Why the disrespect from pundits on Pels this year?

Commentary on the season is starting and predictions are being made...

On 1st Take, SAS and Max K said the Pels are not very good, despite Max forgetting how he was loving the Pels last postseason during the Blazers series..

Many are predicting us to not make the playoffs again or at best, being borderline 7/8 seed.

Now, I know losing playoff Rondo is an obvious factor, but he was average during the regular season sans a few games. I believe overall, Payton will be better than Rondo outside of his leadership skills which AD and Jrue should assume more anyways.

We added a physical presence in Randle that we didn't have after Boogie and needed against the Warriors when Draymond started talking sh** in Game 2 and basically won the game bc of it.. Randle will be better this year with better overall talent around him than with the Lakers and our style plays better to his strong suit of being a 4 that can lead a break and pass to open shooters like Niko, Moore, Clark, Miller...

I still feel we can be a top 4 seed in the Western Conference and will ultimately see a trade deadline move that brings in a SF to possibly be the last piece to a championship contender (here's looking at you Jimmy Buckets).

We are probably better than the playoff team fielded last year and that was a top 4 team in the West. I also feel we would have beaten Houston had we played them over GS...

Don't understand why the media hates small market teams so much to always put AD in trade rumors or to say it's inevitable he will leave. I thought that chatter died with the playoff run at least for a year, but it's never stopped and they're revving it back up again just bc of AD switching agents.

We are a Top 5 team OVERALL in the league! GS and Boston are the only teams I would significantly favor over the Pels. Houston will fall back with their key personnel losses, Spurs are old and lost Kawahi, don't trust the Lakers situation with their personalities and players who need the ball to be effective and LeBron making decent players regress bc of his game, Portland doesn't have enough, Minnesota is about to implode with the Jimmy situation, OKC might have addition by subtraction but don't have the shooters they need, etc.

All things considered, the Pels are a Top 3 Western Conference team and possibly #2 If Houston doesn't truly replace Ariza and defensive production.

Being objective, I don't understand the hate... F**k 'em, Go Pels!!!