I think the first five spots are pretty much a lock, in no particular order, except the Lakers being number one. The final three spots are pretty much a crap shoot, with at least six teams battling it out for those spots. I would put the Suns ahead of the Mav's at this point. I don't agree that the Dallas team is the same as last year, unless your refering to the one that finished the season in complete disaray. I'm not convinced that they will recover from the Kidd trade and they're another year older. Dallas is sort of where we were a couple of years ago. Maybe just good enough to make the playoffs, but not good enough to make any noise once there. Ditto the Warriors, but for different reasons.
Denver, who knows? They lost Camby, but on paper, they still look good enough to make the playoffs. Portland, if Oden is even 75 % of what everyone thinks he is going to be, should make the playoffs. When I look at Portland, I think, wow, if I could just insert one really good veteran player on to that team as a steadying influence, say like a Dirk Nowitski or a Dwayne Wade. Yeah yeah, I know, not going to happen. But then, I believe the Portland will also have cap space in 2010, so who knows?
If you step outside the box and do your best to forget where your loyalty's lie, the Kings are the mystery team. A mix of old and young, and in some cases unproven talent. A team that could be better than expected, or worse than expected. Sort of fun when you think about it.