EASTERN CONFERENCE

No team will win 72 games, as the Bulls did two seasons ago, or 69, as they did last season. There may be no super teams, not even the Bulls, but top to bottom, the East is loaded.

Last season’s dogs, the Nets, Bucks, 76ers and Celtics, rolled over for everyone but now they look like actual basketball teams that will compete, if not contend. That will make it tougher for all of the real teams.

Here’s a team-by-team breakdown listed in order of predicted finish:

ATLANTIC DIVISION

New York Knicks

Last season: 57-25, second place.

Fortune, which has not been kind to the Knicks, may be turning in their favor.

They put together a nice little run in last spring’s playoffs until David Stern’s suspensions KOd them. This fall, they were having an unimpressive, turnover-filled exhibition season until the Celtics donated Chris Mills, a handy jump shooter for a team that could use one, for four benchwarmers.

What can they say but . . . thanks, Rick Pitino.

Patrick Ewing has a new $20 million-a-year contract that will carry him through age 39. Thoughtfully, they’ll let him skip practices to rest the sore knees that slowed him down late last season, so maybe he can last till he’s 37.

Prediction: First place. If Allan Houston and Chris Childs approach their old form (their combined average dropped from 33 points to 24 in their first Knick season), anything is possible.

Miami Heat

Last season: 61-21, first place.

How’s this for a Knick nightmare? Pat Riley ditches them for Miami and, within two seasons, passes them in the standings and comes back from a 3-1 deficit to oust them from the playoffs.

However, as the Knicks could tell you, Riley’s miracles come at a price and his grueling practices are hard on players. Alonzo Mourning, who used to miss enough games when he was playing in Charlotte, where they let him skip practices, just had knee surgery and is out for a month.

With little money left on the cap, Riley still signed Terry Mills, Todd Day and Eric Murdock to provide missing firepower. What Riley really needs is for Jamal Mashburn to return to the pre-surgery Monster Mash, but in exhibitions it didn’t look like it was happening.

Prediction: Second place. The Heat played well without Mourning last season, but even with Riley demanding it, the impossible is not always possible.

Orlando Magic

Last season: 45-37, third place.

Think they didn’t miss Shaquille O’Neal?

Having decided not to match the Lakers’ $120-million offer for their centerpiece, the Magic saw their team fall apart. Penny Hardaway fronted a mutiny that toppled Coach Brian Hill. Nick Anderson’s free-throw percentage fell below Shaq’s (they didn’t get along or you’d be tempted to say it was Nick’s tribute to his departed teammate). Psyched out, Anderson stopped driving and shot only 94 free throws all season.

The team that made the NBA finals in 1995 with only one starter over 25 was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.

Backed against a wall--Hardaway can be free in 1999 and says he’ll leave if things don’t improve--the Magic threw big bucks at every star coach, finally getting Chuck Daly, 67, to accept $5 million (and a house, two cars and a $301 per diem, $1 more than Riley got). Then they added Derek Harper and Mark Price.

It might not be like when Shaq was there, but it’s progress.

Prediction: Third place. The players will have to listen to the defense-minded Daly, since another mutiny, so soon after the last one, is out of the question.

Washington Wizards

Last season: 44-38, fourth place.

Three years after Chris Webber’s arrival, the Bullets finally made the playoffs, although they drew the Bulls and stayed the minimum, three games. Where does Washington, now the Wizards, go from here? Despite youth and talent, not far.

Webber and Juwan Howard are friends, but each plays better when the other is out. Webber, who is as big as Mourning, insists he’s a power forward, though he has his own ideas about how to play that position too. He stands atop the three-point circle and makes passes as if he were Magic Johnson, who happens to be his boyhood idol.

Gheorghe Muresan, who has to start at center, is a defensive liability and often hurt. Guards Rod Strickland and Calbert Cheaney have no shooting range; between them, they made 17 three-point baskets last season.

Prediction: Fourth place and another fight for the No. 8 berth, until Webber wises up and gets serious, which doesn’t look like it’ll happen.

New Jersey Nets

Last season: 26-56, fifth place.

The Meadowlands swamps have swallowed a lot of dreams, and last season they gulped down starry-eyed John Calipari’s. By December, Coach Cal was wondering what he’d gotten himself into and management was wondering the same thing.

Calipari was going to save cap room and recruit a star in the summer of ‘98, but by the summer of ‘97, beginning to share the local pessimism--such as, which star would come here?--he took on $6 million in annual salary in Don MacLean, Lucious Harris and Michael Cage to trade up for Keith Van Horn of Utah.

