NBA SHOWDOWN 2023 SET -- Play-in Teams

 Here we are again, it's that time of year and the play in for the NBA Playoffs will begin tonight. So with that, comes the teams representing the play-in tournament. The overall NBA Set will be released in 3 separate parts, The Play In, The Playoffs, and the Lottery. So with the NBA Playoffs set to officially begin Saturday be on the lookout for the rest of the Playoff teams to be released by this weekend. What has showdown shown us with actual basketball and baseball? The best team doesn't always win, but some of these teams are going to be really good. 

Eastern Conference Play-In Teams
7. Miami Heat (5060 points)
Starters : Coming in at 3760 point the starting 5 for the Miami heat pack a formidable punch, Some decent defense and rebounding down low should help them keep up with the high scoring teams. Tyler Herro is a make or break guy for them on offense, if he isn't pulling his weight on that side of the ball, it will be hard to have him matchup with some of the best guards the league has to offer, which he will be seeing in their first play-in game. 

Bench: The bench comes in at 1300 points, and shows the versatility they can play with. Biggest weakness could be Herro's defense and can easily be replaced with Victor Oladipo or Caleb Martin. A defensive stopper like Haywood Highsmith can add some versatility to the team as well, sliding Jimmy Butler to the Shooting guard spot to extend their defensive success. Is that Heat Culture? 

8. Atlanta Hawks (4370 points)
Starters: Another 20-10 season for Trae Young even though rumors of his questionable leadership swirled this season. Trae is a fantastic offensive player, but defensively he is hard to hide. His card this year doesn't reflect it as much as in the past however. Maybe some strides were made on that end of the floor, or most likely bringing in DeJounte Murray helped hide him on weaker players. DeJounte averaged 20-5-5 his first year in Atlanta, and I think they would call this season a failure, as expectations were for them to be a higher seed.  The weak starters bring down their offense, and they come in at 2810 points.

Bench: The bench comes in at 1560 points, most likely if you're playing with this team, you will be starting Bogdan Bogdanovic and Onyeka Okongwu making the starting lineup much stronger. 

9. Toronto Raptors (4480 points)
Starters: The starting lineup comes in at 3610 points, and after the first two players, this team is very versatile like they intended when they put this squad together. The ability to move guys around will certainly help, especially to not have to face any out of position penalties. 

Bench: The bench comes in at a weak 870 points, but the first 3 make up 830 points of that, while the last two guys will most likely never see the floor for them. The other 3 guys make that versatility of this team really stand out. you can slide Trent into the starting lineup, like he was before the Poeltl acquisition at the deadline and add in a big scoring boost. 

10. Chicago Bulls (4740 points)
Starters: The Chicago Bulls, and their Big 3 come in at 2830 points, but their bench will surely bolster that. This Bulls team feels like it should be much better than they were this year, but injuries to Caruso and no Lonzo Ball all season certainly hurt their defensive efforts. 

Bench: The bench bunch for the Bulls comes in at 1910 points and in most cases Caruso and Jones will be starting and giving them the best defensive guard in the set. While Caruso's offense wont provide much, his defense will be sought after in drafts to shut down the high scoring players of the set. 

Western Conference:

7. Los Angeles Lakers (5220 points)

Starters: The newly formed and rarely seen Lakers starting lineup comes in at 3970 points, they are a really good team, and much like another team in this play-in squad coming up injuries really hurt this team. Them healthy in showdown form will be a tough team to eliminate. Anthony Davis is the most expensive card in the play-in set, and he had a really good season when he was able to make it to the floor, and of course the new All Time scoring leader in NBA history by his side certainly makes this a tough team to beat. This team can certainly score, but can they stop the other teams from scoring enough to take 4 games in a series if they make it out of the play-in.

Bench: The bench brings even more of a scoring punch and comes in at 1250 points, Dennis Schroder may be a starter for them in a matchup where point guard defense is needed. This team would be a fun team to play with as you can manage a lot based around matchups and best of all no injuries to deal with.

8. Minnesota Timberwolves (4720 points)

Starters: The team most likely in my opinion to get sent home from the play-in starters come in at 3260 points. Playing without Rudy Gobert in the first game and without their best wing defender in Jaden McDaniels for the rest of the year is already going to be hard to come back from. Very intrigued to see how they respond from all the fighting the last couple of days. But in showdown form, you get 2 really good guards and 2 really good big men. 

Bench: The Wolves solid bench comes in at 1460 points, the above mentioned McDaniels, Alexander-Walker and Naz Reid lead this bench, and with all the other teams as well, the bench depth is a lot of fun to try and imagine how you would shift the team around to get some use out of these guys. 

9. New Orleans Pelicans (5360 points)

Starter: The barely seen starting lineup comes in at3460 points, and this team looks so loaded its hard to forget before all the injuries they sustained this year that they were the #1 seed in the Western Conference. They certainly look like they would do some damage in a showdown league with no injuries as their depth is insane, no cold marker should really hurt this team. Herb Jones is the Swiss Army knife of wing defenders and I love him. Zion, BI and CJ can all give you 44 points on any given night and that has to be a scary thought when matching up with them while Herb and Jonas can bring 36 themselves. These guys all getting their own time to shine because of injuries really makes this team tough to beat.

Bench: Points is the name of this team, and in more ways that one, 2 40 point scorer potentials helps bring the bench salary to1900 points. Trey Murphy and Alvarado give this team 5 potential 40 point scorers, and they have a ton of potential defensive matchups as well to make them really good. My first thought even for just one quarter is a Alvarado, Murphy, Ingram, Zion and Nance lineup to use the defense around their two best scorers.

10. Oklahoma City Thunder (4170 points)

Starters: The up and coming breakout star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leads this thunder team and is over 1/4 of their total salary, while his starting lineup comes in at 2730 points. This team will certainly go as Shai goes, but the man can certainly score while also giving positional flexibility. 

Bench: A very solid bench with a total of 1440 points, they don't have that huge scorer, but Isiah Joe can certainly provide a spark, and they have some pretty good defenders hiding on the bench as well. A young team that arrived early, who is also missing their first round pick from this past season Chet Holmgren who didn't play a single minute this year. Next year the expectations will be higher for this team, and they have the picks to either draft more talent or go get some more pieces to put around this up and coming squad. 

So there we have the first 8 teams of the set. What do we think, who are your draft targets. What team is coming out of the play in to threaten an upper seed in the playoffs?

Team	Points
New Orleans Pelicans	5360
Los Angeles Lakers	5220
Miami Heat	5060
Chicago Bulls	4740
Minnesota Timberwolves	4720
Toronto Raptors	4480
Atlanta Hawks	4370
Oklahoma City Thunder	4170