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Los Angeles Lakers

It should come as no surprise if LeBron James spearheads a 50-win season for the talented-yet-incomplete Lakers. They'll be pesky if he spends the entire year in full GOAT mode rather than indulging maybe-next-year R&R.

But the West isn't the East. He alone isn't lugging Los Angeles' inexperienced and oddball supporting cast to the NBA Finals. It will be a minor miracle if the Lakers finish with a top-four playoff seed and make it out of the second round.

Playing LeBron at the 5 with Lonzo Ball, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Brandon Ingram and one of Michael Beasley, Josh Hart, Kyle Kuzma or Rajon Rondo around him has sneaky-elite potential.

Other than that, though, the Lakers appear to be one player away from being one player away from being a legitimate title contender.

Milwaukee Bucks

Good things stand to happen now that Milwaukee is marrying Giannis Antetokounmpo's ongoing ascent with a tactician like head coach Mike Budenholzer.

The Bucks will play smarter defense and run a more inventive, freewheeling offense. That alone should ensure their consideration on this matter. But there's also more to ponder, as Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes wrote:

"Add to that the improved spacing afforded by signees Brook Lopez and Ersan Ilyasova, and it's easy to imagine the Bucks getting even more out of Antetokounmpo and the rest of their capable bucket-getters. And if Milwaukee wants to give Antetokounmpo more time at the 5—which seems like a reasonable thing to do with a 6'11" human in today's NBA—the defense could morph into a switch-everything boa constrictor.

"Squint, and you can see Milwaukee approaching top-five rankings in both offensive and defensive efficiency after checking in at seventh and 17th last year, respectively."

Basically, the Bucks have a ceiling that could make this honorable mention look silly. But with all due respect to 1994's The Santa Clause, sometimes seeing is actually believing. Milwaukee has to put its new toys and playing philosophy into effective practice before cutting the championship-contender line.