I will preface this by saying I’m a Mavericks fan so you can feel free to put Thunder above them, but I don’t see it.
West:
- Mavericks
- Thunder
- Timberwolves
- Nuggets
- Grizzlies
- Suns
- Pelicans
- Warriors
- Clippers
- Rockets
- Kings
- Lakers
- Spurs
- Jazz
- Blazers
East:
- Celtics
- Knicks
- Sixers
- Pacers
- Cavaliers
- Bucks
- Magic
- Hawks
- Bulls
- Heat
- Hornets
- Pistons
- Raptors
- Nets
- Wizards
I would really only consider bucks at 6 and pistons at 12 as contentious predictions. The bucks drop that low due to age and injuries, the pistons climb finally catching some momentum. I suppose lakers fans might be mad but try being realistic bros. Ranking the west is truly brutal beyond the nuggets though and so many teams will be within a few games of each other. Finals should be a repeat with hopefully closer games this time around and a memorable game 7.
Lakers that low is comical. We actually has a coach that knows how to run plays now.
Mavs in the 4 seed below Denver, otherwise this is how I see it playing out too.
I wouldn’t put them below wolves and nuggets, which both had major changes over the offseason, probably for the worse, the nuggets surely. But yea if you take previous seasons into account mavs don’t tend to do well in the regular seasons - I’d argue this is because of rotten injury luck though :)
I think the Mavs got really hot in the playoffs last year, but I don’t know if Luka and Kyrie are motivated enough to play at that level for an entire 82 game season.
Like i can see Luka winning a championship as the #1 guy, but I can’t see him being the #1 seed as the #1 guy. Know what I mean?
warriors have too many 40% shooters to be that low in a west that just got slightly weaker. There’s also a kings disrespect going on after adding demar. And lastly, the wolves lost their bread and got more butter with their butter. OKC is still too frail and a 3 man show clippers with no kawhi (so a 2 man show) knocked them out first round. again, wemby, lakers, denver, boston, cavs, sixers. look at their win rate against larger teams, very low. Mavs i like, lively took a leap forward and they added a vengeful top 3 shooter of all time who in 2023 led in threes and 2024 was 4th at a career low 38% <that’s in the top 6%> . lakers deserve the ranking, they didn’t do squat but aged and added a young podcast nba player who never won a ring as their head coach. And idk what the grizzlies are doing up there take them out. Without Ja they ain’t a play off team and ja rolled his ankle in a pre season game.
OKC is still too frail
lol
Can you go deeper into your thoughts on OKC being frail? I’m not exactly sure what you mean but am curious. 🙏
Hawks and bulls seem a bit high
I love that you mentioned that, because I felt the same way the first time I looked at my list. But thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that the hawks will probably end up being better with a happier Trae and getting Risacher, while the bulls will atleast look a bit closer to the first seeded team they were prior to lonzo’s injury. But as someone pointed out, putting them ahead of the heat might be foolish.
Yeah everything else is like one or two spots debatable but that’s the big outlier for me there’s no real plan for the bulls and Atlanta is so up in the air every season
my glorious king Sengun gonna lead my rockets to the chip
Not particularly sure why you’re so high on the Clippers, I would honestly swap places between them and the Lakers homerism aside. I also don’t think the Grizz are going to be better than the Suns this year.
Spurs will make the playoffs
Spurs below Jazz we need to tank for Cooper Flagg
You are way too high in the Clippers and Warriors. Without Kawhi, Clippers are a clear cut lottery team. I mean they almost blew a 20 point lead to the Nets, who are projected by Vegas to be the worst team in the NBA next year. Warriors best case scenario is 10th place. The team stands and falls with Steph Curry.