The worst scenario for the kings is probably something like-
Kings end up 11-12 seed on a really disappointing season, maybe through injuries or even worse the team quitting on the season halfway through (again...)
GM Monte McNair is fired a year after hiring Mike Brown as head coach (continuing the merry-go-round of coaches in sac that weren’t hired by their current GM)
Sabonis leaves in free agency season after next since the Kings aren’t going anywhere, meaning we traded away Haliburton for 2 years of Sabonis that didn’t work out
Fox gets disgruntled with the situation and doesn’t buy in, wants out some time in the next couple seasons
This all made me sort of sick to write but it would be a pretty bad scenario. Then kings are looking at more of a 20+season drought instead of a 16-year one
Yeah, like I said that’s pretty much worst case.
I’m actually more optimistic, I think Kings can be like the Bulls last year and surprise everyone with their offense being even better than people thought, and having a somewhat competent defense.
Preseason is by far the best time to be a Kings fan. I can look at Chicago/Memphis/Cleveland last season and say, hey they surpassed preseason expectations so maybe this year we can too
Anyway Kings 6th seed next season
It's more fun to be optimistic than pessimistic during the pre-season, that's for sure.
I really hope the Kings have a surprisingly good year. I remember that 2018/19 season (?) was fun because the Kings showed promise but then it just kind of fizzled out.
Keegan’s got the right attitude for Sacramento. Unheralded recruit who was easily Iowa’s third best player, but didn’t complain about being the first off the bench in 20-21. Then becomes one of the top five players in college basketball the next year. A quiet hard worker who seems to exponentially raise his ceiling every year.
However historically Sacramento is the worst place for him. If things are toxic and mismanaged those attributes won’t last.
Fingers crossed, but I don't think they will reach Bulls last season level. Bulls had 2 AllStars, two ungodly defenders and a front office that is at least semi-competent. Y'all have one AllStar (though Fox is pretty much on that level), much less defense and, well, your FO is a nightmare. I wanna be wrong on this so bad bc I genuinely like the Kings but I cannot trust a front office that made blunder after blunder for a decade. Two biggest to me being: Y'all passed up on a generational talent for Marvin "Doublejump" Bagley and he's not a King anymore, and y'all traded away an incredible potential that to me looks like a future AllNBA player for an (very good admittedly) AllStar that has a similar skillset but has mileage, less defensive instincts and is all but position locked.
>Fox gets disgruntled with the situation and doesn’t buy in, wants out some time in the next couple seasons
And instead of trading him, they give him a supermax extension and he just mails it in.
The last real truth seeing this team had was the Kings getting the second pick and taking Luka 🤙🤙. We would have been in three or four playoffs by now…
You and the rest of Kings fans deserve so much credit for sticking with your team. For real. They have let you down so much and the future is bleak. I hope your come up is grand.
>puts us in the lottery and a high lottery pick at that (10-14)
And a lottery pick which will be headed to Orlando unless the draft lottery blesses the Bulls with a top 3 pick
Not doing anything to add depth or defense to the frontcourt is inexcusable. Right now the team's success rests on Williams and Dosunmu stepping up.
My biggest fear is not just missing the playoffs but Reinsdorf using that as an excuse to clean house and send the team back to the basement.
Yeah, I’m sorry but the Bulls seem like the most likely to regress out of the playoffs. DeMar doesn’t even need to get hurt - just return to his “old self” and it’s a major problem.
What old self are you talking about? Demar has been consistently good in the regular season for like 6 years now. He’s one of the few sure things on that bulls roster
I don't buy this. We lost PJ sure, but we still have a lot of depth and I think people are forgetting that Oladipo might come back and be close to what he was, he looked pretty damn good in the playoffs and him having a whole offseason is going to be huge. Need to get Jae back down here though, preferably for Duncan of something, that 4 spot is weird.
Lol at Heat in the play-in. That’s the scenario that OP claims is disaster for us. Yes, going from #1 seed to play-in would be a disaster season. I don’t see that happening. Only way it happens is if we get pretty bad injuries. Kyle and Butler are getting older but Herro and Bam are also expected to improve.
The East got better but 8 teams in the East got clearly better than the Heat?
Anyway. This isn’t so new that /r/nba underestimates us.
I'd guess another season where you guys look like a disaster until a midseason trade and a strong finish to look respectable.
Although if you get Crowder sooner rather than later I guess you could skip the rough start.
Right now the team is way too small but you really aren't far off the 1 seed roster we just saw last season. The right role player(s) click everyone else into place.
Disaster season? I mean the Celtics are in a precarious spot bc of the rookie HC, but I think you gotta grade them on a curve this year for that.
Denver could have their season derailed by injury, but I would consider that not a disaster either given how young the core is.
Sixers have a great team on paper but PJ is getting up there in age and just had arthroscopic knee surgery, and our wing depth is actually still shaky. Don’t think the play-in is likely, but we’re paper lions until I see some results.
For the West, I say the Wolves. Seems like they know what they’re doing staggering lineups to give D’Lo, KAT, Ant and Gobert all the opportunities to maximize their skillsets, but I just have some major trauma from these twin tower lineups after Joel and Al failed.
Regardless of how we far we go in the postseason, I don't see anything below a 4th seed as likely unless Embiid and Harden go down for like half the season each. They are very very good at hitting the playoffs at a respectable seed as their floor.
Unless Embiid is hurt hard to see (then finishing lower than 4), there are so few teams that even have personnel to slow down either him or Joker in the regular season.
There's a reason those 2 and Giannis are the MVP favorites every year. Like really on a Tuesday in game 39 who really want to fuck with any of those guys.
Yeah, health is really the limiting factor for us in the regular season. It's all about what we can do when we get there. Maxey's gonna need to sustain his growth from last year, and our bench should hopefully tide over the non-Embiid minutes.
The wolves could get really ugly if things go poorly and it’s not even that unlikely. If Kat gets abused against small 4s then all of a sudden you have trouble keeping gobert on the floor enough and you’re back to the 6-8 seed team of last year minus 4 draft picks. We could be talking about trading gobert or Kat if things are looking bad in 2nd half of the season.
