KF10 wrote:LightTheBeam wrote:I want to add to my post above.
Going into last year the NBA landscape was also much different.
Thunder were going to significantly improve, and we still expect them to this year.
Timberwolves were going to see progression from Ant, and more meshing from the whole team.
Nuggets were coming off a title and still have the best player in the world.
Clippers had added Harden to an already existing 50 win team.
Mavs were going to get a full year from Kyrie, added Grant Williams, DJJ, and Lively.
Suns were getting the first year of the "big 3" plus Nurkic and Grayson Allen.
Pelicans were getting older, more experienced and Zion was finally healthy
Rockets made some huge moves to rebuild the entire roster
Warriors still had their top 4, internal improvement from the kids, and better culture with Poole gone/CP3 in.
Grizzlies had added some kids + Marcus Smart. (Injuries/suspensions obviously de-railed)
This was the west landscape going into last year. Almost every team in the top 11 was expecting pretty massive improvement. The Kings had come off the healthiest year and a 1st round exit and decided to run it back.
Fast forward a year.
Thunder/Wolves/Mavs will all still be better than us. Denver as well, but they did just lose KCP.
Clippers lost PG13 and are attempting to replace with DJJ. Kawhi can't stay healthy.
Suns flamed out, could still be good, but the depth sucks and the 2 old vets can't stay healthy.
Warriors lost Klay and are replacing with Buddy Hield lol.
Lakers are a year older and coming off the healthiest season in forever.
Rockets didn't do anything and are just expecting internal improvement. NO new FVV/Brooks, etc..
Yes we should expect Grizzlies to be healthy. That team is a defensive juggernaut, but outside of Ja who can create offense? They still have some question marks.
Pelicans probably got better overall adding Dejounte, although I think we match up better now as they have no real center, lost a ton of length (Val, Nance, Dyson) and we no longer need to see JVal body Sabonis. I still would bet Ingram gets moved for a center, not sure how different that team will be.
Spurs baring Wemby becoming the best player in the league year 2 are probably still a few years away. Jazz/Portland are still not real threats.
Meanwhile the Kings may have had the single biggest offseason upgrade in the entire west (arguable, but its in the top 3).
Long post, but to say this year feels different, the west didn't get significantly better like the year before. I have us in the playoff tier with Memphis/Pelicans fighting for 5/6 (on paper, injuries happen).
Suns, Clippers, Warriors, Lakers are all comfortable healthy cruising in the regular season and fighting it out in the play-in.
We will see!
I think the Kings gotten better but I remember we all said that this team was a top-6 lock last season. Auto-playoff team we said! lol
The Kings fallen from 3rd to 9th (tied with Warriors at 46 wins). If I had to guess for this season, I think they are at least a play-in team for sure. More towards the upper half of the play-in team level (7th/8th) rather than last season's (9th/10th). This doesn't mean they can't be fighting for the 5/6 seeds (just like you wrote in your post) but I have to see this team in action before believing in that.
I'm not even trying to pretend. I wasn't on that wave. You can go back in last off-season. I thought it was clear we would regress while the league would progress. I had us as a play-in team from day 1 last year. But i also hated the off-season more than I think anyone I know.
You aren't wrong though. The west is so tight. People penciling Denver/Dallas/Minnesota in like its set in stone. They forget Dallas missed the playoffs the year before and is a Luka injury away from being a non play-in team. Minnesota struggles to score in closing outside Ant and didn't address that. Denver is very thin, Jamal/MPJ have dealt with injuries and they clearly don't have the depth to deal with that.
I see a range of outcome for Sac anywhere from 2nd seed to 10th. The difference between 4th and 10th seed was 5 games! 5 games! That's nothing. If the Kings hit fts and don't blow bad games to Chicago, Detroit, Charlotte, while winning at least 1-2 from houston/pelicans we are there! Nothing would surprise me, but today on paper I feel good about 5th-6th seed and we match up okay with all the top teams!