Season Predictions 2026-27

And so you do... specific predictions i do tears and the tears for me function very similarly to how we do it in player rankings and everything else which is i can see the teams going in any order i will emphasize that this is regular season only this is not who i think will be the best team on april 15th may 15th or anything like that it is just who i think will have the best records And why I think the East is most interesting is my top tier, and I believe this is the first time in either conference in the history of this podcast, my first tier in the East has seven teams.

I just think the top is very, very balanced.

So

is that for regular season or are we talking about regular season plus playoffs in terms of actually winning the conference?

It's regular season because there are a number of teams like, let's say, the Cleveland Cavaliers, who I'm less optimistic about their playoff performance.

I would say I probably would say I have four or five in my top tier for the regular season, but I have one in my top tier for the playoffs in the East, which would be the Knicks.

Yes, I think that's totally fair.

I have the East.

I have the Knicks winning the East as well.

So I'll lay out those seven teams.

And part of the reason why is the teams at the bottom of the tier, I think they have real upside potential.

So I'm acknowledging the possibility that I'm wrong on them by including them.

So I have the Celtics number one in terms of regular season record.

I believe in Joe Missoula.

I think they have a good roster, even if I vehemently disagreed with the Jalen Brown trade.

Number two is the Knicks, number three is the Cavs, number four is the Pistons, five Raptors, six Sixers, and seven the Indiana Pacers.

And those last two are there because even though I think there are some EV, lower EVs with Tyrese Halliburton coming back from his injury, and then the Sixers with kind of all of their stuff we've talked about at length over this offseason, I think that, and this will come up later in the podcast, I think that there's a chance that they're just straight up better.

Like I could see the Sixers having a top four record.

And so it's like, I have to put them in the same tier if I think that's a real possibility.

Yeah, I think so.

I mean, Pacers, Sixers, those to me are probably the two most volatile teams.

I mean, obviously there's health, right? I mean, that's going to be volatile for any of these.

I chose to not put too much of an emphasis on health, but I think in terms of even just healthy level of performance.

I would say the Sixers and the Pacers are the two that stick out to me.

Like maybe Tyrese Halliburton just isn't the same guy anymore.