(A quick note from Bots: Baldwin’s post is only tangentially related to the Denver Nuggets’ old 90s logo but I always liked its Disco Tetris vibe, so we’re using it!)
With all teams having played between 28 and 32 out of the 66 games they will play in the compressed 123 day regular season, and time ticking down to the trade deadline, it’s a good time to take a look at where each team is, the answered questions, the unanswered questions, and maybe take a sneaky peek towards the playoffs.
If you’re a stereotypical New Yorker who’s suddenly woken up to this basketball season because of “Linsanity” and you want to pretend like you know anything about the other teams, this is the series of posts for you! We will cover all 30 teams, even teams like Charlotte that you can only call “teams” because “an embarrassing Mickey Mouse rabble” would infringe on Disney’s trademark!
For convenience, if that’s what it is, the teams are set out in order of the current standings.
One general note before we start: a week is always a long time in basketball, but with teams regularly playing 4 or even 5 games in a week this season, the media has taken it to extremes. No team is as bad as its worst week (look at Orlando’s week from hell a couple of weeks ago, which saw fans and the media demanding they trade Dwight Howard immediately before he poisoned all the other players in their beds, and realise that they’re back up to 4th in the East now) or as good as its best week (Linsanity, which as I write this has just lost to the corpse of the Hornets, I’m looking at you).
Starting then.
THE WEST
Oklahoma City
The team which took advantage of the Hornets’ discovery that Oklahoma City could support a basketball team. The Hornets could probably use that one for themselves right about now, but I digress.
OKC (an abbreviation which causes me to double-take every time a Crasstalk commenter uses it to refer to OK Cupid) was widely touted before the season as being the #1 contender in the West. Nothing has changed. It’s all very boring. Even the basketball media’s attempts to stir up a story about Westbrook wanting to leave for a team where he can be the The Guy came to nothing, as Westbrook has signed a long, lucrative contract extension and looks set to be the Pippen to Durant’s Jordan for years to come.
Answered questions: Yes, Durant can get even better (his shooting percentage, rebounding and assists continue to improve). No, the Westbrook nonsense was not a real story.
Unanswered questions: They’re effectively the same team as last year, and they didn’t have enough scoring options or enough mental toughness to win the West last year. Have they improved enough?
San Antonio
I bet a lot of basketball fans, asked who is currently the 2nd ranked team in the West, would fail to answer “San Antonio”. Or if asked “which team has won their last 9 games in a row?” or “which team has the best home record in the entire NBA at 13-1?”. And just about all of that with their best player, Manu Ginobili, either on the sidelines or playing limited minutes in his recent return from injury.
People dismissed the Spurs as washed up, and Tim Duncan is no longer what he was, but Ginobili is still going strong, Parker at 29 is having a year as good as any he has had (and he’s had some very good ones), Richard Jefferson is finally partially justifying his silly contract, and the youngsters like DeJuan Blair and Kawhi Leonard are exceeding expectations. Gregg Popovich knows how to win championships and has carefully managed the amount of minutes his veteran stars play. Don’t sleep on the Spurs.
Answered questions: Not actually washed up.
Unanswered questions: Will the grind of this season catch up with Duncan, Ginobili et al before the playoffs? Will their veteran savvy defeat the sheer athletic talent of OKC if it comes to that? (For my money: yes).
UPDATE: Now 10 in a row with a win over the Clippers, which might just end that “under the radar” thing.
LA Clippers
Not a typo. The Clippers above (well above) the Lakers. Maybe the Mayans were right and the end of the world is nigh.
Between the drafting of Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, the shenanigans that led to Chris Paul being traded into this team, the free agent signing of veteran ring-winner Caron Butler and one-time finals MVP Chauncey Billups being acquired at a bargain basement price after being waived by the Knicks under the amnesty clause (a truly boneheaded move by the Knicks which has been undeservedly rescued by Linsanity) the Clippers have become not only relevant but actually good. Very good. And consistent, too.
Answered questions: “Lob City” from Paul and Billups to Griffin and Jordan has turned out to be as good in practice as it was in theory (both at winning and at producing highlights). One of the best offensive teams in the NBA.
