Post by New York on Nov 2, 2015 4:50:52 GMT
So here we have a really interesting division and one that some would say was the top division in the league last season. They were the only division in the league to send more than half of its members to the post season. While it appears that there is one team ahead of the pack this division was closely contested for most of the season and even saw 3 of the teams make it to the second round. Even the two teams that didn't make it won 42 and 35 games last year which would've been good enough to be anywhere from 2nd to 4th best in some divisions. But let me throw something out there about this group, we have in this division: Jack Coleman (31), Harry Gallatin (32), Paul Hoffman (32), Leroy Edwards (31), Dolph Schayes (31), Dick McGuire (31), Chuck Taylor (30), and Bobby Wanzer (31) who are all either current starters or starters from last year. Is it possible with the age of this division we could see a bit of a drop off?
Eurasia Pacific Division
Aisin Seahorses Mikawa
Eurasia Pacific Division
Aisin Seahorses Mikawa
Last Season’s Record: 49-33
Last Season's Result: Eurasian Conference Finals
Key Off-Season Additions: Si Green
Key Off-Season Losses: None
Did they improve this off-season? No
Biggest Need: Guards
Best Case Scenario: Championship Run
Worst Case Scenario: 9th-10th Seed
Potential Breakout Player: Xavier McDaniel
Overall Record Range: 45-55
Division Position: 3rd
Final Thoughts: So I know looking at the predictions and comments I made above, things look a bit confusing. I have a team listed as having the possibility of winning a title while also having the potential to miss the playoffs, that doesn't make much sense. I have them as a relatively average regular season team while making that prediction as well. I have Xavier McDaniel who nearly scored 20 PPG as their breakout player. So let me make some sense of all of this. We saw last season that this team floated slightly above .500 for large portions of the season and at times were only about 5 games above .500 before going on a winning streaks to nearly hit 50 wins last season. We also saw this team sit in the 9th or 10th spot of the conference at times during the season. So with that in mind I feel that they can and likely will be a 50+ win team and make the playoffs but I also thought they same thing last season and as I said they struggled to gain momentum either because of injury or just losing close games so I have to factor that into things when making predictions. Now at the same time I don't think the regular season matters a whole lot for this team if i'm being honest. They are built for the playoffs as we saw last season as they went on a tear and were two games away from the ABCA Finals. I think if this team gets into the post season you have to consider them a legit threat to the title. Especially when you consider my last point, X-Man being their breakout star. Xavier McDaniel averaged 19.6 PPG | 7.3 RPG | 3.1 APG last season but was overshadowed by Coleman, Pereira, and White. I think this year he can surpass a few of them and become a consistent 20+ PPG guy. So an interesting season ahead for Mikawa for sure.
Auckland Breakers
Last Season’s Record: 62-20
Last Season's Result: League Finals
Key Off-Season Additions: None
Key Off-Season Losses: None
Did they improve this off-season? No
Biggest Need: Shooting Guard & Depth
Best Case Scenario: Champions
Worst Case Scenario: 50+ Wins & 2nd Round Exit
Potential Breakout Player: None (or Radivoj Korac as a cop out answer)
Overall Record Range: 55-65
Division Position: 2
Final Thoughts: So his is my first real shakeup through two articles because i'm predicting the Eurasian Conference champions drop down from their #1 seed in not only the conference but their division. Auckland was the head of probably the best division in the league last season and put together a post season that had most rooting for them only to fall one quarter short of an ABCA title despite being down a man in their starting lineup. A scary good defensive team that I think got a bit underrated because the GM didn't really put much hype behind the team and instead let the results do the talking. So why am I ranking them 2nd in their division? Well for one I really like what Beijing did to improve their team who were neck and neck with Auckland before a mid season funk (they were 30-11 & 30-10 at one point). I think when comparing the teams it could go either way. Both have really strong defensive starting lineups and solid at best benches. I could be completely off base here but I think this will be a division race that comes down to the end barring injury. Either way though I think this team is still very much a title contender and if their vets hold up better than the other top Eurasian team's vets, they still have to be talked about as one of the teams to beat.
Beijing Aoshen
*Terence Stansbury had his name screwed up while making this.
