With no games this week due to the NBA’s All-Star festivities, there will of course be no changes in our usual Power Rankings. Instead, lets take a look at the priorities for NBA teams through the stretch run.
We’re 8 weeks from the end of the regular season and every team will have an emphasis. For the lucky ones that will likely revolve around playoff preparation, or a fortunate bounce of the ping pong balls for those on the outside looking in.
Eastern Conference
Atlantic Division
Toronto Raptors (40-15 record)
Toronto have, believe it or not, a better record than they did at this stage last season. That’s testament to Masai Ujiri’s remarkable ability to find talent, and Nick Nurse’s undoubted skill in moulding that talent to the team ethos.
Considering the off season departures, and the myriad of injuries they’ve suffered this season, seeing the Raptors sit in 2nd in the East at this stage of the season is incredible. They’re doing just about everything right. They just need a little injury luck to get them primed for the post season.
Boston Celtics (38-16)
Boston’s overall focus is on securing home court for the 1st round of the playoffs. They have a healthy lead on Miami and Philadelphia, but given the Heat’s deadline acquisitions and the Sixers….umm….personality, who knows if those two can make a run at Boston’s current 3rd seed.
The C’s are deep and talented, but could certainly do with a big man that can fit their switching scheme on defense. If Tristan Thompson does eventually get bought out, the fit here is just too perfect. He and Daniel Theis would form an effective, if underrated centre rotation.
Philadelphia 76ers (34-21)
For the remainder of the regular season, just as much as the playoffs themselves, the narrative of Brett Brown’s coaching career will be front and centre. Seen as nothing more than a culture setter/sacrificial lamb upon his hiring in 2013, Brown has endured despite near constant – and often unfair – scepticism of his suitability for the position.
His players, on the whole, adore him. It’s his tactical acumen that gets questioned. To that end, how Brown smooths the offensive edges on the troublesome Embiid/Simmons partnership will make or break him. His moving of Al Horford to the 6th man role in favour of sharp shooting Furkan Korkmaz is a bold strategy.
Brooklyn Nets (25-28)
Kyrie Irving is reportedly out for the season, so the remainder of the Nets campaign really serves only one purpose – can we rename the Ewing Theory in Kyrie’s ‘honour’?
The Nets are a mortal lock to make the playoffs in the shallow East. If they manage to win a round without Irving, perhaps an update of the fabled Bill Simmons hypothesis is on the cards?
With Kevin Durant out, this season was never the real focus for Brooklyn, so in the grand scheme of things, Irving’s injury doesn’t really do much to change the Nets outlook. It does give them more time to develop Jarrett Allen and Caris LeVert, and to perhaps put Spencer Dinwiddie in the shop window.
New York Knicks (17-38)
The Knicks need to find a buyer for the team. But, onto more realistic goals….
New York have a mass of young talents; finding out who is worth building around and who needs to go should be the main focus for the rest of the season.
Is Julius Randle a building block or an empty stats guy? Does Mitchell Robinson turn out closer to Marcus Camby, or JaVale McGee? Can Frankie Smokes play even average NBA offense? Can Kevin Knox play average NBA anything? Is Damyean Dotson a future NBA 6th man, or a future NBL All Star?
Although, perhaps sorting out the front office and coaching positions before altering the roster should be a priority.
Central Division
Milwaukee Bucks (46-8 record)
The Bucks are – quite clearly – on the right track. A league leading 46 wins (5 games ahead of the rest of the league) testifies to that. The Bucks have an historic point differential of +11.5 at the moment – the gap between them and the 2nd place Lakers is roughly the same as the Lakers and the 10th place Heat. It’s allowing them to rest their players more than any other contending club. For the regular season at least, Milwaukee just needs to stay the course.
The challenge starts come playoff time, where the Bucks will look to banish the memories of last years flame out to Toronto.
Indiana Pacers (32-23)
The Pacers were shockingly good to start the season, despite integrating Malcolm Brogdon amongst others, and missing franchise cornerstone Victor Oladipo. Their available pieces simply fit together seamlessly, allowing the team to far outperform the sum of their parts.
Since Oladipo’s return in late January, Indy have looked more than a touch off kilter, enduring a 6 game losing streak, and only winning two of the 7 games in which Dipo has played. Sure, a part of that is reintegrating a high usage player that has an understandably massive amount of rust after 12 months out of the game. But the team just have not looked to be the same free flowing beast they were early in the campaign.
How coach Nate McMillan proceeds from here will be interesting.
