Roy Hibbert and the Pacers are, so far, on track to earn an East playoff spot. (Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images) Before the season, most folks divided the the Eastern Conference into two broad tiers: six playoff locks (Miami, Boston, Orlando, Atlanta, Chicago and Milwaukee) and nine teams slap-fighting for the bottom two playoff spots. I was secretly hoping that one of those bottom nine teams would get off to a fast start and tweak this narrative a bit. Nope. Through Friday, none of the presumed bottom nine were over .500, and seven of the nine took up the last seven spots in the conference standings. There is a school of thought that making the playoffs and losing in the first round is a good thing, that it gives young players valuable exposure to a more intense NBA atmosphere, and that it creates loyalty among fans. I’m not convinced on either of those counts, but let’s pretend for now that all of these teams (and their fans) really want to make the playoffs. Are any of them read...
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