Unanswered questions: Billups’ season-ending injury asks questions of the Clippers’ depth, especially defensively. Even before Billups’ injury, the Clippers were not a good defensive team and were substantially worse when Mo Williams was on the floor in place of Billups (the drop in defence was much more than the gain in offence received when Williams was in). Now they have to give even more minutes to Mo and to the guys behind Mo. Can they overcome this through sheer offensive might? (My bet: No.)
Dallas
Exhibit A for “a week is a long time in basketball”. After the first fortnight of the season, you could be forgiven for thinking that Dallas was washed up and was spending the year setting up for the next round of free agency. Dirk and new signing Lamar Odom both looked like they’d assumed the entire season would be lost to the lockout and spent the past few months eating. OK, we know Odom is not the brightest spark, he married a Kardashian and submitted to her horrible reality show and it wasn’t even the hot one, but what was Dirk’s excuse? Dirk actually had to be benched for a week to “work on his conditioning”, which is coach-speak for “he’s no good to us while he’s fat and slow like this”.
Well, now that the team is more or less fit, Dallas are 4th in the West, on a 6 game winning streak too, and should continue to improve as long as Dirk and Lamar stay away from the donut truck. Young point guard Roddy Beaubois, the lesser-known member of the Foreign Point Guard Club that has rocked this NBA season, has been doing some nice things in the absence of Jason Kidd too.
Answered questions: Mark Cuban does actually know what he’s doing. The team is still good enough to challenge while being set up from a salary cap point of view to clear the decks of everyone but Dirk and Beaubois at the end of the year and reload with new star free agents (such as, say, Dwight Howard and Deron Williams).
Unanswered questions: Are they good enough to challenge challenge? And what’s plan B if Dwight doesn’t come on over?
LA Lakers
Still here.
Got rid of Odom for a handful of beans. Kobe is aging and has a bung wrist. Derek Fisher has had it. Ron Artest- sorry, Metta World Peace- has had it in every way possible. The bench is even more awful than last year (producing something like 14 points a game less, and not from a high base). All this and the highest payroll in the league (thanks Kobe!), making it more or less impossible to sign free agents except to people so desperate they’ll play for minimum salary (hello, Gilbert Arenas!). 5 wins out of 15 road games.
But still here. Not a team you want to play in the first round of the finals, but not a team you could see winning best of 7 series against any of the 4 teams above either, since every win basically requires Kobe Bryant to put a second mortgage on one more piece of his soul to somehow produce another massive performance despite age and a cacophony of injuries, and he doesn’t have that much soul left to put up as collateral.
Answered questions: New coach Mike Brown really has improved the Lakers’ defence (despite all the other problems they have). Kobe is, somehow, still Kobe. None of the rest of the team have access to Kobe’s portrait of Dorian Grey.
Unanswered questions: So what are they going to trade Gasol and/or Bynum for in an attempt to throw a Hail Mary and make this team a contender?
Memphis Grizzlies
They were struggling even before Zach Randolph got injured. They predictably got worse. Then somehow they’re in 6th in the West with a 18-14 record. It doesn’t seem like it’s because they’re playing better so much as they’re a consistent 50%-quality team (without Randolph) and some other teams have gone into freefall past them. Thing is, with Randolph’s return being mooted to come around the time of the All-Star Break, there’s plenty of time for Memphis to get it together as long as they can keep avoiding freefall. Could easily repeat last year’s result. Could also still miss the playoffs entirely.
Answered questions: Marc Gasol now the best Gasol. Rudy Gay still great windmill dunker.
Unanswered questions: How good are they, really, if fully fit? Is Randolph-Gasol-Gay really the core of a contender?
Houston
As I hinted in the write-up for Memphis, the last few playoff spots of the West seem to be determined mostly by who’s playing the worst. Currently, Houston is not playing the worst. That’s about the best thing I can say about them.
Other nice things I can say about Houston: Kyle Lowry started the season hot and had fans clamouring for him to be picked for the All-Star game, and while he’s come back to Earth a bit he’s still having a career-best year. They haven’t made a boneheaded trade yet.
That said, this is a team desperate to make some trades and shake things up. As assembled, they have a surfeit of decent roleplayers (not the Dungeons & Dragons kind) and no stars. They are desperate for stars. They nearly got Pau Gasol as part of the trade which would have sent Chris Paul to the Lakers, only to have it ripped from their grasp. You just know this is going to end badly for someone.
