The NBA season is about to start, and it is time to make a fool out of myself by predicting the final standings. I do expect to see a lot of drama in the Western Conference next season, especially when it comes to LeBron fighting against the Warriors, but let's start from the beginning and focus on the bottom 7 teams, which will finish their season early this year, first.
15. Sacramento Kings
If the relegation system was present in the NBA, I have no doubt that this Sacramento Kings team would have no place in the strongest league in the world. I will be honest, I am not aware of many players from Kings roster, but it only took a quick look at them playing to understand that Kings will become the biggest losers this season. Bjelica and Bogdanovic are great players from Europe, but they are not enough to be leaders of the team. Buddy Hield has some talent, but he lacks leadership. Randolph used to be great. He is not 37 years old. I guess Fox and Cauley-Stein will try to take the leadership this season, but in the end, I cannot see any star in the Sacramento Kings squad. It is a team full of mediocre (by NBA standards) players who are doomed to fail.
14. Phoenix Suns
The Phoenix Suns are not much better than the Sacramento Kings, but they have a few quality players like Devin Booker (he is out for a few more weeks), Ariza or Ayton. That said, those players are not exactly superstars you want to build your team around. I understand that some people are crazy about Booker, but he is a little overrated in my opinion. Yes, he scored a shitload of points one time, and he has some skills, but at the age of 21, he still needs to prove a lot more for me to consider him a superstar. Other guys are mediocre and that will result in the Phoenix Suns finishing somewhere at the bottom of the table.
13. Memphis Grizzlies
The Memphis Grizzlies is the third team which won't achieve must this season. To be honest, it is hard to predict if Grizzlies will finish 13th or 15th, but I don't see them finishing any higher. I do like Marc Gasol so I believe that the Grizzlies will be able to finish higher than the Suns and Kings, but does it really matter? To be honest, any of those 3 teams might start tanking early in the season and even fight for the last spot and better odds in the NBA drafts. The Memphis Grizzlies are a boring team. If you are not a fan of them, don't waste much of your precious time watching them play. It is just a friendly tip.
12. Los Angeles Clippers
The LA Clippers were one of the best teams in the league a couple of seasons ago, but CP3, Griffin, and DeAndre are gone now and the team needs to make some adjustments in the upcoming years. I don't believe that the LA Clippers have any chances to finish higher than the 12th position, but they have enough talent to beat the above teams. Coming from Europe, I will be interested to watch Milos Teodosic, Danilo Gallinari and Boban Marjanovic. You should be excited about those guys as well. Gallinari is a loose cannon so you can expect a lot of fireworks from him. Teodosic is one of the best passers in the entire league, so we will see a lot of trick passes from Milos. Talking about Boban, he must be the biggest player in the league, and it is always interesting to see other guys trying to defend against the giant. Sadly, Boban is not a great all-around basketball player, and he has no stamina.
11. Portland Trail Blazers
I believe this is the first guess against the odds. I do expect the Portland Trail Blazers to fail this season, mainly because Cj McCollum and Damian Lillard look like they are out of ideas. Most of the teams in the league found antidotes against those two guards and the rest of the team is just not good enough to carry the Portland Trail Blazers to the playoffs. The Blazers remind me a lot of the Washington Wizards - both teams rely on two superstar guards, while the remaining guys try not to mess up the situation. That said, I do expect Jusuf Nurkic to have a great season and maybe even increase his price in the market. Will that be enough? Well, if you ask me, no, it won't. I would agree that it is a little drastic to place the Blazers in the 12th spot, but just look at the rest of the pack in the Western Conference, and you might understand my reasoning.
I do expect to see the Blazers start the season the way they finished the last one - with a lot of uncertainty and loses.
10. Minnesota Timberwolves
The Minnesota Timberwolves probably have the 6th best squad in the Western Conference, but I do believe that wolves are doomed to fail the next season, especially with all the drama even before the season starts. The main reason why I don't see the Minnesota Timberwolves winning anything significant with this roster is the coach Tom Thibodeau. With all due respect, he is awful and needs to get fired as fast as possible if wolves are thinking about the playoffs. To be honest, it blows my mind how Thibodeau remained the head coach after the last season.
None of us are expecting Jimmy Butler, the only player with a leader's mentality, to stay in Minnesota for much longer and without him, this team is just a group of talented people who have no direction and ideas. I did expect much more from KAT and Wiggins a few years ago, but they keep failing to impress me. I still think that KAT might become one of the best players in the league, but he needs to change his attitude and approach to the game. But as for today, the Minnesota Timberwolves are not ready to compete in the Western Conference.
9. Dallas Maverics
As much as I would like to believe that the Dallas Maverics can surprise us all this season and reach the playoffs, I still have to leave them outside of the playoffs for now. What is the main reason? Barnes is not good enough to be a leader of the playoffs team. He is a great player, don't get me wrong, but he is no Curry or Davies.
DeAndre Jordan is a great addition, especially with Luka Doncic on the team. I do understand that Doncic is yet to prove himself at the NBA, but I have seen him play a lot and I do believe that the kid is ready to shine from the first game. If that happens, DeAndre and Doncic might become one of the most exciting duets to watch this season. If I were you, I would even place some bets on Luka becoming the rookie of the year. Sadly, all those players will probably fail to clinch the spot in the playoffs in such a powerful Western Conference. I have no doubts that the Maverics would easily play in the playoffs if they were in the Eastern Conference. But I believe that I am already generous to let the Maverics stand in the 9th position as most of the bookies see the Maverics in the 11th spot this year.
Also, it's probably the last Dirk Nowitzki's season so we should enjoy his play as much as possible.
Do you agree with my predictions or am I completely off?
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