changed up their roster quite a bit and seemingly for the better. They got rid of DJ Augustin, Corey Maggette, and Boris Diaw who all didn't play well for the Bobcats. Augustin averaged 11 points and 6 assists in 29 minutes,  but shot a horrible 37% from the field. Maggette averaged 15 points and 3 rebounds in 27 minutes while also shooting 37%. Kemba Walker was also somewhat of a disappointment, averaging 12.1 points, 4.4 assists, 3.5 rebounds, and shooting 36% in 27 minutes.