Week 3 NBA Power Rankings

Sorry for skipping last week’s power rankings, but that’s what happens when you have a job and you write about NBA for fun.  They power rankings will most likely be nonexistent again next week, not because I’m busy working, but because I’m busy vacationing.  So yeah, take that.

1. Memphis Grizzlies (10-1)
Week 4-0 (W vs LAL, W vs Sac, W vs Det, W vs Hou)
The Grizzlies were able to sneak away with some closer wins than expected, but I got the benefit of doing power rankings on Tuesdays as the Griz trounced the Rockets in a battle of the West’s top two teams.  Their defense looks outstanding and their offense is the best they’ve had in years with the addition of Vince Carter.

2. Golden State Warriors (8-2)
Week 3-1 (L vs SAS, W vs Bkn, W vs Cha, W @ LAL)
The Warriors continue to be a top defensive team in the league, while the offense looks terrific but is still a work in progress.  Kerr is a much better fit as a coach than Jackson was, but learning a more complex offense with an increased focus on passing the ball has ramped up the Warriors turnovers early on.

3. Houston Rockets (9-2)
Week 3-1 (W @ Min (@ Mex City), W vs Phi, W @ OKC, L @ Mem)
The Rockets have had one of the easiest schedules in the league, but they’ve made the most of it.  They’ve beaten all the teams that they’re expected to beat and until this week, they won all by a comfortable margin.  Philly gave them a major scare (no one wants to be the first to lose to them), and they got obliterated by the Grizzlies defense last night.

4. Toronto Raptors (8-2)
Week 2-1 (W vs Orl, L vs Chi, W vs Uta)
With the national spotlight on the Rapts, they were unable to come away with what would be a huge win against the Bulls at home.  Still, Toronto has impressed and thrust themselves into the mix as the number one pseudo-contender in the East (at least until Beal rejoins the Wizards).  Can T-Dot stay afloat and give the Cavs and Bulls a realistic run for their money?

5. Portland Trail Blazers  (8-3)
Week 4-0 (W vs Cha, W @ Den, W vs Bkn, W vs NOP)
Yes, I sure did.  I sure did drastically underrate the Blazers in the week 1 power rankings after a (somewhat?) sub-par start to their season (I didn’t know the Kings were sort of legit!).  Since that first week, they’ve reeled off 7 of 8 with their only loss coming in a close one at Los Angeles against the “us against the world” Clippers.  I’m sorry Blazer fans.  Forgive me.  It won’t happen again.

Lillard has been on an early season tear for the Blazers.

6. San Antonio Spurs (6-4)
Week 3-1 (W @ GSW, W @ LAL, L @ Sac, W vs Phi)
Pop’s team appears to be the same as ever, and despite only winning 60% of their games, we know they’ll be right up there at the top of the west at the season’s end.  Leonard’s slow start had some worried (especially with the “I can’t effing see” issues), but he’s starting to come alive.  If there is one team that can get off to a semi-slow start and use Aaron Rodgers, “Relax” quote, it’s Greg Popovich and the Spurs.

7. Chicago Bulls (8-3)
Week 2-1 (W @ Tor, L vs Ind, W @ LAC)
It was a bit of a weird week for the Bulls, as they won their two tough games and lost the game that should’ve been a walk in the park, but that’s what happens in early season NBA.  While the Pacers pose some match up problems for the Bulls, this is not a team they’re losing to in March.  The bigger scare coming into play is Rose’s series of injuries and several missed games since the first week’s rankings.

8. Dallas Mavericks (8-3)
Week 4-0 (W vs Sac, W vs Phi, W vs Min, W @ Cha)
Cuban’s squad is finally starting to look alive after a shaky start to the sesaon.  The defense is still the main concern, but it hasn’t been quite as dreadful as it started the first few weeks.  They’ll add Raymond Felton to the lineup soon, and whether or not that’s a good thing will remain to be seen until he starts getting some grind, but they are desperate for some point guard help.

9. Washington Wizards (7-2)
Week 2-0 (W vs Det, W vs Orl)
The Wizards have been able to ride a somewhat easy schedule to a nice first few weeks of the season with their sharp shooter Bradley Beal out of the lineup.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is the cake walk stops here.  The next eight days feature a tough Dallas team, a Cleveland team lo0king to prove they’re not as bad as their record indicates twice, and a trip to Milwaukee to take on the better than expected Bucks on a back to back.

The Wizards look to stay as close to the top as possible until Beal joins Wall back on the court.

10. Cleveland Cavaliers (5-4)
Week 2-1 (W @ Bos, W vs Atl, L vs Den)
This week, Cleveland was able to close the door on Boston despite trailing most of the game (you’re welcome to those who followed the Boston bet).  After absolutely demolishing the Hawks the following night, it seemed that perhaps the Cavs finally had gotten things together.  They followed up that performance with a loss at home to the lowly Nuggets, keeping the questions circulating about chemistry between LeBron and Kyrie Irving.

11. Sacramento Kings (6-4)
Week 1-2 (L @ Dal, L @ Mem, W vs SAS)
After an 1-3 road trip that included the most heartbreaking loss imaginable to the top team in the West, the Kings were able to get back on track with an impressive home win against the Spurs Saturday night.  They continue a three game home stand this week with the Pelicans coming to town tonight in a “Are Either Of These Teams Legit?” battle, followed by the Bulls Thursday night.  It will be a telling week for the Kings.

12. Los Angeles Clippers (5-4)
Week 1-1 (W vs Pho, L vs Chi)
The sexy Western Conference champions pick for many pundits have continued to play haphazard basketball now three weeks in.  Chris Paul doesn’t look quite like the all-world star he has been his entire career, and there has been some gloomy days for the Lakers fans claiming their Clippers fans these last two seasons.  What’s worse is that the Clips have played seven of their nine games at home so far and have a seven game road trip starting tomorrow night in Orlando.

13. New Orleans Pelicans (5-4)
Week 2-1 (W vs LAL, W vs Min, L @ Por)
The Pelicans continue to ride the wings of their MVP candidate, Anthony Davis, throughout the first few weeks of the season.  They’ve bolted out to a nice start considering the expectations with the minimal back court talent surrounding The Brow.  Despite historically poor play from Eric Gordon, the Pelicans look like they’ll make a push to be battling into April for a playoff spot.

14. Atlanta Hawks (5-4)
Week 2-1 (W vs Uta, W vs Mia, L @ Cle)
An up and down season for Atlanta hit it’s low point after a four game winning streak on Saturday, when they traveled to Cleveland a suffered a 33 point blowout to the Cavs.  The Hawks will have a good chance to make things right this week as their two game week includes home games against the Lakers and Pistons.

15. Miami Heat (6-5)
Week 1-3 (L vs Ind, L @ Atl, L vs Mil, W @ Bkn)
After a nice start from the Heat, Rick Ross’ $100k promise that the Heat will finish with more wins than the Cavs took a hit this week with losses in three winnable games before bouncing back last night against the Nets.  The big concern is Wade’s health (missed the last three games), as they can’t afford to sit him like they did last year allowing LeBron to pick up the slack.

16. Phoenix Suns (6-5)
Week 2-2 (W vs Bkn, L vs Cha, L @ LAC, W @ Bos)
The Suns are still trying to figure out how to incorporate three scoring point guards into their style of play.  Thomas has put up nice numbers, but Dragic’s numbers have suffered a bit.  It may be a matter of time before we see one of the three traded, but for now Hornacek will continue to experiment as they try to smooth out the system.

Could Dragic find himself in a new home before the trade deadline?

17. Milwaukee Bucks (5-5)
Week 2-1 (W vs OKC, L @ Orl, W vs Mia)
One of the surprise teams of the early season, the Bucks sit tight at .500 despite a somewhat slow start by Parker in the scoring department.  Scoring hasn’t been as necessary as it typically is in this sport, as the Bucks have trotted out one of the league’s top defenses behind a rejuvenated Larry Sanders (defensive rating of 89!) and the lengthy Alphabet, Giannis Antetokounmpo.

18. Brooklyn Nets (4-6)
Week 0-4 (L @ Pho, L @ GSW, L @ Por, L vs Mia)
Rough week for the Nets as they continue to try to learn their second new system in just a bit over a calendar year.  The first three losses came in the midst of a brutal road trip out West.  The rest of the month includes another three game road trip, and two potentially tough road games.

19. Orlando Magic (5-7)
Week 3-2 (L @ Tor, W @ NYK, W vs Mil, L @ Was, W @ Det)
The Magic have been a surprise as they’ve rolled out to a record just a touch below .500 without their best player.  They’re incorporating their floor spacer, Channing Frye, into the game effectively.  Since entering the lineup, he’s playing a career high 34 minutes per game and shooting a godly .456 from deep.  With Oladipo expected to return soon, the Magic will look to turn some heads and make a surprise playoff run.

20. Charlotte Hornets (4-7)
Week 1-3 (L @ Por, W @ Pho, L @ GSW, L vs Dal)
Going from a surprise team to a disappointing team, the Hornets are still trying to piece together their rotation and get Lance Stephenson to play within the offense.  Lance started the season looking scared to shoot, but since has started to fire up some long balls, but has only hit a quarter of them.  The Hornets have plenty of time to get it together, but this isn’t a ringing endorsement for a team that many thought could be in the top half of the Eastern Conference playoff teams.

Lance is still trying to find his groove in Charlotte.

21. Indiana Pacers (4-7)
Week 2-1 (W @ Mia, L vs Den, W @ Chi)
The Pacers got some nice road wins this week, but suffered a loss in a very winnable game against the Nuggets at home.  They’re still figuring out what players best replace last season’s stellar back court of Paul George and Lance Stephenson, while the truth is they’re irreplaceable.  This still looks like a rebuilding year in Indiana, but the team continues to try to win as many games as possible for a potential playoff push.  As if Frank Vogel was ever going to tank.

22. Utah Jazz (4-7)
Week 1-2 (L @ Atl, W @ NYK, L @ Tor)
The Jazz didn’t fair too poorly on a 5 game road trip (2-3) and their usual home court advantage in the high altitude looks alive and well, although they’ve only played four home games so far.  They play nine of their next twelve games at home which gives them an opportunity to test the home field advantage further as they try to even out their record.

23. Oklahoma City Thunder (3-8)
Week 1-3 (L @ Mil, W @ Bos, L vs Det, L vs Hou)
It remains an attempt to stay afloat with their two superstar players sidelined for the Thunder and so far it’s been a struggle.  There is no one to blame, as the team is built upon the notion that Durant and Westbrook (or at least one of the two) stay healthy, but these early games have extreme importance, because no Western Conference hole is easy to dig yourself out of.

24. Boston Celtics (3-6)
Week 0-3 (L vs OKC, L vs Cle, L vs Pho)
If nothing else, the Celtics look like a fun team to watch so far this year.  For a team that was expected to have a great defense, but struggle to get the ball in the basket it’s been pretty much the opposite.  Rondo has played well, possibly well enough to increase his trade value as the Celts are still likely to look to move him at some point this season.

25. Detroit Pistons (3-8)
Week 1-3 (L @ Was, W @ OKC, L @ Mem, L vs Orl)
It’s been a rocky road for the Pistons as they look to push themselves into the playoff picture in the East this year and it hasn’t gotten much better.  Van Gundy insists that Smith is part of the big picture, but the team continues to struggle in trying to find a way to play him alongside Monroe and Drummond.

SVG is still hopeful about Josh Smith as a Piston, but he needs to learn his role.

26. Denver Nuggets (3-7)
Week 2-2 (L vs Por, W @ Ind, L @ NYK, W @ Cle)
The Nuggets have been one of the most disastrous teams in the first few weeks of the season, but they got a small consolation yesterday as they traveled to Cleveland a were able to take down the Cavs.  The big question is what happened to their always great home court advantage?  They’ve stumbled out to a 1-3 home record, winning only the home opener against the Pistons.

27. New York Knicks (3-8)
Week 1-2 (L vs Orl, L vs Uta, W vs Den)
It’s been the kind of nightmare that Phil is not used to being a part of in New York as they’ve looked incompetent in trying to figure out the triangle.  The Knicks were able to end a seven game skid on Sunday with a home win against the Nuggets.  The only bright spot for the Knicks is that they’ve remained competitive in most of their games after getting demolished in their regular season opener against the Bulls.

28. Minnesota Timberwolves (2-7)
Week 0-3 (L vs Hou (@ Mex City), L @ NOP, L @ Dal)
No one can fault the Wolves for their rough start as it was expected to be a rebuilding year.  After locking up Rubio to an extension, they lost him to a nasty sprained ankle, putting their rebuild year in full effect.  Meanwhile, they’re starting to shop Corey Brewer to not put any hindrance on what will become a tank job season.

29. Los Angeles Lakers (1-9)
Week 0-4 (L @ Mem, L @ NOP, L vs SAS, L vs GSW)
There is not much to say about the Lakers right now, except that they are looking likely to be able to keep their draft pick which is top five protected this season.  If they’re able to finish in the bottom two, then they cement that pick as falling to five would become a worst case scenario.

30. Philadelphia 76ers (0-10)
Week 0-3 (L @ Dal, L @ Hou, L @ SAS)
Another perfect week for the Tankers.  This one should have came easily as they had to travel through the treacherous Texas Triangle, but the Rockets were able to give them a scare.  The Sixers were able to take a three point lead in the final minute, but some late game heroics from Harden kept the perfect season alive for Philly.

Quick Picks – Best NBA Bets of 11/14

Hi all.  Sorry for another brief hiatus and for missing this weeks power rankings.  Simply put, when you’re working a certain amount of hours per week, it becomes more difficult to keep this updated that I would have ever anticipated.  Power rankings will be back next Tuesday, and hopefully another post before that this weekend.

For tonight, I wanted to bring back the wonderful world of gambling and make some picks.  I haven’t officially made any picks all season so far, and have not even bet on a basketball game (shame on me) throughout the first couple weeks of the 2014-15 season.    Today, I’ll make picks and give a brief write up on them.  My source for the lines will be whatever 5dimes.com has at it’s line at the time of writing.

Three picks tonight.  Here.  We.  Go.

Miami Heat @ Atlanta Hawks -5

This just feels like a bad spot for Miami.  Wade is out, hurting their already limited back court depth even more.  With The Fortress being a tough place to play (the Hawks haven’t lost a home game yet this year), this feels like a game that the Hawks take to double digits in the second half and never relinquish.  The front court of the Hawks will be too much of a challenge for the Heat to handle.  While Bosh’s defense is terrific, the Heat have struggled in recent games to get rebounds.  This very well could turn into a board crashing festival resulting in many points right around the basket for Atlanta.

Cleveland Cavaliers @ Boston Celtics +6

The Cavs have finally started to get some offense together.  Tonight they travel to the TD Garden to take on the Celtics.  The Celtics projected to be one of the league’s better defensive teams and so far this year, they’ve been anything but that.  I guess that’s what happens when Kelly Olynyk logs heavy minutes down low.  Still, the Celtics may have just the right ingredients to keep it close with the Cavs.  While Olynyk’s rim protection leave’s much to be desired, he gave the Cavs fits last April scoring.  Combined with great wing defenders and enough scoring punch to keep it close, expect the Celtics to have a chance to win this game in the fourth quarter.  Give me the Celtics and the points.

Philadelphia 76ers @ Houston Rockets – Under 204½

Playing on the tail end of back to back in which they got walloped by the Mavericks, the Sixers will be eager to prove that despite Hinkie’s best effort at putting a terrible team on the court, they can still ball.  Unfortunately tonight, they go to another corner of the Texas triangle and have to try to score against the defensively resurgent Houston Rockets.  The last time these two teams faced was in Philly just a couple weeks ago.  In that game the Sixers kept it closer than many expected, fueled by several runs that included occasional barrages of three point shooting.  Playing against one of the league’s best teams in opponent 3pt% makes it tough to imagine that happening again.  That game finished at a tally of 197 with the over/under set right at 200.  It seems right to expect a similar score tonight.  The Rockets should get up over 100 points again, but the Sixers will not score enough points to catapult the game above 200.  While the Rockets should win in a laugher, 17 points seems a bit worrisome to lay in any NBA game.

