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Why Warriors, Knicks, Bulls, Clippers are among the toughest teams to forecast for 2021-22 NBA season

With teams like the Warriors, Clippers, Knicks looking to improve from last season, let us take a look at what lies ahead for them in 2021/22.

By Amruth Kalidas | Aug 27, 2021 | 6 Min Read

About a month out from now, the start of training camp for the 2021-22 NBA season gets underway. This means we will finally be back on a traditional timeline, after the COVID-19 interrupted season last time around. As we near the start of the season, let us take a look at the top 5 teams who are the toughest to predict given their previous outings. This features teams who have made it to the playoff last season, but with the draft, trades things look to be heading in a very interesting direction. Golden State Warriors look to re-build with Klay Thompson’s comeback, Portland Trail Blazers still unsure about the future of main-man Damian Lillard, LA Clippers who might miss Kawhi Leonard for the rest of the season and Chicago Bulls looking to build a team around Zach LaVine.

Let us now take a look at these teams:

1. Golden State Warriors

Klay Thompson is the key on which Golden State’s season ultimately rests. If he comes back at an All-Star level, the Warriors are an elite team. His form would decide if the warriors would be fighting for a top-four seed. If Thompson takes a while to get back and even longer to find peak form, Golden State could be treading water perhaps until the All-Star break.

The Warriors made solid offseason moves. Otto Porter Jr., Andre Iguodala and Nemanja Bjelica should stabilize rotations. Even before Thompson returns, there’s a scenario where Jordan Poole continues to ascend, Andrew Wiggins backs up his solid two-way season, and James Wiseman along with rookies Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody prove ready to contribute in a meaningful way that puts Golden State in a good place with the potential to be great come playoff time.

On the other side, there’s also a scenario where Poole and Wiggins fail. Wiseman and the rookies aren’t ready, Iguodala is more mentor than key player at this stage, and Thompson just isn’t quite the same that leaves the Warriors hanging around the play-in line in a Western Conference.

Stephen Curry dunks?
Stephen Curry dunks. #NBADunkWeek pic.twitter.com/KHuDFTlHjs

— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) August 25, 2021

And that’s if Stephen Curry, 33, and Draymond Green, 31, stay healthy all season. If that doesn’t happen, forget about it. The Warriors could be scrambling for everything they’re worth just to make the playoffs or they could be a contender. Indeed, the Warriors could go a lot of different ways.

2. Chicago Bulls

The optimist would say that the Bulls could be an elite offensive team. The pessimist would remind you Chicago’s defense could be awful.

That said, an argument can be made that Chicago could end up being a lot better or worse. Zach LaVine could be the next Devin Booker. He is an extremely gifted scorer just waiting to shed the good-stats-bad-team label now that he’s surrounded with legit talent. Nikola Vucevic is an All-Star-level player. DeMar DeRozan has taken a beating from the analytics crowd over the years, but he remains a super-elite mid-range scorer.

DeRozan running pick-and-roll with Vucevic, who can shoot from the three-point line, with LaVine ready for secondary actions and Lonzo Ball and Patrick Williams spaced in opposite corners is an idea worth considering. In LaVine, DeRozan and Vucevic you have three guys who can dominate individual matchups and let everything trickle down from there. Coby White can score off the bench. Alex Caruso does a bit of everything.

Only the beginning for Patrick Williams.@ATT | @patricklw4 pic.twitter.com/gBw7Gvpuen

— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) August 22, 2021

And the defense might not be so bad. Caruso, Ball and Williams are all upper-class defenders. LaVine improved last season and he showed in the Olympics that he can defend. Vucevic is pretty firmly a drop center, but that can work in the regular season. Throw in a little of shooting luck and there’s a world in which the Bulls can get enough stops to give their offense a chance.

3. New York Knicks

The Knicks were not a good offense last season. Bordering on bottom five, and that was exposed in the playoffs when they had no real way to create shots when Julius Randle went cold. New York addressed that this summer by adding Kemba Walker and Evan Fournier.

If R.J. Barrett shoots consistently and Randle plays at an All-Star level again, with Derrick Rose, Taj Gibson and Mitchell Robinson back in the mix and Tom Thibodeau’s penchant for maximizing regular-season efforts, the Knicks could be fighting for a top-four seed again.

“Stay locked in through the struggle. BELIEF and fear can’t coexist inside you. Pick a side, build yo strategy and remember nothing even matter but FAM.”

A message from @drose! pic.twitter.com/zKoY8zdsdt

— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) August 22, 2021

But there’s also the potential for major regression: Randle settles into a middle ground between what he’s been his entire career and what he was last season, Barrett just doesn’t materialize as glimpses of a consistent jumper fade and all of a sudden the “Knicks are back!” facade is crumbling back toward the lottery. Neither scenario is terribly difficult to imagine.

4. Portland Trail Blazers

For all the talk about how Damian Lillard can’t compete for a title with the Blazers as currently constructed, this is still a really good team with arguably one of the five best starting lineups in the league. Depth and defense will be issues.

The bottom line is they have Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum as individual scoring and it will continue this time around too. They will be the backbone of this team.

The X-factor, of course, is Lillard. It feels like an official trade request is lurking right around the corner, and if that happens, even though he’s under contract for the next four seasons, every projection goes out the window in Portland. If Lillard goes, McCollum, Robert Covington and perhaps Jusuf Nurkic won’t be far behind.

Good few weeks of work ?? much love @LehighMBB @TheNBPA pic.twitter.com/LMF0Zb4hxN

— CJ McCollum (@CJMcCollum) August 24, 2021

But for now, Portland is being forgotten about as a good team. We could easily see the Blazers staying together and fighting with the likes of Phoenix and Utah for a top-four seed. Lillard is that great. And for now, the Blazers still have him.

5. Los Angeles Clippers

Kawhi Leonard could very well miss the entire season. It’ll be interesting to watch Paul George go back to his Indiana days of being the clear-cut alpha expected to lead a team into contention. George looked like a top-10 player in the world when Leonard went out of last year’s playoffs. He’s arguably better suited for that kind of moments.

Terance Mann can be what he was in the playoffs for a whole season. With the addition of Eric Bledsoe, and you can believe Nicolas Batum has another really good year in him. Most importantly, if Reggie Jackson continues his playoff form, he is a big-time point guard. George has enough to keep the Clippers in the top half of the Western Conference. If Leonard can get back by the playoffs, we’ve got a contender.