NBA Playoff Preview: A Case For All 30 Teams To Reach the Mountain Top of Basketball

The NBA season may wrap up on Sunday, April 12, but we’ve known the 20 teams that will be competing this postseason for a while. While the Oklahoma City Thunder remain the odds-on favorite to win it all, if there’s anything we’ve learned over the last couple of playoffs, any team can get hot and make a deep April/May run. With that being said, here’s the case for all 20 playoff teams to hoist the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy by June. 

Oklahoma City Thunder

Sam Presti’s masterclass concoction of a championship-winning roster finds itself once again with the best record in the league, and after last season’s run to the chip, it’s hard to see anyone slowing them down. The Denver Nuggets and Indiana Pacers both gave them formidable challenges, but their team depth and reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s unstoppable offensive production did it last year, and will do it again this year. It’s the most boring pick in the book, but it’s boring for a reason: they are simply better than everyone else. 

San Antonio Spurs

The Spurs’ core is clearly here to stay, with a nucleus of Victor “Wemby” Wembanyama, De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper, Devin Vassell, and Keldon Johnson ending San Antonio’s rebuild and bringing them back towards the top of the West. A healthy Wemby plus various offensive and defensive contributors around him powers the Spurs past lesser conference opponents, and the regular-season success against OKC translates to the postseason. From there, the depth and young talent show out in front of the whole basketball world, the Spurs earn their sixth ring, and Wembanyama joins Tim Duncan and David Robinson among San Antonio’s legendary big man history. 

Los Angeles Lakers

Just as the Lakers were finally hitting their stride, their two leading scorers, Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves, both went down with leg injuries. It will be up to LeBron James and the crew of role players that make LA’s roster to keep them in it long enough for those two to return. It’s highly unlikely. But if anyone can keep the roster afloat, it’s the King. 

Denver Nuggets

The Nuggets operate at the level their two stars—Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray—operate. With Jokić closing in on another season averaging a triple-double, and Murray having one of his strongest full-year performances, neither of them skips a beat once the playoffs begin, reminding the Denver faithful of the team that earned them rings a couple of years prior. With valuable contributions from playoffs stalwarts Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun, the Nuggets make up for falling one game short of knocking out the Thunder last year and grab their second championship of the decade. 

Houston Rockets

After a massive leap from their young core last season, the no. 2-seeded Rockets were knocked out of the playoffs in a seven-game gauntlet versus the Golden State Warriors. Now, with many of those pieces continuing their progression, Kevin Durant is able to take the Rockets to new heights that his former teammate, James Harden, could never do in H-Town. 

Minnesota Timberwolves

The last two seasons, the Timberwolves have exceeded expectations and reached the Western Conference Finals. Two years ago, the Dallas Mavericks got the better of Minnesota, and last year the Thunder gentlemen swept them. Now, with Anthony Edwards as an established leader and veteran in the league, Minnesota has another one of its staple runs to the WCF, but this time it’s not to lose. Edwards, Rudy Gobert, Julius Randle, and others find a way to get over the hump, and now there’s nothing left to do but capitalize on finally getting to the finals and win it all. 

Phoenix Suns

The Suns and the Portland Trail Blazers likely have the least amount going for them heading into this year’s playoffs. It’s already an accomplishment that a team whose future is so out of its hands can garner playoff-level productivity from this roster. Devin Booker, the franchise cornerstone, would need to leap into the upper echelon of star performance to drive this team. Additionally, Jalen Green would need to finally catapult himself to star status in time for the postseason for this team to make a dent in the playoffs. The likelihood of one of these two things happening isn’t too low, but both would be an astounding accomplishment. 

Los Angeles Clippers

Kawhi Leonard is one of the NBA’s most decorated playoff performers. Between his performance in the 2015 NBA Finals to basically end the Big Three era in Miami, to his dominant play to defeat the superteam Warriors in the 2019 Championship, the all-world quality is evident once the playoffs come around. Coming off one of the best regular seasons of his career, he would need to return to his playoff greatness to continue what has been one of the greatest single-season turnarounds in NBA history for the Clips.

Portland Trail Blazers

The Blazers’ leap from the bottom of the West to the play-in tournament has been mostly due to the steps their young assets have taken. Deni Avdija became an All-Star this year, Shaedon Sharpe became a 20-a-game scorer, and Donovan Clingan took major leaps manning the middle of their rotation. The future stars would need to emerge now for Portland, taking it to another level in the playoffs. With the help of vets like Jerami Grant and Jrue Holiday, one of the best playoff defenders the game has, they could turn heads out of the play-in and upset playoff staples in their pursuit of a title. 

Golden State Warriors

The Warriors turned heads by upsetting the Rockets last season in the first round of the playoffs as a no. 7 seed. While the team is not as strong this April as they were last, they still have the greatest shooter the game has ever seen, Stephen Curry, leading the ship. Riding his hot hand and championship experience, Golden State could make up for a lack of depth by shooting their opponents out of the gym, similar to how they made it to the Western Conference Semifinals a year ago. 