Week 1 NBA Power Rankings

With the first week of NBA action behind us, what have we learned that we didn’t already know?  We learned that the basketball gods can be ruthless to star players even in the first week of the season.  We learned that a 36 year old Kobe Bryant can’t single-handedly carry a haphazardly thrown together Lakers team.  And what we already knew about the world’s greatest sport was confirmed, that we really don’t know shit.  Aside from the awful luck that has plagued the Thunder since the Durant injury, I’ll try not to overreact terribly to win-loss records so quickly into the season with teams from which we know what to expect.

Here are the power rankings following the first week of basketball.  For week one, I won’t document the direction in which teams are trending, because all I had up so far was preseason rankings, but that feature will be added next week.

1. San Antonio Spurs (1-1)
Week 1-1 (W vs Dal, L @ Pho)
It just doesn’t feel right to drop the Spurs from the top spot, just because of an opening week loss.  They barely squeaked by the Mavs in the opener, then dropped their next game at Phoenix.  Historically, the Spurs crank out 50 win seasons year after year, so they’re the on squad that gets the benefit of the doubt.

2. Golden State Warriors (3-0)
Week 3-0 (W @ Sac, W vs LAL, W @ Por)
An impressive first week as a head coach involved Steve Kerr and the Warriors going into Sacramento to blow out a (dare I say decent?) Kings team, destroying the Lakers, and sneaking out of one of the toughest places to play in Portland with a win.  It’s happy times in the Bay area as the Splash Brothers appear to be staying together long term.

3. Cleveland Cavaliers (1-1)
Week 1-1 (L vs NYK, W @ Chi)
In a shocker home opener for LeBron’s return to Cleveland, the Cavs looked shaky and out of position as James recorded 8 turnovers.  It will take some time to get it all together, but after the Knicks disastrous home opener, this game caught many by surprise.  The Cavs were able to salvage their spot in the top five with an impressive bounce back overtime win at Chicago.

4. Chicago Bulls (2-1)
Week 2-1 (W @ NYK, L vs Cle, W @ Min)
The Bulls made it look easy, running away from Madison Square Garden with a game that never really was much of a game to begin with.  They had to run into the Cavs their next game, though, in a team that was eager to get a win after losing to the same Knicks team in their home opener.  If it weren’t for some late game heroics from Jimmy Butler, Chicago would be staring down a 1-2 start to the season following that impressive opener.

Here’s to hoping for a quick comeback for Rose.

5. Houston Rockets (4-0)
Week 4-0 (W @ LAL, W @ Uta,  W vs Bos, W @ Phi)
What if I told you that the Houston Rockets are a top five defensive team?  Small sample size, yes, cake walk opening schedule (every opponent is in the bottom ten of my power rankings), yes, but they have looked impressive in every game so far winning each game by double digits.  Ariza has been knocking down threes at an impressively high clip, and making it equally as difficult for opponents to get shots off at the perimeter.  While the schedule has indeed been easy, it’s never an easy feat to go into the high altitude of Utah on the tail end of a back to back and come away with a double digit victory.

6. Dallas Mavericks (3-1)
Week 2-1 (L @ SAS, W vs Uta, W @ NOP, W vs Bos)
The Mavs could very well be looking at 4-0 right now, but dropped a season opening nail biter to the Spurs on ring ceremony night.  Since that they’ve followed up with three straight victories, although the Celtics gave them a scare in what seemed to be a blowout last night.  Dallas, early on has been the most potent offense in the league, but with a shaky defensive back court, has ranked near the league’s worst in defensive efficiency.

7. Memphis Grizzlies (4-0)
Week 4-0 (W vs Min, W @ Ind, W @ Cha, W vs NOP)
Speaking of terrible defense…. just kidding.  The Grizzlies have shown, that once again they’ll be the most intimidating defense in basketball with Gasol manning the interior, and plenty of defense all around on the post.  The offense remains a slight question mark, but this appears to be one of those teams that will at least put up enough points to stay in the game, no matter who they play against.

8. Los Angeles Clippers (3-1)
Week 3-1 (W vs OKC, W @ LAL, L vs Sac, W vs Uta)
A win is a win.  In the power rankings, though, an impressive win nets you a better rank.  While it’s obvious the Clippers will be fine, the way they’ve started the season has been anything but impressive.  Every game has been a single digit victory against less than impressive teams.  Couple that with a home loss vs the Kings gives the Clippers barely enough cred to stay in the top ten.  They’ll be fine, but the start of the season has been a bit shaky.

9. Miami Heat (3-0)
Week 3-0 (W vs Was, W @ Phi, W vs Tor)
Riding on a “see what we can do without LeBron” ecstasy, the Heat have been impressive out of the gate.  With a couple of home wins and a road win vs the Sixers, the biggest test of the season so far comes to town tonight in James Harden and the Rockets.  They may have been bummed out when LeBron left, but no one in Miami is complaining about being the last remaining undefeated team in the East.

Wade and Bosh are trying to show the world what they can do without the world’s best player.

10. Phoenix Suns (2-1)
Week 2-1 (W vs LAL, W vs SAS, L @ Uta)
The Suns started the season by blowing out the Suns, then used their three point guard tandem to stage a furious comeback in an impressive win over the Spurs, before laying an egg in a blowout at Utah.  While the loss to the Jazz comes in a tough spot (tail end of a back to back, tough place to play), the fact that they weren’t even competitive in that game is concerning.  It was a 27 point loss and the Jazz are still… the Jazz.

11. Toronto Raptors (2-1)
Week 2-1 (W vs Atl, W @ Orl, L @ Mia)
It’s looking like a three way fight for being the third best team in the East.  The Rapts have a good opportunity to jump into early contention for that spot with Bradley Beal missing the first month for the Wizards.  The third of those teams was able to win the first battle as the Heat knocked out the Raptors in their first match up.  This came on the road for Toronto and on the second night of a back to back, but the wasted opportunities in this game still raise some concern.

12. Washington Wizards (2-1)
Week 2-1 (L @ Mia, W @ Orl, W vs Mil)
After opening the season with a loss at Miami, the Wiz got ample opportunity to end the week 2-1, as they played two of the league’s worst teams.  They don’t play their first Western Conference team until November 19th, so they’ll have the opportunity for the next couple weeks to gain some headway in the East.

13. Sacramento Kings (3-1)
Week 3-1 (L vs GSW, W vs Por, W @ LAC, W @ Den)
The most surprising team in the first week was the Kings.  After getting run out of their own stadium by the Dubs in the opener, the Kings were able to reel off three straight.  All three of those were impressive wins with the biggest statement game coming as they came into Staples Center and knocked out the Clippers for their only loss of the season.  Can the Kings be this season’s Suns?

14. Atlanta Hawks (1-1)
Week 1-1 (L @ Tor, W vs Ind)
The team that’s a lock to be the NBA TV series in the playoffs (unless they draw the Bulls or Cavs) look to jump into that middle echelon in the East with a healthy Al Horford this season.  Re-integrating Horford into the team’s rotation may start as a work in progress, but Budenholzer is wasting no time giving his star big man minutes.  The Hawks only got two games in the first week of basketball, but will have a tough road next week playing at San Antonio and Charlotte, which they’ll follow with back to back games against the Knicks.

15. New York Knicks (2-1)
Week 2-1 (L vs Chi, W @ Cle, W vs Cha)
Speaking of the Knicks, maybe it wasn’t as bad as it looked in their home opener trouncing they were given by the Bulls.  They were able to take advantage of some early season jitters against the Cavs and followed up with an impressive win against Charlotte.  One blowout loss and two close wins is what ya see on paper, but the important takeaway was that they were able to come out on top in both of the nail biters.

16. Portland Trailblazers (1-2)
Week 1-2 (W vs OKC, L @ Sac, L vs GSW)
I’m guilty of not watching more than give minutes of Blazer basketball in the first week of the season (there was just too much DAMN basketball to watch!) so perhaps I’m not giving them enough love.  An impressive opening night win followed by two losses puts the Blazers in a tough position that may have them playing catch up early this season.  Their next three match ups have them taking on the Cavs, Mavs, and Clips, in a stretch that they’d be very fortunate to be .500 after it completes.

17. Brooklyn Nets (2-1)
Week 2-1 (L @ Bos, W @ Det, W vs OKC)
Going to Boston and being given a beating on opening night gave Nets fans (I think those exist) worries that this team could be even worse this season as they adjust to a new head coach in Lionel Hollins.  Since that, they were able to come away with a comfortable win at Detroit and demolished the depleted Thunder last night.  Better yet, they got back their man down low Brook Lopez who turned in a nice game with 18 points and a career high 6 rebounds (I kid, I kid).

18. Charlotte Hornets (1-2)
Week 1-2 (W vs Mil, L vs Mem, L @ NYK)
Projected by many to be a top four team in the East, it’s been a discouraging start for the Hornets, who were a couple Kemba miracles away from starting the first week of action winless.  There is hope for them as Kidd-Gilchrist no longer looks like his shooting coach growing up was a marionette, and it was expected to take some time to integrate Lance into the offense.  Give it time, this team has talent.

MKG has fared well the first week… both him and his revamped shot.

19. New Orleans Pelicans (1-2)
Week 1-2 (W vs Orl, L vs Dal, L @ Mem)
Anthony Davis looks like a complete beast.  Having him paired with Asik, the Pelicans are making it difficult for other teams to score inside.  Ryan Anderson has been a welcome addition after missing almost the entire season last year.  Figuring out how to pair Holiday, Gordon, and Evans still remains the question mark.  If only they’d known Davis would be out of this world, they could have saved that money to pair them with talent that actually makes sense.

20. Denver Nuggets (1-2)
Week 1-2 (W vs Det, L @ OKC, L vs Sac)
The Nuggets bolster one of the league’s deepest rosters, and after an injury plagued nightmare last season it’s hard to blame them.  While it’s been a struggle to get clicking in the early part of this season, coach Shaw is still plugging and playing guys into the rotation to figure out what works.  All while trying to bring back the injured Gallinari, it’s no surprise that they’ve lacked success thus far.

21. Minnesota Timberwolves (1-2)
Week 1-2 (L @ Mem, W vs Det, L vs Chi)
This League Pass Alert team has actually played surprisingly well so far this season, and could be more than just a League Pass team if they choose to keep their veterans.  Kevin Martin has been ultra effective so far, and if the Wolves do choose to blow it all up, he’ll be a nice trade chip for a contender lacking perimeter scoring.  If it weren’t for a silly foul of Jimmy Butler, the Wolves would be above .500 for probably the only time this season.  There’s always next year.

22. Boston Celtics (1-2)
Week 1-2 (W vs Bkn, L @ Hou, L @ Dal)
Brad Stevens is going to try to win as many games as possible, which may hurt Danny Ainge’s tanking hopes.  Rondo will be the team’s biggest trade chip for any hopes of bottoming out and it still seems most likely that they do trade him.  Smart as had some wonderful flashes early on making Rondo that much more expendable as they look to make Smart the point guard of the future.

23. Oklahoma City Thunder (1-3)
Week 1-3 (L @ Por, L @ LAC, W vs Den, L @ Bkn)
It was a heartbreaking week for the Thunder as they lost Westbrook to a hand fracture in just their second game.  He’ll look to rehab and hopes to be back in action about the same time that Durant gets back.  There have been bright spots.  Perry Jones looks terrific, Steven Adams is still beating guys up, and Lance Thomas appears that he can at least plug away as a rotational player for now.  It’s still scary times in OKC, as they try to stay afloat early season in the Wild Wild West.

All NBA fans hope these two don’t spend too much time sidelined.

24. Utah Jazz (1-3)
Week 1-3 (L vs Hou, L @ Dal, W vs Pho, L @ Lac)
The Jazz proved that they still have one of the most effective home court advantages in basketball as they punked the Suns in the Jazz sole win so far this year.  The young squad will continue to look to run teams off the floor as they gain experience playing together.  They were able to crack the hundred point mark in all games but one so far this year.

25. Indiana Pacers (1-2)
Week 1-2 (W vs Phi, L vs Mem, L @ Atl)
While it already looks like it’ll be a throwaway season for the Pacers, they were able to salvage an opening night win against the league’s worst.  When the majority of your scoring is coming from Chris Copeland, that’s a concern.  Copeland is launching over 8 three point attempts per game (and hitting at an effective clip), and he has played one-third of the total minutes mark that he played all of last season.

26. Milwaukee Bucks (1-2)
Week 1-2 (L vs Cha, W vs Phi, L @ Was)
Still figuring out the Bucks rotation, head coach Jason Kidd has given just about everyone on the roster a little bit of grind early on.  With the fan focus (rightfully) being on rookie Jabari Parker, the most impressive Milwaukee player early in the season has been point guard Brandon Knight.  Kidd will soon trim down the rotation as he figures out which guys work together in an attempt to turn a 15 win team into a playoff team.

27. Detroit Pistons (0-3)
Week 0-3 (L @ Den, L vs Min, L vs Bkn)
An overwhelmingly popular pick as a 2014 lottery team to be a 2015 playoff team, Stan Van Gundy is still piecing together his rotation.  Josh Smith has gotten ample playing time and still seems to think that he’s a shooter, though he’s cut down on his three point attempts (not likely by choice).  Meanwhile, Brandon Jennings has seen his late game minutes cut in favor of DJ Augustin.  It’ll take some time, but the mantra doesn’t change in Detroit, “In Stan We Trust.”

28. Orlando Magic (0-3)
Week 0-3 (L @ NOP, L vs Was, L vs Tor)
The Magic have gotten to see their highly coveted rookies start to get some play time and they’ve shown brilliant flashes despite limited production.  Elfrid Payton has been making rookie decisions, but guess what, he’s a rookie so it’s all good.  Aaron Gordon looks like a future beast.  Vucevic is playing like an All NBA center.  It’s all about development this year between the two rookies, Harris, Vucevic, and Oladipo.  While Oladipo will have to wait a month, there will be plenty of court time for him once his face heals.

29. Los Angeles Lakers (0-4)
Week 0-4 (L vs Hou, L @ Pho, L vs LAC, L @ GSW)
Maybe Byron Scott is on board with making sure that the Lakers keep their 2015 draft pick with his theology that shooting three pointers don’t help win basketball games.  With Julius Randle looking to miss the entire season after breaking his leg in the opener, the Lakers would love to keep their 2015 draft pick, but they only do so if it lands in the top five.  They’ll have heavy competition with the Philadelphia Seventy Tankers if they’re going to make that happen.

30. Philadelphia 76ers (0-4)
Week 0-4 (L @ Ind, L @ Mil, L vs Mia, L vs Hou)
And at last we arrive with those Philadelphia Seventy Tankers.  Week one of the NBA season was a complete success, although they had a couple scares last night against the Rockets when every time it looked at becoming a thirty point blowout, the Tankers were able to make a run.  Brett Brown was able to keep them in check and lead them to losses in all four games so far this year, and he’ll look to build upon that.  Nerlens Noel has made the team semi-watchable.

The Outside Looking In

News flash: multiple sources reporting, the Western Conference is still stacked as all hell.  Most NBA personalities predict the same eight teams as last year being playoff bound again in 2015.  Who can blame them?  Nearly all of those teams come back as strong as they were last season and several come into this season even stronger.  It feels foolish to assume that any of those teams get knocked out of the playoff picture.  While I didn’t make any official preseason predictions, I would’ve hopped right on the 2014 bandwagon along with everyone else.  And guess what?  I’d probably be wrong.

I refuse to predict which of these teams will fall out.  It’s an impossible prediction to make, because if any of these teams do fall out it will almost certainly be thanks to a significant injury.  Don’t ask me to be the injury psychic.  It feels safe to say that every team, save for the top 3, is in danger of falling out if they sustain a long-term injury to a key player.  The question becomes, which team will make the playoffs when the inevitable fall out happens?  Here are the legitimate threats to the teams in the bottom half of the playoff picture.