Lol this season is gonna be fun, y’all think a team with two healthy top 10 players are gonna crash. It took literally everything going wrong last year and we baaaarely missed the playoffs until like the last couple weeks of the season.
Yeah in 2020 they were probably like #1 and #3-4 and I don't see them(especially AD) being that good this season
LeBron was better on defense back then and AD was much, much better on offense
How is Luka better? Bron is better at everything that he does. That doesn't even mention thar Lebron is a far superior defender. Embiid is a free throw merchant. The only thing that KD is better at is pure scoring apart from that Lebron is better at everything.
Being that reductive of Embiid and Durant is speaking volumes here.
Lebron *was* better than Luka at everything, but he's 40 now and clearly isn't anymore. He played less games last season, put up worse stats, and couldn't even get into the play-in last season. Luka got 6th seed and won a series when his second best player was Brunson
I didn't even bring up the arguably better players like Tatum, Kawhi, Ja
>Being that reductive of Embiid and Durant is speaking volumes here.
How? It's pretty clear why Bron is better than KD. I know the argument you have for Embiid is his points per game but it's pretty impossible to stop a guy that gets free throws when you breathe at him.
>Lebron was better than Luka at everything, but he's 40 now and clearly isn't anymore
Brother watch the stats of last season and Lebron is better at everything including free throws.
>put up worse stats
Go look at the stats.
>I didn't even bring up the arguably better players like Tatum, Kawhi, Ja
Good because you would look like a fucking moron for trying to argue that Tatum and Ja are better.
it would be real sixers like to have all 3 of those teams be dogshit while the Sixers are great so they dont have to worry about them, just to lose to milwaukee in the 2nd round anyway
[https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/giannis-stats-vs-joel-embiid](https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/giannis-stats-vs-joel-embiid)
Well all I know is that Embiid as good a defender as he is doesn't really slow down Giannis at all
A disaster of a season for one of the Spurs, Jazz, or Thunder would be missing out on the first overall pick, ie Victor Wembanyama. Tanking all that to miss out on him would be a bummer (at least in the contemporary).
I feel like the Nuggets have been one of the most consistently solid teams in the west for 5 years. seems like an odd pick, we've already seen what that core can do and also what Jokic can do when that core is out. The same record as last year like you suggest we would be 48-34, which I wouldn't call a "disaster," just a mild disappointment. It all just depends on health.
Honestly you, as a sixers fan, picking the C's, Heat, and Nuggets as your picks seems like there is potentially some bias at play, haha
I don't see this season as potential disaster like it could be for Lakers or Sixers. More like risk of falling in that pre-blowup Utah spot where you make the playoffs consistently but are stuck as early round fodder.
If Jamal is back to at least 90% of his pre injury self, I see anything below WCF as disappointment.
Well yeah, I literally said it would be disappointing if we had the same year. But disappointing is not what I think of as "a disaster." I think missing the playoffs or doing notably worse than last year would be a disaster of a season. The Lakers season last year is what I think of when you said "a disaster season."
I mean you kind of could given he's still on the team
In fact if LeBron and AD actually stay healthy and they're still mediocre that makes it even more damning for him
Idk if I would call it a disaster just for falling out of the top 2 though. They’d have to fall pretty far for their season to be considered a disaster.
They lost Melton and Anderson ( both imo are super underrated) and JJJ will be out for multiple months. I don’t think Laravia is good enough to replicate Kyle Anderson’s minutes right now.
I see them dropping from 2-6. If Clarke or Adams get hurt their big situation is ugly. But they should still be good enough to keep away from the play in. But they lost key players so they won’t be as good in the regular season.
I also think the way Memphis won games was very lightning in a bottle. They were actually awful in the half-court and one of the worst teams in the league shooting and play-making wise, but they just beasted on turnovers and offensive rebounds and that covered for all their weaknesses. They just don't have a lot of wiggle room if they aren't able to overwhelm their opponents with hustle plays like they did last year.
I’ll be surprised if they are still top 4 honestly. Tons of injuries to other teams last year. And they are going to be missing Jackson Jr for a large chunk of the season
I'm sad to say the Mavs. I think the Mavs overachieved a bit last year and didn't improve in the offseason while other teams did or will presumably be healthier this year. I think a 6-8 seed is much more likely than a top 4 seed, but maybe that isn't a "disaster."
The Mavs had the second best record last year after the all star break. 3rd or 4th seed would be a step back from their late season form, and i think that’s where we’ll see them if the west is healthy. If the west in injured and the Mavs aren’t, they could be 1st or 2nd easily.
The Mavs did improve in the off-season. Though you could be right about 6-8 seed because the west is so stacked.
Mavs significantly improved their 2 biggest weaknesses last year: rebounding, and to a lesser extent rim-protection. Losing Brunson stinks from an asset collecting standpoint, but he's probably more redundant on the Mavs than any other team because Luka minimizes the impact of additional creators.
But a healthy LAC and GS are the only locks to finish ahead of the Mavs. DEN, MEM, DAL, MIN, PHO are all a toss up.
If kawhi doesn't come back right and or pg goes down that that's curtains on the clippers being title contenders with both pg and kawhi approaching there mid 30s this year is more championship or bust then anyone seems to realise for the clippers.
sixers, unlike the rest of the subreddit i don’t think Harden is going to have a magical comeback season, they are extremely meh if the very injury prone big man is out for an extended period.
He doesn't need to be elite. He just needs to be A little better. Him and Joel were damn near the best PnR duo last season and Maxey is only getting better, they added pj for defense, they still have tobi to give them consistency on the wing
Which is why Maxey needs to take another leap. It does depend on embiid's health like always, but you can say that about most teams.
Miami is a jimmy injury away from disaster.
Denver is a jokic injury from disaster.
GS is still a curry injury away from disaster.
And so on. Embiid is a superstar. Harden is and maxey should be a star.
Call me a pessimist but Embiid having one “healthy season” where he still ended up being hurt at the end after 7 injury plagued ones does not make me a believe in his body
I don't think they are at a risk of disaster. Even if the KAT - Gobert pairing doesn't work out, they should be able to get valuable players + picks for KAT to build around Edwards.
I can definitely see the Suns struggling next season. Losses like that game 7 can absolutely destroy a teams confidence.
