monopoman wrote:Jsun947 wrote:I don't think many games will separate 4-10 in the west either.
Well most years in the West has 2-3 teams with very high records and the rest of the top 8 fall within 3-4 games of each other for the most part.
A few games can mean a world of difference in final win/loss record with the West most of the time. I think a year of development for a lot of the younger guys will give this team more tools next year, obviously last year they were very healthy and faced a depleted Clippers roster in the playoffs after the first 3.75 games. Even if luck isn't on their side as much this year this team has the tools to compete with a lot of the teams in the NBA.
This is more/less my thinking. The Blazers showed last year that they can pretty much play with anyone in the league. One of the few teams to beat the Warriors during the regular season (and did so in blowout fashion) and gave them a good fight in the playoffs. Only a handful of teams really dominated Portland to where you could automatically chalk up a loss on the schedule, namely the Spurs.
It's really hard to say what the expectations are gonna be for the team. Assuming health holds up again, they should be improved with overall team chemistry since the same team is coming back from last season and then some additional talent upgrades in Turner and Ezeli. Ignoring the price tag on Turner, they should address some of Portland's most glaring weaknesses they showed last year in terms of needing another ball-handler not named Lillard or McCollum and improving both interior and perimeter defense. If those things hold up, I think they're a 50-54 win team. Potentially a #4 seed.
But then again, I suspect a lot of the NBA will be different next season. Part of why Portland could get a #5 seed with only 44 wins last year was due to the Top 2 teams in the west winning at a historic clip. I'm not convinced that'll happen again....
I don't suspect the Warriors sniff 70 wins again even with Durant. There will be some growing pains as there always is with newly formed "superteams", so they're probably gonna be a mid-60 win team imo.
This also may be the year we see the Spurs finally slip a bit. Duncan's scoring and rebounding may not have been there last year, but his defensive presence was still felt. Pau isn't filling that hole and LaMarcus is a good but not amazing defender.
OKC probably isn't a lock for the Top 3 anymore and with things still up in the air for Westbrook a bit, who knows if they'll even be a playoff team (assuming they do move him). If they keep Westbrook, I think they'll actually still be a near 50 win team next year and compete for that 3-5 seed.
I think the Clippers are the biggest fools-gold team in the NBA year in and year out.
It'll be a competitive West again like always I'd assume, but I suspect Portland will be competing for a 3-6 seed. I don't think anyone is locked into a seed right now outside of GSW and, because I respect the team, I'll lock in SAS at #2 even without Duncan. Outside of that, I think 3-8 is anyones guess.