The NBA’s 2021-22 regular-season schedule was released last week, and now less than two months remain before games get going, so naturally people are moving into predictions mode.
In that vein, ESPN’s Tim Bontemps published the results of a survey in which he asked 10 league scouts and executives a series of questions forecasting the season. Among the questions were who is the best player (Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kevin Durant got five votes each), various thoughts about offseason moves teams made and which teams will have the most success.
On the question “Who is going to win each conference and the NBA title?,” the Utah Jazz received two of the 10 votes for winning the Western Conference.
“They are deep and were the best team in the league most of last year,” Bontemps quotes an Eastern Conference executive as saying. “They had a bad series versus the Clippers, but a whole lot of people say you can’t win until you win. They were knocking on the door last year, and I think they get there this time.”
The Los Angeles Lakers got five votes, the Golden State Warriors got two like the Jazz and the Denver Nuggets received one vote.
The Brooklyn Nets got seven votes for winning the Eastern Conference (the Milwaukee Bucks got two and the Miami Heat one), and they got six for winning the championship (the Lakers got two and the Bucks and Heat got one apiece).