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?
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.
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.
Chicago is the biggest city in the entire US after LA and NY lmao, if they aren’t a big market then what is?
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?
It’s had a media market for years. CNN and Tbs are both from Atlanta. Doesn’t change anything