[daggers818Participant]

From a long-time (1968) Laker fan so I acknowlege my bias going in to put LAL first and drop the Clips  a little down for spite.   Let’s hear your bias and your predictions!

1. Lakers (the brawny brow-beat-down begins)

2. Jazz (making some new music)

3. Nuggets (there’s gold in them thar’ young nugs)

4. Clippers (who?)

5. Warriors (hunker down until Gen’l Klay returns)

6. Blazers (the trail was blazing — like for a second, now quickly lost in the woods again)

7. Mavs (Luka and the Unicorn – the Movie!)

8. Spurs (Pop-o-zit does it again for the 117th year in row)

9. Kings (Princes still, young and fun but barely miss)

9 (tie) Pelicans (Zion King and the south, really south bay Lakers)

11. Rockets (this rocket will implode during flight)

12. Wolves (throw them out to them!)

13. Grizz (Ja & the Jackson 2 — the debut album)

14. OKC (okay I see a disaster looming)

 

[SwatLakeCityParticipant]

Clippers have to be first with Kawhi and PG teaming up. Plus Beverly and Trez. Than you have Lou Williams (microwave bench scorer) so they have plenty of defense and enough scoring too.

I have it as:

1. Clippers
2. Jazz or Blazers
3. Blazers or Jazz
4. Lakers, Nuggets, or Rockets
5. Lakers, Nuggets, Rockets
6. Lakers, Nuggets, or Rockets
7. Warriors (could not make playoffs because of no Igg, KD, or Thompson for the season, but included them because they still offense with Steph and DLo and how could you not after all their championships and consecutive trips to the Finals)
8. Spurs
9. Mavs (bumps up to playoffs if Warriors don’t make it)
10. who cares afar this point.
11.  

[Arc12345Participant]

1. Clippers

2. Lakers

3. Warriors (I think Russell will fit in better than expected)

4. Blazers

5. Nuggets

6. Rockets (unless they truly implode)

7. Jazz

8. Mavs/Spurs

I think Thunder, Kings, Pelicans, Suns, Wolves, Grizzlies are clearly the bottom teams. West is completely wide open. I might even say the Warriors are still the favorites when Klay returns (LOL at all you morons who said they’d miss the playoffs) 

 

 

[Arc12345Participant]

If GS ends up top 3 in the West I don’t want anyone who downvoted this to talk basketball again.

A team with the first unanimous MVP is going to struggle to get into the playoffs…right.

[The GoatParticipant]

 You are sleeping on the Spurs. They now have at least 14 guys that will demand rotation minutes:

White Mills 

Murray Forbes Walker

DeRozan Carroll Bertans, Keldon Johnson

Gay Marcus Morris Samanic

Aldridge Poeltl 

 

They have the best coach and most established support system, playoff experience and with this depth, they can cover injury. 

[The GoatParticipant]

 You are sleeping on the Spurs. They now have at least 14 guys that will demand rotation minutes:

White Mills 

Murray Forbes Walker

DeRozan Carroll Bertans, Keldon Johnson

Gay Marcus Morris Samanic

Aldridge Poeltl 

 

They have the best coach and most established support system, playoff experience and with this depth, they can cover injury. 

[The GoatParticipant]

 Actually Bertans now traded to Wiz

[-Aria-Participant]

 hmm This is gonna be a bit awkward for most to read I’m sure, but I’ll try to explain them

 

1. Clippers – I already thought they’d be amazing if Kawhi Joined them, I really liked their team last year, but also adding Paul George, I think the preexisting chemistry, the general hard nosed attitude of the players that were already there. The argubly best coach in the NBA, and 2 two way superstars added to the roster. I just can’t reasonably put any team ahead of them

2. Nuggets – I admit, I’m a Nuggets fan and that affects me some, but with how we played last year, and now with more experince, I see more of the same.

3. Blazers – I think I may be overvaluing chemistry, But I think after making it to the westren conference finals last year, and bringing back most of the team, with whiteside as a good security blanket for Nurkic. I really like them to get one of the top seeds

4. Lakers or Jazz – This depends on the health of Lebron and Anthony Davis. I feel like lebron will come out with a vengance due to all the people saying he’s no longer a top 5 player in the league. However due to the lack of chemistry, age, and other factors I feel like they’ll underpreform the expectations people have for them. though I feel like they’ll make it to the second round atleast, again contigent on health.

5. Jazz or Lakers – the Jazz, made some really good additions this offseason, and while alot of people feel their backcourt is undersized I feel like they’ll be fine on most nights. I really like conley, and I feel like he’ll be a great influence on Mitchell.

