Charles Barkley: The Cleveland Cavaliers Will NOT Make the Playoffs

Here's something interesting. On Jim Rome's radio show this afternoon, NBA Hall of Famer and TNT analyst Charles Barkley (who is a must listen any time he is interviewed) said he would be legitimately stunned if the Cleveland Cavaliers, the defending Eastern Conference Champions, made the playoffs. He wasn't joking either. He said that while almost every other contending Eastern Conference team has improved from last season, the Cavs have not, and as such, they will not make the playoffs.

While I agree with Barkley that the Cavs certainly did not improve themselves this off-season (and with the losses of Sasha Pavlovic and Anderson Varejao, they are almost undoubtedly worse than last season) while teams like the Boston Celtics and the Heat and even the Pistons did (though the recent injury to rookie Rodney Stuckey will set the Pistons back a bit), to say that the Cavs aren't one of the eight best teams in the Eastern Conference may be stretching it a bit.

Then again, the Cavs were a dreadful 1-6 in the exhibition season, second worse only to Miami's 0-7, and there are a lot of good teams in the East. Toronto, New Jersey, Boston, Detroit, Chicago, and Orlando are probably all shoo-ins for the playoffs. Indiana went 6-2 in the pre-season, and if Shaq and Dwyane Wade are healthy (a big if) the Heat will make some noise too. And we can't forget about Washington.

Maybe Sir Charles is smarter than I give him credit for....