1. houston (62 wins) 2.phoenix 59 3.dallas58 4.san antonio56 5. utah49 6.denver48 7.new orleans44 8. lakers43 golden state and clippers will miss out late. portland will play well in the 2nd half of the season. sac memphis and seattle will be lucky to win 30 games. minnesota is unknown due to what they will do with garnett
Seattle is going to be in the running based on what? a rookie Durant? Memphis and Sac will also be nowhere close.
There are six virtual locks barring injuries - Texas Triangle, Suns, Jazz, Nuggets. Other two are truly up for grabs.
I like your top 8, both your top 4 grouping and 5-8. I have doubts about the Clippers missing late because they could end up a basket case. Portland, Sactown, the Grizz and Sonics are great choices for the bottom 4, although Minny belongs in there to make a bottom 5 no matter what happens with KG. Next season, Randy Wittman will prove beyond the shadow of a doubt he isn't NBA head coach material. What makes the Rockets unique in your top 4 is I believe our team will look different at the end of the season than it starts out. The other 3 teams are more set and predictable. I doubt we end up the #1 seed though.
The team with an interesting offseason/season will be the Lakers. Are they going to stand pat or make moves to try to please Kobe. They could very easily be out of the playoffs, or a much higher seed if they get Kobe a stud player via trade.
Great question and thread! With the improving Hornets (getting Peja back), and improving Grizz, and the improving Sonics and to a smaller degree Tblazers, OMG, the West is so packed it is scary. Can't wait for the season to start....
Dal 66 Still Deepest team Hou 60 Much Improved Sas 59 Always Solid, still fave in playoffs Phx 58 Strong, but declining Uta 55 Slowly Improving Den 52 2-man show needs more Lal 50 1-man show needs more Noh 49 The year they turn the corner
we need an easy team in the first round. lakers/clips will be great. idk, for some reason, the rfreakin hornets have the team's number.
I disagree. Dallas isn't the deepest anymore. My take: HOU-66: The deepest team with the best players overall. Our bench would start in the East. DAL-60: Deep team, but not as good as before. PHX-58: Strong team, but I agree, they are on the decline SAS-54: A strong team, that doesn't seem to be getting any weaker, though their players (only some of them) seem to be getting up there in years. UTA-53: Slowly on the rise, but not one of the West's elite DEN-51: Have to strong players and some scrubs. Can still be great though, so I have them in. LAL-49: This is if Kobe is there (which he probably will be). NO-47: This team is on the rise. They somehow have the Rockets' number. I see them being no higher than the eighth seed.
It will take some time for the players to gel and get used to the new system, and there will probably some experiment time early in the season. So I expect roughly the same number of games (around 55) as that of last season.
Good analysis... 1) Dal 65 - out the gate fast and out to prove everybody wrong... 2) Hou 62 - chemistry probs early on get hot 30 games in 3) SAS 58 - Same ole Spurs coasting during the reg season 4) Phx 57 - Some decline...west too tough not to catch up with them some 5) Den 53 - too much talent and will gel early...esp if KMart returns 6) Uta 51 - not much done to improve in the offseason...good but not great 7) NO 47 - Definitely on the rise with young talent learning to play together 8) LAL 45 - Kobe too good for them to miss playoffs 2 yrs in a row 7)
