Today will wrap up my preseason NBA predictions. I'll pick my playoff teams, the west and east finals, the championship and the winner. I'll also do my awards predictions afterward.

Let's start with the East.

The East is a three team race, depending on the third team's fighting becoming a problem or not. The Bucks, Celtics and 76ers are the three best teams by a pretty wide margin. I think the Bucks will secure the 1, like last year, the Celtics will be 2 and 76ers 3. The only one I am a little weary of is the 76ers. They have a lot of off court issues. Following the 76ers I have the Knicks at 4, Cavs at 5 and the Heat at 6. Those are the teams that will secure playoff spots. The play in tournament will have the Hawks at 7, Magic at 8, Bulls at 9 and Pacers at 10. I think I'm putting the Pacers and Magic in because I think they have very bright futures, and it will all start this season. The 7-10 game will feature the Hawks securing the 7 seed by beating the Pacers. The Magic will secure that 8th spot as well, with the Bulls being too old and the Pacers not nearly as talented as the Magic just yet. In the 1-8 the Bucks will easily beat the Magic. I think it will be a sweep. I think the experience will be nice for the Magic, but they are not even close to the upper level of the East. The 2-7 could be fun if the Hawks figure it out, but the Celtics are too damn good to get beat by this team. I think the Hawks can get a game, maybe 2. But the Celtics talent will win out. The 3-6 will give us the 76ers facing the Heat. The Heat will win. They are a superior playoff squad and the 76ers find ways to get beat in the playoffs all the time. And the 4-5 will give us a rematch, but the Cavs will win this time. It will go seven, it will be ugly and tough, but the Cavs learned from last season and they will use that to their advantage. The second round will have the Bucks playing the Cavs and the Celtics facing the Heat. The Bucks will win, maybe in another sweep. They are the better team, they got better this offseason and they will shut down the Cavs. The Celtics will have a tougher go in round 2. The Heat are a problem for every team in the NBA, and they beat the Celtics last year as an 8 seed. I think the Celtics will win here, but it is going to be a tough seven game series. So, my East Finals feature the top 2 seeds. The Bucks and Celtics will face off in an epic East Finals. I have the Bucks winning with Damian Lillard having a humongous series. I also do not think Al Horford will be able to fully slow Giannis down. The Bucks will represent the East in the Finals.

Now to the West.

The West is much tougher to figure out for me. Every team has some kind of postseason aspirations. The Nuggets are going to be the 1 seed. That is almost inevitable. From there it gets tricky. I'm going to put the Suns at 2, the Kings at 3, the Lakers at 4, the Grizzlies at 5 and the Warriors at 6. Those are my guaranteed playoff teams. The play in is going to be a blast. I have the Clippers at 7, Timberwolves at 8, Thunder at 9 and Mavericks at 10. The Timberwolves are going to find a way to get the 7 seed. The 8 seed is going to be the Clippers, but they are going to really struggle to get there. So the 1-8 gives me the Nuggets and Clippers. The Nuggets will win in five games. They are younger, better and not as hurt. The 2-7 gives us the Suns facing the Timberwolves. The Suns are a much better offensive team and they will be able to neutralize anything Rudy Gobert tries to do on defense. Anthony Edwards will be awesome in the series though. The 3-6 has a rematch. The Kings will face the Warriors, but this time the Kings will win. They are younger and De'Aaron Fox will stay healthy this time around. The Warriors old legs will be too much to deal with running with the Kings. The 4-5 is another rematch, with the Lakers facing the Grizzlies. I would love to watch this series again, especially to see how Morant plays after his suspension. It should go seven games, but the Lakers will prevail. The second round would give us the Nuggets facing the Lakers and the Kings facing the Suns. The Nuggets and Suns will both win their respective series with ease. The Nuggets are much better and younger than the Lakers and the Suns have more firepower than the Kings. That would give us the Nuggets and Suns in the West Finals. The Nuggets will win this series as well. They are as good offensively and they are so much better defensively. It should go six or seven games, but the Nuggets are better.

That means I have the Nuggets and Bucks in the Finals. The two number 1 seeds facing off. And I have the Nuggets going back to back. They are in a great place as a team and organization right now. They are built for the modern NBA and they are in their sweet spot. The series will go seven games and the Nuggets will prevail at home.

As for awards, since I just picked the Finals I am going to go with Jamal Murray as the Finals MVP. He is about to have a great season. As for regular season MVP I'm going with Giannis Antentekoupmo. He is going to re-announce himself as the best player in the NBA. Rookie of the Year is going to be Victor Webanyama. He is too good to not be awesome. Scoot Henderson will give him a push though. Mike Malone will win coach of the year. He will lead the best team all year long and people will award him for multiple seasons of excellent basketball. Sixth Man of the Year is going to be Norman Powell. He is treated like a starter, and he finishes every game. He will be rewarded with his play off the bench. And to wrap it up the defensive player of the year is going to be Giannis Antentekoumpo. He is going to double dip this season. I expect him to have a wonderful, jaw dropping, memorable season.

That is it for basketball stuff for a bit. Enjoy the season everyone. It is almost here. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

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