In Cleveland, the Cavaliers have made a handful of shrewd midseason acquisitions to add depth to their roster. Cleveland traded for sharpshooter Kyle Korver in January and signed versatile big man Derrick Williams in early February. Most recently, they signed veterans point guard Deron Williams and center Andrew Bogut after they were bought out by the Dallas Mavericks and the Philadelphia 76ers, respectively.
Stockpiling assets and assuming their cores are healthy and intact come playoff time, both the Cavaliers and the Warriors should be heavy favorites in their respective conferences.
However, no matter how well these teams play, you cannot count out the other 28 teams. Let’s have a look at the teams with the best shot at upsetting the Cavaliers or Warriors in the playoffs.
We begin in the East, specifically the Cavaliers’ Central Division. Let me save you some time and say that nobody here is beating Cleveland. Indiana, Chicago, Detroit and Milwaukee are all good teams, but they are hovering in or around the cloud of mediocrity that encompasses about half of the Eastern Conference. Simply put, none of these teams have any shot at beating the Cavaliers in a seven-game series.
The scenario in the Southeast fares a bit better in my analysis; I give one team a fighting chance to make some noise in the playoffs, the Washington Wizards. The Wizards are the only team in the division that have a realistic chance of playing in the finals this June. The primary reason to believe in this Washington team is the emergence of its backcourt; The duo of John Wall and Bradley Beal is one of the best 1-2 combinations in the League.
The additions of Bojan Bogdanović and Brandon Jennings to the team adds some much needed depth to the roster. While these transactions will not shift the balance of power in the Conference, they do give Washington two more guys that can score, which may be exactly what it needs to take its play to the next level.
The Wizards are lacking in playoff experience, though, which is always an issue when a team is going up against LeBron James, who has reached six consecutive finals. They will need to use their youth to their advantage and carefully follow the guidance of their accomplished coach, Scott Brooks, who led Oklahoma City to the finals in 2012.
Meanwhile, the Atlantic has two teams that could potentially give Cleveland a hard time. The Boston Celtics and Toronto Raptors are capable of making a deep run in the playoffs this year.
The Celtics had a mediocre year during the 2013-2014 season, but they have demonstrated steady improvement each year along the way. Coach Brad Stevens, in his fourth year with the team, has helped the Celtics return to the NBA’s upper tier. Along with Stevens’ coaching, the Celtics’ current success can be greatly attributed to the emergence of Isaiah Thomas as a star point guard. He has flourished in Boston and led the Celtics to their current position as the number two team in the Conference standings.
Nevertheless, the Celtics do have several drawbacks. While the team’s core is one of the strongest in the Conference, the team was unable to add an additional playmaker at the trade deadline. Instead, the Celtics remain an inferior team in comparison to the Cavaliers and missed out on an opportunity to make their team one able to be competitive far into the postseason.
The team’s other issue is Avery Bradley’s health, as the shooting guard has barely played during this calendar year. Without Bradley’s offensive and defensive presence, the Celtics are no match for Cleveland. His health will be an issue to keep an eye on moving forward.
The Raptors sit just behind Boston in the standings, but following their trade deadline acquisitions, forwards Serge Ibaka and P.J. Tucker, they seem to be in position to make a strong late-season push. Much like the Washington Wizards, the Toronto Raptors will go as far as their backcourt duo takes them.
DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry have both lived up to expectations, but Lowry’s recent wrist injury will keep him off the court for at least a month. In the meantime, Serge Ibaka and fellow big man Jonas Valančiūnas must step up to support DeRozan in his leading role.
Assuming that Ibaka successfully adjusts to his new team and that Lowry comes back at full strength, the Raptors will be a force to be reckoned with come playoff time.
The team already has valuable playoff experience, having taken Cleveland to its sixth game in the Conference Finals a year ago.
They have all the pieces in place to make a run. Now, it is the basic matter of putting everything together when it matters most.
In the West, it’s simple. There is only one team that can beat the Warriors, and it’s the San Antonio Spurs. The Houston Rockets or the Memphis Grizzlies could steal a couple of games from the Warriors, but the Spurs are the only team capable of out dueling Golden State over the course of a seven game series.
Similar to last year, the utter dominance of Golden State atop the Conference has detracted from San Antonio’s superb regular season play.
Last year, San Antonio was stopped in the conference semifinals thanks to Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
However, following Durant’s departure from Oklahoma City, the Thunder has struggled to play at an elite level after losing the irreplaceable face of their franchise.
While Durant’s addition to Golden State makes knocking off the Warriors a very difficult task, the Spurs’ path to get to the Conference Finals has become more manageable without Oklahoma City in their way.
There are several reasons to believe in San Antonio. First and foremost, this franchise, led by legendary coach Gregg Popovich, is always a legitimate title contender.
The Spurs have won five championships under Popovich and have not missed the playoffs since the 1996-1997 season. In addition, the roster is among the best that San Antonio has had in recent years.
To begin with, Kawhi Leonard is a superstar. Behind him, LaMarcus Aldridge, Pau Gasol, Tony Parker and the rest of this uber-talented roster have consistently done their part in putting the team in position to win on a nightly basis.
The Spurs have only played the Warriors one time this season, on opening night in Oakland.
The result: a 129-100 annihilation in a game absolutely dominated by the Spurs.
While it may have been October, such a convincing victory says a lot about this San Antonio team. Whenever they see Golden State again, especially in the playoffs, they will be ready to play.
The four teams that I discussed may not turn any heads; After all, the Celtics, Wizards and Raptors are second, third and fourth in the East. Meanwhile, the Spurs are second in the West.
This comes down to the fact that there are simply not a lot of great teams in the League right now. There is so much talent concentrated on these six teams that it makes it extremely difficult for other teams to contend.
The upside, though, is that these highly anticipated matchups have a great chance of actually taking place on the game’s biggest stage.
