Title Contenders

[Silogical]

South:

Contenders:

Miami Heat: The Heat are healthy and ready for the playoffs. So far they have been underperforming, is it just a little bad luck or has the competition improved while they stayed the same?

Dark Horses:

Houston Rockets: Houston started the season looking like they wanted the #1 pick, but have turned it on and I feel are the best team in the Southwest.

Memphis Grizzlies: Grizzlies look like the same team from last season. I just dont see them beating the kings they are going to need someone else to take down the kings to advance to the finals.

San Antonio Spurs: The new kids on the block. Can a team full of specialists advance through the playoffs? I dont think so but prove me wrong.

Atlantic:

Contenders:

Boston: Arguably the best team in the league, but they have no coach or guidance. That will likely change in the playoffs and they will be a tough matchup.

Phily: The Heat killer, for 3 seasons the 6ers have been crushing the Heat, but can they beat any of the other strong teams in the east?

Dark Horses:

Brooklyn Nets: The Nets are currently evaluating if SGA and Ayton are a good fit together, its been 5 years but theyll likely need another 5 years of evaluating to know for sure.

New York Knicks: With Zion they were always guaranteed to make the playoffs but it was tough to make a playoff push. So they bring in the biggest wildcard in the CSL Luka Doncic. Doncic could easily get you swept in the 1st round if you even make the playoffs, but there is that small chance he goes bonkers for 4 series in a row and wins you a ring.

Pacific:

Contenders:

Sacramento Kings: The master of trading away their talent without weakening their team. One of the best teams in the league with one of the best collections of 1st round picks.

Golden State Warriors: Take a bunch of Heat rejects, take a Hornet reject, add them to Metu and you have a 50 win team.

Middle America:

Contenders:

Oklahoma Thunder: The Thunder pick up one of the best coaches in the Csl and it catapults them to a top 6 team.

Milwaukee Bucks: They dont make very many trades, but when they do, they are terrible. Im kidding i dont think their trades were terrible I think those picks were terrible. Ja at 3 and carter at 7.

Dark Horses:

Chicago Bulls: The bulls took the step from treadmil to dark horse, but could they have taken the step from dark horse to contender? Its a lot easier moving from treadmil to dark horse then from dark horse to contender so they probably made the right choice of holding off. A chance to win while keeping some assets for the future you cant go wrong.

Utah Jazz: This team has talent. 4 3.5+ star players, thats more than the Heat and Kings. It takes more than talent to win, but they have the talent.

Minnesota Timberwolves: I was never a fan of this roster so i have to give props to the coach for year after year holding dark horse status.

Denver Nuggets: No coach = no shot in the playoffs, but if they get a coach they are a dark horse.

[Stockton12]

we have talent and depth except for pg position ..sjj is carrying us too

i went pacific

[cb4raptorscb4]

We love former Heat players.

[bt]

Good read and can't really fault any of what you wrote.

The Nets could be the big dark horse. Those two studs playing 40+ in the post season could do some damage.

[KW]

Idk that we belong here. we just got our first record above .500 all season last sim, definitely trending in the right direction but we have at least one critical weakness that will almost certainly make us lose a 1st round series or in the play-in.

[Silogical]

Good read and can't really fault any of what you wrote.

The Nets could be the big dark horse. Those two studs playing 40+ in the post season could do some damage.

yeah i have the atlantic as the favorites mainly because brooklyn can easily be considered a contender. Atlantic are probably 30-35% to win it all. Plus Luka made the playoffs one time and put up stats that made no sense. NY could be a contender if that what Luka is going to do every yr in the playoffs.

[Andrewu91]

Good read and can't really fault any of what you wrote.

The Nets could be the big dark horse. Those two studs playing 40+ in the post season could do some damage.

yeah i have the atlantic as the favorites mainly because brooklyn can easily be considered a contender. Atlantic are probably 30-35% to win it all. Plus Luka made the playoffs one time and put up stats that made no sense. NY could be a contender if that what Luka is going to do every yr in the playoffs.

We will see. His preference work needs some tweaking. Like why shoot 400-700 threes a year. Makes no sense

[cb4raptorscb4]

The Atlantic has the most title contenders, but it's hard to bet against the Heat overall.

I'd also doubt us as serious title contenders. I'm hoping we are not just a good regular season team, but things are clicking so far. Ya ya.. #commishprivelege

[Flaming Homer]

Definetely wouldn't like to meet BKN early on if we were in any position of contention. It seems they just get steam and may be rolling smoking hot into the playoffs, we will see.

Safe bets for East and West ... MIA and SAC like so often

But yeah, very surprised of that strong play of the Warriors. They are all season close to the top and seem to very consistent.

[bt]

Yeah I remember feeling that a couple of seasons back when even Porter averaging insane numbers was nowhere near what Luka put up and we couldn't stop him.

We haven't been going great and I'm just hoping we haven't made one trade too many that keeps us a really good team but ultimately might hurt us at the pointy end. We're thin at the point too as when Waters goes down, we rely on a rookie.