6. Spurs – I feel like after a year with Derozan, and the addition of marcus morris. They’ll pull it together a bit better this year.

7. Rockets – I think the chemistry issues with the team, will be a huge detriment, I almost had them missing the playoffs but, I think they’ll pull it together to do resonably well, they are a D’Antoni team afterall

8. Warriors or Kings – I think it’ll be the warriors, they still have good pieces, but I feel like after last year’s playoffs they’ll be a bit down, and that attitude will cause them to fall off a bit. The Kings, I think this would just be natural progression

 

My dark horse for making the playoffs – Pelicans

I feel like the pelicans will be much better than expected, especially if Ingram is okay after his blood clot scare. I think a back court of holiday and ball will drive teams crazy defensively, and with willamson, ingram, and favors, hayes, etc will be catching lobs and getting easy shots for days do to great passing. Reddick and Hart will help spread the floor, I really like this team

[cohenbc1Participant]

Tier 1 (potential 60-win teams): Clippers, Rockets.

Tier 2 (50-55-win teams): Nuggets, Spurs.

Tier 3: (45-50-win teams): Blazers, Warriors, Jazz, Lakers, Thunder (if they don’t blow it up).

Tier 4: (40-45-win teams): Pelicans, Mavericks.

Tier 5: Everybody else.

Sorry but I’m not drinking the purple and gold Kool Aid. Not sure Davis and Cousins can share the court against elite teams. Rondo is erratic and frequently hurt. Danny Green is the only high-level threat from deep, and he’s given to months-long cold spells. I know they may not be done yet, but it’s hard to think of who is still available that could be a difference-maker for them.

[SeattleSuperChronicsParticipant]

Lakers

Clippers

warriors

Rockets

Nuggets

Blazers

mavericks

pelicans  

[projectpat310Participant]

The Rockets are 100% one of the best 8 teams in the west. They will make the playoffs. Cmon…

[cohenbc1Participant]

 If they’re not butthurt over Morey trying to trade them all, and if Harden and CP3 can work out their issues, I think they’re at least co-favorites to win the West. 

On the one hand I can see them disappointing, like last year’s Celtics, and for the same reasons. But if they decide to come together and play with a chip on their shoulder, they’re the one team that can beat the Clips.

[CoachWyersParticipant]

 West
1. LAL
2. LAC
3. Utah
4. GS
5. Houston
6. Denver
7. Portland
8. Dallas

East
1. Milwaukee
2. Philadelphia
3. Toronto
4. Boston
5. Brooklyn
6. Indiana
7. Miami
8. Atlanta

[cohenbc1Participant]

 I try not to be super judgmental, but seriously, if you look at the Clippers roster and you look at the Lakers roster, and you think the Lakers are even remotely close to the Clippers right now on paper, you don’t know much about basketball.

1. Both teams have two superstars. But if you look at what those four players have done over the past year, it’s clear that of the four, the top two play for the Clippers.

2. The Lakers’ two superstars are joining a team assembled on the fly — guys who have mostly never played with each other. I suppose you could say the Lakers are adding AD, Boogie and Green to a "core" of LeBron, Kuz, McGee, Rondo and KCP — but that core was a losing team. Meanwhile the Clippers are adding Kawhi and PG to a core of Sweet Lou, Beverley, Shamet, Zubac, Harrell … that was a 48-win team that scared the crap out of the Warriors in the first round.

3. Bev, Lou and Harrell are all studs — miles and miles better than any of the non-superstars the Lakers are bringing back or bringing in. It would have been totally reasonable had Bev won DPOY, Lou won 6th Man and Harrell won MIP this past season.

4. The Lakers’ roster is poorly assembled. Two of their three best players (AD and Boogie) maybe can’t share the court for long stretches. Their perimeter shooting is suspect. None of their guards ever get to the free-throw line. There is not a single lockdown defender, unless you consider LeBron that. 
Meanwhile the Clips’ roster is almost perfectly assembled. There are no rotation players who can’t play together. Kawhi, PG, Bev and Shamet are deadly from 3, and Lou’s not bad. Lou’s also a foul-drawing machine. Kawhi, PG and Bev are all absolutely lockdown defenders — in fact they are arguably the top 3 on-ball defenders in the league.

Now, rosters on paper don’t always translate to what happens on the court. But based on what we know right now, there is no comparison here. If they played 20 times, I would bet money that the Clippers win 15.

 

 

 

[holefillers1Participant]

I could see most of these teams separated by a couple games. 

