Boston Celtics

NBA Contenders Talk with Gerald Bourguet - Timeout with Ti Episode 71

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 4:11 p.m. ET

Fansided, Ti Windisch/FanSided via Hoops Habit

Gerald Bourguet and Ti Windisch sat down on the latest episode of the Timeout with Ti podcast to talk about the NBA's contenders in both the East and the West.

On the 71st episode of the Timeout with Ti podcast, I had a great time talking about the true NBA contenders with Hoops Habit editor and NBA savant Gerald Bourguet.

We got right into one of the more interesting contenders in the Boston Celtics. The emergence of Isaiah Thomas as a legitimate All-Star turned Boston from interesting into dangerous, but are the Celtics good enough to challenge the Cleveland Cavaliers?

We stuck around the Eastern Conference for the first portion of the podcast, hopping around between the Toronto Raptors, Cleveland Cavaliers and Washington Wizards. One aspect that stuck out was the prevalence of strong point guards in the East.

Watching Thomas, Kyrie Irving, John Wall and Kyle Lowry do battle in the postseason should be a blast this summer, and it will take one of Thomas, Wall and Lowry having an unbelievable series for some other team to beat the Cavs in a seven-game series.

We also talked about the teams those contenders won't want to face in the first round, including a pair of opponents who currently are outside of the playoff picture but might sneak in and cause some problems for the top tier.

After wrapping up the East talking about who we figured would make it to the NBA Finals, we moved West to talk about the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs. Kawhi Leonard demolished the Houston Rockets in crunch time, and both Gerald and I agreed that he is deserving of MVP consideration.

One of us decided that he's good enough to make the Spurs the favorites in the West, which might just be crazy. We also talked about the Warriors making up for the loss of KD, and why Draymond Green is so damn good.

After talking a bit about the Oklahoma City Thunder's supporting cast around Russell Westbrook, we moved on to the Los Angeles Clippers and Utah Jazz and decided if they were true contenders or not. We ended up finishing with some Houston talk, including whether James Harden can exorcize his playoff demons from last season.

I had a blast recording this podcast with Gerald, and I'm glad to have Timeout with Ti located at Hoops Habit from now on! You can find the podcast here each week (and sometimes more often than that), in addition to its home on iTunes and Stitcher for those of you on the go.

Thanks for listening, and let me know what you thought about the episode on Twitter!