Phoenix Suns

The Suns were the surprise team last season as most predicted what became the 48 win Suns as a bottom three team in the entire league.  There won’t be another sleeper team like that this year.  The Jazz are too young, the Kings have no direction, the Wolves lost their star, and the Lakers are god awful.  Phoenix should at least be right where they were last season.  While it’s still difficult to envision the style of play of a team built the way the Suns are, it’s near impossible to doubt Jeff Hornacek’s philosophies after last season.  The guy has a vision of how he wants his team to play and that vision wins regular season games.  After the initial shock of the Suns drafting Tyler Ennis, signing Isaiah Thomas, and then resigning Bledsoe (all while bringing back Dragic) wore off, the vision started to make sense.  This team does two things about as well as any other team on offense; space the floor and run like Forrest Gump playing basketball.  It works.  Bledsoe will be a good enough defender to be on the floor with any of the other guards.  Dragic will build off a career year.  Thomas will use his quickness to create space and find the open guy.  Ennis will learn from the rest.  Teams with such big win differentials from one year to the next typically fall off in the third season, but that seems unlikely with this Suns team.  They lost just one key player from last year in Channing Frye, but they have good enough floor spacing forwards to make up for it.  The most difficult task for an outsider would be managing minutes between Bledsoe, Dragic, Thomas, Green, and Tucker, but this is Horny’s team and Horny’s vision.  Being on the shortlist as a coach of the year candidate in his first year gives confidence that he can manage this task.

The Morris Bros will try to fill Channing Fry’s role of spacing the floor this season.

Denver Nuggets

The Nuggets sneak under the radar of fans year in, year out.  The fans in Denver are tired of the team’s mediocrity, but at least the Nuggets make an attempt to put a product on the court to get the fans excited (I’m looking at you, Sam Hinkie).  The Nuggets off season consisted of the following: 1) reclaim one of their best players since Melo in trading for Afflalo, 2) re-sign your current best player and the best Manimal to ever exist in Faried, 3) turning one first round pick into two and nabbing their 12th seven footer in Jusuf Nurkic and one of the most exciting players to slide in the draft in Gary Harris, and 4) getting a shit ton of players back from injury.  The fourth point will prove to be the most important in the team’s playoff hopes.  The Nuggets failed to come close to a playoff spot last season, but if you asked a casual basketball fan if they were a playoff team the season prior, many would immediately shake their head.  That team won 57 games!  The only key contributors that walked from that team are Iggy and Corey Brewer, but Afflalo will provide a lot of what they missed from those two last season.  Parlay that with the hopes of getting back a healthy Gallinari, J.J. Hickson, Nate Robinson, and sporadic minutes from Javale McGee and this team trumps last season’s Nuggets.  The big difference from the 57 win Nuggets of 2012-13 to this year’s squad is the coaching.  George Karl got fired after an excellent regular season (winning coach of the year) that year and was replaced with Brian Shaw who got a bit of a free pass with all the injuries, but still may find himself on the hot seat after a rough first year in Denver.  They’ll have to stay healthy, but this team is no doubt better than last season’s Nugs.

Danilo looks to regain form in his first real action since 2013.

New Orleans Pelicans

The N’awlins Pellies literally made one move this off season, and that move said, “We want to make the playoffs now.”  Acquiring Asik is a great acquisition forming the scariest defensive front court in all of basketball, but that alone doesn’t turn a 34 win team into the 50 win team that the Western Conference requires.  What does give them hope to become a playoff team is possibility of their superstar big man Anthony Davis becoming an MVP big man this season.  The only way that they’re going to turn that corner from lottery team to playoff team is if Anthony Davis makes that leap and carries the team on his back.  The guy is quickly becoming an NBA icon and making me want to learn how to grow a uni brow.  While The Brow’s progression is far beyond damn near anyone’s expectations when he came into the league, it’ll take a team effort for this team to have any playoff hopes, and that’s the most difficult part.  The return of Ryan Anderson will add a key player to the rotation, but how Jrue Holiday, Eric Gordon, and Tyreke Evans can coexist is the big question mark.  Each of these players had the talent to be a franchise changing player coming into the league, but none of them play for their original franchise.  The Pels overpaid in trading for Holiday, as well as giving Evans and Gordon their big paydays.  Moving forward, the question becomes can they find takers for Evans or Gordon in a trade, but the immediate question becomes whether or not they can play within themselves to help New Orleans sneak into the playoffs?  It’ll take Anthony Davis playing at an MVP level and everyone else recognizing their roles for this feat to happen, but it’s certainly within reach.

The Pelicans hope their shot blocking tandem is enough to be playoff bound in 2015.

It will be tough for any of these teams to make the playoffs, but history suggests it unlikely that the same eight teams as last year will get in.  Which team do you think has the best chance to wreak havoc in the wild wild West?

Three Takeaways From Opening Night In The NBA

Anthony Davis is the biggest quadruple-double threat since the 90’s

In what would seem like an early season candidate for a top ten stat line of the season, Anthony Davis made it look effortless.  Falling a block short of getting a triple-double, Davis reminded basketball fans of his ability to light up the stat sheet on day one of the season.  Putting together a stat line of 27 points, 16 boards, 9 blocks, and 3 steals on the first night of the season is just a sign of what’s to come.  The near double digit shot blocks by Davis was enough to tie a career high, but that won’t be the case for long.  Davis is sure to hit the double digit mark this season.  Having Omer Asik (5 blocks himself) behind him to protect the rim allows Davis to take more weak side gambles as a shot blocker without losing much in terms of team defense.  In last night’s game Davis showed he can run the fast break as well as any big man in the game by getting completely behind the defense several times after stealing the ball.  It was a complete Unibrow highlight reel  In his quest for getting a quad dub, the biggest challenge will be getting to double digit assists (or can you imagine steals) on a night that he reaches the plateau in blocks.  His current career highs in those categories are 5 assists and 6 steals.  However, as Davis becomes the team leader, it seems very plausible that the offense will start to run through Davis in the high post.  This will allow him to become more of a distributor finding his streaky guards cutting to the basket and dishing the ball off as he draws double teams.  The scariest part?  He’s only 21 years old and on pace to get a hell of a lot better.

Welcome to the league, rookie.

The Chandler Parsons contract looks laughable

Once upon a time, before LeBron James stole the show in the off season with his well-timed letter that proclaimed he was taking his talents back home, there was Chandler Parsons.  When the clock struck midnight on July 10th, Parsons was famously found signing his max contract extension at the club with Mavs owner Mark Cuban.  This put the Rockets on the clock to match the contract, which they would have done had Bosh agreed to join forces to build an instant contender.  In the end, Bosh chose to stay in Party City, and the Rockets ultimately decided to allow Parsons to head to their Texas rivals in Dallas.  In a spin of irony, the Rockets chose his replacement to be the guy that they awarded his first big contract in 2009 in Trevor Ariza before jettisoning that contract to New Orleans the following summer.

Fast forward to opening night.  Parsons, $16,000,000 richer is wearing blue taking on the Spurs, and Ariza is back in Rockets red making roughly half the money that Parsons signed for.  In his first game making big money Parsons put up a stinker hitting just 2 of 10 shots to score 5 points with no assists.  With the chance for redemption with two seconds left, Parsons found himself wide open for the game winning three, but failed to convert.  His defense wasn’t as atrociously bad as the Harden-like reputation that he’s started to garner, but he’s out there to add offense which he did not do in his debut.  Meanwhile, Ariza put up a nice game statistically against the Lakers hitting 5 of 8 from deep, but also provided perimeter defense on Kobe that the Rockets haven’t had since Parsons rookie year when he actually put forth effort on defense.

Parsons will play better, but the Mavs need him to play about $15,000,000 better than he played last night.

While it’s far too early to call Parsons a complete bust on his new contract, he is past the point where he can have a free pass.  The problem isn’t that he got paid.  He’s a very good player and deserved to get his pay day.  The problem is that he got paid like he’s a franchise cornerstone to build upon.  When he signed that contract, Rockets GM Daryl Morey saw it as crippling, preventing any further roster moves.  You only match that contract if you think that Parsons is the kind of guy that can put you to contender status.  The Rockets did not.  Now the Mavericks will have to hope that their big free agent signing can start to produce at an all star level, because Dirk is not getting any younger.

The Kobe vs Dwight feud is alive and well

It didn’t take long for Kobe to get into it with another ex teammate.  In Howard’s first game playing against Kobe since leaving LA a late game altercation involved Kobe trying to slap away a Dwight rebound, while down 25 points in the final quarter.  Howard tried to clear space which ended up with Kobe taking an elbow to the mouth.  The two had to be separated as words were exchanged.  The exchange went something like this.

Kobe: “Try me.”
Dwight: “I know you, dog.”
Kobe: “Try me.  Try me.”
Dwight: “I know you.”
Kobe: “Soft.”

“I know you, dog.”

According to sources other words were exchanged as well with Howard saying, “You’s a pussy, dog,” (which I’d assume means, “You’re CatDog”) and Kobe shouting at the bench, “You a bitch ass n-word.”  Although the Rockets dominated this game from start to finish, the exchange was particularly intriguing.  Comments from Lakers fans across the internet would lead one to believe that Howard is under investigation for raping someone in Colorado with all that was thrown around about the minor exchange.  And the scenario was just that, a minor incident.  The reason that the incident intrigues me is that it adds further fuel to the fire that Kobe chased Dwight out of Los Angeles in free agency with his demanding personality, and the, “Let me show you how to be a winner,” shenanigans in the free agency meeting while trying to recruit him back to LA.

All in all, it was a minor incident that got way overblown, but it’s still worth discussing because it adds further drama to their next meeting and as NBA fans we all secretly love a little bit of drama.

Preseason NBA Power Rankings

After a long hiatus, I’m back for the NBA season.  Following a painfully annoying wait after the off season buzz in July, there is real… actual… true… GENUINE… AUTHENTIC regular season basketball to talk about.  You know what else is annoying? When someone starts something, but doesn’t finish it.  For those that have been asking about the point guard and shooting guard rankings, the truth is, they’re nowhere.  I didn’t do them.  I’m sorry.  Life got a little bit busy, work got a little bit stressful, and every time I sat down to do them that tiny little brain in my head shut itself off.  So they won’t be coming.  What is coming is much more updates on this site.  Just in time for the season I’ve changed up my work schedule to allow me to watch hoopsketball all season long.  So thanks for those of you who are still visiting this page after me not updating it for several months.

I’ll start off with a regular Tuesday segment (and something that no website, blog, or basketball publication has ever done before), weekly power rankings.  With that, let’s jump right in and get it started.

1. San Antonio Spurs (62-20)
Did I have to make the first one so obvious?  The NBA champions were an easy pick for the top spot starting the 2014 season.  They bring back the same team as last year and I think it’s safe to say by now that their players don’t age.  This could have been more of a question mark had they not locked up their hall of fame coach to an extension, but with Pop coming back there is no doubt that they are the early season favorites.

2. Cleveland Cavaliers (33-49)
While it may take sometime for the stars to fully figure out how to play together, the Cavs will have one of the biggest jumps in NBA history from one season to the next.  After a 33 win season in which they were going all out trying to make the playoffs, Dan Gilbert’s team lucked themselves into missing the playoffs, winning the draft lottery, Lebron’s sudden remembrance that he’s in love with Ohio, and a superstar power forward ready to walk to a contender.  Meanwhile David Blatt walked into a dream job for a first time NBA coach (don’t give me that crap people gave Spo about how he’s in a tough position to figure out how to make all that talent work… any coach would take two top ten players and an all star point guard).

3. Los Angeles Clippers (57-25)
One of the league’s deepest teams, the Clippers are ready to compete once again for a spot in the Western Conference Finals.  Entering the fourth season with their tandem of Griffin and CP3 in tact, anything short of the conference finals would be considered a disappointment, but they’ll have their work cut out for them as the conference isn’t getting any easier to compete against.

Griffin and Paul will have plenty to smile about this season.

4. Chicago Bulls (48-34)
After a nice preseason, the Bulls are sure to compete for the top spot in the East.  This team is always health permitting, but Rose has looked good in preseason after shaking off some of his rust by competing in the FIBA World Cup this summer.  The team added key rotation players in Gasol, Mirotic, and Dougie McBuckets this offseason while keeping the rest of the core together (Boozer’s corpse doesn’t count).   If Rose can be even close to his former self, this could very well be a 60 win team.

5. Golden State Warriors (51-31)
Steve Kerr already has this team clicking in the preseason and after a disastrous run in Phoenix as GM, he’s ready to prove that he is one of the great basketball minds in the world.  This offense will pick up right where they left off with Curry and Thompson now getting help from Shaun Livingston to become an even better back court.  The defense should be much of the same despite losing Mark Jackson who preaches defense as long as Bogut and Iggy can stay healthy.  Yes, I was trying to make a pun there about Mark Jackson and religion.

Kerr is happy to takeover a team that’s already been built to compete.

6. Portland Trail Blazers (54-28)
The big concern with the Blazers is their lack of depth and it didn’t get much better this season after losing Mo Williams and acquring… ahem… Chris Kaman.  While I suppose that Kaman counts as a real acquisition, because of the lack of quality centers in basketball he’s been irrelevant since his all star season in 2010.  I guess he at least exists (I think that’s a verified fact).  Still, the Blazers bolster one of the league’s best starting line ups and if they continue to play rougly 3,000,000,000 minutes together per season this year they should be just fine.

7. Oklahoma City Thunder (59-23)
Can we stop pretending that the Thunder are going to go 2-16 without their MVP, Kevin Durant?  I understand that the context of MVP has the words “most” and “valuable” in it, but this is still a very good basketball team despite losing the most valuable guy of last season (and he WILL be back).  Westbrook will take the reigns until he returns giving the role players plenty of opportunity to find their niche until he’s back.

8. Houston Rockets (54-28)
The Rockets have fallen off most people’s radar because of who they didn’t get this off season more so than who they lost.  Yes, losing Asik hurts, but they still have two superstars, and one of them is one of the league’s best rim protectors.  Daryl Morey has a knack for finding a gem player that makes a bigger impact than anyone would guess.  Ariza is an upgrade over Parsons in the Rockets system, bringing some much needed perimeter defense.  The cornerstones of this team (“everyone else is a role player”) have a full year under their belt playing together and they’ll look to prove their worth this season.

9. Dallas Mavericks (49-33)
Yes, the Mavs are ranked below the Rockets.  They had a nice off season, catapulting themselves from the 8th seed last year into being a middle of the pack playoff team, but still have some holes.  They severely downgraded at point guard, losing Calderon and Larkin to bring in Raymond Felton and Jameer.  Parsons will be an upgrade over Vince Carter and Tyson Chandler is an upgrade over Dalembert but he’s not the Tyson Chandler that he was on their 2011 championship team.  This team will be good, but they have a teeny tiny window to have any chance at another championship.

10. Toronto Raptors (48-34)
The Raptors had a quiet off season in terms of bringing in new talent, but were able to bring back all the guys that made them relevant for the first time since the Bosh days last season.  Canada actually has something to get excited about that is not hockey.  This team will be very good, but it will need one of their key players to make a significant leap to have any shot at getting to the conference finals.

11. Memphis Grizzlies (50-32)
The Grizzlies defense will be as strong as always with Gasol as the anchor.  The question mark remains the offense and whether or not they have enough fire power.  Every season that I count the Grizzlies out of the playoffs they remind me just how tough of a mentality they have in Memphis, so all indications would seem that they’re prime for another low playoff seed and first round exit.

12. Washington Wizards (44-38)
The Wizards have one of the best back courts in basketball, but they’ll have to wait to see it in action as Beal continues to rehab an injury.  Swapping Ariza for a declining Pierce is far from a wash, but he’ll see plenty of play time this season.  According to the general manager poll, one GM had the Wizards going to the conference finals (I wonder which GM that was), but if this prophecy is going to come true, Wall is going to have to carry the team on his back.  He’s already one of the league’s to point guards, but a conference finals appearance seems a bit too hopeful.

