Mandatory Credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports
3. Los Angeles Clippers
Christina – They play pretty well during the regular season, yet they never cease to amaze us during the playoffs. During the offseason, they acquired Lance Stephenson, Paul Pierce, and Josh Smith – is it safe to say they acquired DeAndre Jordan, too? Lack of depth has always been the Clippers problem, but you can expect Stephenson, Pierce, and Smith to definitely solve that.
Not to say they’re NBA Finals bound, but the big problem that I see with the Clippers is team chemistry. There’s a lot of personalities on that team…lets keep count on the number of times Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan bump heads this season.
3. Golden State Warriors
Michael – This is not a knock on the Warriors. This is more about two other things. One, I don’t think the Warriors will have the near-perfect season they had last year and, two, the West is going to be even better (if that’s possible) than it was last season. The Warriors will still win around 55 wins, but I just believe there are a couple teams that will have better regular seasons than the defending champs.
Next: No. 2 Seed