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don't see teams like Houston and OKC picking top 5 again, who'll be in the mix next year?

looks like Spurs are trying to tank, do have a Brooklyn top 5 dark horse if they trade both KD and Irving? Wizards need to get a top 5 pick. Charlotte again. maybe Utah if they trade D-Mitch and go the rebuild route?

Houston and okc come to mind first to be honest. Plus spurs, Indiana and Detroit.

clyde21 wrote:don't see teams like Houston and OKC picking top 5 again, who'll be in the mix next year?

looks like Spurs are trying to tank, do have a Brooklyn top 5 dark horse if they trade both KD and Irving? Wizards need to get a top 5 pick. Charlotte again. maybe Utah if they trade D-Mitch and go the rebuild route?

Wizards and charlotte are too talented to bottom. But you never know with the lottery balls.

OKC is going to be trash again because they are shameless tankers.

If Chet plays any significant minutes, OKC won't be near the bottom. Chet will raise the defense immediately.

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baldur wrote:Houston and okc come to mind first to be honest. Plus spurs, Indiana and Detroit.

yep, Spurs/Indy/Detroit/Houston/OKC/Orl in any order will be the bottom 6 imo

There was a pretty major gap between the bottom 5 teams (Hou/Orl/Det/OKC/Indy) and the rest of the teams last season. The bottom 4 teams were the exact same for the past 2 seasons, and I wouldn't be shocked if its the same 4 teams

Indy in 5th spot was 8 games behind the Lakers in 8th. The two teams in the 6th and 7th, the Blazers and the Kings have both improved and are aiming for the postseason.

I don't see many of those teams above that mark finishing 10+ games worse this season outside of the spurs, which is why I would put them in that bottom 6 group.
Maybe the Hornets depending on the Bridges situation? Nets wont tank as Houston owns their picks

namlede wrote:If Chet plays any significant minutes, OKC won't be near the bottom. Chet will raise the defense immediately.

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Lol, no. Chet is a 20 year old rookie that weighs 175 dripping wet. He's going to get bent in half this year. He won't be a factor until his metabolism slows and he starts pounding 20 muscle mass shakes a day.

The Moose wrote:

baldur wrote:Houston and okc come to mind first to be honest. Plus spurs, Indiana and Detroit.

yep, Spurs/Indy/Detroit/Houston/OKC/Orl in any order will be the bottom 6 imo

There was a pretty major gap between the bottom 5 teams (Hou/Orl/Det/OKC/Indy) and the rest of the teams last season. The bottom 4 teams were the exact same for the past 2 seasons, and I wouldn't be shocked if its the same 4 teams

Indy in 5th spot was 8 games behind the Lakers in 8th. The two teams in the 6th and 7th, the Blazers and the Kings have both improved and are aiming for the postseason.

I don't see many of those teams above that mark finishing 10+ games worse this season outside of the spurs, which is why I would put them in that bottom 6 group.
Maybe the Hornets depending on the Bridges situation? Nets wont tank as Houston owns their picks

Spurs and Indy for sure and it's very likely that Detroit, Houston, OKC, and Orlando will be in the mix unless one them is the surprise Cavs team of 22-23.

Houston is definitely going for another top five spot. Even if you like the young guys, the roster is almost entirely 1st and second year players with Jae'Sean Tate, EG (for now) and Boban mixed in. Plus it's the last year to tank before the pick obligation to OKC


Them, OKC, Orlando, SA, Detroit are my guess for bottom 5 teams

Wont be Orlando.. they're a 9/10 seed.. likely some 5 of nets, wiz, pacers, pistons, spurs, rockets

thelead wrote:

The Moose wrote:

baldur wrote:Houston and okc come to mind first to be honest. Plus spurs, Indiana and Detroit.

yep, Spurs/Indy/Detroit/Houston/OKC/Orl in any order will be the bottom 6 imo

There was a pretty major gap between the bottom 5 teams (Hou/Orl/Det/OKC/Indy) and the rest of the teams last season. The bottom 4 teams were the exact same for the past 2 seasons, and I wouldn't be shocked if its the same 4 teams

Indy in 5th spot was 8 games behind the Lakers in 8th. The two teams in the 6th and 7th, the Blazers and the Kings have both improved and are aiming for the postseason.

