I’m excited. The NBA
season is almost upon us, and after all of the player shifting, wheeling and
dealing, I thought I’d run down my list of the best teams in each conference
from the bottom up in sets of five. I’ll
start with the inferior but improving East.
Here are my bottom five clubs.
None of these teams will even sniff a playoff spot, and four of the five
could well be competing for the top pick in next year’s draft.
15. New York Knicks
Finally, the long reign of terror known as Isiah Thomas has
ended. Mike D’Antoni takes the helm of
one of the least talented teams this side of Oklahoma City. D’Antoni intends to instill his run and gun
style of play but this isn’t Phoenix and Chris Duhon is most definitely not
Steve Nash. There are a few useful
players on the roster, but the big-time talents are notoriously lazy. And other than rookie Danilo Gallinari,
nobody in this group has any real upside in their games beyond what they’ve
already shown. I would be very surprised
if D’Antoni can coax more than 25 wins out of this bunch. Most likely, this will be one of those
dreaded rebuilding seasons that starts poorly, leads to a player purge and ends
with a top five lottery pick. D’Antoni
might get a little bit of a pass from the fickle New York fans as long as the
team at least plays with energy and enthusiasm while continuing to reshape the
roster and shows some kind of promise for the future, but the Knicks ground up
a Hall Of Fame coach like Larry Brown after just one season, it will be
interesting to see how long D’antoni hangs around if this ends up as a
Heat-like 15-67 type of year, and it just might.
14. New Jersey Nets
When looking at the Nets roster, the first question that
comes to mind is, “who is going to score points for these guys?” Other than Vince Carter and Devin Harris,
there are no offensive players on this team.
I fully expect them to be amongst the lowest scoring teams in the
league, if not the lowest. Maybe Yi
Jianlian will show some of the promise that he came into the NBA with and maybe
Brook Lopez and/or Chris Douglas-Roberts will become a rookie sensation. Maybe not.
The Nets have a better chance of landing the number one pick than they
do of getting within 15 games of a playoff spot, and that’s in the East where
37 wins got it done last season. With
all the talk about the Nets and the Knicks being the lead contenders in the
LeBron James sweepstakes two offseasons from now, I have a hard time believing
that rosters this poor are going to improve enough to attract what will
probably be the best player in the game at the time, no matter how much money
they have to offer. The only real
question for the Nets this season is how long will it be before they find a
taker for Vince Carter.
13. Miami Heat
My first inclination with the Heat was to put them higher up
on the list, but does any team in the league have less depth than Miami? They are no more than an injury away from
ending up with another sub-20 win season.
Dwayne Wade has looked fantastic in International play this summer and
looks like he might be back to the player he was two years ago, but he had
better have some wide shoulders, not to mention healthy ones, to carry this
team. The only chance they have to get
anywhere near the playoffs is if they stay healthy all year and Michael Beasley
turns in a Rookie-Of-The-Year type of campaign.
And even then, that last playoff spot had better be in the 37-win
neighborhood again or it will be out of reach no matter what. That’s not to say that the Heat won’t have a
big impact on this season’s playoffs. I
expect that both Shawn Marion and Udonis Haslem will be suiting up elsewhere by
the end of the season. Look for another
poor start despite big numbers from Wade, and another top five lottery pick
added to the mix next year.
12. Charlotte Bobcats
If nothing else, it will be fun to watch Larry Brown pull
out what’s left of his hair trying to deal with Raymond Felton as his point
guard. If the players don’t just tune
out his constant complaining and backstabbing like they did in New York, Brown
will most likely get Charlotte playing solid defense behind Emeka Okafor, but
points may be hard to come by. I recall
seeing bunches of criticism lobbed at Orlando a few years back for taking a
high school kid with the top pick in the draft over the four-year college
national champion Okafor, but that decision turned out to be a
franchise-defining one in the wrong direction for Charlotte. Had Orlando gone for the college experience
over the potential talent, Dwight Howard would be suiting up in Okafor’s place,
and the Bobcats would be an up and coming club in the East. Instead, they’ll just continue to tread water
in the lower third of the conference.
Maybe Brown has one last magic trick in his bag (and he had better to
avoid doing ever-lasting damage to his reputation after the combo of the Kincks
debacle and Olympics failure) and can get the Bobcats to play over their head,
but it’s more likely that 30 wins will be about as good as it gets and a new
point guard will be suiting up next year, if not sooner.
11. Indiana Pacers
The Pacers are one of those teams I don’t quite know what to
make of. Part of me thinks that, if they
can find the right combination of players, they can be decent. But another part of me looks at the makeup of
this club and thinks, “these guys suck.”
The last I checked, Jamaal Tinsley is still on the roster and, in my
opinion, is still the best point guard on the team, even after adding T.J. Ford
and Jarrett Jack, but he has proven time and again that he can’t stay on the
floor, and I expect he’ll be elsewhere soon.
Mike Dunleavy actually looked like a player last season for the first
time in his career, but don’t be surprised if he regresses a bit this
year. Still, there is enough talent here
that the Pacers should be better than the other four teams on this list, but
that’s not saying much. If they get to
35 wins, they should be happy. There are
many more parts needed here before the Pacers get back to playing at the level
they did in the ‘90s. But on the plus
side, they won’t be let down by Jermaine O’Neal anymore.
NY KNICKS....will improve with Thomas now finally gone. Still not a playoff team though.
Miami...with Marion on the team, they can make the playoffs in the East. That conference is so wide open and it won't take a major amount of wins to get in. I would bet the house they don't have another season like last year.
Nets...who cares
Bobcats....pretty tough when the Owner(MJ) and Coach(Brown) are the biggest names you have. Brown will improve them for a year..he knows the game well. But he wears thin on young players very quick.