Last Season’s Record: 52-30
Last Season's Result: Post Season Round 2
Key Off-Season Additions: Dolph Schayes, Leroy Edwards
Key Off-Season Losses: Sam Perkins, Jerry Stackhouse, Nikola Jokic
Did they improve this off-season? 1
Biggest Need: DEPTH
Best Case Scenario: Championship Run
Worst Case Scenario: All of their starters die (Schayes, Edwards, Mikan, and Dick from old age) and (Mikan the good old fashion way) and they miss the playoffs.
Potential Breakout Player: Much like the two teams above most of their players are already established so no clear breakout player
Overall Record Range: 55-65
Division Position: 1
Final Thoughts: So i'm predicting Beijing Aoshen moves up to the #1 spot in their division for the first time in eight seasons if you count ABCA Legends. That is a bold prediction when you consider some of the teams in this division but this team is really good in my eyes as long as they don't have a disastrous Training Camp. Mikan is probably the best big man defender in the league right now and would have got a bit more attention in the end of the season awards had he not missed 13 games. By the way, they went 4-9 over that stretch by the way after starting off 30-12 which had them only a half game back from the Breakers at that point. Now coming out of this off-season this team did get rid of a player I was a big fan of in Sam Perkins but in reality he was their 5th starter last year. They also got rid of their 6th and 7th men in Jerry Stackhouse and Nikola Jokic so things could get tricky for them on the bench. But in the starting lineup they added two forwards that played a big part in strong teams last season with Leroy Edwards from the Grizzlies who you can argue will be as important as Jokic and Stackhouse were and Dolph Schayes who immediately comes in and becomes the second best player on this team behind Mikan. The moves also move the man who was their 2nd best player, Arnie Ferrin to the bench as he gets up there in age so I wouldn't be shocked to see him in the 6th man conversation unless he completely falls off. This is going to be a big team this season and if Mikan can be healthier than he was last season I don't see how this team doesn't have at least some type of improvement overall.
Guangdong Southern Tigers
Last Season’s Record: 42-40
Last Season's Result: Lottery
Key Off-Season Additions: Rashad McCants, Charlie Vilanueva
Key Off-Season Losses: Aaron Brooks
Did they improve this off-season? I'll say yes
Biggest Need: Development of their youth
Best Case Scenario: Lower Playoff Seed that can push one of the top teams
Worst Case Scenario: Back end of the lotto
Potential Breakout Player: There are a bunch but i'm going to spotlight Doug Wrenn
Overall Record Range: 35-45
Division Position: 5th
Final Thoughts: This is a really fun & young team that has quite the Training Camp ahead of him. From the mouth of this team's General Manager "This entire roster is built around pieces that need impactful TCs to be effective. Even incremental increases will be helpful when paired with this team's athleticism and depth". That pretty much sums it up better than I ever could when looking at this roster. From the reigning ROTY down to the 14th man on the roster everyone is either 25 or younger and that means they all have some growing they could potentially do in Training Camp. Will either Arenas or PArker take their 20 PPG seasons and build on them? Will Jiri continue to grow into his potential that could see him as a pretty big mismatch for other 7 footers? Will Glenn Robinson or the guy I picked as a potential breakout player Doug Wrenn step up and claim the starting Small Forward spot as their own? Will McCants or Charlie V develop enough to have an impact in year one of their careers? Then you still have to look at the other young guys like Saric, Clarkson, Bogdan, and Brown to see what they will do. It will be a lot easier to project where this team goes after tomorrow but I don't think everything can go bad so I think we should see this team improve somewhat. Now something their GM said I do think was interesting about struggling with a raw team as the talent increases and while I agree with that I don't think it will be as much of a problem this year as it will be beyond. I think for all the young guys we have coming in, and all the up and coming guys that just need 1 or 2 TCs (which they have a few of on their roster) there are just as many vets that benefited from no TC last year that will take a hit so things will balance out and they will still be able to pick up wins. Much like I talked about in the East Division preview when looking at Harlem, this is a team to watch out for even if they aren't a "title contender" and i'm excited to see what they can do.