As Oladipo gets his bearing, does McMillan cede the offense to his star man again? Or does he ask Dipo to alter his game to fit in to the successful system the team employed when he was sidelined?
Finding the answer to that conundrum will go a long way to determining the Pacers success this season.
Chicago Bulls (19-36)
That’s it. That’s the focus for the remainder of the season.
Of course, to do that you have to make Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf care one single iota about his basketball team. That shouldn’t be too hard…..
Detroit Pistons (19-38)
Detroit – finally – know what their focus should be.
In trading Andre Drummond and releasing Reggie Jackson, they’re focusing on their young but wholly untested talent.
Detroit still have Derrick Rose to lean on (assuming Blake Griffin doesn’t return) in pressure situations. They have an excellent coach in Dwayne Casey. The youngsters couldn’t ask for a better chance to prove themselves.
Players like Christian Wood, Luke Kennard, Bruce Brown, Thon Maker, Svi Mykhailiuk and Khyri Thomas should all be looking at this next 8 weeks as an extended NBA audition.
Cleveland Cavaliers (14-40)
The Cavs need a lot – too much to find a single focus for the past couple of months of a regular season. So let’s examine a single, underlying issue that the team should focus on: culture. This team needs a culture reset from top to bottom.
Dan Gilbert is clearly a very smart man, and an incredibly successful businessman. However his basketball decision making has consistently hurt his franchise. He needs to take a step back. That may allow the team to attract a more credentialed GM than Koby Altman, or at least let Altman spread his wings a little. The Cavs have made their change on the sidelines, consciously uncoupling from John Beilein.
The last space where a culture reset is required is on court. Cleveland have assembled a team of score first guards, have a non creative holdover star in Kevin Love, and a new centrepiece in Andre Drummond that isn’t exactly known for his play making. Altman – or a GM to be named – need to decide what type of team they want to build (I really hope that their current make up of remorseless gunners isn’t anything like their ideal squad) and make moves towards that aim.
Southeast Division
Miami Heat (35-19 record)
Miami will be looking to get their trade deadline imports integrated before the playoffs start. The headliner is Andre Iguodala. His situation is complicated by his time in self imposed exile and his advanced age. Having said that, boxscore numbers are not what the Heat brought him here for. For Iggy, it’s getting back up to the speed of the game, sharpening those legendary defensive instincts, and finding his spot within the offense.
For Jae Crowder, the situation is different. He’s not as liquid as Iggy. Crowder’s game is ALL CAPS LOUD! He’ll play hard physical defense, drive fearlessly to the bucket, and take 3’s in big moments. In that sense, he’s an Op-shop Jimmy Butler. Crowder has started unsustainably hot in Miami, but if he can give the Heat solid minutes, allowing them to rest Butler, he’ll have done his regular season job.
Orlando Magic (24-31)
Given Orlando’s apparent aim is to finish 8th and suffer a plucky 1st round exit from here to eternity, they’re absolutely right on track. Again.
They should be focusing on the future, but we know they’re not, so let’s not waste our energy here.
Washington Wizards (20-23)
Sure, the Wizards are only 3 games behind the utterly uninspiring Magic for the 8th seed in the East, but they have the 4th hardest remaining schedule according to Tankathon (Orlando have the 3rd easiest), they should probably shelve any thoughts of a late push.
Instead, the focus should fall to season 2020/21. John Wall will be back and even if he’s not nearly the player he was, he’ll be a damn sight better than what’s passed for a point guard in DC this season. Bradley Beal is a legitimate star. Davis Bertans is the perfect offensive high end role player. Rui Hachimura just oozes potential. They have relatively young complimentary pieces in place.
The Wizards are not nearly as far away as this season might suggest.
Charlotte Hornets (18-36)
Charlotte have made great strides in cementing some sort of future, by turning over the bulk of their minutes to players aged 25 and under this season. They doubled down in buying out Marvin Williams and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Charlotte are on the right track, although they do need to decide where their youngsters fit in the grand scheme of things. Is Devonte’ Graham a starter or an upper echelon back up? What, exactly, is Malik Monk? Is Cody Zeller worth keeping around, or cashing in on?
Atlanta Hawks (15-41)
The Hawks have their superstar in Trae Young – the emphasis on everything they now do is how that correlates with Young. Do you need wing talent? Draft Kevin Huerter, De’Andre Hunter and Cam Reddish. Does Young need a competent back up? Bring in Jeff Teague. Do you need size? Go get Clint Capela and Dewayne Dedmon.
