Full disclosure, haven’t watched a lot outside of the suns, but have watched some and do follow c everyone actively.
There are 5 teams with 2 losses or less…
Cleveland 9-0(+12.6) - Starting to think they are real. Though they’ve had stretches in past seasons where they played at an elite level only to come back down to earth. I don’t think they are better than Boston, but they might be 2nd best in the East.
Boston 7-2(+11.7) - Defending champs, they are real.
OKC 7-1(+15.0) - They are real and going to be a regular season juggernaut. Not completely sold on them in the playoffs, but still a big threat and likely WCF team.
GS 7-1(+15.8) - Not sure yet. They are clearly better than last year, but I don’t think they’ll stay at the top of the west. Likely settle in around 4-5 seed.
PHX 7-1(+3.6) Team I’ve watched the most(obviously). 7-1 is probably a bit misleading as the point differential is a clear outlier of these 5 teams. Suns are 6-0 in clutch games though and seem to have completely flipped the awful 4th Q thing they had going last year. Better than last year for sure, but haven’t convinced me they are top of the west real yet.
Then there are 3 1-win teams:
Utah 1-6(-14.7) - Real…seems they have finally gotten the memo to tank from day 1
Philly 1-6(-8.6) Not real. Embiid hasn’t played yet and PG just got back. The team will be good when they are all healthy but I now think they’ll struggle a bit through the regular season and just slide into the playoffs. Dangerous 1st round opponent if they are healthy though.
Milwaukee 1-6(-6.6) - Think this is kinda real. Giannis trade rumblings are starting and this team seems about to fall apart. Likely a play-in team and I wouldn’t trust them to win those games. I think Giannis is elsewhere in 2025-26(Please not OKC)