2021-2022 Playoff Predictions

[Maury]

It's time to get everything wrong again. Here are my predictions:

East
1. Milwaukee
2. Brooklyn
3. Miami
4. Toronto
5. Philly
6. Atlanta
7. Chicago
8. Washington
9. Charlotte
10. Indiana
11. New York

West
1. LA Lakers
2. Golden State
3. Phoenix
4. Utah
5. Denver
6. LA Clippers
7. Dallas
8. Portland
9. Memphis
10. New Orleans
11. Minnesota

I have New York and San Antonio falling out of the playoffs altogether. The bulls should be good, the hawks are a little overrated, the warriors should be really really good. Lebron and AD are gonna go for it this year, and Russ should help them out a lot in the regular season.

[inthepaint]

It's time to get everything wrong again. Here are my predictions:

East
1. Milwaukee
2. Brooklyn
3. Miami
4. Toronto
5. Philly
6. Atlanta
7. Chicago
8. Washington
9. Charlotte
10. Indiana
11. New York

West
1. LA Lakers
2. Golden State
3. Phoenix
4. Utah
5. Denver
6. LA Clippers
7. Dallas
8. Portland
9. Memphis
10. New Orleans
11. Minnesota

I have New York and San Antonio falling out of the playoffs altogether. The bulls should be good, the hawks are a little overrated, the warriors should be really really good. Lebron and AD are gonna go for it this year, and Russ should help them out a lot in the regular season.

No Boston? I like it!

East
1. Brooklyn
2. Milwaukee
3. Philly
4. Miami
5. Chicago
6. Atlanta
7. Boston
8. Toronto
9. Indiana
10. New York
11. Washignton
12. Charlotte
13. Detroit
14. Cleveland
15. Orlando

[planetmars]

This will change depending on a few things like a potential Ben Simmons trade. But this is what I see happening:

East
1. Brooklyn
2. Milwaukee
3. Miami
4. Philly
5. Atlanta
6. Indiana
7. Toronto
8. Boston
9. NY
10. Chicago
11. Washington
12. Charlotte
13. Detroit
14. Cleveland
15. Orlando

I've flip flopped so many times, but sticking with this here. I had Indiana out of the playoffs and Chicago in, but I think Indiana will become stabilized next season with Carlisle at the helm. Chicago added some nice pieces but everyone needs the ball in their hands. And it's kind of a weird roster that was put together. Like a Bryan Colangelo roster. The play-in tourney will actually be really fun.



West:
1. Phoenix
2. Denver
3. Utah
4. LA Lakers
5. Dallas
6. Golden State
7. LA Clippers
8. Portland
9. Minnesota
10. Memphis
11. New Orleans
12. Sacramento
13. OKC
14. San Antonio
15. Houston

I think Portland and LAC win the play-in round. They just have too much star talent to not get in. Although I see Minnesota with a big jump. Finch will have them playing the right way. I think Memphis finally takes a dip.. losing JV will hurt them. I don't think the Warriors will have a great season.. but if this plays out like I think it will, they will "upset" the Jazz and get to the second round.

[KeonClark]

One thing that struck me, with kawhi out extended and some question marks amongst the "super teams", is East actually better than West this year??? It's close.. Haven't thought that in like 25 years lol.

East

1. Brooklyn
2. Milwaukee
3. Miami
4. Philly
5. Atlanta
6. Boston
7. Toronto
8. New York
9. Chicago
10. Indiana
11. Washington
12. Charlotte
13. Detroit
14. Cleveland
15. Orlando

West:

1. Denver
2. Utah
3. LA Lakers
4. Golden State
5. Dallas
6. Portland
7. Phoenix
8. LA Clippers
9. Memphis
10. New Orleans
11. Minnesota
12. OKC
13. San Antonio
14. Sacramento
15. Houston

[The Great One]

1. Bucks
2. Nets
3. Heat
4. Bulls
5. Celtics
6. Sixers
7. Raptors
8. Hawks
9. Pacers
10. Knicks

I think it's pretty obvious who the top 3 teams in the Conf(Bucks, Nets, Heat). I have the Bulls at 4. I think people are sleeping on them. They have now surrounded LaVine with legit talents. Lonzo Ball imo is going to be a star in Chicago.

Sixers at 6 because there's a lot of things going on behind the scenes there. Simmons has become a major distraction. Even if he returns he's going to be a distraction bec everyone know he doesn't want to be there.

I have the Raps at 7. I think they're going to be a tough tough team to play against.

Hawks at 8 and Knicks at 10. What the Knicks and Hawks did last year was a fluke imo.

[Hotshot]

1. Nets
2. Bucks
3. Heat
4. Hawks
5. 76'ers
6. Celtics
7. Raptors
8. Hornets
9. Bulls
10. Pacers.
11. Knicks
12. Cavs
​​​​​​​13. Wizards
14. Pistons
15. Magic

[LJ2]

Are you guys placing 76'ers so high based on an expected return for Simmons? It looks almost certain he won't play for Philly this season, so if he's not there that team is likely fighting for the 8th seed. Good chance Embiid sits a bunch of games for rest or injury.

