Note however that in the West you cna be .500 and still end up 10 games out of the playoffs.
With a good offseaosn I see us making huge strides next year, but to go from where we're at the the playoffs in one season would literally be a +25win type turnaround, which puts you a long ways up the All Time lists. Probably not that barring both a stud rookie and a stud FA, but we'll be better, possibly a lot better, and may even still be talking playoffs at the All Star break next year. Just take a little time to get over that hump (and unfortunately running right into the owners/playoffs angling for armageddon and a lost season in 11/12).
You never know. Some of the upper echelon teams are getting older (Spurs and Suns, even the Mavs) and no one knows how Houston will do with Yao (possibly) making a come back.
In my mind, the playoff guarantees for next year are
OKC
Denver
Portland (Though this really depends on which big men come back and how they produce)
L.A.
Dallas (Unless Kidd's legs fall off, which is a possibility, or Dirk's elbow gets eaten again)
Utah (Though if Boozer leaves, I wouldn't be too sure of their strength)
Then you have play-off borderliners
San Antonio (Tempted to put them in the above category but they are quite simply not the same team they were before. Duncan's getting older and thus their team is declining. In my mind, they are now kind of like the Kings after Webb returned from the knee explosion)
Phoenix (Yet another team I was tempted to put above. This all kind of depends on Amare. If he comes back, which he probably will, they are most likely in. Still waiting for Nash to hit the old person wall and decline

. Hill is also older and you never know what may happen.)
Houston (This is all very dependent on Yao. If he comes back and plays like noting happened, they are in. If he plays like a ghost, they're out and most likely free fall. I know, team ball, yadda yadda. I'm just not convinced that, if push came to shove, they could replicate this season.)
Memphis (Hmmm. I'm still really not convinced that they're all that great. Zach Randolph is they key to them. If he pulls off another season like this one, they have a chance [though they're still lacking some talent]. If he falls apart like he has everywhere else, then they're back in the cellar again, albeit this time with OJ Mayo and Marc Gasol)
New Orleans (This is the BIG wild card. They'll have CP3 back and hopefully healthy. David West is good and Okafor is a nice player who is payed wayyyyyy too much. Thornton is a nice young player. The interesting thing will be to see what they do with Collison. Do they keep him as a back-up for CP3 in case Paul gets hurt again? Or do they trade him? They also have to deal with the conundrum at the 3-spot. Peja is hurt almost 90% of the time and overpaid, but the rest of the small forwards they have suck. In order to be competitive, they need to improve on this spot [hey Hornets, you can have Nocioni]. They also have a draft pick that should help them.)
After that, you have a handful of other teams who are all at different degrees of rebuilding and/or implosion:
Sacramento (We are most likely the best of the worst {The Clips have a better record than us but considering how we've beat them 3 out of 4 times, I'm ranking us ahead of them}. We have our Star now and if Reke gets his shot down, we can wreak a considerable amount of havoc in the West. Give us a nice strong defensive big and another year of experience and you never know what could happen.)
Clips (They'll have a good pick, tons of money, last year's number one pick debuting, an All-Star Center, Eric Gordon, Baron Davis on his occasional good days. On the other hand, they're the Clippers.)
Golden State (Honestly, I don't know where to begin. I guess they have a few good young pieces. Curry is a nice young talent at the PG spot. Biedrins is tough player, not too impactful either way and injured like crazy seemingly all the time. Ellis can score but not much else. Magette can also score. Everyone else can also score, except for Turiaf, who just kinda runs into people. They also have Anthony Randolph, who's been too injured to make much of an impression one way or the other. If they have Nelly as their coach, they will most likely continue to small ball their way into oblivion. If they have someone else, who knows. They'll also have a good pick which they'll probably use on a swingman.)
Minnesota (They have a few nice pieces. Al Jeffy is a force inside when it comes to the low-post but generally doesn't do too much else. Kevin Love is a beast. He rebounds and is skilled, if not a bit short. Jonny Flynn is a nice young PG that would most likely look nice next to Evan Turner. Ramon Sessions, our apparent savior last season, is not as good as we once thought. Everyone else is... bad. And their coaching sucks as well.)
Everything is dependent on our moves in the offseason. If we get a nice quality big (I don't mean Mikki Moore) and Reke develops, I can see us sneaking in their as a 8th seed. It'll be interesting either way.