4. LA Clippers
The Clippers are arguably the best team in the league when healthy but with Paul George sidelined for a few weeks to start the season, coupled with the fact that Kawhi is still probably going to be on some sort of load management program, don’t expect them to be winning 60-something games or anything of that nature.
They’re still going to be good for sure, but I don’t think we’re going to see the best from this squad until we reach the postseason.
5. Utah Jazz
The Jazz is my dark horse team to make the conference finals this year but to do that, I think they’re going to at least need to get home-court advantage in the first round.
A lot of their regular-season success is riding on the development of Donovan Mitchell. If he can become a 25/5/5 type guy then Utah could fly up the standings into the top three because they have everything else a contending team needs.
They’ve still got Rudy Gobert anchoring the paint. Mike Conley projects to be the perfect point guard and third star. Plus, with much-improved shooting and depth, the team’s offense should improve significantly which will be pretty lethal when you consider their already stellar defense.