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?
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
The hard part is the start winning games part but if you can do that then sure.
I don’t think 12-5 will get you into the playoffs, most playoff teams have at least 30 wins
all you need to do is buy off the refs like the Browns.
Two weeks in a row smh
The Browns?? Are you trolling? The most losing franchise in the history of all professional sports with the most qb’s started since their inception back in Cleveland.
If they had one or two calls go their way this year, they are approximately 20 years overdue.
Kudos for taking a joke response to a joke post too seriously.
But for what it’s worth, the Browns were just gifted two consecutive wins by epic ref ball.
Please do this! We need your help!
Hell yeah, Pats vs Panthers super bowl rematch
No one is talking about the Thunder……. /s
Good observation, that team has so many young talented players it won’t surprise me if they do well maybe even better than expected this season. Probably depends on some kind of defensive cohesion develops because they score easily but don’t seem to consistently get stops at critical times in close games.
he was being sarcastic lol everyone expects it to be the thunder
Thunder will be good. They’re incredibly underrated. I think Giddey is going to be a star.
Giddey, Shai, Chet, and Jay Dub. Solid, solid core.
Orlando fookin Magic
Look, man… I don’t think they’ll go deep in the playoffs, but I love the Magic this year. I can see a 7 game round 1, and wouldn’t be completely shocked if they pull off a winning the first round.
Depends on health
Bwahahaha…
I would love to see Atlanta win again. Seems like it’s been a long time
I think Trae has a really good year coming up tbh, i’m sceptical of Murray tho
It has last time they won a championship was in 57 when they were in St Louis
They never even made the Finals under Dominique right?
They never even made the conference finals with Dominique unfortunately.
Dang, that’s surprising, but I guess Bird’s Celtics will do that to you.
Going 6 games in the ECF is literally the furthest in the playoffs we’ve been since the Hawks moved to Atlanta. Have only been to the Conference finals twice since we moved here in 1969.
Least Atlanta’s becoming a hot bed. Ya’ll will be able to classify yourselves as a big market in the next 10 years.
Yea I doubt that. Too much a transfer city without the attractions that somewhere like New York or LA offer
But it’s got a burgeoning media market?
Because that’s helped the Bulls and the Knicks so much… :(
Chicago was never a big market lol- it just benefitted from MJ’s legacy. Their best prospects have been draft picks.
Knicks may have had shitty management, but that hasn’t impeded them from getting good free agents.
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).
Sorry, how the hell are either of those teams “dark horses” to make the playoffs? The Kings were literally in the playoffs last season, and pushed the Warriors to 7 games. Barring serious injuries, they’re 100% going back to the playoffs.
And the Thunder are stacked as hell and have a ton of great young dudes on the team. Again, barring serious injury, they’re essentially a shoe-in.
These are not risky bets or dark horses in any way.
Your T-Wolves are definitely more of a dark horse. I’m hoping to see them in the postseason, but you can never tell with those dudes.
How are the Thunder a shoe-in for the playoffs but the Wolves are a dark horse? I don’t get the logic behind this statement everyone keeps making.
The Kings and OKC are nowhere near 100% locks to make the playoffs. Outside the Nuggets and Suns I don’t think anyone in the West is a lock to make the playoffs.
making the playoffs ≠ making a deep playoff run
Oh tomdawg, ye of little faith
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
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.
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.
Dinwiddie manning the pg as well.
That spacing of Simmons and Claxton 😩
Simmons doesn’t play so the spacing isn’t an issue
And free throws… Defense potential on the nets looks good at least.
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.
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.
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.
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.
New Orleans. The actual deepest team in the league.
IF Zion can stay healthy.
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.
and BI
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.
who would you pair wemby with
trading for a big name is not really their style.
hopefully they view Mitchell as a ‘superstar’ though.
But why would they trade for a superstar?
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.
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.
That’s how the Mavs messed up the Luka rebuild by going all in on KP too fast
San Antonio don’t do that. And won’t while Pop and RC are still there.
The dark horse scenario for me is a Vassell breakout season.