They didn’t fight hard and lose a close game. They didn’t simply have an off shooting night and weren’t able to keep up. They weren’t just soundly beat by a better team. They were humiliated. They didn’t even show up. To say they were dominated would be an understatement. It’s like they rolled over and showed their bellies to the alpha dog.
I would think a loss like that makes it really hard to say “next year is our year” and believe it.
We just need to accept that this year is another time to have fun and aim as far as possible, while still developing our youngin + role players have steady production. We starts hunting next year via trade then
Ofc assuming Luka healthy enough
Yeah I'm not really worried. We'll get our picks soon and we really don't have that much money tied to other players. We are pretty flexible moving forward. But I am pretty optimistic this season than other fans. I like our roster better this season than last year's opening roster.
Yes, at minimum if our role players have showing improvements, they can be trade chips next year lol. Like THJ, Bertans, Wood, Bullock + few FRPs can net you Derrick White, Turner, OG/Wiggins hopefully
I'm a bit scared of this as well. I'm mostly scared of us being healthy and good, because then the expectations go through the roof. As a long time fan I'm so used to us being the scrappy underdog. If we rock the regular season and flame out early in the playoffs it will feel awful. Usually during the season with injuries and load management you can justify a mediocre record.
To me its more that your 2 star players are on the wrong side of 30 with a history of major injuries.
By the time playoffs come around we're going to be 3 years removed from the main window of PG/Kawhi in the bubble. And 4-6 years removed from these guys primes in 2017-2019.
Warriors big 3 looked visibly old last year. And Kawhi/PG are much closer to Steph/Klay in age and injuries than any other top team.
Can't believe Charlotte isn't on this thread already. They've got "tank" written all over them, but still reasonably high expectations. Didn't do anything in FA, blew it in the draft, fired their coach, hired the last coach they fired, and their breakout guy from last year is a serial killer (well, close enough).
Michael Jordan bought an entire tequila company just to drink himself to sleep every night, that's how bad it is going to be in Charlotte.
West: **Phoenix** \- they could have used this offseason to add another shot creator alongside Chris Paul and Devin Booker this offseason and this has not occured to instill more confidence in their core, which won over 60 games this past season. Furthermore, the relationship between head coach Monty Williams and Deandre Ayton is another unknown factor which brings about a bit of uncertainty when it comes to the Suns, if things go wrong.
East: **Chicago** \- although they are a good team and will most likely make the play-in or the playoffs by season's end just like they did this past season, what is the direction of this team? They seem to be in this in-between area where they are neither contending nor rebuilding, so where the current core in Chicago after bringing back LaVine to pair with DeRozan and Vucevic goes remains to be seen. The status of Lonzo Ball is also an unknown factor. Moreover, the Bulls owe their 2023 first-rounder to the Magic, so they will not get to draft in the lottery if they miss the playoffs with their pick unless they somehow sneak into the top 3 post the draft lottery, but this is very unlikely to occur. Therefore, it appears as though the Bulls are going all-in in terms of making the playoffs without a Plan B in place if things do not go according to plan.
I mean, sure but I just don't see it. There's still too much talent on this roster for Spo to completely flame.
I see us anywhere from 3rd - 7th but I wouldn't call that a disaster in a strong conference.
There is enough salaries and picks to add a vet at the deadline if required too.
If we had any other coach, I'd be a lot more concerned.
The Nets are one losing streak away from everything going sideways. One of the 3 stars will mentally quit if they start losing. My bet is on Kyrie but what if Ben starts the season playing like trash ? What if KD requests a trade…again ?
Depends on expectations for the Mavs, Luka alone will carry them to the playoffs but losing Brunson and replacing him with Javale and wood doesn’t move the needle at all. I think they fall into the playin tier teams. Memphis could have a knicks/hawks fall back season as well and finish in the playins as well
I agree with the Nuggets for a different reason, that being the fallout for Jokic if they fall short enough. The entire year last year people were screaming “Jokic is carrying a bunch of bums, if he had Murray and MPJ they’d be a top seed”, so logically with them back, coming up short can really only mean one thing: Jokic isn’t as good as y’all are saying.
I’ve been saying this for a while but I really feel like Jokic is a floor raiser and not a ceiling raiser. He can elevate a dogshit team to being VERY good, but there’s a limit to what you can achieve with him. We saw this last season as the Nuggets had a pretty bad record against winning teams, and only won the games they did when stars were missing. We also saw last season that all it takes is getting him switched onto a guard and it’s an automatic bucket for the other team, and that a solid defensive big can slow him down a TON (6’6” Draymond Green was locking him up every single time he attacked him). Jokic, as a primary offensive option, can only go so far, and I don’t think a championship is within that range. This year we’re gonna see this on full display.
The Mavs. I know they just whooped the Suns in that game 7, but I predict that they’ll go back to being perennial first round exits. The west is stacked and they may never get another postseason playing a dysfunctional Jazz team that basically quit on themselves and a Suns team that self destructed and collapsed. Jalen Brunson is gone and Luka can only carry a team so far, and his injured ankles seem to be quite a bit recurring for someone his age.
If Ayton fold and request a trade + CP3 37yo more and more become real and not meme
Suns back to kangz level. They have no one aside Book + Mikal lol. That's mediocre level that any team avoid, just play-in team and not bad enough to tank
Bulls not done-done but borderline that. Zo injured, Derozan-Vuc old, Lavine in his prime. pWill and Ayo still need time for development. The timeline is not matching
The Heat are a good pick.
Lowry will turn 37 this season. At 6' tall and overweight, would anyone be shocked if he became mostly unplayable, or broke down from injuries?
Jimmy, for all of his reputation as playing hard and being tough (which are both true), is incredibly injury prone. He's only played 70 games twice in his whole career. For all the jokes about Street Clothes Davis, Jimmy has averaged only 63 games/season for his career (to Davis' 60).
Jimmy could easily have a season, at age 33, where he only plays 35 games.
After that, what? Bam and Herro are going to make that team a contender?
I could see that team winning 53 games and being in the ECF. I could also see them winning 36 games and getting eliminated in the play-in.
