The NBA season has reached its conclusion, and we now sit in the nebulous week of the play-in tournament, which will finalize the field for the coming playoffs. Twenty teams technically remain eligible for the title, but in a few short days that number will be down to 16 at which point the bracket really begins to determine a champion.
The size of the NBA postseason means that while every team does in fact have a shot at the title, the definition of a “successful” playoff run can vary pretty wildly. For some teams, an appearance in the conference finals would be a huge boon, for others, that same trip could be seen as an extreme disappointment.