Answered questions: Have not miraculously improved or slumped.
Unanswered questions: Can they actually make that killer trade they’ve been trying to make for years?
Denver
Ah, Denver. Had a cup of coffee in January with the idea of winning the West. About 2 weeks ago was still laughing it up about how much better they were doing with their side of the Carmelo Anthony trade than the Knicks were doing with their side. Since then both key players in that trade have been injured (Anthony and Denver’s Danilo Gallinari) but only one of the teams has been winning, and it isn’t Denver. They still have a better record than the Knicks, though, but barely. Seems unlikely they are as bad as the past week (even with Gallinari and Nene hurt) or as good as they briefly looked in early January. Should make the playoffs.
Answered questions: Gallinari is much better than the Knicks ownership realized.
Unanswered questions: If Gallinari and Nene are at full fitness for the playoffs, are they really the 3rd or 4th best team in the West the way they seemed to be during January?
Utah
Another “cup of coffee in January” team, but unlike Denver they’ve slipped out of the playoff spots entirely, for now. 12-5 at home and 3-9 on the road tells the story: every run of home games sees them climb, every road trip sees them fall, and after a lot of early games at home they’re having to play more on the road.
It’s not all bad news, Paul Millsap may get an injury-replacement callup to the All Star Team and the Jazz big men in general are having banner years (both the starters Millsap and Jefferson and the young guns Favors and Kanter), but the Jazz clearly need a better travel agent if they’re going to contend.
Answered questions: Not as terrible as some writers thought they were before the season.
Unanswered questions: Why are they so bad on the road? Is it the hotels? The wrong in-flight movies? Lack of sister-wives?
Portland
Let’s stretch this “cup of coffee in January” metaphor. After 2 or 3 weeks of the season, Portland was having so much damn coffee with the top of the table that over-excited media people were painting them as a title contender. Now they’re having a major caffeine crash and find themselves in 10th. Like Utah and the Lakers, they cannot win on the road (5-10).
Starting point guard Raymond Felton was unfortunately part of Dirk Nowitzki and Lamar Odom’s offseason Celebrity Unfit Club over the offseason and still hasn’t found his stride. (UPDATE: Might have started finding it as soon as I wrote that). Brandon Roy’s chronic injuries sadly forced him to retire before the season even started. At least Aldridge’s injury didn’t turn out to be too bad, but it’s been looking a bit dire for the team from Madfall City. Perhaps the only way they will sneak back into playoff contention is if the teams above are even worse. They won’t make it just through their decent home form, and even if they do, they don’t look any kind of chance to win a best of 7 series.
Answered questions: Can win without Brandon Roy.
Unanswered questions: Can they win anything at all without LaMarcus Aldridge carrying them to it?
Minnesota
The good news: Ricky Rubio shocked everyone by being better than his junior highlight reel and better by far than his Spanish league stats. Kevin Love is still Kevin Love, the best power forward in the NBA (Blake Griffin is only 3rd in the West at best, All-Star voters, I’m just saying- Aldridge is 2nd). Young Nikola Pekovic- who wants everyone to call him Nik, and I don’t blame him- is doing a stirling job at centre. The team had, yes, a cup of coffee with getting above the 50% win-loss mark for the first time since Kevin Garnett played here.
The bad news: Rubio’s shooting, after a hot start, is not better than advertised. Still does not have a shooting guard worth talking about, or a first class scorer not named Kevin Love. Team ownership for some reason would not give best power forward in the NBA the 5 year contract that he wanted and settled for what is effectively a 3 year contract. Good luck keeping him in free agency after 3 years, idiots.
Answered questions: RUBIO MANIA was worth waiting for. Holes in team are not so big that Minnesota does not have the cap space and trade assets to fix them.
Unanswered questions: Can team management get out of their own way long enough to fulfil this team’s potential, or is the Rubio thing just a fluke before normal incompetent service resumes? Can Minnesota get on enough of a roll to make the playoffs ahead of some of the mediocre/injury-hit teams above them?
Golden State
Hear me out: IF Steph Curry stays healthy, I think Golden State could still make the playoffs.