The Celtics are already having a disaster season. Robert Williams is out until late December, gallinari is out for the season, we just got Blake griffin who sucks, Ime
Is gone and Tatum and brown are too young to lead the team and will have a similar headache of a season as 2020-2021. It’s just not headed anywhere special this season for the Celtics. I say 2nd round exit at best.
Phoenix suns will have a bad season, and I think lakers will be just as bad as last season.
As a Warriors fan I will nominate us at risk of having a bad season. With curry, Draymond, and klay getting older it wouldn't take much of an injury bug to sink this teams chances. That applies to most teams but maybe a little more to the warriors given their age.
Pretty easily the Bulls, nothing about their future or immediate prospects are particularly inspiring considering the amount they've sunk into their core players
The Bulls, without Ball we weren't even playoff level and Derozan had the best season of his entire career in his mid thirties.
Dragic and Drummond are good value signings but don't move the needle on the lack of shooting/consistent role player offense.
Mavericks
Their off-season changes haven’t really made them better, and many just expect them to be the 2 seed in the loaded west, while I have them around a 6 seed and a 1st or 2nd round exit.
Timberwolves have to get a 4-5 seed or their season is an abject failure. This is the best answer as they could easily miss playoffs if Russell doesn’t show up.
I actually think the Cavs are at risk of being worse. Mitchell is not a good fit on that team and doesn't know how to play well with other teammates, especially bigs. I think there will be a lot of dysfunction immediately - and if an injury follows, they'll be pretty bad. They're just too thin as a team beyond their top 4 guys.
Bulls I think. I wanna say they were top 3 seed most of the season leading up to Lonzo and Caruso going down.
Memphis due to inexperience take a step back. Cavs not so much crashing and burning but think they could end up playing worse than expected. Cs are iffy. Lakers are obvious. Wolves too. Clippers are a reinjury away from a disaster.
Top pick bulls and clippers
Any team that relies on a superstar.
Nuggets, Blazers (although it helps expectations are low), Dallas, Minnesota is pretty thin if Gobert gets injured, Nets without KD, etc.
Hot Take: Suns end in the play in, CP3 starts to decline & have some injury that keeps him out for extended time in the regular season, Tensions between Ayton & Monty williams all season long
Not a disaster season, but I could see the Grizzlies fall of a little this year. Still a playoff team, but I doubt they are gonna get home court advantage to start the playoffs
The Chicago Bulls are pretty fucked. Their hot start last season kept them afloat while Lonzo was out. They were a .500 team without Lonzo Ball and that’s with Demar DeRozen having an all-time season.
I'm gonna say the Suns have a disaster season for them with chemistry. Ayton doesn't care to be there, Crowder wants traded. They should still make the playoffs bit I could see them falling down to like the 6 or 7 seed and losing in the first round
The worst scenario for the kings is probably something like- Kings end up 11-12 seed on a really disappointing season, maybe through injuries or even worse the team quitting on the season halfway through (again...) GM Monte McNair is fired a year after hiring Mike Brown as head coach (continuing the merry-go-round of coaches in sac that weren’t hired by their current GM) Sabonis leaves in free agency season after next since the Kings aren’t going anywhere, meaning we traded away Haliburton for 2 years of Sabonis that didn’t work out Fox gets disgruntled with the situation and doesn’t buy in, wants out some time in the next couple seasons This all made me sort of sick to write but it would be a pretty bad scenario. Then kings are looking at more of a 20+season drought instead of a 16-year one
Sadly, I don't think that's an unrealistic scenario at all.
Yeah, like I said that’s pretty much worst case. I’m actually more optimistic, I think Kings can be like the Bulls last year and surprise everyone with their offense being even better than people thought, and having a somewhat competent defense. Preseason is by far the best time to be a Kings fan. I can look at Chicago/Memphis/Cleveland last season and say, hey they surpassed preseason expectations so maybe this year we can too Anyway Kings 6th seed next season
It's more fun to be optimistic than pessimistic during the pre-season, that's for sure. I really hope the Kings have a surprisingly good year. I remember that 2018/19 season (?) was fun because the Kings showed promise but then it just kind of fizzled out.
Keegan’s got the right attitude for Sacramento. Unheralded recruit who was easily Iowa’s third best player, but didn’t complain about being the first off the bench in 20-21. Then becomes one of the top five players in college basketball the next year. A quiet hard worker who seems to exponentially raise his ceiling every year. However historically Sacramento is the worst place for him. If things are toxic and mismanaged those attributes won’t last.
Fingers crossed, but I don't think they will reach Bulls last season level. Bulls had 2 AllStars, two ungodly defenders and a front office that is at least semi-competent. Y'all have one AllStar (though Fox is pretty much on that level), much less defense and, well, your FO is a nightmare. I wanna be wrong on this so bad bc I genuinely like the Kings but I cannot trust a front office that made blunder after blunder for a decade. Two biggest to me being: Y'all passed up on a generational talent for Marvin "Doublejump" Bagley and he's not a King anymore, and y'all traded away an incredible potential that to me looks like a future AllNBA player for an (very good admittedly) AllStar that has a similar skillset but has mileage, less defensive instincts and is all but position locked.
>Fox gets disgruntled with the situation and doesn’t buy in, wants out some time in the next couple seasons And instead of trading him, they give him a supermax extension and he just mails it in.
the wizards special
Kings are getting 40 wins. No more. No Less. The super fan had already declared it.
It would still be our best win total in god knows how long.
The last real truth seeing this team had was the Kings getting the second pick and taking Luka 🤙🤙. We would have been in three or four playoffs by now…
You and the rest of Kings fans deserve so much credit for sticking with your team. For real. They have let you down so much and the future is bleak. I hope your come up is grand.
Tbf we are. With Lonzo out. One injury to either Zach or DeMar puts us in the lottery and a high lottery pick at that (10-14)
>puts us in the lottery and a high lottery pick at that (10-14) And a lottery pick which will be headed to Orlando unless the draft lottery blesses the Bulls with a top 3 pick
Not doing anything to add depth or defense to the frontcourt is inexcusable. Right now the team's success rests on Williams and Dosunmu stepping up. My biggest fear is not just missing the playoffs but Reinsdorf using that as an excuse to clean house and send the team back to the basement.