Beal and Wall will look to enter the discussion of the league’s best back court, but it’ll have to wait.

13. Charlotte Hornets (43-39)
Assuming that I can mentally separate the mindgasm of who plays for the Hornets and who plays for the Pelicans, the Hornets are going to be improved over last years playoff team.  Big Al took his game to an unfathomable level last year, and the additions of Lance Stephenson and rookie PJ Hairston will make them even better.  Vonleh will be more of a project player, but with plenty of potential.  And apparently MKG developed a normal looking shot if you dare to believe it.

14. Miami Heat (54-28)
The Heat had the best basketball player in the world walk this off season.  Okay, let’s get over that.  In a quick decision, Miami nixed the idea of tanking and decided to remain competitive.  The cute pick from NBA analysts has been to drop them out of the playoffs, as a team that seems to be a damn near lock.  They’re still a damn near lock, trust me.  Despite Wade’s health always being questionable, the Heat still have a true star player in Chris Bosh and one of the league’s best all around guys in Deng.  The rest of the roster is still filled out nicely enough for them to finish between the 5 and 7 seed.

15. Phoenix Suns (48-34)
I considered dropping the 48 win Suns further, but how can you really?  The only big loss from last season is Channing Frye, and his spacing was very valuable to them, but they still have two excellent space creating bigs in the Morris twins.  I can’t for the life of me figure out why they need so many point guards (Bledsoe, Dragic, Thomas, and Ennis), but Bledsoe can be on the court with any of those guys at the same time with his tremendous defense.  This team will creep close to the playoffs again and probably barely miss again, but they’ll be a hell of a fun team to watch regardless.

Plenty of smiles, but just one basketball for these four to distribute.

16. Denver Nuggets (36-46)
The Nuggets have the toughest team to figure out mostly because we barely got to watch them play together last season being bombarded with injuries.  They’ll hope to have Gallinari take the floor for the first time in over about a year and a half.  Nate Robinson will return to action as a back up scorer.  Afflalo returns to the Nuggets and will be a key piece as well.  The Nugs will have a hard time getting to the playoffs considering the strength of the West, but they’ll certainly be competing for a spot until the very end.

17. Atlanta Hawks (38-44)
The Hawks could be swapped with any of the three teams above them and I’d have almost no gripes about it.  The reason that they lose love in my rankings is A) their injury history and B) they can afford to lose key players less than any of the three teams above them.  As long as Horford stays healthy this is almost a surefire playoff team.  Their depth worries me a bit, but they have some interesting rookies that could help to get them more depth than many expect.

18. Detroit Pistons (29-53)
In Stan We Trust.  That will be the motto bounced around between Pistons fans as they enter this rebuilding process.  They already have interesting pieces in starting to build a team that’s actually relevant and SVG has a proven pedigree.  Stan has made it clear that the rotation will be a lot different than last year which should allow their plethora of big men to play more within their style of basketball.  And if there is anyone that can get Josh Smith out of his terrible habits, it’s gotta be SVG… doesn’t it?

Fist bumps for everyone.

19. Brooklyn Nets (44-38)
I might not be giving the Nets enough love as they’ll have Brook Lopez return (assuming he’s not completely broken at this point) and have an intriguing rookie coming over in Bojan Bogdanovic, but this is a team that looked flat out bad for the better part of last season.  They lost Pierce, which was the only half decent piece left from that horrendous trade made last off season (can you believe how bad that trade looks now!?).  While I like Lionel Hollins, bringing in a new coach means learning a new system, so this season may start much like last season started.

20. New Orleans Pelicans (34-48)
It hurts to rank the Pellys this far down, because they have a legit MVP candidate in Anthony Davis if they can bolster themselves into the playoffs.  That said it’ll be a tough feat.  Asik will but this team into legendary status as far as rim protection goes, but how the rest of the team fits together remains questionable.  Jrue Holiday will need to prove a healthy season for them to have any shot at the playoffs, and they’ll have to find some kind of solution for how to play Tyreke and Gordon together (or better yet, find a solution for how to trade one of them).

21. New York Knicks (37-45)
Oh how fast things can change.  It’s hard to believe that this was a 54 win team just two seasons ago.  Fast forward to last season where they won 17 games less.  Bringing in Phil allows them to rebuild with a strategy in mind instead of just throwing players out on the floor together and hope it works out.  That said, they’re still at least a year away from the crippling moves that have been made the last several seasons.

Time to turn this ship around.

22. Los Angeles Lakers (27-55)
Even if Kobe Bryant is fully healthy it’s hard to imagine the Lakers being anything but a bottom ten team.  Seeing as they barely scraped into the playoffs in Kobe’s last healthy season with Dwight Howard, Steve Nash, and Pau Gasol on the roster, this team seems to be doomed until they get out of salary cap hell.  Their power forward glut makes them a few wins better and prohibits their top pick Randle from getting the development he deserves on a bad team.

23. Indiana Pacers (56-26)
I wanted to rank the Pacers higher, but watching this team last year makes me think this might be a generous spot.  A team that was terrific on defense last year and abysmal on offense lost their two best perimeter scorers in Paul George and Lance Stephenson.  Looking at their roster makes it difficult to imagine where any of their offense comes from and how it gets created in the first place.  The creators were George and Stephenson last year.  This basically translates to Stuckey and George Hill have a lot on their plate.

24. Sacramento Kings (28-54)
The Kings have thrown together a roster that is loaded with talent, but have been trying to put it all together for far too long.  Cousins is one of the most talented big men in basketball, and they’ll hope that Coach K knocked a bit of on court sense into him during the FIBA World Cup.  After another difficult off season, though, this team wreaks of “What the hell is their long term plan?” odor.

25. Milwaukee Bucks (15-67)
The Bucks are still a few years away from being competitive, but with them being my go to team in NBA 2k, I’ve noticed that they are deep as hell from a standpoint of having rotation worthy guys.  They’ll need Jabari to be elite immediately to have a chance at making a playoff run, but they should be able to help a contender looking for that additional piece in a trade.  For those that didn’t watch the Bucks last year because they’re the Bucks here’s a breakdown. Khris Middleton is a terrific wing, Giannis Antetokounmpo is oozing with potential but still a bit raw, and Larry Sanders was nowhere close to living up to his monster contract extension.  This will no doubt be a League Pass team to watch this season.

26. Minnesota Timberwolves (40-42)
The Wolves still have plenty of veterans worthy of play time, but in order to accomplish a successful rebuild they’ll be better off finding takers for the like of Kevin Martin, Chase Budinger, and Corey Brewer in a trade to let the young guys play.  Wiggins is just happy to be on a team that wants him, and Bennett will have an ample opportunity to prove that he’s not as awful as he looked last year.

27. Utah Jazz (25-57)
The Jazz have a ton of young guys worth watching, but will get beaten up in the tough West, at least this season.  Exum has shown flashes of Kobe-esque brilliance in preseason and will quickly become a fan favorite in Utah.  Burke and Burks will be a nice tandem, and Gordon will help them win more games than they want as they head back to the lottery.  They should start off slow, but will continue to be good at home in the high altitude, and could become a team that strings together more wins as it gets late in the season.

These press conferences will be a delight, because who doesn’t love an Australian accent?

28. Boston Celtics (25-57)
The Celtics nod edge out the bottom two teams here because Rondo has a chance to be Rondo again.  Still, this team will be headed back to the lottery.  Their starting line up looks atrocious and their bench isn’t much to write home about either.  The outside shooters are nonexistent throughout the lineup.   This team will draw enough fan appeal with two fun rookies in Smart and Young, but they won’t sniff the playoffs.

29. Orlando Magic (23-59)
The Magic would probably a few spots higher up, but they’ll be without their star player for the first month of the season with a face injury (yeah, I had to check that my eyes didn’t deceive me the first time I read that too).  This is another one of the bottom of the barrel teams that fans will tune into watch to see how their rookies Elfrid Payton and Aaron Gordon fare this season, but there won’t be much reason to watch beyond that.

30. Philadelphia 76ers (19-63)
Umm yeah I really don’t even want to write anything about this team.  Operation Tank is in full force and that’s all that really needs to be said.

Thanks for reading and look forward to power rankings every Tuesday.  The season power rankings will be a much shorter read.

Positional Rankings: NBA Small Forwards Ranked 1 to 30

The small forward position is one of the most intriguing in basketball, because it really takes a certain type of player to step into that position full time.  Many small forwards are versatile enough to play other positions, but few guys that play other positions can step in as a small forward.  Obviously LeBron can play four positions, many others can step in as a stretch 4 or slide over to the shooting guard spot, and most effective small forwards can defend any wing spot.  However when it comes to putting a traditional guard at the small forward position, most don’t have the size to defend an opposing small forward one-on-one.  Additionally if you slide a stretch power forward (Markieff Morris, Channing Frye, Jerebko) to the 3 spot, most don’t have the lateral quickness to stay with their man.  The position spews out MVP candidates year after year (partially thanks to James being Iron Man), but is the least deep of any position in basketball.  It could be argued for this reason that it’s the most important position to fill out on a roster.  For this reason guys like Otto Porter, MKG, and Al-Farouq Aminu get snatched up too early in hopes that they’ll become franchise guys.  Meanwhile players like Paul George, Parsons, and Kawhi fall much further than they should because pundits claim that because they lack one specific skill they have bust written all over them.

Before proceeding to list the games top small forwards, I’d like to mention that I’ve made a few new rules to my criteria on grading these guys.  First, no rookies.  While it seems likely that Jabari Parker, Wiggins, and a few dark horses will start for their respective teams, it seems unfair to grade players that have only played summer league ball against guys with actual NBA experience.  Secondly, I initially was going directly off the ESPN.com depth chart for what guys play which positions.  I’ve decided to allow for some changes for this.  For starters, ESPN.com still hasn’t registered that Greg Monroe will sign his qualifying offer and will be a Piston this season.  Additionally, guys like Giannis Alphabet will be what position I want them to be… cause I’m the boss.  So here’s how it breaks down.

1. Lebron James – Cleveland Cavaliers
If by some chance you decided to enter a time portal and you’re actually reading this article from 2013, then you read that right.  Lebron James… Cleveland Cavaliers.  While all readers clearly have at least some basketball knowledge, there’s no reason to dive further into how it came about that LeBron elected to head back home, do I really need to dive much further into the reasoning for putting LeBron as my top guy on this list?  Despite deservedly losing his MVP trophy to KD in 2014, LeBron is still the best basketball player in the world and at the top of his game.  He’s an excellent defender with an absolute beast of a body and out of this world athleticism that seems to be going nowhere any time soon.  In a so-called down year, James averaged 27, 7, and 6, while adding 1.5 steals continuing to fly into passing lanes.  His ability to chase down blocked shots and turn it into easy points makes me drool thinking of him playing with a Dwight Howard or Ibaka type of rim protector.  While I was excited to see him play with Wiggins and help to groom him into his side kick (I love Bill Simmons analogy of Wiggins being LeBron’s version of Pippen), I think LeBron will be just fine with playing alongside Love and Kyrie.  James continues to miss only four or five games every season and typically these are games that he could play, but his team elects to let him nurse a minor injury or simply rest.  It still pains me to admit how good LeBron is (I’ve always rooted against the guy even before he painted himself the villain with “Not one, not two, not three…”), but he’s been the best player in the world for most of his career.  Now LeBron tries to change the storyline and become the hero that returned to the team he shunned to bring them glory.  Will he do it?  It seems impossible to see him not win at least one with the cast that came flocking to him to try to chase a ring.

It seems so recent that LeBron wore this jersey. Why? Because it was.

2. Kevin Durant – Oklahoma City Thunder
As great of a job as your mom did KD, the truth is, you da real MVP.  Durant played the best season of his career in the 2013-14 season and he still hasn’t peaked.  He put his team on his back multiple times throughout the season.  First when Westbrook injured himself, then towards the end of the season to help separate the Thunder from the Clippers, and again in the playoffs after the brutal injury to Ibaka to keep OKC’s title hopes alive.  He needed a bit more help, and frankly could use a better coach.  Not trying to say that everyone has to be Popovic, but would a coach like Pop really let this Thunder team go down in the playoffs?  Hell nah.  He averaged a career high 32 points, on an incredible 50%+ from the field (this guy has to WORK for every open look).  The rest of his numbers were everything and more that he could ever be asked of.  While LeBron has the most dominating play in the NBA, Durant has the most beautiful to watch.  His unprecedented way of creating separation continually allows him to get open looks despite the defense knowing that he has to be their priority.  While Durant still has room for improvement defensively, he’s nowhere near as bad as advertised and he doesn’t have to be a lock down defender to be the MVP.  I feel worse for the Blazers each year for that botched pick, but as a team that has done great in nearly every draft the last ten years, they are allowed a few blunders.

He da real MVP.

3. Carmelo Anthony – New York Knicks
I really tried here initially to make a justified argument for why Kawhi Leonard is a better player than Melo, but it just can’t be reasonably done.  Finals MVP, best wing defender, and an emerging offensive talent still isn’t enough to take out one of the best pure scorers in NBA history.  At 30 years old Anthony is still at the height of his game.  His scoring numbers still haven’t dropped off at all.  The ability to score  from anywhere on the court can’t be underestimated.  He shot 45% last season and an incredible 40% from deep shooting over 5 attempts from three point range per game.  With Stoudemire spending another season playing limited minutes recovering from injury, Tyson Chandler being on and off the floor, and Andrea Bargnani possessing and innate inability to ball, players shuffled positions for the Knicks last season forcing Melo to play plenty of power forward.  While he’s more than capable to step in and dominate as a power forward, Anthony is still a small forward at heart.  Still, playing more minutes at the four didn’t hurt Anthony in putting up a career high 8 rebounds per game.  I’m still perplexed that someone with such a knack for scoring the basketball can only average 3 assists, but that has never been a strong part of Anthony’s game, and with him being on the other end of 30 it’s clear that it never will be.  His defense is still not what you want from an MVP candidate, but with a new regime in New York an optimist would think that this is the season that he finally improves that aspect of his game.

Phil got Melo locked up, but can he put enough talent around him to keep him happy?

4. Kawhi Leonard – San Antonio Spurs
The final MVP of last season finishes just outside the top three and as is typical with a great defensive talent, the numbers don’t tell the whole story.  Leonard improved in every facet of the game in 2014, which is to be expect from a third year player.  Did anyone expect him to be THIS good though?  He’s in a different world defensively than any of the guys listed above him.  LeBron couldn’t defend LeBron as well as Leonard did in the finals.  Leonard proved to never be the offensive liability that draft pundits unfairly tagged him as heading into the 2011 draft.  At times he is a go-to scorer for the Spurs and last season he demonstrated better than ever an ability to create his own shot.  38% shooting from deep is better than anyone ever expected, and yes most of his three’s are wide open because the Spurs have the most gorgeous ball movement anyone’s ever seen, but he’s still knocking them down at a consistent enough clip.  I don’t have concerns yet about health issues for Leonard, but the fact that he missed 40 combined games the last two seasons in the ONLY thing that raises some flags about him.  After this season Leonard will get his max contract and unlike some other small forwards that received one this year, Leonard actually deserves it.

Is there anyone in the league that can defend LeBron like Leonard can?

