this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2023
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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?

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[–] Acceptable-Dust6479@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (4 children)

No one is talking about the Thunder……. /s

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[–] GeraltFromHiShinUnit@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (3 children)
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[–] CrazyDaylight8@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I would love to see Atlanta win again. Seems like it's been a long time

[–] IronSnake1@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

It has last time they won a championship was in 57 when they were in St Louis

[–] Vegetable-Tooth8463@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They never even made the Finals under Dominique right?

[–] maemikemae@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They never even made the conference finals with Dominique unfortunately.

[–] Vegetable-Tooth8463@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (14 children)

Dang, that's surprising, but I guess Bird's Celtics will do that to you.

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[–] tomdawg0022@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Kings and Thunder in the West. I really think Giddey-SGA-Jalen Williams are gonna be a handful for a lot of teams.

I don't think we (Wolves) have the mental capacity to make a deep playoff run. We could win 50 and still bounce in round 1 because of our team's basketball IQ being pretty bad (still).

[–] Magazine_Mediocre@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Oh tomdawg, ye of little faith

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[–] FlochofBirds@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Trae can't carry the load offensively, not in an East as stacked as we have now. Bucks/Celtics aside, 76ers/Heat/Knicks/Cavs are all distinctly better teams. I can see the Hawks stealing a series from either the 76ers or the Knicks but that's about it. 2nd round aspirations are the peak of the Hawks' potential IMO

I agree with Minnesota, depending on Ant's growth

[–] SaltyTraeYoungStan@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Whenever Trae is kn the court they are one of the best offensive teams in the league, and now they have proper coaching surrounding him. The only thing Trae should never be questioned on is his undeniable offensive presence.

[–] thesch@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I think Brooklyn is more likely to be the 12th seed than make a run in the playoffs. Mikal and Claxton are nice but they still only went 12-15 after the KD trade last year and that includes some games against tanking teams they beat up on.

Atlanta and Minnesota I can at least see an argument for.

[–] WarmSlime666@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Agreed with you on that. I just don’t see a world where Brooklyn wins more than 38-40 games. They have some real talent in bridges/claxton/johnson/dinwiddie, but there’s still ~8 mid tier teams vying for that play-in/playoff spot.

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[–] nikop@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm gonna lose my mind with the slobbering over Minnesota for getting gentlemen swept in the first round. I thought that the Lakers "close" sweep was out of hand but the "Minnesota put up a great fight against Denver" is on another level.

[–] 42Vert@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Who is hyping us? Seriously though every ranking has us as a 6th-9th seed. The Edwards hype has gone a little overboard tbh but the Wolves as a whole are definitely not getting the slobbering treatment your talking about. I regularly see people rank OKC over us.

[–] nikop@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

It's more about the floodgates that Bruce Brown opened with his podcast comments. The series really wasn't close enough for the Wolves to keep getting praised so much for it. It really should have been a sweep had Jokic not missed a game-winning free throw. Winning one game and in overtime no less just isn't enough to justify all the slobbering I've seen about how well Minnesota played in the playoffs.

[–] ArtieFoucault@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

New Orleans. The actual deepest team in the league.

[–] Drag0nborn1234@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] ArtieFoucault@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

A hundred percent. If the main guys are healthy, this is a bad team, man. They can respond to anything thrown at them with how versatile they are. I love their role players.

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[–] DraymondBeanKick@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (5 children)

San Antonio Spurs

Wembanyama is going to walk into the NBA as the best defensive player in the league and they're loaded with draft picks to trade for a superstar midseason.

[–] Anxious_Star_5710@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

But why would they trade for a superstar?

[–] WarmSlime666@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

If the right guy is available, why wouldn’t they? Building a contender around Wemby would realistically take years of development. Wemby’s biggest concern is his health and I think it would be in SA’s best interest to put out a competing team sooner rather than later, just in case.

[–] Bombast_@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Because maybe it turns out Wemby is so good right away that somebody gets the idea that they should try to win it all year 1. I think that would be a big mistake, but it's also not the craziest thing I've heard.

[–] LoveMavs1031@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

That’s how the Mavs messed up the Luka rebuild by going all in on KP too fast

[–] RPETennis@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

The dark horse scenario for me is a Vassell breakout season.

[–] bochanegra1@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

San Antonio don't do that. And won't while Pop and RC are still there.

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[–] ChunkyMilkSubstance@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Probably the Bucks, Celtics, Suns, or Nuggets

[–] herseyhawkins33@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

A fully healthy pelicans could at least make things interesting

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[–] wjbc@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (9 children)

I think everyone has written off the Clippers because they haven’t been able to stay healthy. But both Kawhi Leonard and Paul George have been pronounced "fully healthy.” And it’s possible they will obtain a motivated James Harden before the season is over.

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[–] CoachDT@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (20 children)

The Pelicans are gonna be dangerous. Nobody except Moriah Mills can really handle a healthy Zion, and they have a pretty deep squad with quality pieces.

[–] WHERE_R_THE_TURTLES@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Zion will turn out not to be what everyone was and still hopes he will be. I don’t understand the hype, and certainly not from a longevity perspective

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[–] aturdnamedvert@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Man she really succeeded in tearing down a professional athlete to make herself relevant. People really still talking about her

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[–] Original_Trick_8552@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The Knicks have alot of picks and salarys

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[–] Ferromagneticfluid@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Kings for sure. Not any huge flashy moves, and people act like Sabonis doesn't have a mid range.

[–] Persianx6@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago
[–] magicbeaned@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

You just described the Miami Heat again.

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[–] ogreman45@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] ApuFromTechSupport@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Toumani MVP campaign starts now

[–] uncledooey@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Raps baby let’s gooooo

[–] logster2001@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Pretty much any team in the East other than the Wizards, Pistons, and Hornets imo. The conference is just so top heavy with Bucks, Celtics, Heat, and Sixers.

And it’s unlikely those 4 teams end up all being the top 4 seeds. So that means in the East a number of non contending could easily get a matchup with other non contending team, guaranteeing one of them a playoff series win

[–] DorkandPoon@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (12 children)

People say it every year but if the Clippers stay healthy they have a good shot at going all the way. It’s just a monumental “if”

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[–] BoopasaurusRex_____@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Carolina panthers. We could start winning and stop losing, end 12-5, and beat all the other teams in the playoffs on our way to winning the Super Bowl

[–] SoKrat3s@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

all you need to do is buy off the refs like the Browns.

[–] PBB22@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Two weeks in a row smh

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[–] dmatthews2981@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Hell yeah, Pats vs Panthers super bowl rematch

[–] BoneyardBill@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Please do this! We need your help!

[–] explicitreasons@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

The hard part is the start winning games part but if you can do that then sure.

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