Everything Playoffs

[Maury]

List your top 8 in both conferences, and playoff brackets if you want to. Also, predict the worst teams in the league as well.

Here’s mine:

East

1. Toronto
2. Boston
3. Indiana
4. Philly
5. Milwaukee
6. Washington
7. Detroit
8. Miami
9. Cleveland

West

1. Golden State
2. LA Lakers
3. Houston
4. Denver
5. Utah
6. Minnesota
7. San Antonio
8. New Orleans
9. Portland

Worst team in the league: Atlanta.

[Bonus Jonas]

Why are people assuming Detroit are gonna make the playoffs

Reggie Jackson is the most inconsistent point guard in the league

Their wing depth is 2 3-point shooting young guys, neither of which are good defensively

Their bench is non existent (Ish smith and Stanley Johnson)

They didn’t have a first round pick
They didn’t make any signings that’ll actually make differences (Calderon and Zaza lmao)

They had essentially the same winning percentage before and after the Griffin trade

[Bonus Jonas]

That sounded a lot like I was just going at OP

I’m not

I’ve seen a ton of people that put Detroit in their top 8 seeds in the east

[Jclaw]

It'll be interesting to see where people are pegging the Lakers....tough to bet against lebron but tough to bet on lance et al

[Maury]

Why are people assuming Detroit are gonna make the playoffs

Reggie Jackson is the most inconsistent point guard in the league

Their wing depth is 2 3-point shooting young guys, neither of which are good defensively

Their bench is non existent (Ish smith and Stanley Johnson)

They didn’t have a first round pick
They didn’t make any signings that’ll actually make differences (Calderon and Zaza lmao)

They had essentially the same winning percentage before and after the Griffin trade

I think people are underrating Blake here. He’s definitely a top 5 guy in the conference, and people forget that 3 years ago the guy was a top 5 player in the league. Casey is a solid coach and can get that group to win. I might be wrong but I can see them getting 36-40 wins and slipping in.

[white men can't jump]

I think people are underrating Blake here. He’s definitely a top 5 guy in the conference, and people forget that 3 years ago the guy was a top 5 player in the league. Casey is a solid coach and can get that group to win. I might be wrong but I can see them getting 36-40 wins and slipping in.

That basically equates to them not getting better at all since they usually win around that many games.

Essentially you're saying they'll squeak in without improving. It could happen. The East looks like it's going to be a massive dumpster fire this year. Cleveland is going to be a lot worse. Most other teams are basically the same without a major shakeup. The teams that probably got the most obviously better are us and Boston, so it does little to impact the fringe playoff teams that will be fighting for the lower seeds.

I don't think Griffin ever was a top 5 player. Paul was the key player on the Clippers team and the only one in discussion for top 5 at any time. Griffin is like a top 20 player, and his game isn't aging well. He is still also undisciplined and can be really dumb on the court. Can't see Casey making a massive difference.

[Maury]

That basically equates to them not getting better at all since they usually win around that many games.

Essentially you're saying they'll squeak in without improving. It could happen. The East looks like it's going to be a massive dumpster fire this year. Cleveland is going to be a lot worse. Most other teams are basically the same without a major shakeup. The teams that probably got the most obviously better are us and Boston, so it does little to impact the fringe playoff teams that will be fighting for the lower seeds.

I don't think Griffin ever was a top 5 player. Paul was the key player on the Clippers team and the only one in discussion for top 5 at any time. Griffin is like a top 20 player, and his game isn't aging well. He is still also undisciplined and can be really dumb on the court. Can't see Casey making a massive difference.

I agree with pretty much all of this. Go back to the 2013-14 season, especially the playoffs. Blake was playing like a top 7 guy. And for sure, Chris Paul was basically a top 3-5 player for the last 10 years, just couldn’t stay on the floor when it mattered.

Obviously Blake’s game isn’t going to age well but I don’t think he is declining yet. I watched a fair amount of Detroit after the trade and they played better than their record suggests. They really flamed our after they were out of playoff contention.

When it comes to the East this year, the only teams that I can see making the jump to playoff teams would be Charlotte and Detroit. Detroit was closer last year, should improve their chemistry and get accustomed to each other. Charlotte lost Dwight who despite his locker room presence and significant decline played pretty well for them last year.