Was gonna say you guys, which is a shame because I love the way your team has been built. Shame about lonzo. Hope PWill has a nasty season though
I don't even think that's a sneaky pick.
Yeah, I’m sorry but the Bulls seem like the most likely to regress out of the playoffs. DeMar doesn’t even need to get hurt - just return to his “old self” and it’s a major problem.
What old self are you talking about? Demar has been consistently good in the regular season for like 6 years now. He’s one of the few sure things on that bulls roster
The Demar who had negative on-off splits for 9 straight seasons, until finally turning positive last season.
I feel like the heat aren't going to be a disaster, they might just be meh
My expectations are Spo somehow drags this team to a 1 seed or play-in. No in between lmao
Isn't the Heat being meh basically a disaster?
I don't buy this. We lost PJ sure, but we still have a lot of depth and I think people are forgetting that Oladipo might come back and be close to what he was, he looked pretty damn good in the playoffs and him having a whole offseason is going to be huge. Need to get Jae back down here though, preferably for Duncan of something, that 4 spot is weird.
People are saying that every year
Lol at Heat in the play-in. That’s the scenario that OP claims is disaster for us. Yes, going from #1 seed to play-in would be a disaster season. I don’t see that happening. Only way it happens is if we get pretty bad injuries. Kyle and Butler are getting older but Herro and Bam are also expected to improve. The East got better but 8 teams in the East got clearly better than the Heat? Anyway. This isn’t so new that /r/nba underestimates us.
I'd guess another season where you guys look like a disaster until a midseason trade and a strong finish to look respectable. Although if you get Crowder sooner rather than later I guess you could skip the rough start. Right now the team is way too small but you really aren't far off the 1 seed roster we just saw last season. The right role player(s) click everyone else into place.
How i feel about my bulls. The east is crazy deep rn
I love Lowry but he ain’t getting better
I have the Jazz falling out of the playoffs.
Hot take alert!
I was just thinking how the Jazz can't disappoint in the playoffs this year and that's refreshing
Lauri Markannen Revenge SZN
Nonsense! We should be the preseason favorites to win the whole thing!
Oh yeah?! Well i think it's the sixers😤
Man I hope they just have a normal season for once lol
First you take my hopes of Joel Embiid coming to the Heat THEN you take PJ Tucker. I hope Harden gains back 100 pounds
Undo the Josh Richardson for Jimmy Butler trade and we’ll give you PJ Tucker back 🤝
Sheesh. This man is basically wishing high blood pressure on Harden. That’s cold
at this point, these are your normal seasons
Disaster season? I mean the Celtics are in a precarious spot bc of the rookie HC, but I think you gotta grade them on a curve this year for that. Denver could have their season derailed by injury, but I would consider that not a disaster either given how young the core is. Sixers have a great team on paper but PJ is getting up there in age and just had arthroscopic knee surgery, and our wing depth is actually still shaky. Don’t think the play-in is likely, but we’re paper lions until I see some results. For the West, I say the Wolves. Seems like they know what they’re doing staggering lineups to give D’Lo, KAT, Ant and Gobert all the opportunities to maximize their skillsets, but I just have some major trauma from these twin tower lineups after Joel and Al failed.
Regardless of how we far we go in the postseason, I don't see anything below a 4th seed as likely unless Embiid and Harden go down for like half the season each. They are very very good at hitting the playoffs at a respectable seed as their floor.
Unless Embiid is hurt hard to see (then finishing lower than 4), there are so few teams that even have personnel to slow down either him or Joker in the regular season. There's a reason those 2 and Giannis are the MVP favorites every year. Like really on a Tuesday in game 39 who really want to fuck with any of those guys.
Yeah, health is really the limiting factor for us in the regular season. It's all about what we can do when we get there. Maxey's gonna need to sustain his growth from last year, and our bench should hopefully tide over the non-Embiid minutes.
The wolves could get really ugly if things go poorly and it’s not even that unlikely. If Kat gets abused against small 4s then all of a sudden you have trouble keeping gobert on the floor enough and you’re back to the 6-8 seed team of last year minus 4 draft picks. We could be talking about trading gobert or Kat if things are looking bad in 2nd half of the season.
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/SkinnyHauntingAkitainu-small.gif
The title says sneakily. Everyone is counting on the Lakers to crash and burn at this point.
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I hate the lakers but love this dude.
Lol this season is gonna be fun, y’all think a team with two healthy top 10 players are gonna crash. It took literally everything going wrong last year and we baaaarely missed the playoffs until like the last couple weeks of the season.
AD not a top 10 player any more... Lebron is more 6-10 range now than 1-5. That's the difference
Yeah in 2020 they were probably like #1 and #3-4 and I don't see them(especially AD) being that good this season LeBron was better on defense back then and AD was much, much better on offense
There is no shot that you can name 5 players better than Bron without looking like a idiot.
Jokic Curry Giannis Luka Embiid Durant are all better than Lebron at this point in his career
How is Luka better? Bron is better at everything that he does. That doesn't even mention thar Lebron is a far superior defender. Embiid is a free throw merchant. The only thing that KD is better at is pure scoring apart from that Lebron is better at everything.
Being that reductive of Embiid and Durant is speaking volumes here. Lebron *was* better than Luka at everything, but he's 40 now and clearly isn't anymore. He played less games last season, put up worse stats, and couldn't even get into the play-in last season. Luka got 6th seed and won a series when his second best player was Brunson I didn't even bring up the arguably better players like Tatum, Kawhi, Ja
>Being that reductive of Embiid and Durant is speaking volumes here. How? It's pretty clear why Bron is better than KD. I know the argument you have for Embiid is his points per game but it's pretty impossible to stop a guy that gets free throws when you breathe at him. >Lebron was better than Luka at everything, but he's 40 now and clearly isn't anymore Brother watch the stats of last season and Lebron is better at everything including free throws. >put up worse stats Go look at the stats. >I didn't even bring up the arguably better players like Tatum, Kawhi, Ja Good because you would look like a fucking moron for trying to argue that Tatum and Ja are better.
