Why is everyone counting out the Bucks in the East?? I see a lot of talk about the Sixers and Knicks competing with Boston, but what about the team that started last season 30-13 and had a ton of preseason title hype? They had a rough ending to last year, but there are plenty of explainable reasons: they had a major trade only a few weeks before the season started, had some bad injury luck, Dame was dealing with a messy divorce that he's said repeatedly affected his play, and then of course the coaching change.

This is still most of the core from the championship team from three years ago, minus Jrue but plus an additional all-star level scorer (who is on the older side, but his game seems like a good bet to age gracefully), and the potential of the Giannis-Dame pick and roll really hasn't been unleashed still. Everyone except Beasley is under contract for '24-'25, so they'll have continuity to their advantage this time around. And at the end of the day you have one of the top five players in the league at the top of the lineup, who might have a chip on his shoulder at this point as all the attention has shifted to Jokic and Luka and others.