I actually think quite a few teams in the East will have improved. Milwaukee will assuredly be better with an older Giannis, a far superior coach and an overall better / more balanced roster. Indiana made a couple good albeit overpay signings. Like you said Toronto and Boston improved. Philly could be better off of internal improvement, we’ll have to see how the loss of a couple veterans affects them. Washington probably plays better than they did last year because John Wall and Bradley Beal are both really really good and underperformed last year (injuries played a part here).

[Maury]

But the bottom end of the east playoff picture will still be really bad because at least a couple teams will underperform/ have injury problems and after 5 or 6 the quality drops off significantly.

[TrueTorontoFan]

Lakers won't be higher than 4 book it now

[white men can't jump]

I was trying to start doing this, and got extremely uninterested when I looked at the non-contenders in each conference.

The East is so weak after the top 2 if both Toronto and Boston are healthy. Philly could be a strong 3rd seed, or Embiid could get injured and they'll struggle to win 30-35 games. Milwaukee has the best chance to surprise because of Giannis and some low key moves like probably improving their coach, and getting more shooting in the frontcourt with Lopez and Ilyasova. No one else has the right combination of stars and depth to matter.

And in the West, Golden State makes it uninteresting. If they are healthy come playoffs, no one is likely to beat them.

So, assuming things go best for all teams:

East
1. Toronto
2. Boston
3. Philly (if things go as well as possible with Fultz, he'll make up for the shooting they lost in Beli and Ilyasova)
4. Milwaukee
5. Indiana
6. Washington
7. Miami
8. Detroit
9. Charlotte

West
1. Golden State
2. Houston
3. Oklahoma city
4. Utah
5. San Antonio
6. Los Angeles Lakers
7. Minnesota
8. Portland
9. New Orleans
10. Denver

The West is a mess from 3 to 10. No clue how any of that will play out. I do think Portland will drop with other teams getting better (Utah, SAS, LAL). I think those will be the 8-10 teams battling for the last spot. New Orleans is pretty bad without Davis, and if he misses even 10 games, that could break their playoff chances. Denver could make it, but their D is so bad that they could fall short. Still, I could easily see them flipping spots with Portland, who has a pretty flawed roster.

[NeedTristanThompson]

List your top 8 in both conferences, and playoff brackets if you want to. Also, predict the worst teams in the league as well.

Here’s mine:

East

1. Toronto
2. Boston
3. Indiana
4. Philly
5. Milwaukee
6. Washington
7. Detroit
8. Miami
9. Cleveland

West

1. Golden State
2. LA Lakers
3. Houston
4. Denver
5. Utah
6. Minnesota
7. San Antonio
8. New Orleans
9. Portland

Worst team in the league: Atlanta.

Hold on hold on. There`s obviously a lot of predictions up there and all that could be discussed... but okc?! You really think they`re 10th seed or worse? I mean, sure, they weren`t close to as good as anyone expected last year and flamed out in the playoffs and all, but damn. Would like to hear more of your reasoning behind that

[LJ2]

Why are people assuming Detroit are gonna make the playoffs

Reggie Jackson is the most inconsistent point guard in the league

Their wing depth is 2 3-point shooting young guys, neither of which are good defensively

Their bench is non existent (Ish smith and Stanley Johnson)

They didn’t have a first round pick
They didn’t make any signings that’ll actually make differences (Calderon and Zaza lmao)

They had essentially the same winning percentage before and after the Griffin trade

I could actually see Detroit getting as high as the 4th or 5th seed this season. It's a weak conference so if you can get players to defend then you're already ahead of the game, and Casey has shown he can get players to buy in. They have the best front court in the East (on paper) and that is something they can build around.

[planetmars]

This season is going to be tough to predict.. at least after the top two/three in each conference. But I'll take a stab:

EC:

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

WC:

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


The West is going to be wild from 3-13.

[LJ2]

EAST
1. Toronto
2. Boston
3. Indiana
4. Philly
5. Detroit
6. Milwaukee
7. Washington
8. Miami

WEST
1. Golden State
2. Houston
3. OKC
4. LA Lakers
5. San Antonio
6. Utah
7. Denver
8. Portland

[The Great One]

EAST:

Boston
Toronto
Philly
Milwaukee
Washington
Indiana
Detroit
Miami

WEST:

GSW
Houston
Lakers
OKC
Utah
San Antonio
Portland
Denver