Lets analyze them. Jordan Poole has emerged, Bjelica is a very good addition and GP jr. Is wrecking havoc on defense. Don't know if they are favorites but they are certainly very good
to start with, I'd say the combination of a hangover and players missing is why the Bucks are off to a slow start. Pretty clear what level of a team they are when they start playing well Warriors look legit and the Suns have won 10 in a row. Miami is looking a lot like the team that played in the finals 2 years ago. Utah is Utah. And Brooklyn is loaded It may be wide open, but I'd think it's only wide open for 5 or 6 teams
I think the Warriors and Suns are in a tier of their own in the West. The Warriors may or may not separate themselves when Klay Thompson returns, depending on how close to the old Klay he is. I think once the regular season plays itself out, the Nets and Bucks will be the class of the East even though they stumbled early. Right now, I'd make those four the "favorites" tier. The Jazz and Heat could end up contending. I don't think the Lakers will, and I'm not sure Kawhi Leonard or Jamal Murray are back and in top form in time to significantly change the Clippers' or Nuggets' destiny this season.
Yeah, but they also blew out the Bulls and Nets in addition to everyone else, so I'm not sure the "easy schedule" thing really washes. They have had a mostly easy schedule, but they've annihilated it, the way a top-end team would--blowout after blowout, not barely winning games.
I predicted Bucks v Jazz at the start of last year. I’ll stick with that again this year though I haven’t actually seen the Warriors this year. Besides the Blazers I’d like to see CP3 finally win it all.
Yeah, I think it should look wide open right now and will continue to until around the trade deadline. If everything with the top teams stays the same then I'd dare to say Warriors vs. Heat but that's just a shot in the dark at this point.
Favorite in the West looks like Golden State. Curry is MVP so far a their other players are playing really well. Klay is expected to return so they will get even better. Other than that probably Utah or the Suns? no one else seems close to those 3. East seems a bit wide more open I would pick the Heat, Nets and Bulls. IMO Golden State looks like its their year so far to win it all.
Couple dark horses are the Bulls and Heat in the East. If the Nuggets and Clippers get healthy they could impact the tail end of the season.
This, but with a major caveat that avoiding injuries to key players will be more important than anything else in determining who makes the finals.