1) Clippers

2) Denver

3) Houston

4) Portland

5) Lakers

6) Utah

7) GS

8) San Antonio 

 

[kikikikiParticipant]

 I could see’s predictions seem the most logical all the rest are just rediciculus!

[khaled_a_dParticipant]

Early west prediction: It is gonna be brutal. A true bloodbath and many good teams won’t make it to the play-offs

[90sNYKParticipant]

WEST

Lakers, Trailblazers, Spurs, Clippers, Nuggets, Jazz, Warriors, and Rockets should all make the playoffs. I feel least strongly about the Rockets looking at their internal issues. If they do struggle, I look to teams like OKC, Kings, Mavs, and Pelicans to compete for that final spot.

BONUS content for yall to neg me on:

EAST

76ers, Bucks, Pacers, Raptors, Celtics, Pistons, Heat, Nets

[Scrooge McDuckParticipant]

 

1. Clippers – I feel it may take time to build chemistry. George is injury prone an a no show in the playoffs. 
2. Portland- McCollum has become an all star caliber. Excited to see Whiteside.
3. Golden State- Curry has played at MVP level since 2015. They still have Draymond
4. Denver- One of the youngest teams, but Jokic is soft and out of shape.
5. Houston
6. Utah
7. San Antonio
8. Lakers – I don’t like the chemistry. Rondo? Stephenson? Dudley? Cousins? That’s some strange role players.

[SwatLakeCityParticipant]

For those of you that put the Jazz at 5, 6, 7th, you are way wrong and going to see that maybe I do know what I’m talking about. I know I’m a big jazz fan so that does sway my thinking and makes me bias but think of it this way: for the past 3 years now the jazz have finished 5th and went on as underdogs to the second round, now we all agree that they got extremely better by upgrading from Rubio at point to Conley, then they added a stretch 4 which they have needed like forever in Bojan, then they added a veteran shooter in Jeff Green and veteran defender/rebounder in Ed Davis, then they added a second backup ballhandler to help out with defense and in case Exum doesn’t come back as strong as he should or dare I say gets injured again in Mudiay. So if they got better than how do they drop from 5th to 7th? And how do they stay the same. And there isn’t much difference from 5th to 4th and I feel like they did more in the offseason so they should move higher than just one spot. True, the west did get better but so did the jazz so they should move up too.

I’d be willing to move Lakers to 2 and Jazz down to 3, but first I’ve gotta see that Kuzma is better than Bojan. Bojan just helped the Pacers stay afloat after they lost Oladipo. Kuzma didn’t help the Lakers make the playoffs. True, they are reuniting AD with Cousins but Cousins is still coming back from a terrible ACL injury so is he going to be the same player he was 2 years ago? He didn’t prove that he was the same player with the Warriors last year. Gobert just won DPOY two years in a row so how can he not hang with AD?Lebron is aging

[LOFTYParticipant]

I think you got negged pretty hard because of the subject. The Jazz definitely have improved on paper but there are question marks around the team and how chemistry will work because there are a lot of new faces on the Jazz. It’s hard to predict How the West is going to play out because a couple of the super teams were just freshly formed and it might take them a little bit to get in sync. It’s pretty hard to argue that the Jazz are better than Clippers, Lakers, nuggets and Rockets. I think if the Jazz were to get home court in the first round it would be over Houston but I still have the Jazz sitting at 5 because I think all of those teams got better in the off-season besides the Rockets and quite frankly the Jazz suck against the Rockets LOL but I definitely hope that changes this year. Coming from a huge Jazz fan that’s not bias 

[SwatLakeCityParticipant]

double post. My phone is having issues.

[The GoatParticipant]

Nugs Clips Spurs Lakers Rockets Jazz Blazers Warriors
Sixers Bucks Pacers Celtics Raptors Hawks Magic Heat

Worst teams – Knicks and Hornets

Mavs, Pelicans, Griz all to have a better record than playoff teams in the East, but still miss the playoffs

[ThefabulousjqParticipant]

 I think the west playoffs will be incredible this year.  here’s how i think the regular season might shake out.

1. Clippers
2. Jazz
3. Nuggets
4. Lakers – I think they will be doing some load management for Lebron and AD all season to focus on playoffs.
5. Rockets
6. Blazers
7. Warriors
8. Spurs

9. Pelicans
10. Thunder – They would drop to 13/14/15 if Westbrook gets traded obviously
11. Mavericks
12. Kings
13. Suns
14. Wolves
15. Grizzlies

[Author]

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