Biggest winners and losers in free agency: 76ers now surging as rivals fall off

Loser: NBA crystal ball enthusiasts

Talent in the NBA is overflowing, and one might argue that the 12-man lineup on the All-Star teams should be increased by 50 percent to cater to that. Overall, the league has just become so unpredictable, even independent of uncontrollable factors like injuries. As a result, the crystal ball enthusiasts are probably operating with more imagination than ever before.

Take the West, for example. It’s difficult to envision how a healthy Grizzlies team fails to crack the top-six, but it’s equally tedious to plot the points for another playoff team’s decline. Heck, the Spurs could either make the playoffs outright or be the third-worst team in the West, and the Rockets could become a top-six team or just implode under the same premise of their talented roster.

In the East, are the Pacers a fluke or a rising East powerhouse? Will the Heat finally thread a healthy season and make a stark run to the No. 1 seed like they did not too long ago? Predicting all these things have become nearly impossible, and playing with the popular ranking talks seems like a fruitless venture at this juncture.