The equation for Atlanta is simple: find the best array of talent that fits around Young’s singular strengths.
Western Conference
Pacific Division
Los Angeles Lakers (41-12 record)
The Lakers hold a comfortable lead of 4 games over the chasing pack. The goal for Frank Vogel and his staff is to keep his stars fit and firing for the playoffs. To that end, LeBron James is playing a career low 34.9 minutes per game, with Anthony Davis clocking in at 34.7 – the lowest since his rookie campaign. Look for Vogel to try to get more rest for his superstars as the season winds down.
With the news that Reggie Jackson is joining the Clippers after his Pistons buyout is finalised, the Lakers are still disturbingly thin. Picking up a playmaker through the buyout market is still imperative for this club.
LA Clippers (37-18)
The Clippers are deep. They can play in just about any shape imaginable thanks to both the depth of their talent, and the pliability of that talent. Their buyout acquisition of Reggie Jackson certainly adds to that talent pool, but the fit is questionable at best. Jackson is a low efficiency gunner who doesn’t play defense. They already have a better version of him on the roster in Lou Williams.
This also further complicates the late season edict for coach Doc Rivers: pare down his rotation to a solid 8 or 9 players, in preparation for the playoffs.
The Clippers are coasting through the regular season, so maybe Jackson helps them in that regard, but I don’t see his usefulness come playoff time.
Phoenix Suns (22-23)
It looks all but certain that the Suns are going to miss the playoffs for the 10th year in a row.
The Suns are at least building towards something. Devin Booker is a star – and now an All Star. Deandre Ayton is turning into to an excellent centre (it’s not his fault he was picked over Doncic) who can score at will and shows potential at the other end. He’s just about passable of defence right now. Kelly Oubre is a solid wing or small ball 4. Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson are interesting pieces.
As much as they’re trending in the right direction, the Suns path to a playoff spot remains murky. Memphis are ascendant; the Pelicans are deep and talented; the Blazers will surely never be this unhealthy again.
Phoenix need one more top end talent. Perhaps they get that through draft luck?
Sacramento Kings (21-33)
Kings GM Vlade Divac needs to buy himself a kids chemistry kit or a Meccano set? If he can master those, then perhaps he can move on to constructing something bigger: like an NBA roster. This team has individual talent: a potentially great 3-guard rotation; an explosive offensive big man; a nice complimentary 2-way wing/small ball 4. Yet the pieces just don’t fir together. There have been egregious mistakes (Bagley over Doncic) that have certainly set the team back, but that’s the tip of the iceberg.
The club need to make definite directional decisions: do they make big investments in keeping their backcourt together? Is Bagley the man to build around? Is Luke Walton the right man to coach them? Is Divac the man to make those decisions? Is Vivek Ranadive, for that matter?
If Sacramento can get these decisions right – to be very clear, I’m not especially confident – there is a base to build on here.
Golden State Warriors (12-43)
Funnily enough, for a team with a league worst record, the future looks surprisingly bright in Golden State
Next season, they’ll have a core of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins. That’s more than handy. Throw in their own pick – which will certainly be in the top 4 – or whatever they can trade it for, mix in a few juicy future picks via Minnesota and suddenly you have a situation similar to Boston, post the fabled Brooklyn heist.
For the remainder of this season, golden State will be looking to give their young supporting players like Eric Paschall and Ky Bowman as many reps as possible, whilst placing a huge emphasis on integrating the talented Wiggins into the ‘Warriors Way’.
Southwest Division
Houston Rockets 34-20 record)
Daryl Morey has gone for the Death or Glory approach. The remainder of Houston’s regular season is going to be a balance between getting as many reps as they can for their new small ball core, against making sure that James Harden is rested for the playoffs and PJ Tucker isn’t worn down by the demands of banging bodies (on defense, at least) down low .
The roster changes have unleashed the best version of Russell Westbrook, careering down a wide open lane with reckless abandon. An aside, how good would Ben Simmons look in the Westbrook role on offense, whilst providing his malleable All-World defense? SWING FOR THE FENCES, DARYL!
Dallas Mavericks (33-22)
The Mavericks rebuild is ahead of schedule, so staying the course is a perfectly reasonable expectation.
On the micro level, coach Rick Carlisle will be looking to further develop the harmony between his two young stars Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis. Their chemistry early in the season was clunky, despite the Mavs historic offensive numbers. Injuries to both have impaired their growth: they’ve both played in only 33 of the Mavs 55 games this season, and just 10 of the past 31.