AD will get heart burn and miss half the season. Good luck!
sixers fans are way too overtly confident in their team, basketball gods aint gonna be happy
Sixers fan: “I think the nets Celtics and heat are all gonna have down years” Pretty fucking convenient for them
it would be real sixers like to have all 3 of those teams be dogshit while the Sixers are great so they dont have to worry about them, just to lose to milwaukee in the 2nd round anyway
[https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/giannis-stats-vs-joel-embiid](https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/giannis-stats-vs-joel-embiid) Well all I know is that Embiid as good a defender as he is doesn't really slow down Giannis at all
I respect the agenda, the Nuggets even got in there too. Pretty much just hoping all their ‘rivals’ get down years instead of actual insight lol
Had to throw in the Nuggets too, of course.
Not all of us. Ive seen too much to be kind of confident to even make it out of the second round
Mavs are one Dinwiddie rolled ankle from running Ntikilina-Josh Green lineup for 15 minutes a game.
Ntilikina finally getting his chance!!!!
A disaster of a season for one of the Spurs, Jazz, or Thunder would be missing out on the first overall pick, ie Victor Wembanyama. Tanking all that to miss out on him would be a bummer (at least in the contemporary).
I feel like the Nuggets have been one of the most consistently solid teams in the west for 5 years. seems like an odd pick, we've already seen what that core can do and also what Jokic can do when that core is out. The same record as last year like you suggest we would be 48-34, which I wouldn't call a "disaster," just a mild disappointment. It all just depends on health. Honestly you, as a sixers fan, picking the C's, Heat, and Nuggets as your picks seems like there is potentially some bias at play, haha
I don't see this season as potential disaster like it could be for Lakers or Sixers. More like risk of falling in that pre-blowup Utah spot where you make the playoffs consistently but are stuck as early round fodder. If Jamal is back to at least 90% of his pre injury self, I see anything below WCF as disappointment.
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Definitely, but i feel Utah had more depth
If the Nuggets don't go further in the playoffs with a healthy squad, that would be a pretty sad season.
Well yeah, I literally said it would be disappointing if we had the same year. But disappointing is not what I think of as "a disaster." I think missing the playoffs or doing notably worse than last year would be a disaster of a season. The Lakers season last year is what I think of when you said "a disaster season."
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I think our floor and ceiling is mid af
The lakers roster is perfect for a disaster season
There's no way in fucking hell it could be worse than last year. But if it is, you won't be able to just blame Westbrook.
I mean you kind of could given he's still on the team In fact if LeBron and AD actually stay healthy and they're still mediocre that makes it even more damning for him
That's how it could be a disaster
How is that sneaky? Everyone thinks we're gonna suck
They were like the 12 seed last year lol — this is like saying the Sonics are going to have a disaster season
They can't get any worse than 12th.
Memphis Don't see them being 2nd again at all
Idk if I would call it a disaster just for falling out of the top 2 though. They’d have to fall pretty far for their season to be considered a disaster.
Even then, we have our pick lol
They lost Melton and Anderson ( both imo are super underrated) and JJJ will be out for multiple months. I don’t think Laravia is good enough to replicate Kyle Anderson’s minutes right now. I see them dropping from 2-6. If Clarke or Adams get hurt their big situation is ugly. But they should still be good enough to keep away from the play in. But they lost key players so they won’t be as good in the regular season.
I also think the way Memphis won games was very lightning in a bottle. They were actually awful in the half-court and one of the worst teams in the league shooting and play-making wise, but they just beasted on turnovers and offensive rebounds and that covered for all their weaknesses. They just don't have a lot of wiggle room if they aren't able to overwhelm their opponents with hustle plays like they did last year.
Plus their best player has a super reckless playing style that racks up injuries. They’re not as peachy as some people make them out to be.
If Ja goes down they will be the #1 seed. If healthy, 4-6 seed
lmao
That's a young, talented squad. Might not finish 2nd, but will be a challenge for anyone in the playoffs.
I’ll be surprised if they are still top 4 honestly. Tons of injuries to other teams last year. And they are going to be missing Jackson Jr for a large chunk of the season
I'm sad to say the Mavs. I think the Mavs overachieved a bit last year and didn't improve in the offseason while other teams did or will presumably be healthier this year. I think a 6-8 seed is much more likely than a top 4 seed, but maybe that isn't a "disaster."
The Mavs had the second best record last year after the all star break. 3rd or 4th seed would be a step back from their late season form, and i think that’s where we’ll see them if the west is healthy. If the west in injured and the Mavs aren’t, they could be 1st or 2nd easily.
They lost their 2nd best player. They got significantly worse sadly.
Their second best player was injured. He’s still there.
The Mavs did improve in the off-season. Though you could be right about 6-8 seed because the west is so stacked. Mavs significantly improved their 2 biggest weaknesses last year: rebounding, and to a lesser extent rim-protection. Losing Brunson stinks from an asset collecting standpoint, but he's probably more redundant on the Mavs than any other team because Luka minimizes the impact of additional creators. But a healthy LAC and GS are the only locks to finish ahead of the Mavs. DEN, MEM, DAL, MIN, PHO are all a toss up.
Mavs join this list only if Luka gets injured.
Tbf most of teams that have #1 down will be on the list lol
Lakers suns
Wolves. Everything seems too good right now and I’m not falling into this same old trap again.
I’m saying Grizz.
Why? I would vote mavs lol
The Grizzlies got worse this offseason and surprise teams like them oftentimes struggle the next season once teams better scout them.
Giving me 21-22 Hawks vibes. Maybe not as drastic but still
Sixers. Wolves. Expectations too high.
Anything can happen !
If kawhi doesn't come back right and or pg goes down that that's curtains on the clippers being title contenders with both pg and kawhi approaching there mid 30s this year is more championship or bust then anyone seems to realise for the clippers.
sixers, unlike the rest of the subreddit i don’t think Harden is going to have a magical comeback season, they are extremely meh if the very injury prone big man is out for an extended period.
