The NBA Playoff race at the bottom of the Eastern Conference is getting interesting

The depressing race for the final 2017 NBA Playoffs spot in the Western Conference has received most of the attention, but the battle in the East is just as weird. There are actually three spots up for grabs with a half-dozen squads in play. Paul Flannery and Tom Ziller walk through the teams and suss out the match-ups they’d like to see.

FLANNERY: A quick scan of the standings reveals no fewer than five teams competing for the final three playoff spots in the Eastern Conference. Clubs that we once thought were locks — Indiana, Chicago — are now fighting for their lives, and squads that we assumed were lottery bound — hey, Miami and Milwaukee — are looking mighty dangerous. Even the Pistons suddenly look fierce again.

There’s a lot going on here. (And none of it involves the Knicks, who are not going to make the playoffs and we should all stop talking about them until they get their shit together.)

Let’s start with the Bulls and Pacers. Of the two, Indy is in much better shape but the Pacers are still far from a lock. The Bulls have been trending downward for a while now. Indiana and Chicago have the two best players and the most to lose if they miss out on the postseason. This could get ugly.

ZILLER: Especially for Chicago, where it again appears that Jimmy Butler and Fred Hoiberg are on different pages. Butler is surprisingly blunt, and has bristled at Hoiberg’s relaxed, modern style of coaching. Butler came up with Tom Thibodeau, a real taskmaster, and seems to appreciate that tone more. That’s not Hoiberg.

This roster is still totally mismatched, and while the Cameron Payne trade shook things up at the point, there’s still just too little shooting here. Chicago is in a dogfight with Orlando for the worst three-point shooting mark in the league. That’s not conducive to a playoff spot.

Indiana made some weird decisions in the offseason — picking Jeff Teague’s future over that of George Hill, adding Al Jefferson — but they have Paul George and Myles Turner, a star in his prime and one of the most promising young bigs in the league. That’s a great combo, and there’s a lot you can do around them (especially since the former is a top-flight defender and the latter has tons of upside on that end).

You can see the Pacers flail through the end of the season but then thrive with some tweaks next year. The Bulls looks like they’ll need a deeper retooling around Butler.

I think the Pacers end up making the playoffs, but I’m pretty skeptical that the Bulls will bounce back and climb in. The other teams involved are more together right now.

FLANNERY: Way more together.

We’ll get to the Bucks and the Pistons in a minute, but what in the name of Bimbo Coles has come over the Miami Heat? I’ve watched them a bunch over the last few weeks and what stands out more than anything is how connected they are. Almost every pass has a purpose. Defensive rotations are crisp and on point. There’s great communication in the pick-and-roll and terrific awareness identifying shooters.

This is a damn-good basketball team and I still don’t know how they’re doing it, even though I just explained it. I would want absolutely zero part of this club in the playoffs. Like, none.

That’s the dry version. Now please tell us about Dion Waiters.

ZILLER: Dion Waiters has been the best version of himself this season, and especially over the past six weeks. This team isn’t overflowing with shot creators (unlike Waiters’ previous squads), so his willingness to take any shot actually works beautifully. Goran Dragic is deferential for a score-first point guard (as he showed next to Eric Bledsoe in Phoenix) and Hassan Whiteside is playing within himself.

So it’s the Dion show, especially late in games. This wouldn’t be possible if Dwyane Wade were still in Miami, or if Waiters were in Oklahoma City. In this perfect context, Dion Waiters is on one of the most productive contracts in the league.

I was bullish on Miami early in the season due to their defense. That’s what is making them so fierce right now. That they are pulling it off without Justise Winslow says a lot about Whiteside, the young wings around Dragic and Waiters, and of course Erik Spoelstra.

Do you think the Bucks have figured it out?

FLANNERY: We’ll find out on this six-game road trip. It’s so hard to tell with teams like this. It was barely a month ago when they were losing 10 of 12, so now I’m supposed to believe that everything is hunky dory? I’m still skeptical. Encouraged, but skeptical. I will say this: Khris Middleton makes them a much different team. That dude is good.

I’d like to see the Bucks sneak in there and I’d really like to see what Miami can do. If we’re thinking the Bulls are on the outs (what a disaster in Boston on Sunday), then where does that leave the Pistons? Talk abut figuring it out. This is what we wanted to see from them this season.

So, really this might come down to Milwaukee or Detroit. Who do you like here?

ZILLER: I believe in Detroit’s talent, and have since they reeled off a wonderful March and April a year ago. Now they seem to be doing it again. But fool me once ...

I do think there are structural problems with a Reggie Jackson-Andre Drummond team that were exposed over the last few months. Detroit’s going to have to prove they are beyond those issues to hold off Miami and Milwaukee. While the Bucks have been madly erratic this season, and the Heat have been Jekyll and Hyde before and after January, the Pistons have been just as confounding. It’s time for these teams to show us their true selves. I think the true Pistons are better than the true Bucks or Heat, but they haven’t proved that at all this season.

FLANNERY: We haven’t talked about Charlotte yet, and I don’t think we need to do so for very long, but I’d like to make this point. The Hornets have been a terrible disappointment and I don’t know what to do with them. They should be a playoff team.

OK, back to the larger discussion. Forget who you think will get there, who would you like to see in these playoffs? I’m going with Indiana (star player at the crossroads), Miami (seriously dangerous), and Milwaukee (Freak phenom.) Sorry, Pistons and Bulls, but neither of you have done much for me this season.

ZILLER: The Hornets are perhaps the league’s biggest disappointment. Jeremy Lin matters!

I love Paul George but ... apparently not as much as you do. Give me the Heat, Bucks, and Pistons. That said, wouldn’t it be funny to give Raptors Nation a coronary by drawing them the Bulls? Or how about Dwyane Wade vs. LeBron or the City of Boston? I think the Bulls are more fun in the playoffs than they are in the regular season.

FLANNERY: We never get the first-round matchups we want. The Basketball Gods are fickle that way.