That’s a lot to put on a young man’s shoulders, but in exhibitions, Van Horn looked the part. Said an Eastern Conference team official: “He’s going to be great.” If so, it won’t be until he recovers from a sprained ankle in about a month.

Prediction: Fifth place, but it’ll look better than last season’s fifth place.

Philadelphia 76ers

Last season: 22-60, sixth place.

Larry Brown, whose career has featured fast turnarounds and almost-as-fast exits, is in charge of the organization in this incarnation, although it isn’t expected to change any established patterns.

Bristling with good young players--Allen Iverson, Jerry Stackhouse, Jim Jackson, Clarence Weatherspoon--the 76ers have lacked only a professional coach to push northward in the standings. Brown could win 21 games with this team, showing up on alternate Mondays.

However, all of the players named above will be free agents within two summers, so Brown needs to do something spectacular to keep the ones he wants and sign some others he needs. Brown probably will dump Derrick Coleman by midseason, and outlast him in Philadelphia, by at least a year.

Prediction: Sixth place, but it’ll look better than last season’s sixth place.

Boston Celtics

Last season: 15-67, seventh place.

After the worst season in franchise history, ownership finally realized M.L. Carr was incompetent to hold all the jobs it had given him and brought in Rick Pitino, the coach everyone wanted.

Oops. Pitino, whose NBA experience suggested he’d know better, started signing free agents: $33 million for Chris Mills, $22 million for Travis Knight, $8.4 million for Andrew DeClercq, $2.7 million for Tony Massenburg, capping himself out for three seasons. Pitino then watched his team lose its first four exhibitions and traded Mills for four Knick reserves, who were being offered to everyone, and sent Massenburg to Vancouver for Roy Rogers. Pitino has Antoine Walker primed for stardom. At least, Walker will take a lot of shots and score a lot of points. Does Pitino think he’s really their franchise player? Is he setting Walker up for a trade? Does Pitino know what he’s doing?

Prediction: Seventh place. Pitino won 35 games at Kentucky last season but won’t get close to that.

CENTRAL DIVISION

Indiana Pacers

Last season: 39-43, sixth place.

Larry Bird, a bigger legend in Indiana than he was in Boston, returns as a coach. The Hoosiers are so happy, they won’t check the win column until Christmas. When they do, they might like what they see. If Bird can coach, he may turn out to be more than great PR. The Pacers overachieved under Brown to make the Eastern finals in 1995 and 1996, but they were much better than they showed last season when injuries hit early, such as the one to Rik Smits, and Brown gave up on them soon after.

Bird gets help from Chris Mullin, exactly the offensive player this big, defense-minded team needed. The Pacers raved about Bird in camp. Who knows where this might lead?

Prediction: First place, as Bird runs his mouth on players, opponents and press.

Chicago Bulls

Last season: First place, 69-13.

This is absolutely, positively, probably the last season together for Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman and Phil Jackson. That’s assuming they play together. It might not happen this calendar year, since Pippen might sit out the first two months after ankle surgery. Toni Kukoc has a sore left foot--on the trip to Europe, he was getting second opinions about surgery--and bruised feelings because Jackson wouldn’t start him.

Of course, if they ever get together, this is the team that won a record 141 games in two seasons, and stormed through five postseasons to five titles, so you can’t write them off yet. Can you?

Prediction: Second place. Not that I believe it will really happen, but I’ve picked against stronger Bulls teams than this one.

Charlotte Hornets

Last season: 54-28, third place (tie).

The surprise of the East, they finished parceling off their beloved Larry Johnson-Mourning nucleus and posted their best season behind underrated stars Anthony Mason and Glen Rice.

They look better too, having replaced their guards, old Muggsy Bogues and career sub Tony Smith, with free agents David Wesley and Bobby Phills. However, Wesley is a shoot-first point guard and Phills is coming off a bad season, so you can’t call it the steal of the century yet.

Mason, a power forward with a massive chest and a bigger chip on his shoulder, is the key. He’s unguardable in the low post and makes defenses double-team him, opening things up for the Hornets’ crack shooters, Rice and Del Curry. But Mason is also a career malcontent and he has been grumbling since he hit town.

Prediction: Third, if they can keep Mason in place.

Atlanta Hawks

Last season: 56-26, second place.

Pete Babcock, one of the most underrated general managers in the league, has rebuilt them in the ‘90s, despite a gloomy arena, sparse attendance and owner Ted Turner’s indifference, recruiting Lenny Wilkens and Dikembe Mutombo, trading for Christian Laettner, Steve Smith and Mookie Blaylock.

