Ty Tells You How each NBA Team Can Win the Title: Suns, Magic, and Nuggets

Before I continue with my NBA countdown today, I want to wish my beautiful little baby girl a very happy first birthday. I can't believe that she is already one. Happy birthday princess, I love you.

Now, back to the countdown.

Coming in at number 27, the Phoenix Suns. First off, I heard some story yesterday that they are utilizing the "high five" because it will grow strength between teammates and make for a better work environment. They did a study on this. That statement alone should show you how far behind most of the league the Suns really are. Studying the good things about high fives. Yeesh. This was a team that just a few years ago barely missed out on the playoffs in the hyper competitive Western Conference. But now, that roster has been ravaged and there are only few holdovers. This was also the same team that went all in on LaMarcus Aldridge when no one thought they had a chance to sign him. Guess what, he signed elsewhere. The back court is the strength, but it is filled with untapped potential. Brandon Knight and Eric Bledsoe cannot stay healthy, and their style of play seem to clash when they are on the court at the same time. Devin Booker is a great, great shooter, but until he gets some more help, it will be for moot. But man, is he a great shooter. The rest of the roster is very mediocre and old. Tyson Chandler peaked about 4 years ago. I love Chandler, but he is done in the NBA. Jared Dudley, while being a good dude, he doesn't really have it anymore. PJ Tucker can't stay out of trouble on and off the court. Alex Len is a bust. And Archie Goodwin doesn't seem to have what it takes to make it in the NBA. They drafted Tyler Ullis and Dragan Bender. Ullis is lightning fast, but he is so tiny, and he couldn't really score that much in college. Bender may or may not be good, but this preseason, he has seemed more interested in his hair looking good as opposed to his jumper looking good. He also got owned by undrafted opponents in the summer league. The Suns are in the midst of a massive rebuild. They are pretty terrible, not as bad as the three teams from yesterday, but still pretty bad. They will win between 20-25 games.

So Ty, how will the Suns win the title? The Suns only shot at the title is if Bledsoe and Knight find a way to blend their skills and become all NBA caliber and the rest of the roster plays the best basketball of their lives. That isn't happening.

At number 26, I have the Orlando Magic. I thought that they may be on the up, but not so much after this offseason. Sure, they added Serge Ibaka, but is he a real threat anymore? Was he ever a threat? Now, he is the first option on this team. Yikes. Scott Skiles also quit on this team after one year. I think that speaks volumes on both ends. Skiles couldn't handle the new NBA, and the Magic didn't like his old school approach. They also traded away Victor Oladipo. While not great, he was still a double digit scorer and a very good defender. The Thunder won that trade. Aaron Gordon is a very good leaper, but he doesn't do much else. He needs to develop a jumper and play better defense. Elfrid Payton is just not living up to the hype. the game seems to fast for him. Nikola Vucivic is a stat stuffer, but that doesn't make him great. He fills the stat sheet, but it doesn't really matter. Evan Fournier is garbage. Mario Hezjona hasn't really had a real shot to prove himself. Jeff Green is a total anomaly, and one of the more frustrating players in the NBA. DJ Augustin is a career back up, and after that, all no names. I do like the Frank Vogel hiring, the dude is a good coach, but this team is a few years away from truly competing. 25-30 wins seems to be their ceiling. 

So Ty, how will the Magic win the title? The Magic can win the title if Ibaka returns to his old dominant self on defense, and stops settling for jumpers, and the rest of the team plays much, much better than they have since they've been in the league. The Magic are a team filled with players that have not lived up to their hype and draft position. Vogel will make a difference, but it will be in a year or two.

At number 25, I have the Denver Nuggets. I really, really like Kenneth Faried and Emmanuel Mudiay. The problem is with the rest of their roster, it is junk. Danilo Gallinari has never lived up to his expectations, and he is always hurt. Their first round pick, Jamal Murray, barely scored in college. I don't care that he made a bunch of un guarded jumpers in his workouts, what I saw in his short college career, he had a tough time scoring. Wilson Chandler is on the back end of his career, and the front end wasn't all that great to begin with. Mike Miller is one million years old. Why doesn't he just retire? Gary Harris is now getting into trouble left and right off the court. Jameer Nelson's career was over 3 or 4 years ago. And Darrell Arthur is a very below average NBA player. I like Faried and Mudiay, but my like for them is completely outweighed by my dislike for the rest of the roster. Mike Malone is a good coach, but I don't think even Gregg Poppovich could win with this roster. They may win 28 or 29 games, but that is it.

So Ty, how will the Nuggets win the title? The Nuggets could win the title if Faried develops a deadly offensive game, and Mudiay gets a legit jumper. Oh, and that dumpster fire of a roster actually plays good basketball. That is not happening.

That's it for today. Come back next week for my next 3 teams.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the X Millennial Man Podcast. His daughter is a prodigy since she is able to read at the age of one. Why else would Ty write a happy birthday message. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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Ty tells you how each NBA team can win the title: Knicks, Nuggets, & Nets

I love NBA basketball.

Another day, another basketball preview. Today I will give you my next three teams. These teams are better than the 76ers, Lakers and Trail Blazers, but not by that much. They're a step up, but they're still going to be picking in the lottery in next year's draft.

