With the NBA season about 20% complete, teams are starting to get their legs and both conferences are beginning to take shape. It’s still super early, so comparative judgment of these teams right now is a bit premature.
But I never promised maturity to anybody, so let’s rock these out. These rankings aren’t necessarily who I think is the best team, it’s more of who I think is playing the best ball right now.
1. Chicago Bulls (12-2) – Derrick’s in “We’re not losing a game” mode and Luol’s having an undercover All-Star season, putting up 14.9 PPG and 7.6 RPG. And this is without two key cogs in Rip and C.J. Watson. This was almost as easy a choice as our last place squad.
2. Oklahoma City Thunder (11-2) – Although I don’t necessarily like their jump-shotty nature for the long playoff grind, they’re scoring a lot and have only dropped games to last year’s champ and the hot-at-the-time Blazers.
3. Philadelphia Sixers (9-3) – They’ve played a cream-puff schedule, but they’re taking care of business with a +15 point differential. It’s early, but that type of PD usually bodes well for future success.
4. San Antonio Spurs (9-4) – Damn they’re good at home, with an 9-0 record at the AT&T Center. When Manu gets back, they’ll be even better.
5. LA Clippers (6-3) – Paul is playing MVPish and Griffin hasn’t even really adapted to him yet, despite what Blake’s impressive numbers say. This starting five has potential to be the best in the league, that is, if Blake develops a low-post game.
6. Indiana Pacers (9-3) – Points allowed and rebounds. Indy’s gotta be happy sitting top five in both, because that translates into their team scrapping, hitting the floor hard, and caring more than their opponents.
7. LA Lakers (9-5) – Tough loss to the Clips, but Kobe looks to be in “Eff you, I still got one more year of 27 points a game left so enough about me not being a top five player right now” mode.
8. Miami Heat (8-4) – Losers of three in a row. If healthy, this team is still the favorite to win the ‘ship. If one leg of the evil tripod goes down for the playoffs though, these early season woes have shown us they’ll be dead in the water.
9. Dallas Mavericks (8-5) – Sneakily winners of five straight. Sure, the most quality win was over a struggling Celtics team, but the other four wins were blowouts of at least 14 points. They can’t win it all, but I don’t doubt that Dirkalicious won’t give a first round fight to the death.
10. Denver Nuggets (8-5) – Gotta love this frisky festival of a team that leads the league in assists. Nice win over Miami the other night.
11. Atlanta Hawks (9-4) – For the past couple years, the Hawks and the Falcons have been eerily similar. Given their talent pools, shouldn’t they both be more successful? Or have they hit their ceilings? I can’t put my finger on either, but the Hawks freak athleticism will bring them quality wins against tired opponents, which could work out nicely when the post-season comes around.
12. Utah Jazz (8-4) – A nice little record for this average and full-of-pieces, not-quite-a-team squad. They were one Kobe Bryant 40 pointer away from winning their past eight games. I would say “Nuggets Lite,” but they just took down their starless counterpart from across the border. This is definitely a squad to look out for and a potential trade deadline buyer if things are going well. If management here wasn’t so stingy, I’d predict a little Dwight Howard rental in the upcoming months.
13. Orlando Magic (8-3) – Winners of three in a row… but I do not trust a team with a disgruntled superstar. How could you? It’s great and all that the Magic want to keep him, but why would Dwight settle for more years of elite mediocrity? (Oh yeah, money.)
14. Portland Trail Blazers (7-5) – Losers of four of their last six since big wins over OKC and LAL. Six games in eight nights was NOT a good thing for this running team. This next week resembles more of a typical NBA season, so it should give this solid squad a chance to shake the cement out of their grass-fed Nikes.
15. New York Knicks (6-6) – Kinda scary when you’re banking on “Just wait ‘til Baron Davis gets healthy!” Yikes.
16. Memphis Grizzlies (5-6) – An ugly start to damper the Grizzlies’ glimmering pre-season popularity as a Western Conference powerhouse. They’re at the bottom of the league in PPG and APG. The Z-Bo injury is predictably destroying this squad’s effectiveness on the offensive end.
17. Cleveland Cavaliers (5-6) – Kyrie’s having quite the solid rookie campaign, sporting 17 PPG and 5 APG. Most experts did not predict he’d be this solid this early.
18. Boston Celtics (4-7) – Four future Hall-of-Famers and an All-Star point guard? 4-7? It’s a direct result of this team’s 6-12 roster slots – so ugly.
19. Houston Rockets (5-7) – A bright spot? Alright, let’s go Kyle Lowry. 17.9 PPG, 9.3 APG, 6.9 RPG, 2.0 SPG. He’s blowing his career numbers out of the water with a fine All-Star-esque start to the season.
20. Milwaukee Bucks (4-7) – Tough seeing Bogut deal with injuries again. If they want any chance of snagging the eighth seed in the East, he needs to be around to see it through.
21. Phoenix Suns (4-8) – When Nash is on the court, Phoenix always has a chance to win. It would just be a much larger chance if they could have kept some of that Conference Finals momentum from a few years ago.
22. Minnesota Timberwolves (4-8) – Fun squad to watch. Could be a force in a few years, assuming they keep their key piece in Love. Currently, they’re a bit too young to make any notable noise.
23. Toronto Raptors (4-9) – Other than Bargnani, this team has done a great job earning my favorite NBA nickname, the cRaptors.
24. Sacramento Kings (4-9) – Loads of talent… talent that isn’t being converted into wins. Sacto would hate to see their pieces mature someplace else, but there are strong signs for that exact disaster brewing.
25. Detroit Pistons (3-9) – I’ve seen them play twice and have no idea how they even make it to the stadium, more or less outscore an opponent on three separate occasions.
26. Golden State Warriors (3-8) – The coolest jerseys and the coolest scorer are carrying this team to no places worth talking about. Curry’s ankle instability needs to solidify soon.
27. New Jersey (3-10) – You still staying, Deron? If he does, my Prokhorov column may be more fact than fiction considering this train wreck squadron.
28. New Orleans Hornets (3-9) – Trading your cornerstone, who had a bad knee, for a new cornerstone that screws up his knee and only plays in two of his first 12 games? And he’ll miss more? Fun. They’re top three in the league in rebounds, but I think that’s just as much a testament to missing shots as it is to a nice box-out or three.
29. Charlotte Bobcats (3-10) – The third most popular basketball team in the Carolinas really sucks.
30. Washington Wizards (1-11) – Their lone win came at the hands of a cRaptors’ team that was on a four games in five night stretch. This team cannot wait for draft night.
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