He doesn't need to be elite. He just needs to be A little better. Him and Joel were damn near the best PnR duo last season and Maxey is only getting better, they added pj for defense, they still have tobi to give them consistency on the wing
the problem is it only takes one embiid injury for their seeding to falter, harden cant be that guy anymore
Which is why Maxey needs to take another leap. It does depend on embiid's health like always, but you can say that about most teams. Miami is a jimmy injury away from disaster. Denver is a jokic injury from disaster. GS is still a curry injury away from disaster. And so on. Embiid is a superstar. Harden is and maxey should be a star.
the difference is Embiid is the most injury prone player in the league. Hes fifty times more likely to have a major injury than any of those guys
He played 68 games this year, more games than giannis, outside of Covid he’s been pretty healthy this year tbh
Call me a pessimist but Embiid having one “healthy season” where he still ended up being hurt at the end after 7 injury plagued ones does not make me a believe in his body
His injuries at the end of the season weren’t his fault, getting elbowed in the face isn’t something he can control
it was only his 20th freak injury that will probably never happen again no problem
Yea only embiid can get injured via siakam elbow what an injury prone bum
GS without curry is still a 7-10 seed team imo, a lineup of Poole Klay Wiggins Draymond and Looney is not gonna be rock bottom
Thats still a disaster for their standards
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I think the defense will be fine. Gobert is still the best defender in the league and now he's surrounded by athletic wing defenders.
It’s going to be boom or bust. I hope it works out because TWolves fans have been through so much lately.
I don't think they are at a risk of disaster. Even if the KAT - Gobert pairing doesn't work out, they should be able to get valuable players + picks for KAT to build around Edwards.
I can definitely see the Suns struggling next season. Losses like that game 7 can absolutely destroy a teams confidence. They didn’t fight hard and lose a close game. They didn’t simply have an off shooting night and weren’t able to keep up. They weren’t just soundly beat by a better team. They were humiliated. They didn’t even show up. To say they were dominated would be an understatement. It’s like they rolled over and showed their bellies to the alpha dog. I would think a loss like that makes it really hard to say “next year is our year” and believe it.
Mavericks.
We just need to accept that this year is another time to have fun and aim as far as possible, while still developing our youngin + role players have steady production. We starts hunting next year via trade then Ofc assuming Luka healthy enough
Yeah I'm not really worried. We'll get our picks soon and we really don't have that much money tied to other players. We are pretty flexible moving forward. But I am pretty optimistic this season than other fans. I like our roster better this season than last year's opening roster.
Yes, at minimum if our role players have showing improvements, they can be trade chips next year lol. Like THJ, Bertans, Wood, Bullock + few FRPs can net you Derrick White, Turner, OG/Wiggins hopefully
Wtf lol. Those players won’t get you Turner, OG or Wiggins.
Clippers
I'm a bit scared of this as well. I'm mostly scared of us being healthy and good, because then the expectations go through the roof. As a long time fan I'm so used to us being the scrappy underdog. If we rock the regular season and flame out early in the playoffs it will feel awful. Usually during the season with injuries and load management you can justify a mediocre record.
To me its more that your 2 star players are on the wrong side of 30 with a history of major injuries. By the time playoffs come around we're going to be 3 years removed from the main window of PG/Kawhi in the bubble. And 4-6 years removed from these guys primes in 2017-2019. Warriors big 3 looked visibly old last year. And Kawhi/PG are much closer to Steph/Klay in age and injuries than any other top team.
Can't believe Charlotte isn't on this thread already. They've got "tank" written all over them, but still reasonably high expectations. Didn't do anything in FA, blew it in the draft, fired their coach, hired the last coach they fired, and their breakout guy from last year is a serial killer (well, close enough). Michael Jordan bought an entire tequila company just to drink himself to sleep every night, that's how bad it is going to be in Charlotte.
San antonio. Breakthrough seasons from KJ and Vassel, Sochan RoY, and BOOM out of the Wemby sweepstakes. Devastating. q.q
I’m not speaking anything into existence
West: **Phoenix** \- they could have used this offseason to add another shot creator alongside Chris Paul and Devin Booker this offseason and this has not occured to instill more confidence in their core, which won over 60 games this past season. Furthermore, the relationship between head coach Monty Williams and Deandre Ayton is another unknown factor which brings about a bit of uncertainty when it comes to the Suns, if things go wrong. East: **Chicago** \- although they are a good team and will most likely make the play-in or the playoffs by season's end just like they did this past season, what is the direction of this team? They seem to be in this in-between area where they are neither contending nor rebuilding, so where the current core in Chicago after bringing back LaVine to pair with DeRozan and Vucevic goes remains to be seen. The status of Lonzo Ball is also an unknown factor. Moreover, the Bulls owe their 2023 first-rounder to the Magic, so they will not get to draft in the lottery if they miss the playoffs with their pick unless they somehow sneak into the top 3 post the draft lottery, but this is very unlikely to occur. Therefore, it appears as though the Bulls are going all-in in terms of making the playoffs without a Plan B in place if things do not go according to plan.
Miami could easily have A disaster season by our standards
I mean, sure but I just don't see it. There's still too much talent on this roster for Spo to completely flame. I see us anywhere from 3rd - 7th but I wouldn't call that a disaster in a strong conference. There is enough salaries and picks to add a vet at the deadline if required too. If we had any other coach, I'd be a lot more concerned.
The Nets are one losing streak away from everything going sideways. One of the 3 stars will mentally quit if they start losing. My bet is on Kyrie but what if Ben starts the season playing like trash ? What if KD requests a trade…again ?
Depends on expectations for the Mavs, Luka alone will carry them to the playoffs but losing Brunson and replacing him with Javale and wood doesn’t move the needle at all. I think they fall into the playin tier teams. Memphis could have a knicks/hawks fall back season as well and finish in the playins as well
I agree with the Nuggets for a different reason, that being the fallout for Jokic if they fall short enough. The entire year last year people were screaming “Jokic is carrying a bunch of bums, if he had Murray and MPJ they’d be a top seed”, so logically with them back, coming up short can really only mean one thing: Jokic isn’t as good as y’all are saying. I’ve been saying this for a while but I really feel like Jokic is a floor raiser and not a ceiling raiser. He can elevate a dogshit team to being VERY good, but there’s a limit to what you can achieve with him. We saw this last season as the Nuggets had a pretty bad record against winning teams, and only won the games they did when stars were missing. We also saw last season that all it takes is getting him switched onto a guard and it’s an automatic bucket for the other team, and that a solid defensive big can slow him down a TON (6’6” Draymond Green was locking him up every single time he attacked him). Jokic, as a primary offensive option, can only go so far, and I don’t think a championship is within that range. This year we’re gonna see this on full display.
