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 2 years ago (4 children)

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

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[–] GeraltFromHiShinUnit@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (3 children)
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[–] CrazyDaylight8@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (3 children)

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

[–] IronSnake1@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

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

[–] Vegetable-Tooth8463@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

They never even made the Finals under Dominique right?

[–] maemikemae@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

They never even made the conference finals with Dominique unfortunately.

[–] Vegetable-Tooth8463@alien.top 1 points 2 years 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 2 years 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 2 years ago

Oh tomdawg, ye of little faith

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[–] FlochofBirds@alien.top 1 points 2 years 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 2 years 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 2 years 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 2 years 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 2 years 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 2 years 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 2 years 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 2 years ago (1 children)

New Orleans. The actual deepest team in the league.

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

But why would they trade for a superstar?

[–] WarmSlime666@alien.top 1 points 2 years 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 2 years 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 2 years ago

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

[–] RPETennis@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

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

[–] bochanegra1@alien.top 1 points 2 years 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 2 years ago

Probably the Bucks, Celtics, Suns, or Nuggets

[–] herseyhawkins33@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (3 children)

A fully healthy pelicans could at least make things interesting

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[–] wjbc@alien.top 1 points 2 years 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 2 years 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 2 years 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 2 years 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 2 years ago (2 children)

The Knicks have alot of picks and salarys

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[–] Ferromagneticfluid@alien.top 1 points 2 years 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 2 years ago
[–] magicbeaned@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (3 children)

You just described the Miami Heat again.

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[–] ogreman45@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] ApuFromTechSupport@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Toumani MVP campaign starts now

[–] uncledooey@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Raps baby let’s gooooo

[–] logster2001@alien.top 1 points 2 years 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 2 years 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 2 years 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 2 years ago (3 children)

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

[–] PBB22@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Two weeks in a row smh

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[–] dmatthews2981@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Hell yeah, Pats vs Panthers super bowl rematch

[–] BoneyardBill@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Please do this! We need your help!

[–] explicitreasons@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

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

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