1 GS 2 OKC 3 Hou 4 SA 5 Por 6 Min 7. Memphis 8. Den 9. LAC 10. LAL 11. Dal 12. NOP 13. Jazz 14. Suns 15. SAC
That one took me a second, but I really like it. You're saying they're going to move to Vegas and become completely irrelevant, right?
Do you understand the concept of confirmation bias? That's when you only see things that support your preconception and ignore the things that don't fit your personal narrative. 4 different people have predicted the Blazers to finish 7th or 8th in the conference. Now, unless you honestly think it's "unrealistic" to think that the Blazers even make the playoffs at all, then the bolded statement just makes you look silly. Which is OK, because it's no change from prior.
Tier 1. GSW. Tier 2. Spurs, Rockets. Tier 3. OKC, Portland, Minn, Denver, Tier 4. Jazz, Clippers, NO, Memphis, Dallas Tier 5. Suns, Kings Tier trash. Lakers Spoiler 1. GSW 2. Spurs 3. Rockets 4. OKC 5. Portland 6. Clippers 7. Minn 8. NO
My nomination for team that's going to be surprisingly good: Sacramento Kings. I think they're going to be a lot more Memphis-like this year, and their young bigs might start to blossom a bit. Plus George Hill is a genuinely good player.
I (unfortunately) agree with you. I think their vet additions are going to have a much bigger impact than projected, and yeah, I think Cousins' absence is going to open up time and opportunity for a lot of talent that is much less mercurial. They are going to be one of those teams that can beat anybody on any given night.
Admittedly I didn't watch them in the pre-season. But I did read the second year players they put out there looked pretty average in pre-season. You'd expect 2nd year nba guards to have a pretty big impact wouldn't you?
I don't expect much out of prize-trade-return-piece Buddy Hield, if that's who you're talking about. I think he'll end up being unremarkable. But I think George Hill (as Rastapopolous mentioned) will stabilize things from the point, Bogdanovic will make an impact very early, Fox won't take long to become effective off the bench, and Skal and Stein have a lot of potential up front, and possibly Papagiannis too (I haven't seen anything of him, so I really don't know), along with Carter and Z-Bo providing a valuable vet presence off the bench. They've got a very interesting balance of youth and experience. IMO, their biggest question mark is at SF, but they drafted Justin Jackson, whom many projected as the most NBA-ready non-lottery prospect, so it wouldn't be shocking if he performed competently as well. If their pieces fit together well--and I suspect they might--they've got a chance to surprise people.