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Greg M. Cooper - USA TODAY Sports
Which NBA teams are legitimate contenders for a title run this season, and which are just pretenders?
About a quarter of the regular season is already completed, and the league standings are starting to take shape. But which of the teams playing well now can realistically hope to still be playing in June?
As the current champions, the Miami Heat are obvious contenders, and there should not even be any debate over them. If anything, the Heat look like they might be better than they were last season due to the players they added and the experience they gained from winning the championship.
The Oklahoma City Thunder, winners of the Western Conference last season, are also obvious contenders. The young team had a great playoff run last season before being beaten by the Heat, and the experience should help them improve, too. The trade of James Harden certainly caused some changes for the team, but they still have to be considered serious contenders for winning it all this season.
But what about the other top teams?
Are the New York Knicks really good enough to have a chance to knock off the Heat? Will the Chicago Bulls make a run when Derrick Rose returns?
If the NBA playoffs started today, the Golden State Warriors would not only be in the playoffs, but they would have home court advantage in the first round. Yes, you read that correctly. They are a fun team to watch and they are playing well, but could they really contend for a championship already?
I?ll answer that one for you right now. No, they can?t
The Warriors are a great story and they have some nice young talent, but right now they are just pretenders for the Finals. The standings are full of teams like the Warriors who look pretty good right now, but won?t still be playing in June.
Here are the Top 10 NBA Finals Pretenders (the Warriors finished ranked 11th in this list).
Source: http://www.rantsports.com/nba/2012/12/07/the-top-10-teams-who-are-pretenders-for-the-nba-finals/
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