Okay yeah, that's a horrible take (re: "Spurs couldn't even beat Pelicans when it mattered!")
Using one regular season game to determine a team's strength is absurdly stupid.
Regardless,
I maintain that putting Houston over SA isn't THAT insane. Again, it's a pretty big stretch, but it's not some absurd opinion that should immediately be dismissed.
GS won 67 games last year and put up an all-time great point differential. They brought back the same team, and they could likely experience internal improvement from their young core growing up + Kerr having another year under his belt.
Cleveland seems pretty self-explanatory.
LAC won 56 games last year and had the 2nd best point differential in the league. They replaced Barnes with Pierce, and finally put together a seemingly solid bench. They had the best starting lineup in the league last year, so there was really no need to make adjustments there.
OKC obviously had tons of injuries last year, but the talent is certainly there. They're the biggest question mark IMO. It wouldn't surprise me if they won 65 games, and it wouldn't surprise me if they barely won 50. If KD can stay healthy, they'll almost certainly be near the top of the West.
Houston won 56 games last year, and that was with Dwight missing 40 games as well as Terrence Jones missing 50 games. Their biggest problem was a lack of a secondary playmaker outside of Harden, and they definitely found an answer to that with Ty Lawson. I have some questions about how he'll fit alongside Harden, but the potential is definitely there for Houston to be a legitimate threat.
As for us, we won 55 games last year and dealt with a myriad of injuries ourselves. Patty missed the first half of the season and then wasn't himself when he came back. Splitter was constantly injured. Kawhi missed a decent chunk of games. We went out and added an elite player in Aldridge. All that being said, there
is reason to doubt whether we'll be some instant juggernaut. Aldridge looks like a good fit on paper, but you never know when it comes to adding such a high usage piece to an already fairly loaded team. Duncan will be 40 come playoffs, and Manu will be 38. Yes, they've aged like wine and as a Spurs fan, Duncan has earned the right to not be questioned. But you can't fault someone for thinking he might fall off a bit. Parker just had an absolutely horrible season, and now he'll be 34 come next playoffs. Obviously us Spurs fans (well, most of us anyways
) are optimistic he'll have a bounce back year, but keep in mind a lot of us said the same thing last offseason. How many people predicted Parker to have a great season after taking the summer off to get rested? I know I did.
tl;dr: There are a lot of teams with the potential to be insanely good next year, so not having the Spurs at the very top isn't the craziest thing in the world. I certainly have us in the top 3, and I'm picking us to win it all, but there are reasonable doubts to be had with the team. Doubts about other teams as well - just depends on which doubts you think are the most reasonable.
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Spurs are not a top 5 team 
