Forecast: 2012-13 East standings

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ESPN.com

Fresh off their championship run, the Heat look to have the inside track to the East's No. 1 seed again.

It's time to kick off our fifth-annual Summer Foecast series. (Last year, it was a Winter Forecast due to the lockout.)

Over the next two weeks, we'll roll out our predictions for how each team will do this season, as well as the 2012-13 Rookie of the Year, Best Newcomer, Worst Newcomer, MVP, conference champions and NBA champs. We'll also examine which teams will make the biggest turnarounds this season and which teams could be in for the most turmoil.

To do so, we surveyed 100 of ESPN's best basketball minds, including contributors from ESPN.com, the TrueHoop Network, TrueHoop TV, Daily Dime Live, ESPN TV, ESPN Radio, ESPN Deportes, espnW, ESPN The Magazine, ESPN Insider, ESPN Fantasy, ESPN Games, ESPN Dallas, ESPN Los Angeles, ESPN Boston, ESPN Chicago, ESPN New York, ESPN Stats & Information, ESPN Topics and ESPN Analytics.

We'll start with the conference that features the reigning NBA champs.

To participate in the discussion and perhaps get your opinion published on this page, #NBApicks is the Twitter hashtag to use. Or you can just follow along @NBAonESPN.

Let's begin ...

Forecast: 2012-13 Eastern Conference Standings

RANK TEAM W L PCT '12 W '12 L '12 PCT
1 Miami Heat 60 22 .732 46 20 .697

2 Boston Celtics 50 32 .610 39 27 .591

3 Indiana Pacers 50 32 .610 42 24 .636

4 Chicago Bulls 46 36 .561 50 16 .758

5 Brooklyn Nets 46 36 .561 22 44 .333

6 Philadelphia 76ers 46 36 .561 35 31 .530

7 New York Knicks 45 37 .549 36 30 .545

8 Atlanta Hawks 40 42 .488 40 26 .606

9 Milwaukee Bucks 37 45 .451 31 35 .470

10 Cleveland Cavaliers 33 49 .402 21 45 .318

11 Toronto Raptors 32 50 .390 23 43 .348

12 Washington Wizards 31 51 .378 20 46 .303

13 Detroit Pistons 30 52 .366 25 41 .379

14 Orlando Magic 21 61 .256 37 29 .561

15 Charlotte Bobcats 19 63 .232 7 59 .106

* -- Teams tied in win total ordered by decimal rankings from our experts' predictions.

ESPN took a poll of 100 to get this so its not just one man's "hate".

Hol, your right, I hate these things but they usually do turn out to be correct.

Could fans be over optomistic over our own progress while not paying attnetion to the other teams?

I get Philly moving ahead with Bynum (Potentially). I had them moving backwards prior but the trade moves them ahead?

Bulls with Rose hurt I don't get why they have them 3rd. He is not expected back for some time.

Boston I can't be objective because of Hate. The core is old. Jason Terry is old. The utes the have are nice but do they contribute right away? When does Rondo start to infect the restof the team?

Indy had a great season last year and I can understand the vibe they are getting.

Brooklyn's roster I can't get my head around quite yet. How good is Marshon Brooks and the new Bench Euro's? BroPez is a 20pt scorer but 7.5 rebounder won't cut it. If Amre can learn new post moves can Bropez grab some boards?

Knicks at 7 spot? We assume our Front line can get the space it needs? Amare at the 5 and Melo at teh 4 with Novak in the corner?
I think we see this more this year.

Maybe after Miami its all too close to tell this early!

GustavBahler wrote:Does this ranking factor Rose being out for a big part of next season? I know they played well without him but that still seems overly optimistic with the changes Philly and NY made. They would also have to transition back to Rose being a starter. I would put Philly and NY ahead of Brooklyn.

Knicks change? Camby, Kidd and Brewer?
I think our biggest impact will occur not with the roster but how well our players form chemestry.

Seems we been playing off of talent alone. We have lots of it but if woodson can blend it well we are much improved. If not, we'll struggle and the 7th spot might be more accurate.

No different than any other team mind you. On paper we are very good.

Plus the Nets who had the worse record in the East at 5.

Bull**** and they know it.

SupremeCommander wrote:according to that we're a game off of 4th place. One of these years age is going to catch up to Boston. Really not too far away from finishing second, according to this.

I think Washington is over looked a bit. They added Reezy, Nene and Okafor. Nene is a more natural 4. If Wall starts to play up to his potential thats a nice 4. Is it a 40 win team? That I can't say but they won't be a joke anymore especially at home.

The east is a big question mark outside of Miami, I hope we do better than people are expecting.