NBA Rankings: Three for Thought – 30 through 28
Just as we feel like this offseason has been dragging on too long before we know it preseason arrives!
Just like nearly every other person who likes to write about the game, ranking where a team will finish is a must in the run up to a new season. 99% of the moves and deals have been and owners have to wait ’till the season begins before cranking the coaching carousel back up. Minus whatever viral ad campaign Nike and Adidas try this truly is the most quiet time of the calendar in the NBA.
Starting from the 30th best (or the first worst), I’ll run down where I think each team will finish by their regular season record.
Due to most teams seeming to want to ‘tank’ in one way or another this year there’ll be some big teams appearing early in the list.
30 – Phoenix Suns – 2012/13: 25-57 – 2013/14: 22-60
The Suns are one of those rare teams in the league that have managed to sustain god awful basketball combined with terrible head office decisions ever since Steve Nash left. The Nash/D’Antoni era was exciting for the fans but never brought them anything that they could see hanging from the rafters.
The Suns finished 5th in the Pacific Division last year, they’ll probably finish 5th this year too, 15th in the conference and I think 30th across the whole league for their win loss record.
Robert Sarver and the rest of his head office have made some good summer additions to the team, however, it’s come at a price. Michael Beasley has been found to once again be abusing substances and has been cut from the team, eliminating one of the few scoring options they actually possessed however inconsistent it was.
On top of this the team have also traded away veteran Luis Scola to Championship aspiring Indiana and in return were given draft considerations, the streaky but sometimes exciting Gerald Green and Miles Plumless.
The best move of the offseason was in a three-way trade with the Bucks and Clippers that saw Jared Dudley and a future second rounder go to the Bucks in exchange for the Clippers guard Eric Bledsoe. Bledsoe has done a great job playing back up to Chris Paul and at the age of 23 and with two full seasons of NBA experience under the former 18th pick’s belt, he’ll be a go-to scorer and likely be one of the only bright spots on a talent thin roster.
When your only four reliable players are Bledsoe, Gortat, Dragic and Brown you know your team is in for a tough 82 games.
29 – Orlando Magic – 2012/13: 20-62 – 2013/14: 23-59
Orlando just like Phoenix is a team that enjoyed a large amount of success over the past decade but failed to capture that elusive title. The Dwight era is over and now the franchise is looking to rebuild and strengthen over the next two or three draft classes. They were rooted to the bottom of the division and the conference last season and this will almost certainly stay there this season.
Man for man a Phoenix starting five would probably beat Orlando however over the course of the season I think the Magic have a more stable and settled roster to pick up more wins than the Suns.
The most exciting signing of the summer was made during the draft when Orlando picked Victor Oladipo at number two in the draft. He spent three years at Indiana averaging 14ppg over an unusually long college career for such a high pick in the first-and-done age of draft classes.
The rest of the roster doesn’t boast much talent, Afflalo is a top player but has to be around a talented core to maximise his potential, Glen Davis provides solid defence but not much else and the team are trying to work on a deal to pay off Hedo so they don’t have to pay him his ridiculous salary for seasons to come.
Tobias Harris showed some signs of a breakthrough year with 17ppg in the 27 games he played in, something that shocked most people are two very average years with the Bucks but whether he can prove it wasn’t a lengthy fluke or not remains to be seen.
If Orlando was in the West they’d almost certainly be number 30 on this list but there’ll be plenty more chances to get a win against weaker Eastern teams than a team low down in the West.
28 – Charlotte Bobcats – 2012/13: 21-62 – 2013/14: 24-58
The Charlotte Bobcats are improving. Not a lot. But they have.
They took a few more steps in the right direction over the summer as well. First of all was with the acquisition of Steve Clifford, he’s done the rounds as an assistant in the NBA for over 10 years now and it’s about time he took the reins of a franchise, even if it is a franchise that is 28-120 over the past two seasons.
The second of three good signings was when they traded to bring in league veteran Al Jefferson. Jefferson is a proven scorer at 16.5ppg over his career, his season numbers will be expected to be slightly higher than that with the more shots he’ll be taking due to the leadership role he’ll assumed. A vital area of his game he brings is energy on the board, something Charlotte suffer from, they often fail to convert second chance points whilst giving up way too many on their own end.
Finally the team (once again) were handed a very good draft pick, and chose to pick Cody Zeller at number four and will be suiting up to play at number four for the Bobcats. Just like Jefferson he gives the team a much better presence at the rim whilst also being known at his time in Indiana as a player with exceptional IQ using his aggressiveness on the backboard to the Hoosiers advantage over the past two years.
For the team to improve over the next season they need the young players they’ve assembled from scratch over recent years to start forming an experienced core in the locker room. Arriving to every game as the underdog can’t carry on and players like Michael Kidd-Gilchrist need to step up and repay Michael Jordan for the faith he’s showed in them.
The Eastern conference has gotten seriously stronger this year but mainly amongst the top teams, the lower teams are stocking up for next summer’s packed draft leaving 7th seed down just as weak as previous seasons, with many teams (the Bobcats included) hoping that will all change come 2014.
Charlotte have the added bonus of returning to their old nickname the ‘Hornets’ next summer after New Orleans vacated it to rename themselves the Pelicans. This will give the fan-base a pleasant distraction to what they’ve seen on court ever since they were founded.