The Bucks’ reign as preseason favorites due to their acquisition of Damian Lillard lasted about 72 hours until Portland flipped Jrue Holiday over to Milwaukee’s chief rivals in Boston.

The Celtics essentially got Kristaps Porzingis and a Marcus Smart replacement. Cleveland has taken enough baby steps – it’s time for a real stride in the standings as serious contenders. I expect Miami to overachieve (again) and Philadelphia to underachieve

Facts

• The Bucks’ have been diminished by Giannis’ injury.
• Same shit happened to the Hawks: Trae Young broke his hand. Good season of Clint Capela and an even better one of Dejounte Murray (career high: 42 pts) and Bogdan Bogdanovic.
• Embiid has been sidelined since Jan. 30 with a left meniscus injury that required surgery. This explains 8th ranking of the 76ers. They were solid #2 before injury.

Whoa, this was a toughie … so many quality teams and so many quality players uplifting those teams. And then there are a few other teams — the Minnesota Timberwolves, New Orleans Pelicans and Dallas Mavericks — who would be top five in the East but won’t sniff the top eight in the West.

The risky pick here is the Clippers, because it’s all about good health (obviously) with them, but same could be said about the other L.A. team (and really, all 30 teams). Memphis will suffer initially with Ja Morant out 25 games but, overall, it should finish in a flourish.

Suns won’t beat anyone with defense, but when you score 135 or 140 points a night, who cares in the regular season? The Kings won’t take anyone by surprise this season and, thus, will have a bit of a fall. Watch out for OKC: these young boys are ready to step up and will be a tough out in the postseason.

Facts

• The Thunders are the greatest surprise as their ranking #1.
• The Suns disappoint despite their stars Booker, Beal and KD.
• The Warriors have been the shadow of themselves.
• The Grizzlies have been harmless.