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Heat

Kings. Again.

Pelicans if Zion is healthy and Pacers.

In the East the Bucks and Celtics are such heavy favorites you could pick the 3rd best team and they would be considered a Dark Horse. IMO the team with the best chance to upset BOTH Milwaukee and Boston is Cleveland.

Cleveland has Donovan Mitchell who's basically Steph Lite.

Darius Garland will be moving into his prime and be a top 3 PG in the east.

Evan Mobley is already a very good defensive PF that scores above average from the paint we could see a big jump in his 3rd season.

Jarrett Allen a double double machine who's an above average defender.

Caris LeVert a 6'6" glue guy that can do it all for Cleveland.

Anyway they are my choice for Dark Horse as they at least have the size to deal with Giannis.

Spurs to win Division at +6500 or finish 2nd in division is an absolute steal

I agree with the Hawks for sure. I think they get a 4-5th seed and give the 1 seed Celtics a series (but ultimately just get out-matched based on talent)

Pacers. Halliburton is great. The team is young, but they play fast and made some good moves in the off season. I think they are better than the Hawks, better than the Nets, better than Toronto. I’m putting them 6 in the East.

Not the Hornets.

In terms of expectations...

Yeah... Both MIN and ATL could pencil into that "playoffs or bust" category. Not as extreme as, "if you are not clearly in the playoffs by the TD blow it up while you can still get something out of it" territory. More like, you can take the season, but if you don't meet your goals, this thing as is isn't going to git er dun.

OKC shouldn't be surprise to anybody. They can do whatever they want to do. Everybody should be keeping an eye on what OKC does this season. Biggest and most interesting variable in the league.

I would have ORL as the most "advanced" of the young teams, in that they are closer to a playoffs as the goal team than DET, SAS, POR... Definitely going to keep an eye on ORL for any roster consolidation moves, and/or whether they are looking to do something at the TD or not.

The Denver Nuggets

Ice Trae will demolish your favorite team and you will cry about it

Pelicans. If Zion’s healthy, they’re as good as anyone. It’s not like it’s IMPOSSIBLE for him to be healthy. He just needs to show up in better shape.

Toronto. I sincerely think that after 1-2, the east is wide open. Every team has a lot of ifs. But what I’ve seen preseason looks really good for a team that could push to the second round at least.

Thunder or Kings couod do damage.

....Indiana

Jazz

I like the Knicks. Jalen Brunson was so damn good in the playoffs for the second year in a row. Randle hasn't been good in the offs but I think he's better than his relatively small playoff history would say (he was legitimately hurt last year and was over burdened in 20-21). As a second option playing off of Brunson and the rest of the drive and kick game I could see him being a problem.

They have super solid depth at most positions, just need Quickly to get hot and Rj to shoot like he did in the 23 playoffs and they check a lot of boxes.

As a Heat fan I was really impressed with how well they played with Randle hurt and Quick being a negative.

I think Orlando in the East and Trailblazers in the West.

Do the Pacers count? I think they’ve got some exciting pieces, but no one on this sub seems to be talking about them. Hell, Obi Toppin did a between the legs dunk in a game a couple nights ago and it wasn’t posted here.

I don’t think they’re championship caliber, but I could see them spoiling some things for a team that is.

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.

Sixers when nobody expecting that. Nick Nurse in first year always performing terrific on new job. When they solve Harden saga, some nice addition plus better chemistry would be another boost. Embiid is actual MVP(not deserved, but OKAY), Maxey MIP and maybe even All Star main candidate, Melton is one of best league disrupters. Tobias exit from bad contract, he want another big contract somewhere, gonna play solid as usual.

In potential series that never happened in last six years on East, they got shot against Milwaukee

the heat are the dark horse of the playoffs every year since the bubble

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