NBA Rankings - Preseason

The Oklahoma City Thunder dominated last season, winning 68 games in the regular season and finishing it up with the city's first championship in any major sport. The Thunder start this season at the top of my rankings, but just ahead of Denver, themselves a recent champion with a multi-time MVP coming off the best season of his career. Injuries have left the Eastern Conference in disarray, but New York and Cleveland are still pretty healthy and look to battle for a trip to the NBA Finals next June. Here are my full preseason rankings and playoff picks:

				Record		Proj
Rank	LW	Team	Rating	W	L	W	L	Seed
1	1	Oklahoma City	-9.72			64	16	W1
2	7	Denver	-9.086			63	17	W2
3	9	New York	-6.992			60	20	E1
4	2	Cleveland	-5.997			57	23	E2
5	6	LA Clippers	-5.748			56	24	W3
6	13	LA Lakers	-3.403			49	31	W4
7	17	Orlando	-2.552			49	31	E3
8	11	Indiana	-2.054			47	33	E4
9	19	Atlanta	-1.906			47	33	E5
10	12	Milwaukee	-1.825			47	33	E6
11	8	Memphis	-1.631			45	35	W5
12	15	Sacramento	-0.829			42	38	W7
13	5	Houston	-0.76			43	37	W6
14	18	Dallas	0.0794			39	41	W8
15	3	Boston	0.3026			41	39	E7
16	4	Minnesota	0.5291			38	42	W9
17	10	Golden State	0.7434			37	43	W10
18	22	San Antonio	0.7755			37	43
19	14	Detroit	1.0575			39	41	E8
20	16	Miami	1.1689			38	42	E9
21	23	Phoenix	2.7028			32	48
22	29	Charlotte	2.7659			34	46	E10
23	20	Chicago	2.8903			33	47
24	27	New Orleans	3.0116			31	49
25	21	Portland	3.8427			29	51
26	28	Utah	4.429			27	53
27	24	Toronto	5.2696			27	53
28	25	Philadelphia	8.0778			21	59
29	30	Washington	11.16			15	65
30	26	Brooklyn	12.119			13	67

Playoffs

Play In

(7) Celtics over (8) Pistons

(9) Heat over (10) Hornets

(8) Pistons over (9) Heat

(7) Kings over (8) Mavericks

(9) Timberwolves over (10) Warriors

(8) Mavericks over (9) Timberwolves

First Round

(1) Knicks over (8) Pistons in 4

(2) Cavaliers over (7) Celtics in 5

(6) Bucks over (3) Magic in 7

(4) Pacers over (5) Hawks in 7

(1) Thunder over (8) Mavericks in 4

(2) Nuggets over (7) Kings in 4

(3) Clippers over (6) Rockets in 6

(4) Lakers over (5) Grizzlies in 7

Second Round

(1) Knicks over (4) Pacers in 6

(2) Cavaliers over (6) Bucks in 6

(1) Thunder over (4) Lakers in 5

(2) Nuggets over (3) Clippers in 6

Conference Finals

(1) Knicks over (2) Cavaliers in 7

(1) Thunder over (2) Nuggets in 7

NBA Finals

(1) Thunder over (1) Knicks in 6