NBA: 2020-21 regular season win predictions

2020-21 NBA win predictions

The NBA is back! Without any further ado, let’s get into some regular season win predictions (my Finals pick is Clippers over Nets):

Eastern Conference’s Top 4:

1. Milwaukee Bucks (51-21)

Say what you what about Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks come playoff time, but the fact is they’ve got this regular season thing figured out. Over the last two years Mike Budenholzer’s squad has completely lapped the field (74.8% win percentage, +9.2 point differential). While I believe that Jrue Holiday is more of an incremental improvement over Eric Bledsoe than a game-changing one, and that the potpourri of minimum signings (Torrey Craig, Bryn Forbes, Bobby Portis, Nik Stauskas) won’t be suitable replacements to the depth pieces from 2019 and 2020, the Bucks are still clearly in pole position to have the best record in the league.

2. Toronto Raptors (47-25)

The Toronto Raptors just win basketball games. People will say that they over-achieved last season; that the loss of the two centers (Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka) to L.A. will be a costly blow; that their defense relied on opponent shooting luck; that Kyle Lowry is bound to fall off a cliff at some point; that re-locating to Tampa is going to negatively affect them. At the same time, the team should have been even better last year, as pretty much every rotation player aside from OG Anunoby missed extensive time. Count the Raptors out at your own peril.

3. Brooklyn Nets (46-26)

This team is going to be must-see, both on and off the court. Assuming Kevin Durant is 95 percent of his old-self, the Brooklyn Nets actually have a pretty stacked roster. They can play big with a rim-protecting center (Jarrett Allen or DeAndre Jordan) or small with Jeff Green or even KD at the five. Steve Nash (and Mike D’Antoni) is going to make sure there’s ample shooting (Joe Harris, Landry Shamet) and ball-handling (Spencer Dinwiddie, Caris LeVert) on the floor at all times next to the stars. I also believe that they’ll be better defensively than people expect, my one concern is whether Kyrie Irving buys in. There’s also a rather large bearded-elephant in the room..

4. Philadelphia 76ers (45-27)

Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons will get you to 50 wins (in an 82-game season), no matter how disastrous or off-the-rails the season appears to be heading. Despite the better fit, I’m still not a big fan of this roster. Seth Curry – aged 30 – has never been a full-time starter in his career and Danny Green looks increasingly creaky by the year. All of the other depth pieces have major question marks. The key will be for Doc Rivers to get more out of Tobias Harris – who played the best basketball of his career in L.A. as a Clipper. Renowned defensive assistant Dan Burke will surely help the defense as well.