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The Raptors winning it all was a surprise. What's in store this upcoming year? Which teams are going to outperform expectations and which will disappoint?

ESPN put out their power rankings and we will put them to the test with this thread, declaring teams overrated and underrated.

My picks for 3 underrated teams:

#1 Indiana Pacers. ESPN ranks them #15. I think they will be much better than that.

#2 Chicago Bulls. #23 on ESPN. I think they can compete for the 8 seed in the East.

#3 Charlotte Hornets. They're not a playoff team but #29 is a low-ball. This is a hungry team, a more balanced team, a well-coached team with 1 year under its belt playing a new system.

My picks for 3 overrated teams:

#7 Celtics - Kemba - Kyrie is a wash. They lost Horford. All 8 West playoff teams are better.

#10 Raptors - Without Kawhi, the 8 playoff teams out West are better. Raptors are not top in the East. The Pelicans might finish with a better record. ESPN has the Pels at 17.

#14 Heat. Ahead of the Pacers, really?

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27189056/nba-power-rankings-league-best-teams-now

Underrated
* Pacers
* Hornets - they will be slightly better than expected. Not expecting playoffs.

Overrated
* Lakers - they sacrificed a ton of depth & LeBron is finally starting to play like he's getting old.
* GSW - I expect that they will semi-tank this year to get a lottery pick
* Wizards - I'm looking for them to totally collapse at some point and end up with the worst record
* Philadelphia 76ers - they will miss Jimmy & JJ a lot more than people expect

I considered the Lakers as well. But they did add depth with Danny Green, DeMarcus Cousins and assorted ring chasers. I hope they are much worse than where ESPN has them (6th)

The Lakers are a WCF team at the absolute best. The Rockets are likely to crash and burn. Both teams' downfalls come in the fact there's a lot of ego, and only one basketball.

The Hornets' downfall is that we need multiple basketballs at the same time, too. But not to manage ego -- just to give us a better shot at scoring.

Robot Rock wrote:The Lakers are a WCF team at the absolute best. The Rockets are likely to crash and burn. Both teams' downfalls come in the fact there's a lot of ego, and only one basketball.

The Hornets' downfall is that we need multiple basketballs at the same time, too. But not to manage ego -- just to give us a better shot at scoring.

ESPN has us #29 but I'm not sure they factored in your plan for 2 basketballs.

MasterIchiro wrote:

Robot Rock wrote:The Lakers are a WCF team at the absolute best. The Rockets are likely to crash and burn. Both teams' downfalls come in the fact there's a lot of ego, and only one basketball.

The Hornets' downfall is that we need multiple basketballs at the same time, too. But not to manage ego -- just to give us a better shot at scoring.

ESPN has us #29 but I'm not sure they factored in your plan for 2 basketballs.

They're perpetually behind the times.

3 Good Surprise Teams:

Boston - Celtics were better without Kyrie two straight seasons. Kemba never played alongside as much talent or as good of a coach. Tatum and Brown are in year 3 & 4 so they’re expected to make that jump in what’s virtually a contract year for both of them.

Indiana - They’ll miss Oladipo until he return but they’ve made great additions to fill the void of his absence in Brogdon and Lamb until. The TJ Warren acquisition might be the sleeper as a sneakily good pickup.

Golden State - Don’t be surprised but be surprised if the Warriors are atop of the Western Conference still even with the loss of KD to Brooklyn and Klay’s rehabbing knee for the first half of the season. D’Angelo Russell’s 3-point shooting prowess should fit right in with their system and WCS is the best system fitting center they’ve had in the Curry era. I really liked the Alec Burka pickup and the Jordan Poole draft pick as well.


3 Bad Surprise Teams:

Charlotte - Hornets will be the worst team in the NBA without Kemba Walker. It will be embarrassing and frustrating. Michael Jordan will take a lot of flack for being the laughingstock of the league as they’ll win under 20 games and will have multiple double digit game losing streaks throughout the season.

Houston - Rockets will be a playoff team but they will struggle with the chemistry of Harden and Westbrook alongside each other. I don’t know how Westbrook’s inefficiency particularly from the 3pt line will bold well in D’Antoni’s system with even more of a green light than he’s had in OKC.

Los Angeles Lakers - This one boils down to Anthony Davis being injury-prone. If AD suffers a injury that keeps him out significant time (at least 20 games) the Lakers might find themselves fighting for a 8th seed worst case scenario or without homecourt advantage in the 1st round of the playoffs in a deep Western Conference.