Predictions

East

1. Boston
2. Cleveland
3. Milwaukee
4. Miami
5. Indiana
6. Philadelphia
7. Toronto
8. Brooklyn

9. Orlando
10. NY Knicks



West



1. Denver

2. Golden State
3. Memphis
4. LA Lakers
5. LA Clippers
6. New Orleans
7. OKC Thunder

8. Phoenix
9. Dallas
10. Sacramento

MVP: Jokic (2. Tatum 3. Davis)
Breakout superstar: Haliburton
Notable traded players: Harden, Towns, Trae

Eastern finals: Milwaukee over Boston
Western finals: Golden State over Denver

Finals: Golden State over Milwaukee

The Raptors have some good defensive players but make no sense on offense

Cavs caught the injury bug early this year.

Prediction for finals: Boston over Denver. Hate to do it but just feels like it is their year, even with the inevitable Porzingis injury.

Philly isn’t in too bad of a position all things considered since Maxey is averaging 30ppg his first three games and they could trade that Clippers pick for someone.

Bucks could have had someone like Vogel, Nurse, Doc, etc. but chose Adrian Griffin cause Giannis said so, now he’s in over his head.

Nice in season tournament QFs! A fun Pacers run is perfect for this tournament and Haliburton’s coming out party as official superstar.

Amazing how good Lebron still looks.

LEBRON IS A FREAK!

ABOUT TIME THE NBA PUNISH DRAYMOND FOR REAL!

Pistons 22 game losing streak getting serious... But they can’t fire their coach cause they gave him 6 years/78 million

Five more for the single season record, seven more for the overall record.

Those "trust the process" Sixers were really pathetic lol.

Wonder who the Pistons will break the streak against... oh wait

Sorry Shack.

At least you got Quickley.

Barrett looked better compared to Quickley than I expected but is pretty similar to Barnes, and Siakam also does some of the same things. Best to trade Siakam.

Siakam to Indy for 3 1sts and Bruce Brown

Not bad since they could have gotten screwed by waiting until half a season left to trade him. Barrett looks like he can replace Siakam.

Any of you guys bet on PRIZE PICKS??

Doc Rivers all time roster of players he's coached would sweep Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich's

Phil Jackson:
Starters: Payton, Jordan, Pippen, Malone, Shaq
Bench: Kerr?, Bryant, Horry?, Rodman, Gasol

Who’d be on Rivers and Popovich’s teams?

Doc:

Starters: Paul, Tmac, Kawhi, Garnett, Embiid
Bench: Lillard, George, Pierce, Giannis, Blake, benchwarmers: Harden, Allen

Popovich:
Starters: Parker, Manu, Kawhi, Duncan, Robinson
Bench: Derozan, Aldridge, Danny Green, Wemby

Phil starting lineup would only be better if they were given the prime versions of Payton and Malone instead of the ones he coached, then again if you did that you could give Doc Shaq with his washed Celtic year

That’s true that Rivers coached great players mainly in their prime. SGA and Patrick Ewing would be considered on Doc’s team too if not taking this into consideration,

Big up to Lebron James for crossing the 40,000 point mark. Just incredible.

His points total (regular season and overall) is a record that will stand for a long time. Many years.

Bucks 30-13 with Griffin, 15-17 with Doc. Yikes!

First series set in Clipper v Mavs. Should be a good one.

Clippers and Mavs face each other every year lol. Just like the Chris Paul/Black Griffin Clippers faced the Jazz every year. And yet somehow we have never got a Clippers ve Lakers series.

Celtics/Mavs it is!

I think it all depends on Porzingis. If he's healthy, I like the Celtics chances. If he's not, it's going to be much more difficult to contain everyone else. Luka's going to get his no matter what, it's just a question of how much. If it's Porzingis and Horford splitting time the whole team is better equipped to contain Kyrie and company.

The 10+ days off was the best possible outcome for the Celtics, not just for getting Porzingis back but for resting Horford.

The only question I have is were the Celtics playing down to the Pacers without Haliburton? The Pacers were very good, but even without Porzingis the Celtics shouldn't have gone down by so much in Games 3 & 4. Were they pulling the ol' Milton Berle and taking out just enough to win and not giving a full 48 minute effort or was that their best effort? It was still good enough to ultimately win and sweep, but if they play like that against the Mavs they're going to be in trouble. And it helped that the Pacers were so inexperienced, though the Celtics defense absolutely shut them down in the last five minutes of each game in Indy. Having Porzingis back also helps lessen the burden on everyone.

And I love Marcus Smart, but having Jrue Holiday instead has been night and day. He has the killer instinct this team has been sorely lacking.

So, I'm cautiously optimistic. I think they can do it, but I need to see them actually do it. And Luka is terrifying and reminds me a lot of Larry Bird.

I really like the matchup for the Celtics with the big wings to guard Luka and two best defensive guards in the league for Kyrie. But Luka wins his first title like Giannis and Jokic and Tatum being the guy just good enough for his team to lose in the finals twice but not win feels more right overall.