I don't see many of those teams above that mark finishing 10+ games worse this season outside of the spurs, which is why I would put them in that bottom 6 group.
Maybe the Hornets depending on the Bridges situation? Nets wont tank as Houston owns their picks

Spurs and Indy for sure and it's very likely that Detroit, Houston, OKC, and Orlando will be in the mix unless one them is the surprise Cavs team of 22-23.

there are always surprise teams that do better than people expect, and vice versa teams that do much worse than people expect. Cleveland for example, on the other side no one saw Portland picking 7th before the season until Dame got hurt, Toronto went from picking 4th to being a PO team, and the Lakers missed the POs completely and ended up giving New Orleans a top10 pick, etc.

Upperclass wrote:Wont be Orlando.. they're a 9/10 seed.. likely some 5 of nets, wiz, pacers, pistons, spurs, rockets

As a Magic fan, I’m VERY interested to see how we do next year. We absolutely tanked games last year and dealt with a crazy amount of injuries too. If we’re relatively healthy and the better young guys play to their potential, I could see the Magic being a surprise play-in team. I wouldn’t put money on it but it wouldn’t shock me either.

thelead wrote:

Upperclass wrote:Wont be Orlando.. they're a 9/10 seed.. likely some 5 of nets, wiz, pacers, pistons, spurs, rockets

As a Magic fan, I’m VERY interested to see how we do next year. We absolutely tanked games last year and dealt with a crazy amount of injuries too. If we’re relatively healthy and the better young guys play to their potential, I could see the Magic being a surprise play-in team. I wouldn’t put money on it but it wouldn’t shock me either.

Yea, I could see Paulo taking Orlando on a Carmelo esque rookie campaign and leading them to the playoffs.

Detroit and Houston aren’t talented enough, that’s 2

Washington top to bottom looks pretty uninspired

Indiana, SA, LAL, Sacramento, etc

I’ll guess bottom 5 is

Pistons, Rockets, Spurs, Wizards, Hornets in order

Utah and Brooklyn might be added to the mix. We will see in the next few days I guess.

thelead wrote:

Upperclass wrote:Wont be Orlando.. they're a 9/10 seed.. likely some 5 of nets, wiz, pacers, pistons, spurs, rockets

As a Magic fan, I’m VERY interested to see how we do next year. We absolutely tanked games last year and dealt with a crazy amount of injuries too. If we’re relatively healthy and the better young guys play to their potential, I could see the Magic being a surprise play-in team. I wouldn’t put money on it but it wouldn’t shock me either.

Magic were a playoff team this year.. they just chose not to be.. was fairly obvious how they approached games all season long.. Mosely seems like a pretty good coach too

Magic is only better than Detroit and maybe Indiana on paper, If not equal. They can perhaps outrun wizards and hornets too. They aren't making the playoffs.

baldur wrote:Magic is only better than Detroit and maybe Indiana on paper, If not equal. They can perhaps outrun wizards and hornets too. They aren't making the playoffs.

we'll see what happens with Brooklyn but after the top 4-5 teams the EC is pretty shallow

Philly
Milly
Miami
Boston
Atlanta

then u can put I guess Chicago and Toronto, that's 7 teams...then imo you have Cleveland, New York, Magic

not crazy if you told me today Magic would be a play-in team, assuming guys like Isaac and Fultz stay healthy.

1. Utah
2. San Antonio
3. Indiana
4. Orlando
5. Houston

baldur wrote:Magic is only better than Detroit and maybe Indiana on paper, If not equal. They can perhaps outrun wizards and hornets too. They aren't making the playoffs.

That’s basically enough to be a play-in team though. This is what *might* happen if the Magic are healthy and don’t decide to tank:

Playoffs:
Boston
Bucks
Philly
Heat
Atlanta
Toronto

Play-ins:
Bulls
Cavs

Possibly in the mix for the remaining 2 play-in teams:
Nets (who knows about them at this point though)
Knicks
Hornets (no Bridges will hurt)
Magic (much more likely to be in the mix for a top 5 pick but this is possible if JI is healthy and Paolo was worth the #1 pick)
Wiz

Likely lotto:
Detroit
Indy

All that said, I have them pegged at around ~28 wins right now. I think the front office wants one more year of roster tinkering, experimentation, and a good shot at a top pick in next year’s draft before committing 100% to winning the following year.