Minnesota Sports Forum

1. Golden State: They keep all their core players and got a steal in Kevon Looney
2. San Antonio: They kept all their core and added Aldridge
3. Houston: Kept core but no significant additions
4. Memphis Kept core, added Brandon Wright, probably losing Koufos
5. OKC: The wild card is Durant's health. If he's healthy they are as good as anyone.
6. New Orleans: Davis just gets better each year; Holiday and Anderson return from injuries.
7. Clippers: Losing Jordan hurts, but CP3 and Blake are a great tandem.
8. Utah breaks into playoffs with their young core of Rudy, Favors and Haywood
9. Dallas-They lose Chandler but gain Jordan, Dirk continues to decline, they need to replace Rondo and Ellis in backcourt. Loss of Aminu hurts. (Edit: I forgot about Matthews when I originally ranked the teams, so I bump them up from 11 to 9)
10. Phoenix-They add Tyson Chandler and Devin Booker and keep most of their core.
11. Minnesota-Wiggins takes another leap forward, Towns helps defense, Zach continues to improve
12. Sacramento: They keep core and add Cauley Stein, Rondo and Bellinelli.
13. Denver: They finished on a strong note: Will be interesting to see what happens with Mudiay and Lawson
14. Portland was just decimated and they must rebuild around Lillard.
15. Lakers will be horrible again and I think they will seek to tank.

I can't imagine Dallas slipping like that. Jordan and Matthews are really good additions

OKC is either top 3 if Durant is healthy or out of the top 8 if he isn't. I think SA just passed GS with the addition of Aldridge because they can do everything GS can do, but they can now also beat you on the block with LA and Duncan which GS has nobody who can do that. I think Dallas is better than last year as well because DJ is better than Chandler, Wes is better than Monta and Rondo is a Ewing theory candidate for them given how much he sabotaged the ship last year.

SA
GS
OKC
HOU
MEM
DAL
NO
LAC
UTA
PHO
MIN
DEN
SAC
POR
LAL

Also Denver is the team I think most likely could come out of no where given they now have a competent coach and they have the real home court advantage in the NBA.

It's still early there will be some moves yet imo that will matter.

SAN
GSW
HOU
OKC
MEM
DAL
LAC
NOLA
UTAH
PHO
SAC
MIN
POR
LAL
DEN

Oops I forgot Wes Matthews for Dallas. Dallas may not slip as much as I projected then. They still have gaping hole at point guard.

TeamRicky wrote:Oops I forgot Wes Matthews for Dallas. Dallas may not slip as much as I projected then. They still have gaping hole at point guard.

They need another guy there probably besides Harris and JJ (and Felton if he is still on the team) but I Am not sure how much losing Rondo hurts them the way things ended.

Rondo might not hurt them too much. Will be interesting to see who they have at point. They probably wish they had kept Collison and may try to trade for him. Also could see them try to get Lawson or Ricky (don't give in Flip). My biggest problem with Dallas is that Dirk is no longer a franchise type player. Jordan may be a good pickup but he's also a liability at the line and he won't have CP3 feeding him.

1. GSW
2. OKC
3. Houston
4. SA
5. Dallas
6. Memphis
(big gap)
7. NO
8. LAC
9. Phx
10. Portland
11. Sacramento
12. Jazz
13. 'Sota
14. Denver
15. LAL

GS
OKC
SA
Memphis
Houston
Dallas
NO
MN
Utah
Phoenix
LAC
Sacramento
Denver
Portland
Lakers