Hoops Tonight - Ranking the TOP 10 NBA Finals Contenders

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Void in Ontario, New customers only. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkang dot co. Slash audio. All right, welcome to tonight. You're at the volume hoop all of you guys. They're having a great week today. We are going through our contender rankings like we do

every single year. Usually we have Sam Vassini on, but we had a scheduling conflict this week and we couldn't make it work, but I still wanted to give you guys my contender rankings before the playoffs starts. So today we're gonna be listing the top ten contenders in the NBA, and then I have about five or six little kind of like follow up points to make about why I have teams ranked in specific spots, so you guys can

understand my reasoning. You guys are the jow before we get started, subscribe to the Hoops and O YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore JCNLTS. You guys don't miss you announcements. So forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating in a review on that front. We also have social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

where Jackson's doing incredible work this year. Make sure you guys follow us there and the last not at least kee dropping mail back questions and YouTube comments so we can keep getting to them throughout the remainder of the season. So upfront, important context, This is not just a ranking of the best teams in the NBA. There are teams that I have on this list that are lower than teams that I don't think are as good at basketball

as them. However, the sole purpose of this list is to rank the teams based on what I think is their chance to win the title. So matchups can play a role, which conference you're in, health can play a role, So many different things can go into it can be factored in when we're talking about strictly hoisting the trophy. Now, about a week ago, I did a list for the Nerd Sash guys. This is what it looked like at

that point in time. Celtics at one, Thunder at two, Lakers at three, Calves at four, Warriors at five, Timberwolves at six, Pacers at seven, Nuggets at eight, Clippers at nine, Knicks at ten. Now, after having another week's worth of high leverage games, I would make two tweaks. I would move the Clippers up to five, meaning everyone else is

going to slide down from there. I just thought they were really impressive in their win in Golden State, and Kawhi just looks so fantastic that I think they're a little bit more dangerous as a four round win type of team. But I'm keeping everyone else in order from there, and then the other draw a kind of change that I'm making. I had the Knicks at ten. I'm dropping the Knicks off the list, and I'm moving the Bucks up.

I actually had twelve teams with the Bucks in the Rockets being the too off the list, but I'm moving the Bucks up and I'm moving the Knicks down. I will explain my reasoning there for a minute. So the final list that I'm going with into the playoffs this year is Celtics at one, Thunder at two, Lakers at three, Calves at four, Clippers at five, Warriors at six, Timberwolves at seven, Pacers at eight, Nuggets at nine, Bucks at ten. One other detail before we get into some of the specifics.

I think there's a drop off after six that one through six. I view, as you know, that's how I would rank those teams, and I think those are the six teams that have the best chance to get this done. I think there's a pretty considerable drop off down from there. I think all those teams at big strengths, but their weaknesses are very big, and it just seems inevitable to me that other six teams will eventually run into a

team that can exploit that weakness and eliminate them. That seven through twelve, so the Timberwolves, Pacers, Nuggets, Bucks, and then the Knicks and the and the Knicks and the Rockets. I view all those teams as more or less on the same level that I'm less concerned about where they're specifically ranked. I feel pretty strongly about those top six teams, though, So let's get into some specifics. Why is Boston over OKAC? Oklahoma City, last I checked, was still the favorite to

win the title. Why do I have Boston over Oka See? Well, to put it simply, I think that their age has caused them, relative to OKAC to have a somewhat less successful statistical performance in the regular season, and I think that that's not necessarily an accurate representation of those two teams in their ceilings. I've said this a bunch of times on the show. Alex Cruso is the only guy in the core playoff rotation for the Thunder that's over

the age of twenty six. Jason Tatum is the only guy in the Celtics actual playoff rotation that's twenty six or younger. That whole team is older, considerably older than Okay. See, they're not going to bring the night to night effort that Okase did, and yet they were still a dominant regular season team that still looked excellent on most nights. So I don't think the regular season data is as revealing of a gap between OKAC and Boston as everyone

else thinks. From there, I just think they're more experienced, and I think they're more versatile. I think that makes them more reliable to be at their ceiling as they get into higher leverage games. I can count on Drew Holliday, Derek White, Al Horford in a different way than I feel like I can count on chet Holmgren, Lou Dort, and Jalen Williams to consistently well when the stakes go

up to their highest. Do I think Okaye can win, of course, and I have them at number two, But I think the Celtics for me, deserve the nod as the most likely team to win the championship this year. Why are the Lakers over the Cavaliers. This is the first example of what I talked about earlier in terms of a team potentially being better than the team that's above them, but me dropping them because I don't think they're as likely to hoist the trophy. The Calves are

