Way-too-early West playoff predictions for next NBA season
The current NBA season isn't even over yet, and we don't know when the next one will begin.
Plenty will occur before it does, including the draft and free agency, which inevitably will influence how it takes shape. And with all that still to come, it seems like a fool's errand to try to predict the eight Western Conference teams that will qualify for the playoffs in 2020-21.
And yet, that won't stop me from trying ...
There might be as many as 13 teams in the stacked Western Conference that legitimately could contend for a playoff spot next season, and the race very well could come down to the final regular-season game. Here's guessing that the Blazers hold off the competition and claim the final West spot behind late-season heroics from -- who else -- Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum.
If Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins can stay healthy, the Blazers will be awfully tough to defend. The question is -- and remains -- will they be able to stop anyone else?
Mike D'Antoni is out as coach, and don't expect that to be the only major change the Rockets undergo this coming offseason. It is widely expected that Houston will attempt to cut costs, but with James Harden and Russell Westbrook making as much as they do, the only way to do that will be by moving members of the supporting cast.
It's possible P.J. Tucker, Robert Covington and/or Eric Gordon could be playing elsewhere next season, and if so, the Rockets will find it awfully tough to play the way they have for the past couple years. Still, Harden and Westbrook should be enough to return to the playoffs -- and lose in the first round.
As the sixth seed, the Jazz had the Denver Nuggets on the brink of elimination in the first round of the playoffs in the Orlando bubble before the Nuggets overcame the first of two consecutive three-games-to-one series deficits and sent them back to Utah. And with that memory driving them all offseason, the Jazz will end up ... in the exact same spot.
Utah is a tremendous defensive team, and Donovan Mitchell seemed to make the leap to superstardom, but the Jazz might be near their ceiling as currently constructed.
Prediction: Luka Doncic will be named MVP next season.
Doncic is incredible, and by the end of next year, he'll rightfully be included in the debates of the best player in the league. If Kristaps Porzingis can stay healthy, it wouldn't be surprising at all to see Dallas end up with home-court advantage in the first round, if not beyond. The Mavs will fall just short of that next season, but it might be the last time for a while.
They're baaaaaaaaaack.
We don't know who the Warriors will add over the coming months, though they certainly have the assets to get better. What we do know is that, at the very least, they'll have Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green on the court together again -- and they'll be well-rested.
The Warriors have never missed the playoffs when those three have appeared in at least one regular-season game together. Don't expect that streak to come to an end next season. They've heard all of the jokes, they've taken the beatings and they'll be out to prove that this past season was an injury-laden aberration.
It wasn't the inaugural season for Chase Center that anyone expected. But in year two, it will host its first NBA playoff series.
The Nuggets have been on an amazing run throughout the current playoffs, and though it's looking like their journey will come to an end soon, they should be every bit as good next season.
Jamal Murray is the real deal, and he and Nikola Jokic are right up there with the best two-man combos in the league. The Nuggets are a young, well-coached team with great depth. Just because they don't take a step forward in the standings doesn't mean they won't be improved.
Assuming the Nuggets don't come back from a third three-games-to-one series deficit, the Lakers will be headed to The Finals this season. And, assuming they beat whoever comes out of the East, they'll inevitably take their foot off the gas some next year during the regular season. That'll cost them the No. 1 overall seed, but considering they play in the same arena as the team that ultimately will get it, it's not like they'll have to worry about losing home-court advantage.
As long as the Lakers have LeBron James and Anthony Davis -- not to mention whoever else flocks their way -- they'll be title contenders. Maybe even favorites.
One of two things is going to happen. Either A) the Clippers will be so driven by their embarrassing elimination at the hands of the Nuggets -- in which they blew a three-games-to-one series lead -- that they'll take it out on the rest of the league on a nightly basis and end up with the best record in the NBA. Or, B) Playoff P -- err, Paul George -- will get on the nerves of too many teammates, causing an irreparable rift in the locker room that tears the team apart.
The latter outcome isn't all that outlandish, but the former seems far more likely. With Kawhi Leonard, George and what arguably is the deepest roster in the league, the Clippers simply have too much talent to let character flaws get in the way.
