NBA Season Preview: Picks and projections
By Staff
Which teams finish ninth in each conference?
Buhler: East: Washington Wizards, West: New Orleans Pelicans.
Williams: In the East, the Knicks and Bulls tied at 35 wins for ninth. The West? Rockets
Yeung: The Miami Heat in the East — they’re out Dwyane Wade, Luol Deng, Joe Johnson and very possibly Chris Bosh, which is almost all of their veteran infrastructure. There’d be further slippage, especially since their only remaining bigs are Hassan Whiteside, Josh McRoberts and Willie Reed, but Erik Spoelstra is one of the best at hyper-small ball. In the West, I’ll say it’s the Dallas Mavericks, who didn’t really get worse on paper this summer, but regardless are just worse than eight other teams (neither of which are the Pelicans or Timberwolves, by the way).
Masterson: In the East, the Bulls, despite (or maybe because of) Mayor Hoiberg. In the West, I have the Mavericks sneaking into the playoffs over the Timberwolves, probably by virtue of some esoteric tiebreaker that only Rick Carlisle knows.
Rossman-Reich: The Washington Wizards finish ninth. The talent is still there. But they just do not have enough to get over the top. In the West, the Houston Rockets fall short of the playoffs. James Harden is great and all, but there are some deficiencies on that team — especially on defense — that keep them out of the playoff picture.
Barnewall: The Magic and Bulls tie for 9th in the East which is funny since they both have spacing problems. In the West I have Dallas coming in at 9th even though I’m sure Carlisle will make me look like a fool.
Rowell: The Bulls. Unless they have more moves to make I think they will remain competitive but wind up on the outside looking in yet again. Too many guards, and a slight downgrade from Gasol to Lopez.
Israeli: Portland falls just short in the West, while the Bucks miss out in the East.