In the East, my vote would be Brooklyn or Atlanta.
Brooklyn is deep at just about every position. Mikal Bridges is a very good scorer. Cam Johnson a very talented 2-way player. Dinwiddie a solid 2-guard. Claxton is one of the more impressive young centers in the league. A lot rides on Simmons and if he can be 75 percent of what he once was. At the very least, he looks to be in shape entering the season. Brooklyn looks to have a plethora of two-way players. The question is if Bridges can be the main scorer on a contending title team.
Atlanta has Trae Young, who is now flying under the radar as one of the best scoring guards in the NBA, and many solid defensive pieces surrounding him in Murray, Hunter, Capela. If Trae can get a hot in a playoff series, you never know.
In the West, I think it’s Minnesota. On paper, they are loaded with talent. Ant, KAT, McDaniels, Gobert, Reid, Conley and Anderson might be as good of a first 7 you will find in the league today. Of course, the main question is — can Chris Finch make Towns and Gobert work offensively? We saw how tough Minnesota can be in the Denver series last year. With most everyone on their roster now having multiple years of playoff experience in addition to having continuity among their depth chart and coaching staff, they are my sneaky pick to make the West finals this year.
Who is your sneaky pick in each conference to make a deep playoff run? Or do you believe there’s no logical selection?
Nobody in these types of threads mentions Dallas. Luka has MVP candidate ceiling. Irving gives him a secondary star power. They made gains in their depth with Curry, G.Williams, & Holmes.
They were in the WCF two years ago and right now nobody is even talking about them as a fringe playoff team.
Its crazy missing PO did that to you
But whatever, its fun being underdog lol
With the Mavs, the knock on them is defense and clutch offense down the stretch.
I think they made movies to address the saloon door defense of last year, and a whole off season will improve end of game offense.
But their defense was never THAT good before the trade and they will rely on rookies to make sizeable positive contributions immediately. Which isn't often the case. I see them as a paper tiger without making some more moves.
We were #29 on DRTG after kyrie trade, if it can be in 17-20 range, we are PO team
Its not just rookies. Grant Williams, Greeny another leap, Exum, DJJ. That's new 5 guys that on paper has defensive side of the ball. That should be also fine on offense (last year bullock-doe-frank were good on D but basically one dimensional on O)
And we were WORST clutch team last year because no chemostry post ASB and Luka-ball pre ASB. Again if we can be just in middle of the pack of this stat, that's extra 5 win minimum
Luka seems to always have a nagging injury and their depth isn’t great, beyond their top 2 they have no real punching power. Holmes got hardly any time on the Kings, Grant Williams is a good add and Curry is good but probably not even playable in the playoffs due to his size
Plus under the radar guys like Exum and Lively. Very different team than last year.
Exum is absolute trash loo
When are people going to understand he is not a NBA player lol