NBA: 3 top teams who are merely pretenders

Taking a closer look at the three biggest pretenders a quarter way through the 2019-20 NBA season

As the league begins its ascent towards the middle portion of the 2019-20 season, the season-long race for a place in the playoffs begins to really heat up and take shape.

Teams like the Los Angeles Lakers (West Conference) and the Milwaukee Bucks (East Conference) are starting to stamp their claims on the top spot of their respective conferences, whilst other teams such as the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks continue to assert themselves as legitimate Conference contenders.

But as the standings start to take shape, we not only get a glimpse at who the real contenders are but also those teams who can be classed as “pretenders.” Some teams such as the Phoenix Suns started the year in blazing hot form and put the league on notice before gradually falling away over the first portion of the season.

This list compiled is three teams currently in the playoff picture that I believe will not win the Championship this year. These are three teams who I personally think do not have what it takes to go all the way to the NBA’s Holy Grail, for varying reasons.

There is still plenty of season to go for these teams to fix mistakes or issues, but we have a big enough sample size to be confident in these predictions.

So, these are three teams who can be classed as pretenders in the 2019-20 NBA Season.