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Portland did not look good against our preseason game with them. I'd bet on them.

Pels easily make the playoffs if healthy. Spurs.

Portland has the talent, but I think they need a season or two of playing together to really gel. I’d love it it to the Pelicans, but right now they are too reliant on on Zion, which is fine, but he needs to play a full season for anything to happen. That being said, neither will be the worst team. My money is on the Jazz.

Don’t be surprised if it’s the grizzlies.

bait post meant to insult the pelicans lol

Blazers or Rockets, though there are some teams that could be bad with injuries.

If pelicans stay healthy they’re a top 5 seed

Rockets

I think it’ll end up being Utah. I think the long term plan includes tanking for Cooper Flagg anyway and Ainge should be willing to trade more guys for assets and try to overplay prospects or count on them (Hendricks, George, Sensabaugh…). Last season’s early success won’t continue this season and Ainge should be ready to trade anybody except maybe Kessler (yes, including Markannen if he gets a Gobert/Mitchell-like offer).

Pelicans have a chance to be solid, most likely the rockets, blazer, san Antonio those r my 3 picks.

I can’t see Houston being worse after adding a top 5 coach. And at the most negative a real pg who facilitates and is known for getting a lot of deflections/steals. Even if DB is terrible on offense your wing defense with Brooks Bari and Tari is still very very good. Worst case scenario this team wins 35 games best case is a play in game, team is young but the depth of talent is actually really good, they added two good defenders in the draft who both have NBA ready size. They also brought in other good veteran players in Jeff Green Reggie Bullock and Jock Landale so again even in a stacked west this team has little chance of being a less than 30 win team and will definitely surprise a lot of NBA “fans” who don’t see the tremendous value they added to the team in only one offseason. Rockets will easily be a top 20 defense and could sneak into the 15-12 range if young guys make a good leap under a coach who is knows for getting the most out of wing players especially.

I’m feeling delusional. Rockets easily make the playoffs in at 7 and play top 10 defense and greatly improved with ball movement.

I think the blazers will be a step below those teams, especially the pelicans even if Zion has limited time. The rockets with their new veterans I think are gonna a step up especially defensively now. With Brooks and Ime

I'm loving all the people thinking the rockets will be bottom of the west. Neither Portland or spurs are better than us, even on paper. The rockets defense has looked great. The offense has been iffy but the team added 4 new players to the rotation and a new coach. It'll take time for the chemistry to develop. I don't care if people sleep on us, but we're not going to be a bottom 3 team.

Pelicans were literally in first place in the West before Zion and BI got hurt. If their big three stays healthy, no fucking way they’re even close to the worst team. Damn. Do y’all watch basketball?

Mavericks

Mavs

Blazers, Lakers, Mavericks, Rockets, and Spurs are my expected bottom 5. I expect Warriors and Clippers to be play in. The top 8 becomes much more difficult to predict. Suns and Nuggets on top, of course.

Not sure the West is as stacked as people are saying, though. Over-rating old guys and rookies too much, maybe? That being said, Blazers, Spurs, and Pelicans are the west teams I am most excited to watch.

I think the Blazers and Rockets will both surprise people, they both have talent on the team from high draft picks.

There is a high chance some team in the West gets eaten up with injuries and falls off hard. Clippers are old, Warriors could be either of those.

Without accounting for injuries I think the Jazz have a HARD tank year.

The West is so stacked this year even the bad teams could win 30+ games. I could see every playoff team around 45-50 wins.

Easily Blazers, Pels are not gonna be anywhere near the bottom tf…and Rockets have a lot of SOLID prospects they are gonna struggle but for sure get more wins than projected

Did an AI make this post

I would go with the Spurs. They have the worst backcourt in the league, and its tough to win without competent guard play. Even if Wemby is a stud, they will struggle.

The Blazers and Rockets have some legit veterans and I think they’ll be somewhat competitive.

Lakers

My current prediction for bottom 5 in the West is....

11. Whichever team of the usual top 11 gets the most injuries.

12. Rockets: I think our roster is heavily upgraded. We're going from Silas to Udoka, KPJ/Nix to FVV/Amen, and then replacing 20/21 year old bench pieces with actual NBA vets. It's just a gigantic upgrade on all fronts. There's the chance we struggle to gel, but the signs have been promising in pre-season. One of the main reasons I have us at 12 though, is that we have no incentive to tank. We don't have our own pick, so we'll be fighting for wins all year and I think we have the depth to outlast injuries.

13. Spurs: They look great in pre-season and Wemby looks more NBA ready than I thought. They could easily jump up into the play-in, but they also could easily fall to 15 if Wemby misses a lot of time which is still a concern for me due to his size. I also think there's incentive for them to tank at the mid-way point in the season if they're not in the play-in spots. This is probably the last chance they have a shot at a high pick with Wemby on the roster now and it may make sense to capitalize on it.

14. Jazz: It's ridiculous a team with the Jazz's roster is down here, but the West is just deep this year. Main reason I have them down here is that they were 10-16 after trading Conley and they're too dependent on Lauri for scoring. A Lauri injuries could bottom them out, and I'm not confident in their PG options at the moment. I also just think Ainge secretly wants to tank to get more high tier prospects, and is just waiting for a reason to do so. If they're near the bottom at the deadline, I think they become sellers.

15. Blazers: They have a good 7-8 man roster, but not much after that so I think injuries could hurt this team more than most. Brogdon and Timelord are also part of the main rotation and consistently have injury issues too. I also don't trust Billups as a coach while I trust the coaches for the other three teams above them much more. I like the way the rebuild is going, but they're not in the rush and will probably look to add another top 5 pick next to Scoot which is probably the better move long term.

Spurs, Blazers, then Rockets

Rockets maybe

Grizzlies for sure. It having Ja for 25 games is gonna be a mess. That’s assuming he comes back and plays those other ones with no issues but no Clarke and now no Adams, yikes