Probably the Bucks, Celtics, Suns, or Nuggets
A fully healthy pelicans could at least make things interesting
yikes.
Pelicans legitimately lacking talent. Zion can be a top-20 player. Trey is good. CJ is decent.
This is a playin team. Even in their wildest dreams they have no chance at a ring.
I fell for this trap last year, their overall skill level is insane for how well they ended up doing last year, if they all stay healthy they are definitely a force
That’s the thing…
Obviously ingram needs to stay healthy but it’s zion. If zion plays 60+ game it will be a miracle and they will be the 4 seed
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.
Kawhi being healthy is still not the same Kawhi from even 2 years ago. The injuries have taken a toll on his body and his declining athleticism was noticeable last season. He’s still a hell of a player and his shooting looks better than ever but I doubt we’ll ever see the athletic beast Kawhi again.
If they get Harden their problem is being ancient although pg style harden might fit well i suppose, i also wouldn’t call Kawhi fully healthy ever again with his chronic knee issues
I am always rooting for the counted out players and teams. It probably won’t happen, but it would be so fucking funny if they just steamrolled everyone this year.
In a similar vein, it would be pure comedy if Ben Simmons was a legitimate MVP candidate this year.
Hey Kawhi, your degenerative knee thing has somehow become regenerative. This is great news.
How long does a motivated James Harden last? I like the clips, i hope they don’t get Harden. Guy is a legit cancer.
Until he gets paid or gets a ring. Dude is a top 25 player still and would only help in facilitating for Leonard and George, not to mention he’s played with Westbrook so….
In regards to your “top 25 player” - which I can’t reply to;
- He just led the league in assists,
- set a career high in AST/TO ratio,
- had highest OffRtg as a starter,
- with the 2nd best 3pt% of his career.
- 25th in PER
- 18th in Win Shares
- 20th in WS/48
- 18th in BPM
- 15th in VORP
He was a top 25 player last season.
I’m not a harden fan in the least but idk how people even argue he wasn’t top 25.
More than one season, which is what OP is talking about.
And what makes him a cancer?
He asked out of a rebuild. Was he a cancer then? Then asked to get away from a teammate who refused to play. Was he a cancer then?
And now it’s been confirmed that his mother is sick, so is he really that vile for wanting to go home with her?Would his new Clipper teammates really care about him leaving Philly.
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.
do they still got willy?
Moriah Mills to release video with Johnny Sins
Zion out for season
I mean, might as well strike when the iron is still lukewarm. People already lost interest in the Mills storyline
Agreed
Yeah I agree. Zion is top 5/10 if he plays. No reason they couldn’t make noise. If he plays.
A healthy Zion is about as likely as a healthy Kawhi at this point.
If those two play a combined 70 games this year, I’ll probably faint
Literally see this every year before they lose in or don’t even make the play in
Literally see this every year before Zion gets injured
FTFY
It’s just on Zion staying healthy tbh. If he’s healthy they can get into the playoffs and if the seeding shakes out right take a series.
Basically no dark horse can actually make a run in the playoffs if they get there. They theoretically have the talent to do that
I agree 100%. If anything I think the Moriah Mills situation might have him spending more time in the guys and less time in the club. Seems like he’s in good shape too. It sounds crazy, but I actually think they’re the 2nd best team in the West.
Thats wild right there
spending more time in the guys
…ayo?
You think Moriah the only one with a tongue tornado trick? Zion about to show dem bois
Paaaaauuuuse
Got Zion confused with Dwight Howard?
Man she really succeeded in tearing down a professional athlete to make herself relevant. People really still talking about her
I think she’s a bonafide loser. However I couldn’t resist making the 12-year old level joke.
Understandable
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
youve never seen him play then
We have a lot of key guys already hurt to start the season. Maybe im a pessimist but it’s not gonna be this year
The Knicks have alot of picks and salarys
They are homestly a few trades away I feel especially in the east and if Miami could hopefully take the bucks out again lol
Yeah yeah, totally, they could trade for like KAT and do so well. They should do that right now. KAT is perfect for NYC. I would hate it as the fan of another Eastern conference team if that were to happen.