No. 5 – Brooklyn Nets
Who had the best off-season in the NBA? You can make a great case for the Brooklyn Nets, who signed the trio of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan. Durant will likely miss the entire 2019-20 season, but this team is easily a playoff team without him and will enjoy a lot of success with the core they have in place.
Brooklyn has one of the best coaches in the NBA in Kenny Atkinson and they are coming off a strong season where they finished with the sixth seed. Irving gives this team a true superstar, and when Durant comes back, they could be threats to win it all.
Outside of those two, they still have Caris LeVert and Jarrett Allen, who are both very promising young players who had major impacts last season. LeVert looked like an All-Star before dislocating his foot, so if he can get back to that level then that would benefit the Nets big time. Allen is one of the best rim protectors in the league who can learn a lot from a guy like DeAndre Jordan.
The Nets, without Durant, have a lot of talent and depth. If Irving can keep cool in the locker room and buy into the system, then I could see this team making a deep playoff run. They will be one of the more entertaining teams to watch in 2019-20.