a better basketball team than the Lakers. They've demonstrated that pretty much from start to finish this season. However, I think the Lakers are more equipped to upset the Oklahoma City Thunder than the Calves are to upset the Boston Celtics. I think the Calves have a real chance to beat Boston. I think their wins, though, showed that things worked for them best in crunch time when guys were out of

the lineup. A lot of attacking Sam Hauser, a lot of matchups in crunch time that Donovan Mitchell was able to go at. That just won't be there when they end up in a postseason series with Boston. When they end up in a postseason series with Boston. I know Tatum can score on Evan Mobley, I've seen him do it. I know Tatum can score on Jared Allen. I've seen him do it. I know Tatum can consistently generate good

shots against Darius Garland. I've seen him do it. I think the Celtics just have more advantages that they can exploit over the course of a real life play series and not these regular season meetings that they have. I think Boston is just a much much better team than the Cleveland Cavaliers, and I think they'll show it when they get into the postseason. The Lakers specifically present a matchup problem for OKC. They are too big on the

perimeter for okc's smaller perimeter players. Lebron and Luke are too comfortable. They have the ability to on defense, load up on Shay and on offense spread them out and pick them apart. I thought they demonstrated that pretty clearly in their two game set that they played earlier this season. I think the Lakers are more likely to upset OKC and get into the finals than the Calves are to

upset Boston and get into the finals. Therefore, the Lakers are more likely to win the championship this year than the Calves, even though the Calves are a better team. And so that's why I put the Lakers at three on the championship contender list. Why did you drop the Warriors? The Warriors have been a really hard team for me to get a read on over the course of the last couple of weeks, because they looked unbelievable there for

a long time after the dead line. But then they just in several high leverage games in a row, the Houston game on Sunday, the Spurs game, the Blazers game, the Clippers game, the Grizzlies game. They just didn't look like the same type of, you know, world beating, championship contending type of team that they looked before. They lost that game to Houston. They lost that game to San Antonio. They beat Portland, but then they lost that game to the Clippers, and they were in danger of losing that

game to the Grizzlies. And like, those teams are all good, but none of them are among the teams that we have in the top tier of this list, except for the Clippers. And they lost that game. And so I'm a little bit lower on Golden State than I was before because they look a little worn down. The role players look a little less confident. They've got what appears to be a shooting problem that has risen to the surface.

I'm a little concerned about Golden State. That's why I ended up dropping them, but I do still have them on that tier. Big believer in their defense. I think Jimmy has looked fantastic in these last two super high leverage games. Still a believer in the Warriors, But to me, the Clippers did more at the tail end of the season to demonstrate to me that they had a championship ceiling than the Warriors. So that's why I moved them. Why are the Nuggets solow? I'm a huge believer in

Nikola Jokic. I think he's the best player in the world. I think he's the best offensive player I've ever seen. But I don't think their defense is anywhere near good enough to win four playoff rounds. I think it's a death sentence. I think they're high risk to lose in round one. I think they're high risk to lose, like their high risk to lose in every single round because of their defense. And so I just would be stunned

if Denver ended up winning the title this year. For me, I dropped him way down because I just think there's a lot of teams playing much better basketball than them right now. And then, lastly, why did I drop the Knicks for the Milwaukee Bucks? Really just comes down to Giannis. Over the course of the tail end of the season, I was just so blown away by this work that Giannis has been doing as an on ball shot creator

without Dame. I said this on my show the other day, But over his last six games of the season, where he went six to OHO, the team actually went eight to OH their last dight, but Yanna sat out two of those games. In those six wins, Giannas averaged thirty two to twelve and twelve on over sixty percent from the field, over forty percent from three on over two attempts per game, and over seventy percent from the line.

He legitimately has been like two way Luka Doncic over the course of the last month or so of the season. I think that is a huge wild card going into a postseason run. That makes the Bucks a substantially more dangerous team than they looked earlier in the season than when they were playing so much more through Dane. Also, there's a version of this where Dame doesn't play and

they lean more into their defensive personnel. I think that the Bucks have just a little bit more of a puncher's chance to make some noise than the Knicks two on the strength of Giannis Antennacumbo, and so that's why I move them up to ten. But to put it frankly, I don't think the Knicks or the Bucks really have that much of a chance this year. All Right, that's all I have for my top ten contender rankings. Again, as always, I appreciate you guys for supporting me and

supporting the show. Super excited for this playoff run. Super excited to get into the chess match in every series. I will see you guys on Saturday. What's up guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. They would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it. The volume