While it might seem a bit early to be thinking about the 2023 NBA Finals and the conference finals which will produce the opponents squaring off in them, that doesn’t mean the NBA media agrees.
As the dog days of summer have long been the time of the league calendar for media outlets to speculate, rank, and project where individual players and teams will stand relative to one another in the season to come, such is the case during these summer doldrums . And with the Boston Celtics the odds-on favorites to win it all in many corners, the team figures to be at or near the top of most such assessments heading into the 2022-23 season.
Such is the case in a recent panel assessment by ESPN, who sees the Celtics in the mix for the next title as well — let’s take a look at their findings.
Eastern Conference championship
Here, Boston is the favorite to emerge victorious from the East in the 2023 NBA Playoffs to represent their conference in the finals with 42.1% of the votes to make it to the league’s biggest stage for the second season running.
The Milwaukee Bucks are a respectable second with 36.8% of the vote, and the Philadelphia 76ers come in third with 10.5%.
2023 NBA Championship
Here, Boston faces more doubt, with the Celtics coming in third with just 10.5% of the vote of the ESPN panel, barely ahead of the Milwaukee Bucks in fourth place by percentage points.
They trail both the Golden State Warriors with 36.8% of the vote and the Los Angeles Clippers with 26.3%.
Our assessment
We do think the competition in the West will be fierce, and with that, we tend to favor the Clippers over the Warriors, who will bring back Kawhi Leonard to an already-deep and good team compared to a Warriors squad that looks to have gotten worse in the offseason.
The East is the easier conference next season — at least on paper — but the arms race at the top has ticked up a notch with both the 76ers making moves to improve themselves and the Bucks getting healthier.
We’re going to lean into the continued development of Boston’s still-young roster and veteran additions to ever so slightly the Celtics over the clips in a seven-game series, but we would not protest vigorously against opposing views of how the 2023 conference and NBA Finals might pan out.
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