NBA: HoopsHabit roundtable 2017-18 playoff predictions

1 of 4

Photo by Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images /

As the 2017-18 NBA season approaches, it’s time to make some predictions on who will be making the playoffs in the Western and Eastern Conferences.

After a flurry of player movement bombarded NBA fans this summer, it’s hard to tell which conference’s playoff field will be more difficult to predict.

The Western Conference is more talent-heavy than ever thanks to Paul George, Jimmy Butler, Carmelo Anthony and Paul Millsap all migrating West, but the top eight in the Eastern Conference may be just as difficult to forecast.

Barring injury, the West is absolutely stacked, with four “locks” in the Golden State Warriors, San Antonio Spurs, Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder, plus as many as seven teams vying for the other four playoff spots.

The East has four locks with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Boston Celtics, Washington Wizards and Toronto Raptors, but from then on, it’s fair game to guess who will be qualifying for the other four spots.

In order to sort out which teams are most likely to make the playoffs in 2017-18, we’ve compiled predictions from 26 HoopsHabit staff writers for each conference (including my own). The question is, which teams made the cut on our ballots and which teams fell just short of the playoff picture?