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?

  • tomhalejrBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    In terms of expectations…

    Yeah… Both MIN and ATL could pencil into that “playoffs or bust” category. Not as extreme as, “if you are not clearly in the playoffs by the TD blow it up while you can still get something out of it” territory. More like, you can take the season, but if you don’t meet your goals, this thing as is isn’t going to git er dun.

    OKC shouldn’t be surprise to anybody. They can do whatever they want to do. Everybody should be keeping an eye on what OKC does this season. Biggest and most interesting variable in the league.

    I would have ORL as the most “advanced” of the young teams, in that they are closer to a playoffs as the goal team than DET, SAS, POR… Definitely going to keep an eye on ORL for any roster consolidation moves, and/or whether they are looking to do something at the TD or not.