OK, they’re 11-16 and in 12th (UPDATE: A 1 point loss on the road to Memphis, while valiant, is the sort of game they have to start winning right now to pull this off). But that’s mostly an artefact of their appalling start to the season, which can be blamed partly on a lack of Curry and partly on having a rookie head coach who had only a couple of weeks with the team before the season started due to the lockout. It’s actually a pretty good team (when Curry is fit). It’s getting the hang of Jackson’s game plan and can beat any given team in the NBA on any given night through sheer offensive fire power (like the Clippers, but less so) which is probably more than I can say for pretty much any team below 3rd in the West. Rookie Klay Thompson is starting to look like one of the more canny draft picks from this year’s draft, too.
They’re probably still a trade away from being a good playoffs team, though (with that trade almost certainly involving Monta Ellis; the much mooted Ellis for Iguodala trade from the off-season is one they must wish the Sixers had bitten on).
Oh, and they waived a player at the start of the season so they could make an unsuccessful bid for DeAndre Jordan. I’m sure that hasn’t come back to bite them at all. What was his name? Jeremy something?
Answered questions: Curry’s ankles are that bad, unfortunately. Also, the local announcing team is a runaway favourite for the most annoying commentators I will hear this year.
Unanswered questions: Can Mark Jackson get the most out of the talent at his disposal? Will Golden State make a good trade involving Ellis? Will they ever live down waiving Jeremy Lin? (You could be forgiven for predicting no to all of those).
Phoenix
Even Steve Nash can’t make the corpse of the Phoenix Suns reach the playoffs anymore.
Phoenix is stuck in some kind of strange limbo where they’re paying a lot of money to a collection of old guys and second-raters (and Gortat), they’re clearly not competitive, yet they’re unwilling to trade Steve Nash and get something, anything to help the eventual rebuild or reward Nash’s faithful service by helping him get to a team where he might win a ring. Nash, for his part, seems unwilling to demand a trade from this moribund team and just keeps on leading the league in assists despite having no-one much to pass to, and ensuring his team wins enough games that they don’t actually get the top draft picks they need to improve. It’s a vicious cycle. Someone needs to forge Steve’s signature on a trade request for the sake of everyone involved.
This organization has more trouble moving on than the female lead in a TV dramedy about relationships.
Answered questions: None.
Unanswered questions: When is someone involved in this situation going to be brave and do the right thing?
Sacramento
For the first few weeks of this season, I was convinced that the players of the Sacramento Kings basketball club had hired some impersonators from central casting to play the part of the team on TV, because the guys on TV could not actually play basketball at all. Once the players got their terrible coach sacked, they apparently returned to work.
The thing is, Sacramento have a 7-5 home record and a 3-15 away record (inflated by that awful start to the season). They obviously have a lot more home games than away games left, they’ve got past some injury niggles, and they have the raw talent- they just haven’t had the discipline to use it often enough. They’re too far back to make the playoffs now, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they had a better second half of the season than many of the teams above. Still, this is a season about getting one more high draft pick before they use their spare salary cap space and get serious.
Answered questions: Jimmer Fredette was a bad pick and they should have let someone else take the bullet.
Unanswered questions: How did they manage to get such good lookalikes? It was a pretty convincing trick!
New Orleans
The good news: they just ended the Linsanity streak.
The bad news: They still don’t have an owner. They’re still the worst team in the West. Their best player Eric Gordon, the only significant asset they got out of the Chris Paul trade, has played only 2 games and is doing everything short of hanging a “COME AND GET ME” sign on his lawn to indicate how little he wants to be in New Orleans, and who can blame him? The team has no owner, no strategy for the future apart from “sit here rotting until someone buys us”, and dwindling prospects- even the potential relocation site they effectively created by playing in Oklahoma City while New Orleans was rebuilt has been taken by someone else.
Answered questions: A team owned by the NBA itself does not have an advantage. Quite the opposite.
Unanswered questions: Can they actually find a buyer who will keep the team in New Orleans? If not, where might a potential buyer want to take them?
Back soon with the Eastern Conference, the race for MVP and other final thoughts on the season to date. But to take away, the only 5 teams I can see winning the title this season are Miami, Chicago, San Antonio, the Thunder and the Clippers (from most likely to least likely).
