The West is absolutely loaded this year. Might be the deepest it’s ever been. Every team except for the Thunder will be playing for a playoff spot. Especially given teams only have to get to the 10 seed for a chance to get to the playoffs. However, even though the West is the deeper conference, they only have three contenders for the championship in the Lakers, Clippers, and Nuggets.
The East isn’t as deep but they have more contenders for the first time in a really long time. The Nets, Sixers, Bucks, Heat, Raptors, and Celtics all could come out of the East and challenge for a title.
The Lakers are the overwhelmingly favorites to come out of the West while the Bucks and Nets are favored to come out of the East depending on the source. The Lakes are the favorites to win it all though.
So can the Lakers repeat?
NBA Champions – Lakers
I fully expect the Lakers to repeat as champs. They’re one of the deepest teams in the league. When you when a championship, you can’t stay the same as you were or you won’t repeat. You have to get better and the Lakers did. They not only got better and deeper, they got younger. Adding Montrezl Harrell, Dennis Schroeder, Wesley Matthews, Marc Gasol, and the increased role of Talen Horton Tucker, the Lakers won’t have to depend on Lebron and AD as much during the regular season which will save their legs for the playoffs.
In The Hunt
Sixers
This is a little of a hot take, but I’m picking the Sixers to come out of the East. They’ve underperformed in the past but this feels like their year. They have a better coach and better shooting around Ben and Embiid. They’ll have one of the best defenses again but it’ll be accompanied by better offense. A Lakers vs. Sixers Finals is sure to bring back some memories.
Clippers
The Clippers will make it to the Western Conference Finals for the first time in franchise history this season. This is a year of redemption for them. They’ll meet the Lakers but since the Lakers are just the better team they’ll fall short. Lakers will have possibly the best two players on the floor and will probably have 4 of the 6 best players in the series. They’ll also have the better defense. But the Clippers will be there and that’s an accomplishment in itself for them.
Nets
It’ll be the Eastern Conference Finals for the Nets this season. They look really good in preseason and KD looks like he’s the old KD after his achilles injury. I was really close to picking them to come out of the East but I’m not sure if they’re defense will be good. They don’t really have any wing defenders at all. Also, they’re bench is a little shaky which will make the load on KD and Kyrie’s shoulders a lot heavier. I really want to pick them but I just can’t because of those two reasons.