Detroit Pistons

Cade Cunningham’s ascendance has been a major reason why the Pistons went from the worst team in the East two years ago to the best today. Add in Jalen Duren’s all-star campaign and crucial performances from their role players throughout the season, and this team becomes a dangerous one atop the Eastern Conference. Contingent on Cunningham returning for the beginning of the playoffs, the Pistons need to see their franchise player come back and take another leap into the top tier of NBA stars for them to get over the hump of a playoff series win, and eventually make their way towards their first championship since 2004.  

Boston Celtics

The Celtics were not expected to be this good this season. Two years removed from their NBA championship win, they lost key pieces in their rotation, and Jayson Tatum’s Achilles injury would likely sideline him for this entire season. However, not only have Jaylen Brown and company stepped up to keep them towards the top of the conference, but Jayson Tatum has returned from injury in as great a form as we’ve seen anyone who has been seriously sidelined. Their strong playoff play will drive the C’s past their lesser opponents and back to the mountaintop to earn their second title in the last three seasons. 

New York Knicks

The Knicks were one of the favorites to make a title run at the start of the year, and for the most part they have lived up to expectations. However, their recent play has sent them down the power rankings, and now they seem to be the most malleable top seed in the East. New York would need to put those rumors of dwindling play aside and play to the highest level in the playoffs. Luckily for them, with Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, and many others, their highest level would earn them a championship ring. 

Cleveland Cavaliers

The Cavaliers topped the Eastern Conference last year, but ran into the buzzsaw Indiana Pacers in the second round. This year, while it’s not the same roster, it’s equally as good, and the mid-season acquisition of James Harden is an upgrade over Darius Garland from years past. However, James Harden’s recent spotty playoff history raises some serious red flags for Cleveland as they likely enter the No. 4–No. 5 matchup in the postseason. Donovan Mitchell is clearly the star of this team, and while they will need Harden to put the ball in the net, they will need his ability to facilitate the offense more as they attempt to make up for not capitalizing on their top seed last season. 

Atlanta Hawks

The Atlanta Hawks experienced some major roster shakeup over the course of this season, as ATL transitioned from Trae Young’s team to Jalen Johnson’s team. With his emergence into an All-Star caliber player and Nickeil Alexander-Walker’s progression from a role player to an elite second option, the Hawks will turn some heads once playoff ball gets underway. They may not look the most dangerous on paper, but the duo of Johnson and NAW and suffocating defense on the back end will push them ahead of their opponents as they claw their way through April. 

Philadelphia 76ers

Almost the opposite of the Hawks, the 76ers have one of the most accomplished rosters on paper in the entire Eastern Conference. However, all of their key pieces have not been healthy enough to stay on the court together. Just when everything started to click and the full team got healthy, it was announced that former MVP Joel Embiid was diagnosed with appendicitis, which will likely knock him out for the first round of the playoffs. Despite the hit this has for Philly, their nucleus of Tyrese Maxey, Paul George, and V. J. Edgecombe still poses a formidable threat to any team. If they can pull off an upset in the first round, by the time Embiid comes back, they might have the firepower to finally make it past the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

Toronto Raptors

The Raptors have a very unassuming roster. There is no real superstar, but it hasn’t mattered up to this point, as Brandon Ingram and Scottie Barnes have led this team into at least a play-in appearance. Those two will need to perform, as well as strong starters like RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley, in order for the Raptors to make a dent in the playoffs. Most of all, though, the role players for the Six will need to elevate their game to get them past playoff opponents. Sandro Mamukelashvili and Collin Murray-Boyles especially need to lead the charge. 

Charlotte Hornets

If I weren’t a suffering 76ers fan, I’d be in love with this Hornets team. The addition of rookie Kon Knueppel has reinvigorated this team to finally play April basketball, and next steps from Brandon Miller and LaMelo Ball have made this team a dangerous threat coming out of the play-in. They have quite strong momentum heading into the playoffs, and if there’s any team in either conference that I could see getting out of the play-in and upsetting a top seed, it would be Charlotte. A first-round matchup against New York piques my interest for this scrappy Hornets lineup, which could take advantage of the Knicks’ struggling play and make it through the first round and more. 

Orlando Magic

Considering the success of the last two seasons, the Magic have experienced an atrocious year top to bottom. Franz Wagner has barely played 30 games, Paolo Banchero experienced serious regression at the beginning of the year, and Desmond Bane’s 20 points a game can only do so much when the rest of the roster is struggling. Nevertheless, sitting at 44–36 at the time of writing, the Magic will still have a chance to play postseason basketball. Banchero would need to reach the next level of play that was expected of him at the beginning of the year, but I’m not too optimistic about their chances to make it out of the play-in. 

Miami Heat

In a year where Bam Adebayo scored the second-most points in an NBA game, Norman Powell has ascended to All-Star status in year 11, and Tyler Herro has played just over 30 games, the Heat find themselves reaching the play-in, looking to capture one more shocking headline. I will never doubt Erik Spoelstra after the success he’s had in his role coaching Miami, so going from the bottom seed of the play-in to a first-round matchup with the Pistons wouldn’t shock me too much. However, if Adebayo, Powell, and Herro can channel 2023 Jimmy Butler energy and lead the Heat to a title, it would cap off one of the most improbable seasons for a team in NBA history. 

Max Forstein can be reached at mforstein@wesleyan.edu.