Senior NBA writer at Bleacher Report, Howard Beck, has released his ‘way to early’ playoff predictions for next NBA season. Noticeably, our Denver Nuggets were absent.
While the 2016/17 NBA playoffs are around nine months away, and truthfully nobody can predict what will happen in the upcoming season, it’s still a fun exercise for NBA fans and experts alike.
Howard, quite obviously, has Golden State taking out the Western Conference for the third consecutive season. After that, he has in order: San Antonio, LA Clippers, Portland, Oklahoma City, Memphis, Utah and Minnesota.
Per his predictions, the Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks are to fall out of the Playoffs from this previous season.
Here is the full video of their discussion about the next NBA playoffs.
Coming into the season, the goal for the Nuggets is to push for one of those last few seeds in the Western Conference and return to the playoffs for the first time since the 2012/13 season. While Becks list is overall solid, Denver could very well make the playoffs over some of the lower end teams listed.
Minnesota is a squad with an incredibly bright future. However, their core of Towns, Wiggins, Dunn and Lavine is very young. Undoubtedly, in a few years Minnesota will be at the top of the conference competing for Western Conference supremacy; however, the 8th seed this upcoming season may be a bit of a stretch, however. Transitioning into the Tom Thibodeau era may bring with it growing pains as the team learns the new system that Thibs will put in place. Traditionally, young players can also fade out late in seasons as their bodies aren’t used to such an intense schedule.
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Memphis were destroyed by injury last season, to the point it was historic. The Grizzlies played a total of 28 players during the 2015/16 season, an NBA record. Moving forward, the key for the Grizzlies will be health. The monster front line that has been so good the last few years featuring Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph is getting older, and they must look after their bodies. Despite a talented roster, with health being such a question mark, Memphis aren’t a lock for the playoffs. An injury early in the season could derail any chance of the Grizzlies continuing one of the longest active playoff appearance streaks.
Turning to the Nuggets, the return of Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler will be massive boosts for the playoff push this upcoming season. Often forgotten, Wilson Chandler is a gifted and versatile player that will bolster the bench considerably. A healthy Danilo Gallinari will also have a major impact.
The expected growth of young guys Nikola Jokic, Emmanuel Mudiay, Jusuf Nurkic and Gary Harris is exciting, and should translate into more wins. The off season addition of scoring machine Jamal Murray is also an important aspect of the Nuggets playoff push. The players will also be much more comfortable and familiar with coach Michael Malone’s system.
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With all those things considered, seeing the Denver Nuggets feature in the playoffs next season aren’t out of the question.