5. Nicolas Batum – Portland Trailblazers
An argument can no doubt be made that Batum should be higher on this list.  Hell, if you swap teams between Leonard and Batum, then Batum is most likely the finals MVP last season.  Batum is the prototypical small forward.  Ranking him vs Leonard is a damn near coin flip.  From a pure statistical standpoint Batum edges out Leonard, but the Spurs play a much deeper rotation than Portland, and looking at the per 36 makes those skewed stats look a lot more even.  Much like Leonard, Batum defends the opposing teams best wing on a nightly basis and is one of the top wing defenders in the whole league.  He can score consistently enough and his passing has made huge strides.  Two seasons ago he averaged just 1.4 assists per game and since then that number has ballooned to over 5.  Looking at Batum’s contract shows how much small forward contracts got inflated last season.  Batum signed in 2012 to earn $46 mill over 4 seasons.  To put that into perspective, Parsons will make that amount in just three seasons and Hayward will make a staggering $63 mill over four seasons.  As opposed to the two guys listed prior, Batum actually plays defense.  Guys like Batum are nearly impossible to find and yet they still somehow end up underrated.  He may not be as flashy as some of the guys below him, but he’s no doubt more effective and definitely belongs no further down than where I have him.

It’s hard to believe Batum is only 25. He continues to only get better.

6. Luol Deng – Miami Heat
Deng is able to edge out the new contract guys of 2014, because much like the 2 guys directly above him, he’s a top wing defender.  He proved well before the Thibodeau era that he’s an effective defender, so there’s really no concern that his defense will drop off in Miami.  Much like any fan that wants to watch good basketball, I watched nearly none of his games in a Cavs uniform so I don’t really have a good idea of how he looked the second half of last season.  Regardless the drop in his numbers after the trade get a pass for three reasons; 1) it’s typical for anyone traded mid season to regress statistically, 2) he was brought to Cleveland to try to mend one of the most dysfunctional locker rooms in NBA history, 3) he was shooting less shots in Cleveland.  Deng goes into a good situation in Miami to emerge as a go-to guy as Wade will still certainly still be taking nights off.  It’s up to Deng to bring the defensive mentality to keep the focus as being a defensive unit, but he’ll be relied on heavily on offense as well.  At this stage in his career I’d much rather watch Deng on a championship contender, but as you can see by the guys listed above, many of the legit contenders already have this position locked up.

Deng showed he can be a leader in Chicago, and he’ll do the same in Miami.

7. Chandler Parsons – Dallas Mavericks
I toyed with many different ideas here at seven.  I had an entire write up about DeMar DeRozan written up before ultimately deciding he’s a shooting guard.  There are guys that will fall out of the top ten that I considered here.  The fact that Chandler Parsons went from being the most underpaid player to possibly the most overpaid in the matter of a night at the club with Cuban doesn’t negate the fact that he’s still a great basketball player.  Is he a franchise guy?  No way.  Is he worth the money the Mavs threw at him?  Not even close.  Will he take a Hollywood modeling lifestyle more seriously than his basketball career?  Probably not, but it’s fun to joke about.  As someone who watched nearly every Rockets game last season, I can confirm he’s a gifted offensive player and he’s not a guy that simply let his stars create for him.  He can create on his own.  After a terrific rookie season making his way into the rotation by playing stellar defense, Parsons wisely realized that unfortunately defense isn’t what always gets you the most money in this league.  He put defense aside to expend most of his energy on the offensive end, and ultimately it got him that max contract.  Harden got the bad rap for being a terrible defender in 2014, but Parsons gave a similar effort on that end.  For him to be worthy of that max contract, Carlisle will have to push him to start giving an effort again defensively.

Chandler’s done a lot of talking, now it’s time to step up and show he’s worth $46,000,000.

8. Trevor Ariza – Houston Rockets
The only reason that Ariza drops off to eight on this list when he could be higher is because he still hasn’t had a great season in a non contract year.  Offensively he had the best season of his career by far last year.  He averaged just half a point shy of his career high (which coincidentally was in his first Houston stint), but more importantly took his shooting to new heights.  He shot over 40% from deep and joining a Rockets team that shoots more three pointers than any other team, if he can give that kind of consistency, that alone makes him worth the signing.  The fact that Ariza is in another world defensively over Parsons makes it clear that if Ariza can give the output he provided for Washington then the Rockets clearly upgraded at small forward for half the price of what Parsons got.  With everything that’s been said thus far here it would seem that Ariza should be ranked higher than Parsons, but Parsons has been more consistent the last three seasons which gives him the slight nod over Ariza for now.  When the seasons all said and done, Daryl Morey will once again have shown his brilliance by electing not to match on Parsons which upgrades the Rockets defensively at a discounted price.

Ariza’s game has grown since his last time wearing this jersey.

9. Rudy Gay – Sacramento Kings
I’m still a Rudy Gay believer, but the trend of teams trading Gay away and getting better from doing it is still in effect.  The Raptors showed that to the max last season by finishing as a four seed after starting 6-12 before trading Gay to Sacramento.  Not to mention Gay led the Raptors in usage rate before the trade.  If he can learn to play within himself and within a system he could be a perfect glue guy for any team.  He’s not a superstar that’s going to carry a team on his back.  He would have done that already if he had that kind of potential.  His defense is good enough when he wants it to be, but as a guy who’s been on bad teams the last season and a half, he takes nights off on defense.  The problem with Gay has been the same his entire career though.  The dude is a chucker.  He tries to take over a game and he simply doesn’t have the talent to do that the way that the top three guys on this list do.  The Kings really don’t have the talent for Gay to take a backseat as a secondary player.  As much as I’m in love with Cousins’ game, it really didn’t mesh with Gay’s last season.  For him to really shine he needs a legit playoff team to take a chance on him, but also needs to know his role.  His biggest limitation throughout his career has been not knowing his role, so it’s understandable that playoff teams are hesitant to give him that opportunity.

No need to be shocked, Rudy. I think you’re a top ten small forward.

10. Andre Iguodala – Golden State Warriors
Iggy edges his way into the top ten despite a significant statistical drop off after getting his pay day last year, because he’s still a great defender.  Averaging just 9.3 points and missing 19 games last season has to be considered a disappointment for the Warriors, but they didn’t completely handicap themselves with that contract.  Once again, when you consider what Parsons and Hayward got paid this off season, Iggy for about $35 mill over the next three years really doesn’t look that bad.  The statistical drop off can be attributed more to not having to carry the load for the Warriors back court like he had to for his previous two teams.  He’s definitely lost some explosiveness, but he really doesn’t rely on athleticism to defend.  His field goal percentage was the best he’s been since his second year in the league, which can partially be credited to a plethora of scorers around him helping to get open looks.  Iggy wasn’t brought to Golden State to be their first, second, or even third scorer.  He was brought into shore up a defensive back court that needed help.  He was just fine in that role, and still hit some of the most clutch shots of last season.

Steve Kerr will try to get the most out of what’s left in Iggy’s tank.

11. Josh Smith – Detroit Pistons
12. Gordon Hayward – Utah Jazz
13. Paul Pierce – Washington Wizards
14. Nick Young – Los Angeles Lakers
15. Demarre Carroll – Atlanta Hawks

We all love to criticize Josh Smith for his reluctance to realize that he’s not a damn shooter… and rightfully so.  This somehow gives him the reputation that he’s not a good basketball player, which is very false.  Smith is more than just a highlight shot blocker, he’s one of the best perimeter defenders in basketball.  Much like was said about Rudy Gay, if Smith could learn to play within himself he’d be much better.  With Van Gundy joining the front office, Pistons fans can at least be hopeful that he’ll be able to get the most out of him.  Van Gundy has assured Smith (per Wojnarowski) that he’s staying in Detroit, but whether that’s because he wants him there, or because there’s a lack of a market for him is tough to say.  Moving onto Hayward makes me wonder why I gave the Jazz a high off season grade.  The guy got overpaid more than even Parsons, and analyzing his game makes me realize, not only is he not a max contract guy… he’s not even close.  Hayward is the team’s go-to scorer and his true shooting percentage has dropped every year he’s been in the league.  Last season he dropped outside of the top 100 with a TS% of 52% according to basketball-reference.com.  He’s also a poor defender.  The market for small forwards was weird enough, but it makes me really wonder why they felt obligated to keep him around.  Do the Jazz really have to corner the market on every white guy?  Pierce is starting to show his age, but he will be an exciting player to watch with the Wizards.  Pierce’s game has always relied more on his basketball IQ, fakes, and craftiness, as opposed to athleticism, so the Wizards is a perfect fit for him.  He won’t be forced to create his own shot as much as he had to with the Nets roster.  That finally brings us to Swaggy P who posted a career high with 17.9 points.  Whether his game will be able to coexist with Kobe’s will be an interesting topic to watch this coming season.  It certainly looks like Young and Kobe will both be starters and at the very least they’ll share a lot of court time next year.  Finally Demarre Carroll turned out to have the best season of his career last year.  He was brought in to be a defensive stopper, but was more effective offensively than was expected as well.  He mostly took open shots, but to shoot 36% on 3.7 attempts from deep per game is the best possible outcome for him.

Did the Jazz get Hayward enough help to make him worth $63,000,000?

16. Jeff Green – Boston Celtics
17. Terrence Ross – Toronto Raptors
18. Danilo Gallinari – Denver Nuggets
19. Mike Dunleavy – Chicago Bulls
20. Tyreke Evans – New Orleans Pelicans

This next section was difficult to put together and think that it’s even remotely accurate.  Green put up a lot of points on a terrible team.  Ross was the best wing defender on a good team.  Evans was the same Evans that he was in Sacramento.  Danny hasn’t played in over a year.  Dunleavy’s been the same player his entire career except for his mini breakout for a year in Indiana.  So that’s how this section shakes out?  When it gets to this middle portion it’s really a crapshoot.  Green could get traded and be a perfect fit for his new team.  Ross could (and likely will) have his breakout season and may get close to being a top ten guy.  Gallinari could get right back into his normal form and be right in that same range.  So the top three guys here could all be a lot higher, or potentially a bit lower.  With Dunleavy and Tyreke, more or less you know what you’re gonna get.  I don’t want any of you stat guys coming at me about Evans with your 15/5/5 crap.  He’s just not that good of a player.  His most promising (and best statistical) season came as a rookie, when we actually thought that he might be better than Harden.  He’s a poor defender and he can’t shoot.  Two pretty key parts of basketball right there.  So don’t come at me, Tyreke people.  You’re lucky I didn’t drop him further.  With Green and Dunleavy at least you know what you’re getting.  With Ross you have a great defender that’s oozing with offensive potential.  With Gallinari, you know what he’s capable of if the guy can be healthy.  I’m sorry, but there’s just no reason that Evans should be throwing up 12.5 shots per game for that team.  Okay I’m done.  Let’s stop bashing Evans.  Let’s move on.

We’re ready to see ya back in action Danny.

21. Corey Brewer – Minnesota Timberwolves
22. PJ Tucker – Phoenix Suns
23. Matt Barnes – Los Angeles Clippers
24. Andrei Kirilenko – Brooklyn Nets
25. Giannis Antetokounmpo – Milwaukee Bucks

Corey Brewer is another player that would be an ideal player for teams lacking perimeter defense, but finds himself stuck in Minnesota.  With Wiggins on his way to Minny, it’s tough to say what the future actually holds for Brewer, but it’ll be tough for them to unload any of their overpaid wings (can you believe they owe Chase Budinger $5 mill each of the next two years?).  If they can unload him he’s a great fit for a contender, but it’s tough to imagine a team willing to pay that kind of money for some defense off the bench.  PJ Tucker is a guy that feels a bit underrated on this list to me after a very nice season for the Suns.  He provides good defense and is an above average rebounder at his position.  Still, a small sample size of good play isn’t enough to get into the top 20.  Barnes is still a good defender and vocal leader for the Clips, but as a journey man his whole career always seems to be a guy on the brink of being replaced.  This happened last season when the Clippers brought in Granger, but Barnes was able to step up and prove his worth.  As a three and D guys he may be better suited coming off the bench, but the Clips have no one better to play in front of him.  Kirilenko was supposed to be an absolute steal for the Nets at just over $3 mill per year for two seasons, but found himself playing while recovering from an injury last season and was unable to provide much of anything on either end of the floor.  He could be a player to watch this year and will be a key player to any success this year as they lose Paul Pierce, AK-47 will have a significantly increased role.  The Alphabet (I’m not doing all that work to spell his name again) could sky rocket up this list and is still oozing with potential, but his rookie season was spent more as a learning season.  It really was his first time playing basketball against any kind of actual competition.  That’s a good sign for him.  Looking back, he’d be nearly a lock to be the number one pick in a re-draft, so that’s pretty darn good for a guy who slipped just outside the lottery.  It’s most likely that Parker will actually start at small forward, so we’ll see what that holds for Antetokounmpo (HEY, you got me to spell his name again!) but most likely he’ll be a starter for this team that just wants to develop young talent.

Look at those fingers!!!

26. Tayshaun Prince – Memphis Grizzlies
27. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist – Charlotte Hornets
28. Hollis Thompson – Philadelphia 76ers
29. Maurice Harkless – Orlando Magic
30. Whoever the hell the Pacers start – Indiana Pacers

With this final tier of guys it gets really bad.  It also gets really unclear on whether any of these guys will even start (especially that Indiana guy).  Prince was pretty useless last year for Memphis (while acquiring him was pretty much a Rudy Gay cap dump).  If there’s a team that can still get use out of a player like Prince as a starter it’s Memphis, but at this point it seems more likely that they go with some combination of Lee/Carter or Lee/Allen.  MKG is a decent defender, but still overrated on that aspect (I don’t expect ya to shut out LeBron, but you can’t let him go for 60 and call him elite).  His offense is terrible, really just because he can’t shoot.  When he gets to the rack he can finish, and his mid range isn’t nearly as terrible as his three ball, but his uglier than unorthodox shooting stroke has been used for so long that it’s hard to imagine it ever being effective.  Hollis Thompson is one of the many d-league caliber guys that Sixers rolled out last season, and for what it’s worth he did a pretty nice job.  He was a good spot up shooter for them, but isn’t an NBA caliber starter (this is from me doing research, you don’t think I actually watch Philly play last year after the first month do you?).  The Harkless experiment is likely coming to an end in Orlando, but at the moment he seems to be their guy.  Is Gordon ready to step into the starting role right away?  Maybe, but I made the rule NO ROOKIES on this list!!  Otherwise it could be Tobias Harris sliding over to play the three.  He’d certainly be higher on this list than Harkless, but Harris is no doubt better suited for the power forward spot from when I’ve watched him.  Meanwhile ya just gotta feel for Paul George as well as the Pacers.  It looks like George will make a full recovery, but of course he’s at least a year away.  Just watching that injury is enough to make anybody queasy, but the fact that he actually had to suffer it is much worse.  Whether it’s a filler free agent, Solomon Hill or even Chris Copeland filling the role as the starter it won’t be easy to fill.  The Pacers best player went down and at a position that they have the least depth.  Here’s to George coming back stronger than ever.  With that, take a shot in honor of Paul George, and if you made it all the way to the end, thanks for reading this.

Get well soon Paul.

Stay tuned for shooting guard rankings next Sunday, August 31st.

Positional Rankings: NBA Power Fowards Ranked 1 to 30

In the nineties power forward meant POWER forward.  Today with what fans expect out of the position, we may as well call it Finesse Stretch Sort Of Power Forward.  With how the game has evolved we expect our 4’s to be able to stretch the floor by hitting mid range shots (and three’s), create their own offense in the low post, clean up the boards, and protect the rim a bit as well.  This is a tall task for guys who grew up being bigger than all the other kids, simply physically abusing them in the paint.  With that said, the top of this list has those guys who “do it all” and play in the style of my re-labeled version of the power forward position.  The traditional power forward isn’t dead, but if you wanna be a top tier power forward, you better be able to hit a J.  The good thing; not everyone is born a shooter.  It can be taught, crafted, and perfected.  For players, the challenge on offense becomes finding the right balance of leaking out for an open shot, posting up down low, and working the weak side to clean up missed looks.

Here’s how I break down the games top power forwards.