Unfortunately, Babcock ran out of arguments last summer. Needing a small forward who could score, he pursued Rick Fox, offering him a multiyear contract and reminding the budding actor that Turner owns HBO and Castle Rock Pictures--but couldn’t make Fox’s short list.

The Hawks are fine defenders, but in the playoffs the Bulls made their offense look pathetic. Rookie Ed Gray looks like he’ll help, but the problem is bigger than that.

Prediction: Fourth place, just on their defense.

Detroit Pistons

Last season: 54-28, third place (tie).

In Detroit, they’re closing their eyes and putting their fingers in their ears because this looks like the season when mercurial Coach Doug Collins and the Pistons go boom! Not boom as in a rocket taking off. This is more like boom when the rocket falls over on the pad.

Taking over a team that won 28 games, Collins improved them to 46 and an even more improbable 54 last season, but strained feelings with players--notably Grant Hill--along the way. Frustrated at the talent differential between his team and the real powers, Collins signed problem child Brian Williams. Collins also had his contract redone, with his pay raised to $3.5 million--and his term shortened to one season. Insiders say he’s not averse to leaving and Piston management isn’t averse to seeing him go.

Prediction: Fifth place and a memorable blowup.

Cleveland Cavaliers

Last season: 42-40, fifth place.

Shawn Kemp says he’s looking forward to this season because “I’ve always enjoyed people doubting me.” Welcome to the rest of your career, big guy. An institution at 27 in Seattle, where he had six more seasons and $33 million left on his contract--one the SuperSonics gladly would have renegotiated--Kemp pouted last season and forced a trade. Now he has a $107-million deal with a team that will struggle to reach .500, having lost four starters--Chris Mills and Phills to free agency, Terrell Brandon and Tyrone Hill in the deal for Kemp.

Instead of Gary Payton and Detlef Schrempf, he’ll have Bobby Sura and Vitaly Potapenko. The latter, a Ukrainian power forward masquerading as a center, is backed up by Zydrunas Ilgauskas, a Lithuanian rookie who hasn’t played in two seasons. Not to say that’s a problem, but in an exhibition, Shaq made 12 of 14 shots against them.

Prediction: Sixth place; Kemp can always go home and play with his money.

Milwaukee Bucks

Last season: 33-49, seventh place.

On the floor, this team looks better, but off the court, it looks weirder. The Bucks drove a hard bargain for Vin Baker, landing themselves a top point guard, Brandon, and a tough power forward, Hill. Another deal brought Ervin Johnson, who’ll split the center position with Andrew Lang. They already had Glenn Robinson and Ray Allen.

However, the Bucks have looked good on paper for a while now. Herb Kohl, the U.S. senator who is known for his impatience as an NBA owner, personally hired Dick Versace, a former coach and announcer of little accomplishment, as his personal adviser/assistant coach. Versace longs to be a head coach again, which doesn’t look good for the current head coach, Chris Ford.

Prediction: Seventh place. Let’s just hope Sen. Kohl is doing a better job for America than he is for the Bucks.

Toronto Raptors

Last season: 30-52, eighth place.

Isiah Thomas’ first two teams won 51 games, compared to the Grizzlies’ 29, but Thomas has bigger dreams. Once again showing he’s fearless, Thomas took prep star Tracy McGrady with the No. 9 pick. However, last year’s No. 1, Marcus Camby, hasn’t developed as quickly as the player who went after him, Shareef Abdur-Rahim. Thomas has gambled on several talented problem children: Walt Williams, Sharone Wright, Carlos Rogers and now John Wallace. Maybe they’ll settle down, and maybe they won’t. Thomas is at odds with the owners, prompting speculation he might bolt.

Prediction: Eighth place. Someone has to finish last.

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HOW THEY FINISHED IN 1996-97

Atlantic Division

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Team W L pct. GB Miami 61 21 .744 -- New York 57 25 .695 4 Orlando 45 37 .549 16 Washington 44 38 .537 17 New Jersey 26 56 .317 35 Philadelphia 22 60 .268 39 Boston 15 67 .183 46

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Central Division

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Team W L pct. GB Chicago 69 13 .841 -- Atlanta 56 26.683 13 Detroit 54 28 .659 15 Charlotte 54 28 .659 15 Cleveland 42 40 .512 27 Indiana 39 43 .476 30 Milwaukee 33 49 .402 36 Toronto 30 52 .366 39

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