On today's Lockdown NBA Squad Show East season preview, the season is back.

Where does the East run through if the Celtics and Pacers are both down?

We'll tell you, today's Lockouton, NBA Squad Show starts now.

You are talking ball with the NBA Squad Show, sponsored by game time.

From the Warriors to the Lakers, the Knicks to the Heat, and everyone else in the league.

The local experts of the Lockdown Podcast Network bring you all the scoops, breakdowns,

and the most comprehensive look cross the league.

Trash talk and big takes included.

No holding back.

We're giving the green light.

It's time to talk NBA quad show.

And welcome to Lockton, NBA Squad Show East. The NBA season is back. My name is Nick Engstead, host LockedNMBA, Locked on Mabs. And this is the squad show where we take over the feet of your favorite show. And we're going to talk all about the Eastern Conference. Anything that we think of that we talk about. We'll probably talk about Yannis. We'll probably talk about Desmond Bain and the Magic. We'll probably talk about what the heat are doing. We'll talk about the Knicks and the Cavs and the Pacers and the Celtics and I don't know. If they're in the East, we'll probably talk about them at some point. Joining me today from Lockdown Knicks, Gavin Shaw, Lockdown Pacers, Tony East, Locked on Magic, Philip Rossman Reich, Lockdown Heat, David Ramil,

somebody else may join in, somebody may leave.

Somebody may go down with an Achilles injury or an ACL injury or something, but we will carry on.

Gentlemen, let's start here. We may own somewhere completely different, but with the Celt, sorry, Tony, the Pacers, both down with some major injuries this season. Where does the Eastern conference go through? Like, who's the team that you're like, all right, it goes through this team? Well, I don't know if it's one team, but I would say that all of us would probably say that there's a heavy, heavy favorite for the conference finals and it's the Knicks and the Cavs. Would we all agree with that? Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And

just they're both so good and we're good last year. The Knicks made the conference finals. The

Cavs only losing to the buzzsaw that was the 51 Indiana Pacers last year. Right. And they're both maybe better, right? We'll see what the injuries look like in Cleveland, but the coaching change in New York, they made tweaks at the back of their roster. Like the fact that the Pacers and Celtics fell off so far, we can talk about Orlando and Atlanta may be sneaking up and like making things interesting, but it just seems like since the two of the top four last year fell off and the other two got a little better, I don't know how it can't be those two. The problem is for the question asked, picking one of those two is quite challenging because the Cavs are the better regular season team. They always poop all over their leg when the playoffs start. Hey, look, Danny Cunningham didn't show up today, right? I think the Nick won it. That's because this is past the second round. Yeah, I think the, wow. I think the argument for the Knicks, which I think I'm contractually obliged to make, is that they were just far from optimized last year under Tom Thibodeo.

I've said the stat a million times.

Tony, I know you're tired of hearing it,

but the next starting five played 500 more possessions than any other five-man group in the league

and was a net negative after January 1st.

They had like a minus 1.5 net rating where minus 50, I think over 13 playoff games, like just either because. Is that even bad though? Sorry what? Is that even bad? I mean, it's not good. It's for a group that's like your best lineup that you're poor. Brutal, a ton of money. And that's like talent wise, right? Jalen Brunsson, Josh Hart, O. G. Anobie, Mekyll, Bridges, Carl Anthony Towns. That should be a great lineup, and it wasn't a great lineup, both due to fit and due to Tom Thibbido's inability to maximize it. I was of the opinion that Cleveland, at least in the regular season, was going to be the runaway one seat. And after seeing three games, the Nixon preseason, maybe it's an overreaction, but just the way Mike Brown has shifted their rotation, has leaned into five-out lineups, has sped up the offense,

...