codydaze wrote:bleeds_purple wrote:dckingsfan wrote:BTW, if Kawhi stays in Toronto - I think our playoff chances go up quite a bit... fingers crossed.
Unless he goes to the Clippers there probably won't be much of a difference in our playoff odds.
Well, damn...
I see 7 guaranteed playoff spots now.
LAC
UTA
DEN
LAL
HOU
POR
GS
Fighting with SA, OKC, DAL and MIN at this point.
I feel confident we can compete with that bottom four as well as some of those others.
•I don't know what DAL is going to look like with Porzingis. There's so many question marks there. How well will he return from injury? Will he and Luka play well together? etc.? They added Seth Curry, but defensive strategy will always be designed on countering Luka. Limit him, you cut the team off at it's knees.
•We've always competed well against OKC and now they just lost PG.
•SA will still be tough because, well, Pop. But they have been on a slow decline for years and they've made no improvements to their roster in FA.
•MIN is still MIN.
As for the 5-7, if these are guaranteed, I still think we could compete with them.
•HOU has been a challenge for us, but they haven't made significant moves to improve FA. So essentially they're another year older with geezers like Nene and CP3. They still have Harden, but the clock is ticking and old man time is knocking on the door. Can he carry the team another year? Last year it took him half the season to "turn it on". I think with the West landscape looking like it does, it would be very demoralizing for one guy to continuously carry the weight of the franchise into the playoffs and get rebuffed. Now it's got to look even more depressing. I see an opening there.
•GS No Durant. No Thompson next year. I have no idea how Russell is going to fit next to Curry. Basically ???s all over the place, but seeing our I80 rivals take such a tumble talent-wise means I think we can pounce.
•POR Will still be an issue. They're likely still better than us. They've added Hassan who can be an immense talent if he plays with his head on straight. FA for them means at the very least they haven't gotten any worse than last year.
There's my glass is half-full perspective...