1. Kevin Love – Minnesota Timberwolves (kind of, sort of, perhaps, I suppose)
Love is the top power forward, because he’s the perfect combination of everything listed above.  Able to hit the three ball at a high clip, while still dominating the glass on both ends.  His passing ability will be shown on a national level for the first time since his college days (I mean, come on… we all know he’s a LeBron teammate).  His ability to laser outlet passes like a right fielder throwing home will be displayed every time they play on TV.  LeBron will make it an instinct to cherry pick.  Once these guys are in sync together it will be more beautiful to watch than LeBron and Wade ever were.  But… but… but Love’s never led his team to the playoffs, he can’t be the number one power forward.  Yes he can.  If the T’ Wolves ever had a competent GM he could have had actual talent around him, based solely on their botched draft picks.  Rubio AND Flynn were taken over Steph Curry (while literally EVERY pg selected after Flynn in the first round was better).  The Wesley Johnson pick could have been the Wolves pairing Love with Cousins to create easily the best front court in the league.  What I’m saying is, stop underrating Love’s ability and stop underrating Minnesota’s incompetency.  They had every opportunity to build a contender.  Instead they’ll see Love depart and start the process over of trying to build around a guy with potential in Wiggins.  Love is the game’s best power forward, demonstrating every desirable attribute from the position, and then some.

It’s all but official that Kevin Love’s talents are headed to Cleveland.

2. LaMarcus Aldridge – Portland Trailblazers
Aldridge gets the nod at number 2.  His mid range game is everything needed in today’s NBA from your 4, and he has great low post skill.  Before you start jibber jabbing to yourself about how Blake should be above him, consider the following.  Aldridge peaked last season offensively and turned in his best rebounding performance of his career.  His field goal percentage was lower than Blake, because he’s forced to use him mid range game much more often, while Griffin gets looks around the basket and his mid range game is usually uncontested.  Additionally, Griffin’s numbers get inflated by playing with the best point guard in the game (did that need spoiler tags for an upcoming segment?).  As good of a young player Lillard is becoming, imagine Aldridge’s numbers playing with Chris Paul.  Teams would be served a nice heaping dose of fundamentals, and Aldridge would improve his field goal percentage significantly, because more of his mid range shots would be uncontested.  Aldridge is also a much better defender than Blake and averages more than one less foul per game.  The Blazers are on the rise as long as Aldridge commits long term (which he has said he will do).  And to think… Aldridge wasn’t even the best BLAZER selected in his respective draft.  Oh how this team got screwed by the basketball gods.  Luckily, they haven’t been incompetent in the draft like the team above.

Aldridge seems to be staying in Portland for the long haul.

3. Blake Griffin – Los Angeles Clippers
Griffin drops to three mostly because his numbers are a bit inflated playing with Paul.  Don’t get me wrong, Blake has become much more than just a highlight reel dunker.  He is a true superstar.  He is a go to player in the post and started to significantly improve his jump shot last season.  With the Clippers style of play, Griffin’s ability to hit the open shot will prove crucial.  He’s proved that he can do that.  To become the best power forward in the game, he needs to take his high post game a step further.  If he can add a contested jumper out of the high post to his arsenal, he becomes the game’s best power forward.  He would become literally unstoppable with the ability to hit the jumper or drive right past his man from the corner of the free throw stripe.  His defense could use some improvement, but guys don’t usually peak defensively this early in their career.  We all like to hate on him for his excessive flopping and his stare of death he gives the officials when he gets touched by another player.  All this aside, he has potential to steal the top spot in the near future if he can improve on the aspects of games I have discussed.

While Griffin rarely agrees with the refs, he’d certainly agree that he played his best season of basketball in 2013-14.

4. Anthony Davis – New Orleans Pelicans
I toyed with the idea of pushing Blake down to four and having Davis take his spot in the top three, but the idea of an army of pitchforks outside my house waiting to assault me was intimidating.  That said, Davis is a once in a generation type of talent.  He’s already an elite rim protector.  He still has some work to do as a man defender, but would you really expect him to be elite at that two seasons in after only one year at the NCAA level?  As a rebounder, he’ll continue to improve and will likely have double-double streaks in the vein of Kevin Garnett of the early 2000’s.  Offensively he’s got soft touch on his shot and has a better offensive game two years in than anyone expected.  He will need to improve his low post game a bit, but the guy is a fresh 21 years old.  He already is well beyond where anyone expected on offense.  If you told me that you predicted him to average 20, 10, and 3 blocks in just his second season, then I’d predict that you have a history of being a liar.  Seeing where the young star takes his game next season will be exciting.  He’s already one of the best power forwards in the game, and could very well become the best of this generation.

Davis is already a top five power forward and hasn’t even come close to peaking.

5. Tim Duncan – San Antonio Spurs
It hurt me to drop Duncan all the way down to five.  The guy just won the NBA championship for the fifth time in his career and at 38 years old he’s showing no signs of slowing down.  His numbers have declined slightly as he adjusts his game to play in a 38 year old’s body, but he still nearly averaged a double-double AT 37 YEARS OLD!!  His defense is still superb.  Duncan really is the guy that refuses to age.  Even after a down year statistically in 2011, where it looked like his career could be dwindling, Duncan made proper adjustments to his game to keep the Spurs title chances afloat for another five years.  The Spurs will compete for the championship again in 2015 and will likely enter the season as the favorite thanks to their future hall of fame power forward and future hall of fame coach.  It may be unfair of me to drop Duncan all the way to five on the argument that we underrate him, because he’s been consistently effective for such a long time.  He falls in the rankings, because of the rise of some great young talents, but nothing will tarnish the legacy of this iron man.

I have some friends in their late 30’s that would love to take some anti-aging juice. What’s Duncan’s secret formula?

6. Serge Ibaka – Oklahoma City Thunder
Ibaka finishes in front of the three guys directly behind him for one reason.  Ibaka is in a different world defensively than anyone else on this list.  That is not just because he can jump really high and use his impressive wing span to swat shots away.  Ibaka took his defense to a new level last season, improving his on the ball defense, his overall defensive awareness, and his defensive positioning on the floor.  While being the best defensive player at his respective position is obviously a positive, his offense has improved every year he’s been in the league.  Last season he averaged a career high 15.1 points per game while shooting at a consistent clip.  He consistently hits open shots and can finish nicely around the rim.  His one knock is that there is still room for improvement on creating his own shot, though he has made some progress in those regards.  He could use some improvement in the low post, but according to Ibaka that’s not a completely necessary skill for OKC’s style of play.  Regardless, his magnificent defense makes him one of the game’s top power forwards.

Ibaka is the prototypical NBA rim protector.

7. Dirk Nowitzi – Dallas Mavericks
Dirk’s game shows that he’s aging, but he’s still plenty effective scoring the basketball.  In the playoffs vs the Spurs his game struggled and he shot just 1 for 12 from three point range.  Still, it was a bounce back season for Nowitzki, after a slow and injury plagued 2012-13 campaign in which the Mavs missed the playoffs.  At 36 years old, the speed that got Dirk plenty of easy looks right at the basket is gone.  He relies more heavily on his arsenal of fakes and footwork in the high post to get his shot off.  Luckily he has one of the prettiest high post games in NBA history and is still effective from there.  Dirk took a massive pay cut to allow Dallas to give Parsons a horrendous contract which could catapult them to the second round, or could handicap them from any future moves.  Either way, it’s become win now mode for the Mavs as their hall of fame power forward reaches the end of his career.  We’ll see if Dirk can thrust the Mavericks for one more championship run, because it’ll have to happen soon.

Dirk will need to adjust his game to remain elite.

8. Zach Randolph – Memphis Grizzlies
I considered having Randolph a couple spots higher up, but his defense is what hurts his positioning.  He plays for a team that is able to effectively mask his poor defense, which was not feasible in New York or Portland, but that’s what stops him from rising up his list.  Of course he’s still one of the games best power forwards so lets focus on the positives.  Randolph is more of a traditional power forward that scores the majority of his points banging it out in the low post.  He’s got sneaky moves down there and uses his size well to jockey for positioning.  He’s also effective from the high post with deceiving speed to work his way around his guy and a tremendous ability to hit contested shots.  Randolph slid a bit further than where I expected to put him when first thinking up this list, but he’s still one of the greats currently in the league and the Grizzlies were wise to lock him up as he accounts for a high percentage of their offense.

The Grizzlies wisely locked up Randolph through 2017 at a very fair price.

9. Pau Gasol – Chicago Bulls
One of the most captivating moves of the off season was Pau moving to Chicago to join the hopeful resurgent Bulls and create possibly the best front court in all of basketball.  Joining Noah in the front court, the Bulls will have the best passing big men in the NBA paired up together.  Despite a terrible season for the Lakers, Pau remained effective in the 60 games that he did play, putting up nearly 20 and 11.  Dropping Gasol all the way to nine could prove to be vastly underrating him and how he’ll fit in with this Bulls team, but his recent injury history could be a bit of a concern as he missed 55 games in the last two seasons.  Gasol had to be the man in LA last season with Kobe out with injury and proved at 33 he was still capable of putting up great numbers, but was unable to push the Lakers to anything more than terrible.  Gasol is hardly at fault for that with the terrible roster that surrounded him.  With the Bulls he’ll be able to take more of a back seat with a strong team already in place.  Thibedeau should be able to get the most out of him defensively, so we’ll see just how good of a defender he can really be balls to the wall.

Gasol will trade uniforms with Boozer this season.

10. Paul Millsap – Atlanta Hawks
The Hawks signed Millsap at great value last off season and he proved to be a terrific addition.  They only got him at a two year deal, so they’ll have to renegotiate if they’re going to keep him past 2015, but I wonder if a behind the scenes wink-wink extension was a part of the deal to nab him at two years.  The Hawks just squeezed into the playoffs, but Millsap had limited help with Horford missing most of the season and the rest of the roster being rather weak.  Millsap and Horford together should formulate one of the best front courts in the league if they can remain healthy.  Millsap earned his first career all star selection last season, although that could be somewhat tainted by the fact that… well… it was in the East.  Advanced statistics showed his usage rate take a big leap after the Horford injury.  Defensively he ranked well finishing 9th in the league in steals with a keen ability to get into the passing lanes.  He’ll continue to be the Hawks best player, but it’ll remain to be seen if a mediocre Hawks team will be enough for him or if he’ll choose to bolt to a contender after this year.

Millsap will try to do more of the same in a contract year in 2015.

11. Kenneth Faried – Denver Nuggets
12. David West – Indiana Pacers
13. David Lee – Golden State Warriors
14. Derrick Favors – Utah Jazz
15. Thaddeus Young – Philadelphia 76ers

The Manimal is still a beast and turned out the best season of his career last year, playing in all but two games.  Now in a contract year in 2015, he will try to make the jump to a 16-10 type of double-double guy to maximize his first non-rookie contract.  He’s a beast on the boards and his offensive game is coming along nicely.  His mid range J is effective enough, but he’s best when attacking the basket and using his surprising array of post moves.  David West took a bit of a backseat offensively for Indiana last season lowering his point total to 14 per contest.  He was still one of the few players on that team that could create his own shot.  With the Paul George injury look for him to be a valuable chip if the Pacers aren’t in the playoff race and look to build toward a future contender around George.  Two of the guys on this list had stat stuffing seasons.  David Lee’s 18 and 9 looks great on paper.  When you parlay that with the fact that him being on the court is an open invitation for opposing wings to slash to the basket for free points, it’s not so great.  With Bogut having a mostly healthy season as the Warriors rim protector, they were able to mask Lee’s defensive inefficiency.  Essentially if you can gamble on Bogut to be healthy (history’s not on your side for that bet), then it increases Lee’s value immensely.  Young was the other stat stuffer, scoring 18 for one of the worst teams in NBA history.  He looks like another candidate to be moved this season and if he plays for a real team (not the T’ Wolves), then we’ll see his real value.  Favors is on the verge of becoming the guy that Nets hoped he would when selecting him third in 2010.  He nearly averages a double-double and his defense is coming along great, though he still finds himself a bit lost sometimes.  Thaddeus Young could be the next Sixer finding a new home.  He was the most consistent member of that team (albeit one of the worst teams in NBA history) last year and would be a worthwhile addition to a contender.

Faried slipped out of my top ten, but he’s still a Manimal.

16. Markieff Morris – Phoenix Suns
17. Greg Monroe – Detroit Pistons
18. Terrence Jones – Houston Rockets
19. Tristan Thompson – Cleveland Cavaliers
20. Carlos Boozer – Los Angeles Lakers

The next four guys on the list are all born 1989 or later and were drafted between 2010 and 2012.  Markieff starts in front of his younger brother Marcus Morris and is primarily used as a floor stretcher, thus allowing the Suns to let Channing Frye walk this off season.  Both Morris brothers’ style of play fit nicely with what the Suns are trying to do, but ultimately leaves them without any answer for top tier power forwards.  Monroe took a qualifying offer to stay with the Pistons this year for cheap.  It’s been proven (especially this off season) that offense gets you paid more than defense does, so if Monroe puts up big statistics again this season he’ll be due a big contact.  Monroe has missed only three games in his first four seasons, a good sign for the longevity of the near seven footer.  His defense still leaves a lot to be desired which is what allowed him drop down this list.  Jones for the Rockets showed some nice flashes in his first season getting real meaningful play time.  He frequently finds himself well positioned for put back dunks and often flies through the air to block seemingly open weak side layups.  Still his lack of consistency hitting a mid range J and his lack of basketball IQ is what made him the front runner to go from starter to sixth man next season.  With the Rockets failed pursuit of Bosh, Jones should remain the starter unless Motiejunas can really impress during camp. Tristan Thompson wouldn’t even be on this list if the Love trade had already went through as he won’t start, but regardless he’ll be a great glue guy off the bench for the Cavs next season.  Playing with LeBron will allow him to develop his offensive game further and his defense is already coming along nicely.  Boozer would be higher on this list if he played for a playoff team that he could be a major contributor on, but instead he’ll just put up some empty stats for a Lakers team that is sure to miss the playoffs, taking away from Julius Randle’s development.  His inadequacy on defense is something a contender can live with if they really need a veteran that can shoot over long forwards, but being stuck in LA will make 2015 a wasted season for Carlos.  All aboard the Booze Cruise?  Not so much this year.

After a surprisingly good season for the Suns, the Morris twins will hope to stay together long term.

21. Amir Johnson – Toronto Raptors
22. Nene – Washington Wizards
23. Ersan Ilyasova – Milwaukee Bucks
24. Brandon Bass – Boston Celtics
25. Josh McRoberts – Miami Heat

Amir Johnson could work his way higher up this list as his tremendous defensive positioning is exactly what’s missing from many of the guys above him.  The guy knows where to be on the court, blocks about a shot per game, and can be trusted with the duty of defending some of the games top bigs.  Nene spent another season missing significant time and hasn’t had a totally healthy season since his days in Denver.  His numbers are effective when he plays, but he’s missed about a third of the games in his career mostly due to injury.  Ilyasova had a disappointing season for Milwaukee with a significant drop off in his three point shooting (he went from elite at 45% to piss poor at 28%).  The drop off in three point shooting can be attributed to a lack of play makers and overall team cohesiveness for the Bucks last season.  If Jabari Parker can step in and immediately be the play maker that we think he can be, Ilyasova should be able to return to his 2012 self.  Bass is one of those polarizing types that’s a great glue guy for any team, but not a great starter for any team.  For the rebuilding Celtics to trot him out as a starter is fine, but you’d rather see his spot go to someone with more upside such as Sullinger.  If Bass started for a contending team, fans of said team would be blasting management for not finding an upgrade at the position.  That gets him a bad rap, because he’s not meant to be a jack of all trades, but is out there to provide energy, defense, and knock down open looks.  McRoberts had his best season yet, becoming a three point threat for the first time in his seven year career.  While he’ll round out a nice starting line up that Miami put together despite LeBron leaving, the Heat overpaid him after seeing him provide consistent and high energy minutes against them in the playoffs.

Turkish Thunder needs to bounce back next year after a disappointing 2013-14 campaign.

