The Pistons will be tanking as well, the Wizards will have an awful season like always, and I expect that the Hornets will be having a terrible season still even though they got Brandon Miller.

Lakers, Nuggets, Heat, Celtics, Suns.
Lakers - I don't expect them to be tanking either so I agree with what you said. I don't expect Lebron to let his team tank knowing that he's in the final years of his basketball career already, so I expect him to play at his best in order to get that title again.
Nuggets - With Bruce Brown getting traded, I expect their defense to go down at least because he's a good defender. The Core is still intact, so I expect the team to play like almost the same as they was last season.
Heat - If Dame will not land on the Heat, I expect nothing from them. Take note that they gave 2 key undrafted players in Vincent, and Struss, so the Heat have nothing right now at least. They need to get Dame to at least be a title contender.
Celtics - With the loss of Smart, and Grant Williams, I expect them to be worse than what they was last season TBH. Unless they will have role players that will be focusing more on the defense, they will be a lot worse now. Take note that the Celtics have been known to be one of the best defensive teams 2 years ago, and that's because of Grant, and Smart.
Suns - Watch out for them. They have Beal already plus they have better role players right now. They are for me one of the favorites next season in winning the title.

Where's the Warriors?
I mean they already filled up the things that they're lacking last season. They got better role players now, they also have an amazing coach, and take note that they still have the core of Dray, Steph, and Klay. Maybe let's add CP3 in the list as well. I expect them to be a title contender for the next 2 years or even more, and they will be better in the upcoming season compare to last season.

Lakers is considered to be a dark horse as well, if I'm not mistaken, of course some of the core is back but still, a ageing Lebron and then injury prone AD? Still not sure how far the Lakers can go in this season.

And for sure the talk about the West is the defending champions and then a upgraded Phoenix Suns. And the Dame saga still continues, obviously, he wanted to go to the East so it's going to be a good conference to look at with Boston and Sixers and the Bucks.

No matter what happens to them in the Lakers this season, they have already done their job and won the championship because that's just all that it matters when you are with the Superteam trying to be a contender in the NBA league. It will be more amazing when they can get back to the NBA playoffs this season because they easily made a great run last season and also beat the defending champion easily. The worse thing they did was signed Westbrook despite having multiple stars that can help them with the championship again last season.

The Lakers are not likely going to make it to the NBA Finals again, as they haven't significantly upgraded their lineup. They were swept by the Nuggets, so it's hard to expect that they will beat the defending champions next season. Yeah, you have a point. I think the Phoenix Suns have a good chance of beating the Nuggets because if they could maximize Bradley Bell, he will certainly score like Booker. And, of course, we have to hope that these three offensive players are going to be healthy, as the Suns cannot afford to lose either one of them.



I would love to give the benefit of the doubt. Kyrie came late in the season, so there's probably some chemistry problem, and I'm hoping they have fixed that already in the off-season. However, if at the beginning of the season, Dallas is still struggling, then maybe I would believe that they'll end up like the mess they were last season.

I just saw the new Phoenix Suns jerseys and I have to wonder out loud why the NBA changes jerseys so much. I liked it better when teams only changed their jerseys every 20 years or something. Now it’s like the Jersey designs have gotten so bad that people are happy when they have throwback jersey nights. I’m not a huge fan of their new designs…

The Lakers look better on paper, and I also expect them to make at least the playoffs next season. However, as you said, they will rely a lot on LeBron and Davis' health anyway, and that's a problem because both players have missed a lot of games due to injuries over the last few seasons. It will be good if LeBron can play at least 60 games and Davis at least 50 games next season.

Cap space. They need to get rid of CP3 or else they will be paying a lot of luxury tax.
And because of the consecutive injuries that CP3 was inflicted with, that is why they need to let him go. He ain't a front-runner point guard anymore, he will be a backup but his pay is still high due to the contract given to him years ago.

The Suns will be hot that's for sure. They will be fast, and aggressive, and will be using their shooting skills as their main weapon. My only worry here is the injuries which is part of the game, I guess.

Well I forgot to list the Lakers as a team that can compete well for next season.
Now the Lakers have returned to several great players they can rely on and last season the Lakers have also managed to show a good game and they even competed well when they met the Nuggets.

My belief remains that the Nuggets can take the best series and it seems that losing Bruce Brown and Jeff Green is not difficult for the Denver Nuggets.

I just saw that Doc Rivers is working for ESPN now. 

Guess teams have finally realized that he is not the coach you need if you want to win. His resume in the playoffs over the past years is so weak, no wonder nobody wanted to sign him, even when there were 4 or so vacant coaching positions available after last season.

Once you start working for a tv network, your career almost always is over.

Lol, yeah perhaps his last great coaching stint is with the Boston Celtics. But after that, he might be a overrated coach. As he didn't replicate that success in any other teams. On the contrary, the teams that he lead choke during playoffs, 

But Doc Rivers doesn't have the voice to be a announcer? He has somewhat like a husky voice to me and it's not good to the hear. Not bashing this dude, but they should have not let go of Mark Jackson, in my opinion.  We gonna missed, "mama there goes that man".