Simplify this thing and just skip to the Celtics. While not a Boston fan they are head and shoulders better than everyone in the East. I can't see anyone beating them as long as they are healthy.
Are you kidding me, Miami sould definitely be in the top ten. They are definitely much better than Charlotte and Indiana. Charlotte has basically the same team ever since they started and are just really inconcistent. Jason Richardson is a much better player then he was last year, he should be more agressive and dominate more often he's the best player on that team. Indiana is just filled with a bunch troublemakers and don't have one ounce of sense in them. Ford, Dunleavy, Murphy and Jack are the only ones who will have their minds on the game while the others are day dreaming of who to beat up after the game. When Miami's at their best they can be a top five team in the East.
Last edited by ss07heat on September 1st at 12:28 PM.
Heat and bobcats shouldnt be on this list. Why these so called professionals keep putting heat so low........and dont tell me depth cuz the hornets have none and look how they did....D-Wade is back bigger and better, B-Easy will be a rookie sensation, Marion, Haslem and the rest of the man dem should have a revived sensation and should do much better..........i'll be watching the heat but in the meantime go LAKERS
Being a Heat fan, I have to say they deserve a bit higher....perhaps replace them with Bobcats or the Bucks. The Pacers have also done a couple of off season moves that makes them at least a good power forward away from being in the middle of the 8 playoff teams along with the Sixers, Raptors & Wizards. The Cavs havent impressed anyone at all as of now so they should replace the Pacers.
As for Tinsley being a better PG than Ford or Jack??? You have got to be kidding me! They will be the surprise team of the East with Ford, Dunleavy & Granger averaging 18+ per game. Then there will be several players who will avg between 8-12 points per game as well as improved defense.
Back to the Heat, they are SUPPOSED to be in the hunt as they were plagued most of the year with injuries. So no surprise their. Except Beasley better clean up his attitude because he'll be up against LaBron, Granger, Bosh, Garnett on a nightly basis. He'll be in Riley's doghouse half the season if the attitude doesnt change.
Like I said, my first inclination was to put the Heat amongst the playoff teams until I really looked closely at the rosters and was struck by how thin they really are. Dwayne Wade looked fantastic in the Olympics and if he plays like that all season, they've got a fighter's chance. But they're gonna need at least 50 points a night between him and Beasley. It's putting an awful lot of pressure on Beasley to be an all-star type guy right out of the gate. He's got the talent to pull it off, but for a guy who's only really one year out of high school, any kind of learning curve is going to hold them back. Wade is at his best playing with reckless abandon, and its entirely possible that he could break down again, and if that happens, they're in big trouble. I don't think 37 wins is going to get it done in the East this year, either.
Charlotte is another one that I thought at first might be in contention, but I'm just not sure that Larry Brown can get it done. He's notoriously bad with young players, and I imagine he and Felton are going to butt heads. I'm posting the next part in a few minutes, and I'm pretty sure I'll catch some flack from a couple of my choices. Mostly, this list is not just how good I think the teams are right now, but how I think they'll unltimately end up.
The Heat will be bad because Shawn Marion will become a cancer after Beasley throws up bricks like he did in the Summer League. Charlotte will not be one of the worst five if Gerald Wallace stays healthy the entire year. Put the Bulls in the worst 5; Tyrus Thomas is starting at power forward. Enough said! The Knicks will be pounded like Sarah Palin's daughter.
Hey Terp fan, you are going to have a long year. Maryland almost lost to Delaware, who had lost Joe Flacco. ACC football = bad; except for Wake Forest.
Dude, you have the Knicks in the wrong category...is ez to rate them by looking at the past few seasons but you are way off here...NY has already made significant improvements...we have a talented bunch with depth and arguably da BEST bench in the league...you will eat your words when we are at 35 wins fighting for a playoff spot
Dude, you have the Knicks in the wrong category...is ez to rate them by looking at the past few seasons but you are way off here...NY has already made significant improvements...we have a talented bunch with depth and arguably da BEST bench in the league...you will eat your words when we are at 35 wins fighting for a playoff spot
About the Knicks, you could possibly be right, but Mike D'Antoni will have to adjust his system a bit for that to happen. If he tries the same game plan he used in making Phoenix competitive, they will fail without a floor leader like Steve Nash to control the ball. I like Chris Duhon as a player, but there is just no way he's a savior at the point, Nate Robinson is way too erratic, and Jamal Crawford is a gunner extraordinaire. They have done some good things, but they won't be genuinely competitive until guys like Eddy Curry and Zach Randolph are shown the door and replaced by guys who actually have some heart.
Last edited by spanish_jam on September 4th at 10:26 AM.
Ahh, its ok writing not bad just think the heat are a better team to be in this list , yeah last year 15 wins is not something to bragg about, but compare their starting 5 then and now. Wade did'nt even start in international ball and he was the best player by far, mix that with the best pure talent out of college since 03-04 draft in BIG EASY ( Beasly ) the MATRIX , hasslem and a couple of pure defenders that can shoot the ball c'on is it need-less to say more . Now I'm not looking at a 50+ win's season but I would not put them in the same list of indiana , ny hicks ,nets exc ....
If everybody stays happy and healthy, the Heat do have a shot. But I expect they'll trade Marion for cap room if they don't get in contention quickly, and I'm not confident Wade can stay healthy given how much of an effort he'll have to make every night. Just not enough depth to overcome any injuries at all, let alone one to Wade.
I am an actual professional writer (hard to believe, I know, but I do earn a living at it) who even owns my own publishing company in Maryland. I am a proud drop-out from the University of Maryland and still a life-long Terp fan. My blog is named in honor of my favorite former NBA player, Tim Hardaway, without all the homophobia. I just loved the guy and his game. I only hope he doesn't kick my #### for saying that.