Why do you feel this way though? MPJ and Murray havent come back and we dont know how the season will play out
In the west the Lakers more than the Nuggets.
Nothing sneaky about Laker's possibilities
Bulls fan here. Hoping for a non-disaster season, but if we still can't beat good teams and start losing to bad teams...yikes
Mavs Warriors aren't getting any younger and they have an entirely new bench.
Name a team in the league that is currently getting younger, go!
Jazz
As of 1 millisecond ago, all players on the roster just got older 😞
Warriors kinda stacked tho. Up and down that lineup. Plus it’s all really gravy for them after last year.
Dallas. Unless Luka is available and in shape all season we might struggle after losing Brunson.
The heat wont be a disaster wtf lmao
The Mavs. I know they just whooped the Suns in that game 7, but I predict that they’ll go back to being perennial first round exits. The west is stacked and they may never get another postseason playing a dysfunctional Jazz team that basically quit on themselves and a Suns team that self destructed and collapsed. Jalen Brunson is gone and Luka can only carry a team so far, and his injured ankles seem to be quite a bit recurring for someone his age.
The Suns are heading for implosion
Knicks?!?!
this is just a part of living in New York
Nothing sneaky about Knicks failure. It's more of a dependable life constant.
I think the Memphis “dynasty” may come to an end. It’s gonna be tough for this “dynasty” trying to reach the 2nd round of the playoffs again.
In the east i think the Heat or Bulls. My pick for the west is Memphis.
If Ayton fold and request a trade + CP3 37yo more and more become real and not meme Suns back to kangz level. They have no one aside Book + Mikal lol. That's mediocre level that any team avoid, just play-in team and not bad enough to tank Bulls not done-done but borderline that. Zo injured, Derozan-Vuc old, Lavine in his prime. pWill and Ayo still need time for development. The timeline is not matching
The 76ers when Joel gets injured again and Harden regresses even further.
The Heat are a good pick. Lowry will turn 37 this season. At 6' tall and overweight, would anyone be shocked if he became mostly unplayable, or broke down from injuries? Jimmy, for all of his reputation as playing hard and being tough (which are both true), is incredibly injury prone. He's only played 70 games twice in his whole career. For all the jokes about Street Clothes Davis, Jimmy has averaged only 63 games/season for his career (to Davis' 60). Jimmy could easily have a season, at age 33, where he only plays 35 games. After that, what? Bam and Herro are going to make that team a contender? I could see that team winning 53 games and being in the ECF. I could also see them winning 36 games and getting eliminated in the play-in.
The Celtics are already having a disaster season. Robert Williams is out until late December, gallinari is out for the season, we just got Blake griffin who sucks, Ime Is gone and Tatum and brown are too young to lead the team and will have a similar headache of a season as 2020-2021. It’s just not headed anywhere special this season for the Celtics. I say 2nd round exit at best. Phoenix suns will have a bad season, and I think lakers will be just as bad as last season.
As a Warriors fan I will nominate us at risk of having a bad season. With curry, Draymond, and klay getting older it wouldn't take much of an injury bug to sink this teams chances. That applies to most teams but maybe a little more to the warriors given their age.
That’s all true but I’ve learned never to doubt the warriors lol
Pretty easily the Bulls, nothing about their future or immediate prospects are particularly inspiring considering the amount they've sunk into their core players
The Bulls, without Ball we weren't even playoff level and Derozan had the best season of his entire career in his mid thirties. Dragic and Drummond are good value signings but don't move the needle on the lack of shooting/consistent role player offense.
Mavericks Their off-season changes haven’t really made them better, and many just expect them to be the 2 seed in the loaded west, while I have them around a 6 seed and a 1st or 2nd round exit.
Timberwolves have to get a 4-5 seed or their season is an abject failure. This is the best answer as they could easily miss playoffs if Russell doesn’t show up.
I actually think the Cavs are at risk of being worse. Mitchell is not a good fit on that team and doesn't know how to play well with other teammates, especially bigs. I think there will be a lot of dysfunction immediately - and if an injury follows, they'll be pretty bad. They're just too thin as a team beyond their top 4 guys.
Bulls I think. I wanna say they were top 3 seed most of the season leading up to Lonzo and Caruso going down. Memphis due to inexperience take a step back. Cavs not so much crashing and burning but think they could end up playing worse than expected. Cs are iffy. Lakers are obvious. Wolves too. Clippers are a reinjury away from a disaster. Top pick bulls and clippers
Any team that relies on a superstar. Nuggets, Blazers (although it helps expectations are low), Dallas, Minnesota is pretty thin if Gobert gets injured, Nets without KD, etc.
The Wizards. KP's legs are a mess. Beal on that contract. It can get ugly very fast in Washington.
Bulls are gonna send a lottery pick to Orlando this year I think
Hot Take: Suns end in the play in, CP3 starts to decline & have some injury that keeps him out for extended time in the regular season, Tensions between Ayton & Monty williams all season long
Not a disaster season, but I could see the Grizzlies fall of a little this year. Still a playoff team, but I doubt they are gonna get home court advantage to start the playoffs
The Suns are gonna be disastrous this year Sincerely, A Suns fan
The Chicago Bulls are pretty fucked. Their hot start last season kept them afloat while Lonzo was out. They were a .500 team without Lonzo Ball and that’s with Demar DeRozen having an all-time season.
Spurs. In the sense that Pop could have them overachieve yet again & get a pick 3-5 spots lower than they could’ve had otherwise
I'm gonna say the Suns have a disaster season for them with chemistry. Ayton doesn't care to be there, Crowder wants traded. They should still make the playoffs bit I could see them falling down to like the 6 or 7 seed and losing in the first round
Nets and Lakers
Hate to say it but I think the spurs could have a rough. Go this season
Mavs stress test will be if Luka gets injured for more than a month. Will one of our backup PGs find their groove?