26. Amare Stoudemire – New York Knicks
27. Channing Frye – Orlando Magic
28. Jason Thompson – Sacramento Kings
29. Kevin Garnett – Brooklyn Nets
30. Cody Zeller – Charlotte Hornets

Former Rookie of the Year, Amare Stoudemire has fallen off so much that he’s become nothing more than a valuable expiring contract this season.  Making over $23 mill in the 2014-15 season, Stoudemire certainly doesn’t regret signing a contract when he only produced for one season under that contract, but will have to dominate next season to have a chance to even earn a fraction of his previous contract.  Even as a superstar, Stoudemire was always a bit one dimensional, and now with his athleticism failing him, what once made him a star has led to his decline.  Channing Frye was a polarizing signing for Orlando this off season.  After revitalizing his career with a four year stint in Phoenix, he joins the Magic as a stretch power forward.  Frye will score some points for the rebuilding Magic, but between him and Vucevic, rim protection will be very limited in Orlando.  He defends well in the post, but will be forced to defend closer to the wing when playing against other stretch forwards, where he struggles.  Jason Thompson will most likely be the starting power forward in Sacramento, but he’s not even the best at the position on his team.  Carl Landry will be used as an energy guy and sixth man for the Kings and will likely push Thompson to the bench in key moments and the fourth quarter.  Garnett has started to become a sad story for a late career guy as he enters his twentieth pro season.  His final year in Boston he was still successful, and perhaps used too much of his remaining gas as his first season with the Nets was a disaster.  His shot was flat, his lateral quickness on defense is gone, and the once formidable dominance that you could see in his eyes became a wary look of an old veteran playing with kids too quick for his game.  He won’t be heavily relied on if Lopez comes back healthy with the rise of young big men, Mason Plumlee and stretch 4 Mirza Teletovic.  He may be best served playing about 15 minutes per game and saving his energy for one more playoff run as the locker room leader.  Finally, Cody Zeller (sorry Zeller bros, I had Tyler as the 30th starting center too), will move into the starting spot with McRoberts headed to Miami.  Rookie, Noah Vonleh, will compete with Zeller for this spot in camp, but may still be a bit of a project right now.  Zeller will have an opportunity to embrace the role and turn heads and while he showed flashes in his rookie season, he’ll need to bulk up and improve his field goal percentage if he’s going to keep the job.

Can Melo help Stoudemire reignite his career?

Look for small forward rankings to be out next Sunday.

Positional Rankings: NBA Centers Ranked 1 to 30

For my next ongoing off season segment, I decided to rank players at each respective position from top to bottom.  The criteria that I’m using for this is selecting the projected starter at each position based on the current depth chart at ESPN.com.  My reasoning for selecting from a universal database here is so I don’t hear gripes asking, “Are you a damn idiot!?  Bosh is not a center, he’s a power forward!?!?!”  Using this criteria will force some players to be left off.  Some would consider Spencer Hawes to be in the top half of NBA centers, but by my criteria, Deandre Jordan will be the one defending the low post for the Clippers, so he gets the ranking.  Get it?  This will be completed over five segments from position to position, and possibly a sixth segment either ranking the best bench players, or the best benches by team.   So we get the ball rolling with the center position.

Gone are the days of multiple hall of fame centers in the league at a time.  The days of a player of an Alonzo Mourning caliber player just barely cracking the top 5 have dispersed and appear to never be coming back.  This is the new age.  The age where Robert Sacre can get significant grind at center without anyone asking, “Who the hell decided to let that guy check into the game?”  What I did find from looking at the 30 starting centers in the NBA is that the top 5 or 6 are rather obvious locks.  When you start to get to the mid-tier of players, however, guys can get swapped ten spots without having much of an argument to raise question.

Here’s how it breaks down ranking the top centers entering the 2014-15 season.

1. Joakim Noah – Chicago Bulls
Noah gets the top spot on this list being the all around energy guy.  He brings everything you could want from a starting center, while lacking at literally nothing.  Putting up a modest 12.6 ppg last season is okay for a defensive minded team like Thibedeau’s.  He often times became the go-to scorer for the Bulls last season as they seriously lacked offense.  All the other things he does, however, are what give him this ranking.  He has a nose for the ball, finishing fourth in offensive boards, and double digit total rebounds.  He is the best passing center in the league, finding open guys effectively out of the low post and high post.  As the Bulls strengthened their roster, he should only get more dangerous.  Noah really became the “do it all” guy for the Bulls in 2013-14.  That won’t be necessary next season.  Maybe his production would drop in a different system, but what Noah brings is irreplaceable for the Bulls.

Noah was awarded with the All NBA team and All Defensive team in 2014.

2. Dwight Howard – Houston Rockets
Don’t get your panties in a bundle for me not giving the best center of this generation the top spot.  Howard loses some points, by giving teams the opportunity to play hack-a-Dwight in waning minutes.  It hurts your team to have the opportunity to get the ball to one of your best players with the clock winding down, if the defense can realize, “This guy is way more dangerous double-teamed in the post than he is wide open at the free throw stripe… FOUL HIM!!!!”  While this aspect makes Rocket fans miss what Yao brought to the team, he’s still the most physically dominant center in basketball and a defensive beast.  Howard did everything that a Rocket fan could hope for, following a season where he barely made the playoffs with what was supposed to be the best Superteam since LeBron’s Heat.  Howard has garnered himself a group of haters rivaling the abhorrence that Doug Funnie got when moving from Nickelodeon to Disney in the 90’s.  Dwight has taken it all in stride, continued to dominate, and become a cornerstone of a team that will be a contender for 5+ years.

Dwight’s haters continue to talk, but Howard took it in stride and showed he’s still elite.

3. Al Jefferson – Charlotte Hornets
Big Al produced a season last year that would have turned all sorts of heads if he wasn’t playing for the single most ignorable franchise in NBA history.  Don’t worry, Horncats fans… you’re not the Bobcats anymore (in fact, if ya went with the name Horncats, you’d probably have one of the more popular franchises in hoops, just based on how awesome that team name is).  Al Jefferson was able to dominate the low post better than any other center in basketball and he did it “old school” style.  I went to a Thunder vs Bobcats game in February which made me really keep an eye on him the rest of the way.  Jefferson took the ball down in the low post the way that many 90’s all stars would.  Slow it down, take a couple dribbles, give an elbow fake and toss it in while the slow-ass center defending  is still guarding the side he faked on.  Big Al doesn’t have the talent of some of the guys behind him, but he sure knows how to use what he’s given.

Big Al proved to be one of the biggest steals of free agency in 2013.

4.Demarcus Cousins – Sacramento Kings
How does the most skilled center in basketball fall all the way to number four on this list?  Cousins has the talent to be the greatest center of this generation, but his character issues have stopped him from reaching his plateau.  He took his game to another level last season, increasing his numbers to make him statistically the best center in the league.  Before he gets the title of a top 3 center Cousins needs to show that he can bring the Kings to another level.  They don’t need to make the playoffs (it’s too difficult in the West right now with this roster).  What Cousins does need to do is demonstrate that he can be the driving force in increasing the team’s total wins.  The Kings haven’t gotten more than 30 wins in a season since 2007-08.  Cousins isn’t totally to blame for the lack of improvement, considering the Kings lackluster front office, but it starts with him if he’s going to be a true franchise player.

The numbers speak for themselves, but Cousins needs to change his demeanor if he aspires to be the league’s top center.

5. Marc Gasol – Memphis Grizzlies
Gasol doesn’t show up on the stat sheet even close to what one would expect from a top five NBA center.  His 10 rebounds per 48 minutes are minimal for a top NBA center and his near 14.6 points are less than desirable from your second best player on your team.  The Grizzlies are a defensive team, and his effectiveness shows, even if not on the stat sheet.  Gasol is the defensive anchor of a team that wouldn’t be a playoff team without his defensive intensity.  Opponents fear driving to the basket because of Marc’s ability to get in the lane and disallow any good shot in the painted area.  His presence might be inflated with terrific perimeter defense inspiring fear in outside shots, but Gasol is the anchor of the best defense in the league.

Gasol will continue to be the cornerstone of the league’s best defense.

6. Chris Bosh – Miami Heat
Bosh was particularly difficult to place, because he’s not a typical center.  A stretch the floor guy that played even more from the outside playing alongside LeBron wasn’t able to rack up the boards like one would like from a center.  Statistically Bosh was at the top of his game in Toronto.  Has his play really dropped off since then?  If it has, it’s been a very minimal drop off.  The stats from Bosh technically should increase to near what they were in his Toronto days as he’ll have to shoulder the load this coming season.  Depending on just how good the Heat are, he could range anywhere from this spot to possibly being the best center in the league.  He’ll have to earn it, though, by carrying Miami to 50+ wins as the main piece if he’s going to enter that conversation.

After playing second fiddle for a few seasons, Bosh will have to shoulder the load again.

7. Deandre Jordan – Los Angeles Clippers
What keeps Deandre Jordan from being higher on this list is that his defense is a bit overblown by his highlight reel blocks.  Jordan averaged a career high 2.5 blocks per game last season, but he’s not in the same stratosphere defensively as Howard, Gasol, and Noah despite averaging more blocked shots than all of those guys.  His blocks are thanks to his immense athleticism, and often are awe inspiring with how high in the air the ball is before blocking it.  His one-on-one defense in the post is nothing to write home about.  He is quick to give his man space, trying to force guys to shoot over him so that he can get those jaw dropping blocks, and still allows guys to sneak around him with post moves despite the space he gives.

Deandre Jordan can celebrate having a deeper front court rotation with the addition of Spencer Hawes.

8. Andre Drummond – Detroit Pistons
Drummond, after playing just two NBA seasons, and entering the 2014-15 season at just 21 years old, Drummond has already proven enough to compete for a spot on Team USA for the FIBA World Cup.  Offensively, he still needs to improve his back to the basket post game, as most of his offense comes from creating space and getting open looks and oops down low.  His rebounds took a tremendous leap last season, partially having to do with a big increase in minutes played.  Drummond will have an opportunity to move his way into the top five centers in the league this coming year, but much of it will have to do with how Stan Van Gundy can start to shape this Pistons team into a real competitor to build around Drummond.

With a real GM in town, the Pistons will try to build around Drummond.

9. Brook Lopez – Brooklyn Nets
Lopez’s injury history has been puzzling.  In his first three seasons he played all 82 games each time.  In the lockout season, Lopez suffered a foot injury, playing just 5 of 66 games.  The following season, he had a healthy all star campaign.  Then, last season, Lopez broke the same foot that he had hurt two seasons prior, playing in just 17 games.  Lopez has shown when he’s healthy that he can flat out score, and has been a great scorer his entire NBA career.  His rebounding has been much less promising, making double-doubles a rare occurrence for Lopez.  He averages only 7.3 RPG in his career, and those numbers have been on a downward trajectory since his first two seasons.  Of utmost importance is for Lopez to come back healthy, but to catapult himself into the top five centers in the league, he’ll need to become an effective rebounder playing alongside an aging Kevin Garnett.

The Nets need a healthy Lopez to make real noise in the East this time around.

10. Al Horford – Atlanta Hawks
Horford is in the same boat as Lopez displaying only slightly better health in the last three seasons and similar from a trending point of view.  Horford played just 11 of the 66 games in the lockout season, played most of the following season, and then in 2013-14 was able to suit up for only 29 regular season games.  When he has been on the court he has enforced his dominance, and the Hawks have been a much better team when he plays.  The Hawks could be poised for a top 4 seed should he be healthy, or could miss the playoffs completely if he has another injury plagued season.  Horford will have a lot to prove over the next two seasons, as if he shows that he can remain healthy and effective, he’ll be headed toward a big pay day on his next contract.

A healthy Horford is the most important key to the Hawks success.

11. Marcin Gortat – Washington Wizards
12. Nikola Pekovic – Minnesota Timberwolves
13. Roy Hibbert – Indiana Pacers
14. Omer Asik – New Orleans Pelicans
15. Robin Lopez – Portland Trailblazers

11 through 15 features two guys who sorely underachieved last season.  Lackluster would be an understatement in describing Hibbert, who many had as their defensive player of the year early in the year, and completely fell off on both ends midseason.  Omer Asik spent much of the season pouting in Houston, as he backed up Howard, but will likely put himself right back in the top ten of NBA centers playing alongside fellow shot blocking big man, Anthony Davis next season.  Gortat took his offensive game to another level last season demonstrating an ability to create his own offense for the first time in his career.  Pekovic looks to be worth the payday that he got, as his game continues to improve.  Lopez proved that a nice 2012-13 season in New Orleans was no fluke, and improved immensely rebounding the basketball, while also showing that he could at least hang, bangin’ it out with Howard down low in the playoffs.

Omer got the trade he wanted. It’s time to stop pouting and play like his 2012 self.

16. Andrew Bogut – Golden State Warriors
17. Nikola Vucevic – Orlando Magic
18. Anderson Varejao – Cleveland Cavaliers
19. Jonas Valanciunas – Toronto Raptors
20. Tyson Chandler – Dallas Mavericks

Bogut would be higher on this list if he had a better track record at staying healthy.  He missed 15 games last season which is great by his standards.  His offense left a lot to be desired, scoring just over 7 points per game, but he was the cornerstone of a surprisingly good defense, and likely would’ve been a DPOY candidate, had he played about 75 games.  Vucevic continues to improve his offensive game and the rebounding numbers have been nice, but some may question if he’s putting up empty stats on a poor Orlando team.  His defense still has a long way to go, which keeps him from being higher on this list.  Varejao will obviously benefit from having King James return, but needs to show he can stay healthy having been injury prone his entire career.  Valanciunas has made strides, but his offense is still limited to his post moves.  The dude cannot hit a jump shot.  He could be a candidate to turn the corner as players typically show the most improvement between their second and third season.  Tyson Chandler had a disappointing 2014 season, but a change of scenery back to Dallas may allow him an opportunity to return to elite rim protector status.

Varejao waited around four years for his King to come home.

21. Miles Plumlee – Phoenix Suns
22. Jordan Hill – Los Angeles Lakers
23. Larry Sanders – Milwaukee Bucks
24. Tiago Splitter – San Antonio Spurs
25. Nerlens Noel – Philadelphia 76ers

Plumlee had one of the most surprising 2014 campaigns and will continue to improve with a young Suns team.  Jordan Hill and Larry Sanders both had underwhelming seasons, but their per 36 numbers translate nicely.  Hill got an $18 million pay day over the next two years, so he’ll have a lot to show to prove worthy of that, despite the fact that all centers are getting overpaid these days.  Speaking of overpaid, Sanders was in the same boat, getting his extension, and immediately under performing and getting a reduced role after making his dough.  Splitter is a nice system player, fitting in perfectly with Popovic’s system, just asked to plug into his role, much like Bonner, Oberto, McDyess, and Blair before him.  Noel will be the most intriguing on this list.  It’s difficult to judge rookies and much more difficult to judge rookies that haven’t played in over a year.  My hunch is that Noel will end up being much better than the 25th best center in the league, but being unproven he gets this spot.

Noel hasn’t played in a meaningful game since college, but he’s ready to take the stage on an NBA level.

26. Enes Kanter – Utah Jazz
27. Samuel Dalembert – New York Knicks
28. Javale McGee – Denver Nuggets
29. Kendrick Perkins – Oklahoma City Thunder
30. Tyler Zeller – Boston Celtics

Down to the nitty gritty here.  Kanter, is in that same boat as Valanciunas, as he’ll try to show that the fourth season is the breakout season for young big men.  They were both selected in the same draft, but Valanciunas stayed overseas his first year, and so far has had the better NBA career.  Dalembert, McGee, and Perkins have all been on a downward trajectory for a few years now.  Dalembert has his fifth new team in as many years, as a guy who fills the gap down low, while teams search for their future center.  McGee hasn’t played well since his initial big pay day, and has had a reduced role, averaging under 20 mpg when healthy, but missing almost the entirety of last season.  Perk is still serviceable in some match ups, but will likely take a backseat rather quickly as the emerging Steven Adams is almost a lock to fill in the starting role at some point next season.  Tyler Zeller is unlikely to even start next season for the Celtics, but I made the rules that I’m using ESPN depth charts as my basis for this series of posts and I’m sticking to it.

