What NBA teams are poised to make the biggest jump this season?
Honorable Mention:
Los Angeles Lakers: A team with LeBron James and Anthony Davis should be able to compete for a championship no matter what according to most NBA fans. Well those people apparently didn’t watch Russell Westbrook play with the two last season. Westbrook totally destroyed team chemistry, as he constantly forced the issue at inopportune times last season. He also didn’t know where his man was half the time he was on the court, showing horrible defensive awareness and frustrating the hell out of his teammates. And when Vogel had the audacity to point out that he wasn’t staying attached to his man or taking bad shots, Russell would reportedly fume and argue. I haven’t even mentioned the spacing issues Russ creates on a team with two stars who live at the rim. The first step in fixing a problem is recognizing that there is a problem. Russ still doesn’t seem to recognize he has a problem. He seems to still blame Vogel for all his issues this season but Vogel isn’t the one who regularly shot the ball to the side of the backboard all season. The Lakers reportedly have a chance to move Russ and two firsts for Irving or Buddy Hield and Myles Turner but are hung up on including the second first round pick. If they are able to move Westbrook before the season in either of these deals they’ll likely contend for a title and a number one seed however, which is why I put them as an honorable mention.
Dishonorable Mention:
Brooklyn Nets: As much as the Nets seem to have imploded, they weren’t especially good last year with KD, James Harden, Ben Simmons, and Kyrie Irving all missing a significant amount of games last season for significantly different issues. So although they’ll likely drop in the standings, they also could stay around the play in picture depending on what they get in return for Irving and Durant.
Teams Jumping up the Standings:
Atlanta Hawks: After finishing 5th two seasons ago, the Hawks dropped down to 8th this past year. They then added triple double threat Dejounte Murray while only losing Kevin Heurter and Danillo Gallinari. Murray will help them on both ends of the court significantly but will help most in the minutes that Trae Young is off the court. Now Atlanta has two players capable of running an entire offense through and is a significantly bigger playoff threat for it. They also still have John Collins, Clint Capela and Onyeka Okungwu who pair very well with these two guards in the pick and roll. Atlanta does not need all three big men and could choose to move one or two of these players for another star talent as well should they decide to keep trying to upgrade the roster.
Detroit Pistons: Well when a team finishes with 23 wins on a season, there's normally nowhere to go but up. The Pistons also have a huge collection of young talent including last year's first overall pick, Cade Cunningham. Cunningham filled up the stat sheet last season averaging 17.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 5.6 assists, the mold of a LeBron style of do it all forward. While it doesn’t look likely he’ll be as good as LeBron, it looks very likely he's on the verge of making the next 12 all star games. The Pistons also drafted Jalen Duren and Jaden Ivey who will both earn major roles on this team. Ivey could be a future all star and was the fourth pick in this year's draft. The Pistons also added a duo of solid Knicks role players in Nerlens Noel and Alec Burks although it’s unclear how much these guys will play on a young team looking to prioritize youth development. At the very least Cunningham will improve and the Pistons win about 5 more games. But if the new rookies add talent and the Knicks role players play heavy minutes it appears the Pistons might even have a shot at 40+ wins and a play in spot.
New Orleans Pelicans: The Pelicans jump actually started last season when they acquired CJ McCollum last season which led to them sneaking into the play in tournament. Now they will be returning a healthy Zion Williamson to the mix, giving them a huge starting lineup of CJ(6’3), Brandon Ingram(6’8), Herb Jones(6’7), Zion(6’7), and Jonas Valunciunas(6’11) which is also absolutely stacked. Although unlikely, it wouldn’t be shocking if this team ended up first in the standings. The last season that Zion played in saw him average 27 points a game and on an insane 61.1% shooting. If Zion can stay healthy this year he should be in the MVP mix which will add up to about 10-20 more wins for New Orleans.
Los Angeles Clippers: Paul George only played 31 games this season and Kawhi Leonard didn’t play at all. Despite this the Clippers actually managed to win 42 games before losing in the play in game to the Pelicans. If Leonard and George are able to stay healthy this year it would be hard to imagine that same team not being at least above 50 wins and possibly closer to 60.
Teams Jumping down the Standings:
Utah Jazz: Fresh off a first round defeat to the Dallas Mavericks, Danny Ainge either decided it was time for a rebuild, or listened incredulously as someone offered him five first round picks and two role players for All Star center Rudy Gobert. I think it was the second but either way it primed Utah for a sharp turn into a rebuild. Considering recent trades involving superstars like James Harden, and Anthony Davis didn’t even bring back 5 first round picks, WOW, this was a haul for Utah. They also traded Royce O’Neal to the Brooklyn Nets for a sixth first round pick. So even though they are now poised to tumble in the standings, as well as possibly trade Donovan Mitchell, it was a great summer that gets this team closer to one day competing for a championship instead of early playoff losses.
Minnesota Timberwolves: On the other side of that trade is the team that gave up those five first round picks for Rudy Gobert. It's really hard to imagine just what Minnesota was thinking. Towns already struggled to keep up with centers defensively and will now have to guard much quicker forwards every game. The team will probably be elite in rebounding and in defending the paint but will struggle significantly to guard modern NBA teams in the midrange and from three. Guards like Damian Lillard or Zach Lavine will salivate as they come off a pick and roll and see Towns or Gobert in drop coverage, opening them to cook the Wolves all game from deep. The team will also struggle to recover when helping because now at least one of Towns or Gobert will be involved in rotating to shooters. They will often be a step late to contest and this half second is all NBA shooters need. The trade also doesn’t help their offense as now instead of Towns being an asset as a big who can shoot he’ll now just be a forward that’s expected to shoot while Gobert clogs up the paint. This team reminds me of the Al Horford Sixers, but with less talent. They don’t have a Joel Embiid like offensive threat to drag them to wins regardless of the roster's fit and don’t look like they’ll excel like that team did defensively as DLo and Towns are very weak defensively. It would be surprising if this team doesn’t lose at least 10 wins from last year's 46 win total.
