NBA: Power ranking East playoff teams ahead of the post-season

In a closely knit assortment of NBA playoff teams, which will get the chance to take the Eastern Conference crown and who will fall just short of contention

This year’s NBA Eastern Conference playoffs are going to be the most exciting in a very long time. Not only is the conference as a whole more competitive than ever, but this year is the first time that a team not led by LeBron James will be heading to the NBA Finals.

With LeBron’s move to the Los Angeles Lakers last summer and his failure to even make the playoffs out west, it means that his 8-year streak of finals appearances is officially over and there will be a new team to beat in the East for the first time since 2010.

This postseason is already full of hungry players eager to show that their squad’s the new face of Eastern Conference basketball, but not everybody has what it takes and there are some teams that are clearly better than others.

Here’s an early power ranking to the Eastern Conference playoff teams.