Last week, ESPN ranked and voted on the player who will win the 2016-17 MVP award, and it was an interesting decision.
Now we take a look at who how the Eastern Conference will shape up, with Cleveland easily finishing first. Like last time, ESPN’s Forecast Team gives first, second, and third place votes to teams and the more points you have, the higher our seed.
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Teams receiving first place votes received five points, second place votes received three points, and third place votes received one point. Here are the final standings and who they think the Cavs will face in the playoffs.
1. Cleveland Cavaliers, 57-25
First-place votes: 45
Points: 231
2. Boston Celtics, 51-31
First-place votes: 1
Points: 114
3. Toronto Raptors, 51-31
First-place votes: 0
Points: 57
4. Indiana Pacers, 45-37
First-place votes: 1
Points: 14
T-5. Detroit Pistons, 45-37
First-place votes: 0
Points: 2
T-5. Chicago Bulls, 40-42
First-place votes: 0
Points: 2
T-7. Atlanta Hawks, 44-38
First-place votes: 0
Points: 1
T-7. New York Knicks, 40-42
First-place votes: 0
Points: 1
T-7. Milwaukee Bucks, 39-43
First-place votes: 0
Points: 1
Cleveland finishes with an easy 45 first place votes, and they’ll face either the Hawks, Knicks, or Bucks in the first round of the 2017 postseason. If you look at it by record, the Cavs would face the Carmelo Anthony, Derrick Rose, and the Knicks, which would make for a very interesting first round matchup. The Cavs won 57 games last year, and apparently, not having Kyrie Irving for the first month and a half of the season won’t make a difference for them as ESPN has them still winning 57 games.
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Now that every player and coach knows what it takes to win the title, the Cavs will try to conserve as much energy as possible for the title defense run next April, May, and hopefully June.