[saints91]

1. Milwaukee
2. Brooklyn
3. Atlanta
4. Miami
5. Toronto
6. Philly
7. Boston
8. Chicago
9. Indiana
10. New York
11. Washington

West
1. LA Lakers
2. Utah
3. Phoenix
4. Utah
5. Denver
6. Golden State
7. Dallas
8. Portland
9. Memphis
10. Clippers
11. Minnesota

Championship - Milwaukee vs. Lakers =
Milwaukee repeats

I don’t think Brooklyn will be healthy enough to win this year.

[Hotshot]

Are you guys placing 76'ers so high based on an expected return for Simmons? It looks almost certain he won't play for Philly this season, so if he's not there that team is likely fighting for the 8th seed. Good chance Embiid sits a bunch of games for rest or injury.

I think they will mitigate the Simmons situation where if things start to slide in a major way, they will trade him sooner rather than later and thus fill the void. Although the the whole thing could still collapse if Embiid gets injured and misses a big chunk of the season.

[Primer]

I think they will mitigate the Simmons situation where if things start to slide in a major way, they will trade him sooner rather than later and thus fill the void. Although the the whole thing could still collapse if Embiid gets injured and misses a big chunk of the season.

It's just not a great roster without Simmons. Will be interesting to see who blinks first. Does the lack of pay get to Simmons or does he hold out long enough for losses to start piling up and they are desperate enough to move him for fair value.

[KeonClark]

1. Bucks
2. Nets
3. Heat
4. Bulls
5. Celtics
6. Sixers
7. Raptors
8. Hawks
9. Pacers
10. Knicks

I think it's pretty obvious who the top 3 teams in the Conf(Bucks, Nets, Heat). I have the Bulls at 4. I think people are sleeping on them. They have now surrounded LaVine with legit talents. Lonzo Ball imo is going to be a star in Chicago.

Sixers at 6 because there's a lot of things going on behind the scenes there. Simmons has become a major distraction. Even if he returns he's going to be a distraction bec everyone know he doesn't want to be there.

I have the Raps at 7. I think they're going to be a tough tough team to play against.

Hawks at 8 and Knicks at 10. What the Knicks and Hawks did last year was a fluke imo.

Problem with the Bulls is twofold: none of their starters can defend, and despite surrounding Lavine with legit talent, their best player is still Lavine. When your best player isn't great and you can't defend at most of your positions, you're in for a middling season.

Now, if they had a good coach that specializes in figuring out star players roles and whatnot, say Thibs or D'Antoni, I'd think they're in for a 4th seed type of year. But instead, they have known average turd Billy Donovan. I think the Raptors are much better, Bulls will be in the play in mix.

[golden]

Problem with the Bulls is twofold: none of their starters can defend, and despite surrounding Lavine with legit talent, their best player is still Lavine. When your best player isn't great and you can't defend at most of your positions, you're in for a middling season.

Now, if they had a good coach that specializes in figuring out star players roles and whatnot, say Thibs or D'Antoni, I'd think they're in for a 4th seed type of year. But instead, they have known average turd Billy Donovan. I think the Raptors are much better, Bulls will be in the play in mix.

Lavine put up 27.5 PPG on 31% USG with 64% TS%. That's about as great as scoring gets in the NBA.

TBH, Lavine is exactly what this Raptors team needs at SG.

[chris]

Problem with the Bulls is twofold: none of their starters can defend, and despite surrounding Lavine with legit talent, their best player is still Lavine. When your best player isn't great and you can't defend at most of your positions, you're in for a middling season.

Now, if they had a good coach that specializes in figuring out star players roles and whatnot, say Thibs or D'Antoni, I'd think they're in for a 4th seed type of year. But instead, they have known average turd Billy Donovan. I think the Raptors are much better, Bulls will be in the play in mix.

i remember listening to a zach lowe podcast with baxter holmes a few years ago (when he was their beat writer for ESPN) and being surprised at the high esteem in which he held donavan. he insisted he was a great basketball mind but that russell westbrook is just really hard to coach, and goes completely off-script at will.

fast forward a bit and they massively overachieved the moment they traded away westbrook. most would attribute that solely to chris paul, which i get.

but he might actually be a decent coach. hard to tell from the bulls performance last year... that roster was so young and i really dislike some of their guys that they are/were invested in (i.e. white, markkanen). i've been bullish on the bulls being bad for years while many on this board have been picking them to make the playoffs, but i think this year might finally be the year they make the leap to respectability and finish somewhere in the 6 to 8 range

[S.R.]

Put it over in another thread too but the Bulls have a bunch of very good basketball players, and in the end that matters a lot even if the pieces aren't a perfect or ideal fit.

Demar's going to be really key for pulling it together. He's a team-first guy, he's willing to adapt and evolve and he's become a very good facilitator. I think the ball moves well there, they'll be able to score a lot, and they'll be able to defend enough to still win quite a bit. They'll be pushing for homecourt in the first round.

[KeonClark]

Lavine put up 27.5 PPG on 31% USG with 64% TS%. That's about as great as scoring gets in the NBA.

TBH, Lavine is exactly what this Raptors team needs at SG.

The most Zach Lavine teams have ever won is 31 games. Once he wins 32 games, let alone the playoffs, I'll consider using superlatives like "great"