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.

Next up:  The Middle of the Road

Can someone explain to me why the NBA doesn't change the rules about the free agency and trade moratoriums or at least wait and hold the draft once the moratorium is up and the next year's salary cap is set?  Never did understand that.  And it could lead to more big trades on draft day, making an otherwise somewhat dull affair more exciting.   Anyway, I thought I'd look at a couple trades that I guess are official, if not formally so.  I'm sticking to trades that involved actual proven players, not just draft pick swaps, although a couple of these included draft picks.

Toronto-Indiana
The Raptors sent T.J. Ford, Rasho Nesterovic and the 17th pick of the draft (Roy Hibbert) to Indiana for Jermaine O'Neal.  I guess this trade's official, although the last I heard, it couldn't be formally completed until July 1 because of some contract issue with Ford, and there was the small matter of physicals.  Indiana got rid of one highly paid major injury risk for another less-highly paid major injury risk.  They also receive a BIG center, albeit a slow, lumbering one in Roy Hibbert and another 7-footer in Nesterovic who played all of 15 minutes per game for Toronto in the playoffs.  The Pacers are remaking their roster, looking for better, more consistent guard play and more strength inside.   To me, Ford doesn't exactly scream "consistent" and, for a quick, slashing point guard, he is probably one bad fall away from it being his last.  But at least he's not Jamaal Tinsley.

Toronto gets Jermaine O'Neal, a guy who was the league's most improved player back in 2002 and a three time All-NBA player (twice on the third team and once on the second team).  Since then, he's become first team all injured reserve.  During his years in Indiana, The Pacers lost in the first round in three of their five playoff seasons, the second round once, reaching only one conference finals and O'Neal didn't exactly develop a reputation as a prime time player in big games.  Still, if he's healthy and motivated (both enormous if's) he could form a frightening combo with Chris Bosh.

Basically, it's a risk-reward move for Toronto.  If it pays off, they've made a big step up in a weak conference.  If it doesn't, all they gave up was an unwanted draft pick, a backup center and a point guard they pretty clearly no longer wanted or needed.  Indiana really should have traded O'Neal two or three years ago when they might have gotten something a little more useful in return.  Toronto wins this one, whatever happens.

Indiana-Portland
In this one, Portland sent the 13th pick in the draft Brandon Rush and Jarrett Jack to Indiana for Ike Diogu and the 11th pick in the draft Jerryd Bayless.

Indiana did a little better this time, but now they've got two point guards.  I'd bet they'll play much like Toronto did with Ford and Calderon, rotating quarters.  Brandon Rush has a shot to be pretty good though. 

Portland gets a little help inside with Diogu, if he gets off the bench, something that didn't happen very often in Indiana and something that's not guaranteed with Portland's depth of talent, and the guy they wanted in Bayless.  Not really sold on Bayless as point guard, but with Brandon Roy, he won't need to be and he can score.

A trade of middling reserves and draft picks with potential who may or may not pan out.  I'll call it even until I see what kind of players Rush and Bayless turn out to be.  Both guys could be hit or miss in my mind.

Milwaukee-New Jersey
Milwaukee sent Yi Jianlian and Bobby Simmons to New Jersey for Richard Jefferson.  Wow, a trade with no draft picks.   Straight up NBA players for NBA players.

New Jersey continued dumping salary in an effort to be in position to nab LeBron in a couple years.  It seems like a foregone conclusion that LeBron is out of Cleveland, and most of the speculation about his NBA future is the Knicks and Nets, with both clubs taking steps to make that a reality.  To me, it's a pretty dangerous move.  I seem to recall the Chicago Bulls and some other teams a few years ago doing the same sort of preparation to sign a big-time upcoming free agent playing for a small market club who was thought to  be available, Tim Duncan.  Needless to say, it didn't happen.  Duncan re-upped and those clubs counting on him were left out in the cold.  In this day and age, NBA superstars never leave their teams as free agents.  Trades maybe on occasion, but never as free agents.  Don't count on this happening, either.  But that doesn't mean that Vince Carter shouldn't be packing his bags, as well.

Yi has potential and wasn't really happy in Milwaukee anyway.  A move to the Nets (soon to be Brooklyn) gives him the bright lights he wanted.  Can he perform?  Bobby Simmons was the most improved player a few years back with the Clippers before signing a big free agent deal that has never panned out.

As for the Bucks, with Jefferson, they've got some talent on their roster.  Barring further moves (like a trade of Michael Redd) I wouldn't be surprised to see them in then playoffs in the east next season.  Not really a contender, though.

Unless Yi lives up to the initial hype, or they actually do land LeBron later on, the Bucks win this one.

I was going to say something poignant about the trade between Minnesota and Memphis that sent Mike Miller to the Timberwolves with draftee Kevin Love and salary throw ins for draftee O.J. Mayo and salary throw ins.  All I can say is Memphis had better hope Mayo is a superstar in the making because they gave up a solid NBA player in Miller and top 5 draft pick for him.  Of course, there may be a reason why the Grizzlies have never won a playoff game, let alone a series.  I'm sure Pau Gasol would agree.  But hey, Marc Gasol's coming next year and he's gonna make that Laker trade look like it wasn't just flat-out theft.  Right?