My number 27 team is the New York Knicks. The Knicks are this low you're asking me? Absolutely. Sure, they have Carmelo Anthony, one of the most overrated "superstars" in the NBA today. Sure, Phil Jackson is running the show as the GM now. Sure they had a lottery pick, they took Kristpas Porzingis, and who knows with him. He's either the new Dirk Nowitzki, or in his GM's terms, the next Shawn Bradley. There's no middle ground for Porzingis. Time will tell how well of a GM Phil Jackson truly is. I don't think he's done a good job so far, but he is a basketball genius, so he may know something we don't know. But, you trade away Iman Shumpert and JR Smith and the team gets worse? How in the hell does that happen? They didn't get much of anything in return as well. Bad move by Phil Jackson. Carmelo Anthony is a shell of the player he was in Denver and his first couple seasons in New York. He gets hurt constantly, argues with the front office, i.e. takes a max contract from the Knicks and now, according to rumors, he wants to be traded to the Bulls who tried really hard to get him last offseason and he has ZERO interest in passing the ball, or playing defense. He fought so much with Tim Hardaway Jr last season, they traded Hardaway to the Hawks for next to nothing just to make Anthony happy. At this point in his career, he's a worse version of Kobe Bryant. Instead of leading and helping this team, he bitches and complains. It's never his fault, it's everyone else around him. He's past his prime, and he's never been to the Finals in his career. Do you remember when he and LeBron James were rookies and people actually thought that Anthony may be a better pro than James? You were all wrong. James is ten times the player that Anthony is on his best day. The rest of their roster is pretty weak. They signed Aaron Affalo this offseason to an eight million dollar contract. That's crazy. Affalo is a good defender, but that's it. He is not the player he was with the Nuggets and he is only getting older. They signed Robin Lopez, and while he's a good NBA center, he is not the answer for the Knicks. They have the aging corpse of Jose Calderon and they signed Derrick Williams. You don't remember him? He was a lottery pick four years ago and he couldn't find the court in Minnesota or Sacramento. He will struggle in New York. Langston Galloway was a "pleasant" surprise. He looks like he could end up being a good bench player in his career. But, the Knicks start him. Other than that, there's really not much to like about the Knicks and I don't like much about who I mentioned. They're a 26 or 27 win team, at best, this year.

How the Knicks will win it all.

They will win the title if Carmelo finds his form from 8 years ago, Porzingis becomes a beast immediately, Affalo travels back in time to 5 years ago and Derrick Williams suddenly becomes an All Star. That's not happening. This team is a mess and they will be for the next two or three years.

My number 26 team is the Denver Nuggets. What in the world happened to this team? They were in the playoffs two years ago and had one of the best home court advantages in all of the NBA. Then, out of nowhere, they imploded. They've traded away a ton of good players, fired a decent coach and gave up midway through last season. During last year they traded away Aaron Affalo, Timofey Mozgov and Ty Lawson. They did have Lawson all of last season, but when they drafted Emmanuel Mudiay, the writing was on the wall. They have likable NBA players, guys like Kenneth Faried, Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari. They also drafted Mudiay, and I like him a lot. I think he's going to end up being a really good NBA point guard. Kenneth Faried is a hustle and rebounding machine. This guy goes 100mph and plays with reckless abandon. Wilson Chandler is long and rangy, he's a solid defender and a pretty good three point shooter. And Gallinari, if he can stay healthy, is a good all around player. But, these guys don't mesh well together. When they play, it's like a mishmash of solid players and not so solid players. It doesn't help that everyone one of these guys, Mudiay being the exception, is always on the trading block. It's hard to play hard for a team that is always in discussions to trade you. There's some good young talent, but those guys aren't ready yet. The veterans are too old and they can't help in any phase of the game. This team signed Mike Miller for Christ sakes. He hasn't been helpful in 8 years.

How the Nuggets will win it all.

The Nuggets will win the Finals if Mudiay becomes elite immediately, not happening, Faried becomes not only a rebounding machine, but a 25 point per game player, not happening, Chandler and Gallinari put in 60 combined points a night, not happening, and Mike Miller and Gary Harris come off the bench with some instant offense, not happening. This team is too far behind almost every team in the West, minus the Lakers and Trail Blazers, and they will need some time to get back to where they were two years ago. Sorry Nuggets fans, you'll be lucky to win 30 games this season.

My number 25 team is the Brooklyn Nets. They were in the playoffs last year, barely, and they got worse in the offseason. Sure, they bought out Deron Williams, who hasn't been good in five years, but they replaced him with Jarret Jack and Shane Larkin. Those two are hardly world beaters. Larkin is inexperienced and Jack, when the Warriors traded him, they got immediately better. Joe Johnson clearly doesn't want to be on this team anymore but, his contract is so bad, no one will trade for him. He's stuck. They resigned Brook Lopez, but he's a foot injury waiting to happen. The guy can barely stay on the court as it is, and now the Nets just gave him big money.  They signed Andrea Bargnani and Thomas Robinson this offseason. Those are two lottery busts. Bargnani has been on four different teams now, and Robinson can't seem to find the court on any team he's been with. They drafted Ryan Boatright, and while he was a great college scorer, he'll find it to be much tougher sledding in the NBA. Rondae-Hollis Jefferson, their other draft pick may be good, but I don't have a big enough sampling since he was a one and done player from Arizona. The rest of the roster is filled with question marks. It's gotten so weird with their crazy owner recently, that NBA TV showed him running drills in camp, and these drills were asinine. Go look it up on Google, it's insane.

How the Nets will win it all.

The Nets will win the title if everyone, including Joe Johnson, buys into this crazy owner, believes their own hype and somehow wins games they shouldn't. That won't happen. As I said before, their best player, Joe Johnson, doesn't want to be there, Brook Lopez is one foot injury away from being done for good and everyone else on the roster is unproven. The Nets are a 30 win team. No ifs ands or buts about it. So, there are my 27, 26 and 25 teams for you. Come back tomorrow for 24, 23, and 22.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is enjoying one more day of one kid and one money. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.