Perth Wildcats
Last Season’s Record: 47-35
Last Season's Result: Post Season Round 1
Key Off-Season Additions: Zelmo Beaty
Key Off-Season Losses: None
Did they improve this off-season? Not necessarily but they obviously didn't get worse
Biggest Need: A 2nd Star
Best Case Scenario: Middle Seed that could upset a team
Worst Case Scenario: Late Lottery Team
Potential Breakout Player: Benoit Benjamin
Overall Record Range: 45-50
Division Position: 4th
Final Thoughts: This was a quiet off-season for a team that I thought needed to make a move in one direction or the other to really get themselves going. Don't get me wrong, the Bob McAdoo led team is pretty good but the thing is there are a lot of good teams in their division alone and to pass some of them up I feel they needed something extra. You could argue that this team could just wait it out since the other teams are old-ish (even though all have a young star similar to Perth) but outside of McAdoo, Benjamin, and Wilkins (who may be better suited as a 6th man moving forward) everyone else currently on the roster will finish the season at 30 or older. Now I don't want to focus on a bunch of negatives because thats not how I do things and this team does have positives to look at. Obviously you have to mention McAdoo who is still growing into his potential despite already putting up 23.2 PPG | 9.6 RPG | 3.1 APG | 0.9 SPG | 1.0 BPG last season. He may not see a huge jump but I think he still will grow defensively and efficiency-wise. Then you also have to acknowledge that this is a stellar defensive team with defenders throughout their lineup and if the offense can get up to the defenses speed then we are talking about a really tough team. I'd also mention Benoit Benjamin who was this team's 2nd most important player putting up 13 PPG | 7.4 RPG | 1.7 APG | 1.9 BPG in only 32.6 MPG. I figure he continues to develop and potentially sees more minutes and you could be talking about a 15 | 9 | 2 | 2 guy at worst this year (those were actually close to his PER 36 numbers). So what would I do if I was in charge of this team? I would go one of two way, i'd either go hard after finding my second star and preferably someone on the perimeter. By star I don't necessarily mean a superstar but someone who is a threat to score uppwards of 17 or so PPGs a night. If I couldn't get that done as much as it would hurt i'd look to swing McAdoo to a team looking for that 2nd star but has assets (I know there aren't a lot of these) and go the rebuild route. This team is in a crazy division but eventually things will die down and if positioned right, which is something I know this GM can handle, they could come out looking better than any of them in a few seasons.
Tapei Fubon Braves
Last Season’s Record: 35-47
Last Season's Result: Lottery
Key Off-Season Additions: Monta Ellis, Raymond Felton, Nate Robinson
Key Off-Season Losses: None
Did they improve this off-season? Kind of
Biggest Need: Center & Point Guard
Best Case Scenario: 9th - 13th Eurasian Seed
Worst Case Scenario: Near the Bottom of the League
Potential Breakout Player(s): Benji Wilson & Zach Lavine
Overall Record Range: 20-25
Division Position: 6th
Final Thoughts: The weakest link in this stellar division but still a pretty soliid up and coming team. To start off last year this team had the likes of Connie Hawkins and Jack Nichols leading the way but by the deadline they had grrown tired of this group feeling that it had went as far as it could go. So they flipped their vets and now have guys like Zach Lavine, Benji Wilson, Aaron Gordon, Bryant Reeves and others leading a youth movement. In fact this team is actually younger than the Southern Tigers if you ignore the 4 guys that probably get the boot by the end of pre-season since none of there other guys are over 23 years old. With that said this team is positioned to once again be not only one of the weaker in this division but in this conference. They should actually be a bit worse than they finished off last season actually. The reason I say that is because even though they have a bit more talent than they had at the end of the season, they don't have more talent than they started the season with. If you look at it, after the trade deadline they went 32-35 so things are a bit skewed from when they had a veteran presence on their roster. This season will be all about watching the growth of the young guns and seeings which will step out as the leader of the pack. I mentioned both Benji Wilson and Zach Lavine as potential breakout players because they both have talent that I don't think we necessarily saw last year. The Braves actually got a bit of heat for these being the guys they traded their existing players for so it'll be interesting to see if they can silence the doubters just a bit.