Perk may not be the starting center in OKC much longer.

Stay tuned for power forward rankings, coming Wednesday, 8/13.

Western Conference Off Season Grades So Far

The Western Conference remains the class of the NBA with twelve teams that would be all but locks to make the playoffs in the East.  With most of the key players of the off season already settled into their new homes, it looks clear that few teams (if any) will have much of a drop off, while several teams that were on the outside looking in last season are certainly on the rise.  With the majority of teams out West already having their cores in place, many were making small moves in an attempt to solidify a roster that can compete.  With the Spurs still being the class of the conference, the top six or seven teams are all contenders searching for the piece to put them over the top.  Here’s how it played out.

Dallas Mavericks B-
The off season started out with a bang as Chandler “Bang” Parsons found himself in a club at midnight with Mavs owner Mark Cuban signing a three year deal worth $46 million.  Cuban had said that he was waiting for a chance to do to Morey what he’s been doing to other teams for so long.  But was Parsons worth this kind of money?  To put it into perspective, Parsons will be making a fraction less than what Houston will be paying James Harden this coming season.  While Parsons does NOT deserve max contract money, the Mavs were able to salvage their off season by getting Dirk to take a pay cut and nabbing Richard Jefferson at the vet’s minimum.  Dallas was able to put together a core that is almost certain to make the playoffs, but unless Nowitzki is back to his 2010 self, thoughts of getting past round two would be extremely optimistic.

You can find me in da club, bottle full of bub.

Denver Nuggets D+
The Nuggets had a nice month of June by first bringing back Arron Afflalo in a more than fair deal.  Then on draft night they were able to turn a lottery pick into two picks just outside the lottery.  It’s debatable as to whether keeping McDermott would’ve been a better fit for what they need, but it seems the logic is to keep acquiring high upside guys and hope that someone pans out to be a star.  Right now, though, they seem like a team with many great role players, but only enough to keep treading water.  If Gallinari has a healthy season at the level he’s been known to play at in the past, they can make a push to be a playoff team.  In the last twenty seasons, they’ve made it out of the first round once and that was with a star on the roster.  In a league where superstars build contenders, the question is how can they get one to come to the Mile High city?

Golden State Warriors D+
The Warriors made a few nice moves this off season, but they get this grade, because they legitimately had a chance to bring in Kevin Love and balked at it due to not wanting to part ways with Klay Thompson.  Thompson is a terrific player and is a part of the best back court in the league, but when you have a chance to acquire a top ten player, YOU DO IT.  The Warriors also would have had the opportunity to get the “fools gold” player of David Lee off the books with the deal.  Meanwhile they would’ve been asked to take on Kevin Martin’s contract, and while that would turn a pretty good defensive back court into one of the worst, Martin’s offense would compliment Curry perfectly.  Livingston was a terrific pick up on a reasonable contract that makes the best back court in basketball even better.  Maybe the Warriors will make me look stupid, but if I’m their GM I don’t even hesitate in breaking up that back court for a chance at Love.

Will the Warriors get back into the Kevin Love mix by considering breaking up the Splash Brothers?

Houston Rockets C-
Daryl Morey sat at the table with a stack of poker chips so high you couldn’t even see his face.  The time was right.  The cards were right.  All in.  While the Rockets took a gamble in allowing Parsons to become a restricted free agent a year early and trading away two key pieces from last year’s team, it was a gamble worth taking.  They had a legit chance at landing the perfect fit in Chris Bosh.  The cards were there.  Everything played out the way they needed it to.  LeBron chose Cleveland, so certainly Bosh was on his way to Houston.  Then in the quickest turn of events imaginable, Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Bosh was finalizing a deal to stay with Miami.  Daryl Morey was bitch slapped.  But the Rockets didn’t succumb to the pressure.  They allowed the Mavs to take that horrendous contract that Parsons got offered.  They got Ariza at a deal that more than makes up for the loss of Parsons (Ariza can actually play defense), as long as Ariza’s production last season didn’t only exist because it was a contract year.  They drafted international prospect Clint Capela and Arizona standout Nick Johnson, then filled out the roster with minimum contracts.  While the off season did not turn out as planned, it’s not near as bad as media outlets made it out to be.  The moves made were worth the risk.  Take a deep breath Rockets fans… the sky’s not falling… yet.

Los Angeles Clippers B-
The Clippers are one of the aforementioned teams that already has the nucleus in play.  The moves made this off season were to round out the roster and to add depth in positions where needed.  While they downgraded a bit at back up point guard, losing Darren Collison and acquiring Jordan Farmar, they got Farmar at a nice value, and Collison got a pay grade above what you’d want to pay a back up to a superstar point guard.  They acquired Spencer Hawes, who will likely come off the bench to add a spark in offense, as the starting line up is well loaded offensively already.  Hawes was acquired at a discount considering the lack of serviceable centers currently in the league.  They drafted CJ Wilcox who may get some grind, but will have to work his way into the rotation or get in through an injury.  The Clippers didn’t make any huge splashes this off season, but they hardly needed to with the core already in place.  They will once again be a top 3 or 4 seed in the West with a great chance of competing for a championship.

Los Angeles Lakers D–
It seems a bit unfair to score the Lakers poorly this off season, because it was Kobe Bryant that put them in this position by signing up for an extreme pay day while in recovery from his injury last year.  The Lakers are in no position to compete and they won’t be until Kobe is off the books.  That would have sounded like a bizarre statement three years ago, but with Kobe set to earn $48 mill over the next two seasons, he has handicapped the Lakers from doing anything now without free agents taking a major pay cut to join on.  The Lakers off season consisted of locking up Swaggy P through 2018, vastly overpaying to bring back Jordan Hill for two more seasons, and bringing in Jeremy Lin to pay him $15 mill ($8 mill against the cap) to man the point.    At power forward, they won Boozer in the amnesty war, drafted Julius Randle, signed Ed Davis at nice value, and re-signed Ryan Kelly, all of which formed a glut at power forward when the focus should be to develop Randle in what’s sure to be a non competitive season.  The Lakers have not had any stretches in franchise history in which they were consistently losing, but it appears to be doom and gloom in their future unless Silver can help them out Stern-style, by pulling out a lottery ball in their favor.

Memphis Grizzlies C
The Grizzlies look to be another team that will tread water, staying very competitive, but not strong enough to contend.  They were right to lock Z-Bo back up, because as I’ve discussed stars are hard to find, but in the ultra competitive West, getting anything above a six seed will be very difficult for this team.  They still have one of the best front courts in the league with Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph.  The back court is still competitive with Conley and Udrih providing a a nice point guard rotation and Courtney Lee, Tony Allen, and Vince Carter rounding out the two spot.  The Grizzlies will probably be the best defensive team out West, but will struggle to put up enough points to compete with top tier teams.  With most teams playing fast paced tempo to put up 100+ points per game, the question won’t be whether the Grizzlies can keep up with that tempo, but rather can they slow the game down and force their opponents to play their grind it out style of play.  You have to respect what the Grizzlies are doing, trying to win a championship with a team built similar to the Detroit Pistons championship roster of the early thousands, but it’s unlikely that a team with that type of roster can compete for a championship in today’s NBA without a superstar wing.

Minnesota Timberwolves I
The T’ Wolves are the only team that still have an incomplete off season grade.  Somehow, with a superstar that’s going to leave regardless, they hold all the bargaining power in trading Kevin Love.  They asked for the right to overpay Klay Thompson with a max contract and the Warriors refused.  Now it looks like they have the chance to acquire this years top overall selection, last years top pick, and a future pick.  While Anthony Bennett’s future remains in doubt after a lackluster rookie campaign, simply acquiring Wiggins for a player that you’re going to lose no matter what after this season is an accomplishment.  Everything else is simply a bonus.  It seems like an impossible scenario for Flip Saunders to completely butcher unless the ghost of David Kahn is still hanging out in The Land of Ten Thousand Lakes, manipulating player personnel moves.  So there’s that.  Aside from the Kevin Love fiasco, the T’ Wolves put together a polarizing draft, selecting Zach Lavine at 13, a player with the all too frequently word “upside” used to describe him.  Lavine has the athleticism to jump out of the building and the length to make Inspector Gadget jealous.  They then snagged Glenn Robinson III in the second round (son of former NBA all star Big Dog), a first round talent in most drafts.  The Wolves are in a nice position to make the most out of a messy situation… not even David Kahn could mess this up, so Flip won’t… will he?

Kevin Love finding a new home is not a matter of IF, but WHEN?

New Orleans Pelicans B-
The Pelly’s are all in on this team.  They traded away this year’s first round pick a year ago to acquire Jrue Holiday and have now traded away next year’s first to add the shot blocking big man, Omer Asik to their front court this year.  This creates the most formidable defensive front court in the NBA hands down.  Pairing Asik alongside Davis will create an absolute block party for the Pelicans.  But the Pelicans back court remains questionable.  After trading a first rounder for Jrue Holiday last year, the former UCLA standout was only able to play 34 games for his new team last year.  Since he doesn’t have much of an injury history, and he put up nice numbers when he did play, he’s less of a concern.  Whether or not guards Eric Gordon and Tyreke Evans can live up to their $40 plus millon contracts is more of a concern.  The Pelicans have went all in to at least become a playoff team immediately.  They traded a first rounder for Omer Asik, and certainly hope it’s not as a one year rental.  They have an Anthony Davis contract extension looming in a few years.  They may not have the right pieces to create a contender, but if Davis is the superstar that he projects to be, then they’re not as far away as some would think.  It was a quiet, but promising off season for the Pelicans.  They’re now banking on their acquisitions from the last two off seasons to put it together to turn the corner.

Oklahoma City D+
The Thunder went into the off season with their eyes on the likes of Pau Gasol, Mike Miller, and PJ Tucker.  They came out with Anthony Morrow.  Morrow is seemingly a perfect fit for the Thunder and exactly the type of three point threat that last year’s team lacked, but with a Kevin Durant free agency looming in just two years, many would’ve hoped for them to come out of this off season with more.  They are still poised to be a top two seed and major contender in the West, but if they don’t win the conference, they risk rumblings of Durant taking his talents elsewhere.  Their draft was less than desirable selecting Mitch McGary, who many pundits considered a second round prospect at 21, then shocking the world by selecting Josh Huestis at 29.  It was questionable as to whether Huestis would even be drafted, but the Thunder made a behind the scenes agreement with him that if they selected him in the first round, he’d sign a contract with their D-League squad,the 66ers (for a paltry $25,000).  The draft was a questionable one, but considering Presti’s nice track record in the draft, he gets the benefit of the doubt.  Still, the Thunder are far from being doomed, but it’s time to raise concern if this season doesn’t produce at least a conference title.

Phoenix Suns B-
After overachieving expectations like crazy in what appeared to be a tanking season, it still remains unclear exactly what the Suns are trying to do.  With one of three first round picks, they selected point guard Tyler Ennis.  Then with their cap space, they decided to lock up scoring point guard Isaiah Thomas.  They now sit with three point guards on the roster (two proven, one top prospect), while their coveted restricted free agent point guard, Eric Bledsoe remains a free agent.  Since most teams that would be interested in signing Bledsoe have used most of their cap space to the point that the Suns will match anything that can be offered, it seems that he will be one of four capable PGs on the roster entering next season, even if he is the disgruntled one.  Whether Hornacek can use all four seems unlikely, but Bledsoe’s defense should allow him to play the 2 spot when needed.  Although it seems that moves will still need to be made even after a potential Bledsoe re-signing, the Suns are positioning themselves nicely to keep moving up the standings.  First round pick, Bogdan Bogdanovic, will be staying overseas this year, but TJ Warren might step into the rotation and at the very least adds depth.  The Suns certainly aren’t done yet, but they’ve continued to add pieces to a young, growing team.

The Suns will bring back Bledsoe, but will a rotation of four point guards work?

Portland Trail Blazers C–
The Blazers stayed rather quiet this off season, but the big news was that Lamarcus Aldridge plans to re-sign.  A lot can change in a year, as was proven by the fact that a year ago it seemed he was likely on his way out soon, but this is huge news for the Blazers future regardless.  After a surprise trip to the second round this post season, the superstar tandem of Damian Lillard and Larmarcus Aldridge will most likely be staying together long term.  The off season shuffle included Moe Williams leaving, but the team finding a capable replacement in former Blazer, Steve Blake.  The Blazers also added some front court depth, adding on the Caveman, Chris Kaman.  These are both worthwhile additions, but depth continues to be a problem for the Blazers who added no prospects in the draft.  They’ll be pressed to find a hidden gem in a minimum contract free agent, because their starting line up got more minutes together than any other starting line up last season.  The team saw more of a significant drop off when bench players came in than is typical for Western Conference teams.

Sacramento Kings D-
If the Kings continue in the direction they’re going, Sacramento fans may end up wondering why they even pushed to keep their Kings home.  They’ve had significant talent to work around with Demarcus Cousins being the cornerstone for a few years now, but haven’t been able to put anything reasonable together since the Chris Webber, Mike Bibby days.  Boogie has signed through 2018, but with his temper, it could be a matter of time before he’s demanding a trade if they can’t turn this into a winning situation.  The Kings drafted Nik Stauskas with their lone selection in the draft, and he will step into the rotation immediately.  They brought on Darren Collison to replace Isaiah Thomas, who bolted to Phoenix in free agency.  They are headed for the lottery for another season, though, with no apparent light at the end of the tunnel.  I don’t know what the hell they’re trying to do, but then again, I doubt that Pete D’Alessandro has any clue of what the hell he’s trying to do.

San Antonio Spurs B+
The Spurs didn’t do much this off season except for keeping the gang together and that was all they needed to do to receive a high grade.  Three years ago, I remember rooting for the Spurs to go all the way, because I truly thought it was their last chance and the window was closing.  Now, until they prove me wrong, I refuse to believe that the window will ever close.  They signed Tony Parker, Patty Mills, Matt Bonner, and Boris Diaw to extensions as Duncan enters his last year under contract.  Most importantly they convinced Pop to stick around.  The longest tenured coach in the NBA, and most well spoken in interviews, continues to show why he deserves to get paid as long as he wants to get paid.  They also added Kyle Anderson in the draft, and the Spurs have become that team that whoever they select in the late first round, you expect to be a contributor right away or within a few seasons.  Until the Spurs prove me wrong with a horrific season, keeping this beautiful basketball team together is enough to earn an excellent off season grade from Larry Lightning.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Utah Jazz B+
The Jazz are back on the rise after a terrific draft and bringing back the main pieces of their core.  Gordon Hayward got overpaid, but being a scoring small forward, getting overpaid has become a precedent this year.  They got Dante Exum with their first pick, and while the jury is still out on him he showed brilliant flashes in Summer League (yeah, I get it… Summer League is a few notches above YMCA youth league).  Exum is their potential future superstar.  They were also able to bring in Rodney Hood at 23.  Hood became the Big Mac Extra Value Meal pick of the draft as the potential lottery pick fell to the latter end of the second round.  The best part for the Jazz is that their only major long term commitment is Gordon Hayward, whom they’re basically centering their franchise around, giving them flexibility to continue to build into a potential playoff team very soon.  Most of this grade depends on how Exum actually pans out, but for Exum believers like myself, the Jazz hit a home run this off season.

The West will be fun to watch shake out.  Conference’s almost never turn out the same playoff teams year after year, but who falls out of the West in 2015?  It’s hard to see any team that made the playoffs last season dropping out of the playoff picture, but with the Pelicans, Suns, and Jazz on the rise, and the Nuggets getting back key missing pieces, there is bound to be a team or two that made the playoffs last year suffering heartbreak in 2015.

Stay tuned for my next post about the best free agents still available and potential fits for them as teams hope to improve these grades.