Getting those two more synergised is surely the biggest focus for the Mavs.
Memphis Grizzlies (28-26)
Memphis go into the stretch run enjoying a 4 game lead over Portland for the last playoff seed in the West. Given the Blazers bare bones roster and general inconsistency, Memphis look good value for their spot, despite having the hardest remaining schedule according to Tankathon. But the Blazers will get Zach Collins and Jusuf Nurkic back shortly. That, combined with a return to form from CJ McCollum and Damian Lillard reigning fire, could make things interesting. The suddenly very dangerous Pellies also loom.
In all honesty, a playoff berth would be wonderful for the rebuilding Grizz, but it’s not the be all and end all. This team is young and on an steep upwards trajectory. If you had offered the Grizzlies brass 40 wins at the seasons outset, they’d have bitten your hand off.
The experience of a tight playoff race, as much as the playoffs themselves, will benefit this young team.
San Antonio Spurs (23-31)
The Spurs famed playoff streak is surely over.
They’re 5 games off the streaking Grizzlies, have the soon to be healthy Blazers ahead of them, and the dangerous Pelicans behind them.
Given their situation, the Spurs should be focusing on their youth. Is Dejounte Murray a cornerstone? Are Derrick White and Jakob Poeltl starting level players? What is Lonnie Walker, exactly?
This being the Spurs, however, it’s very unlikely that Gregg Popovich will turn the team totally over to his youngsters for the remainder of theis season.
New Orleans Pelicans (23-32)
The now fully operational Pelicans are looming.
They’re still 5.5 games out of the playoffs with both the Spurs and Blazers standing between them and the 8th place Grizzlies – it’s a long shot, for sure. But this team had been claiming some big scalps leading up to the All Star break, including Boston and Indiana. Importantly, they’ve also beaten Portland and Memphis in that time.
If they can somehow upset the odds and grab that final playoff spot, they’ll be a handful for the Lakers in a series that will be appointment viewing.
Northwest Division
Denver Nuggets (38-17 record)
Denver are to a degree, serving two masters as the regular season winds down.
Given the pronounced home court advantage the altitude in Denver provides, securing the 2nd seed is vital. With the Clippers and Jazz within a game and a half of them, and the Rockets a true wildcard, they’ll have their work cut out. To that end, the excellent depth on this roster should hold them in good stead.
Securing the 2nd seed segues neatly into Denver’s other focus: a series win.
After last season’s capitulation to the savvy Spurs, nothing short of a 1st round series win is acceptable, although the team will of course be publicly aiming for a Conference Finals berth.
Utah Jazz (36-18)
The main focus for the Jazz is clear: get Mike Conley going.
The long time Memphis lead guard has struggled mightily in his new surrounds. He’s missed 22 games with injury and that certainly hasn’t helped, but even when playing he’s looked tentative in feeling out the ways that shooters like Bojan Bogdanovic and Joe Ingles want to receive the ball, and meshing with the roll patterns of Rudy Gobert. He’s shooting a horrible 39.2% from the field, with career lows in assists and steals.
Encouragingly, in a quartet of starts before the All Star break, Conley has averaged 20.3 points on 48.3% shooting with 4.8 assists.
Oklahoma City Thunder (33-22)
Everything from here on in is gravy for the 2019-20 surprise packet club. The expected Big Sellers at the deadline stood pat and can now focus on their unexpected playoff tilt.
They currently sit in 6th, but are only 2.5 games behind Houston and in possession of the tiebreaker. Do they get greedy and try to push up the standings? And if so, how? Will they enter the market for a buyout candidate? Do they lean on the veterans for more minutes, risking injury and/or fatigue?
An upgrade on the wing should be a priority.
Portland Trailblazers (25-31)
The Blazers sit 4 games back from the final playoff spot. With a veteran team, it’s surely playoffs or bust for Portland, despite their snake-bit season, including a groin strain for Damian Lillard that kept him out of the All Star game.
To that end, the Blazers should welcome back Zach Collins and Jusuf Nurkic in early March. If they can tread water until that point, could they make a move and spook the young Grizzlies into a form slump?
If they do make the playoffs, the Lakers – despite their pedigree – will want no part of Lillard.
Minnesota Timberwolves (16-37)
The Wolves have made their big move, and will live or die by the swords of Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell. The top 2 picks from the 2015 draft are both signed through the 2023 season, so Minnesota will get a long look at their new cornerstones.
Minnesota’s deadline moves could come back to haunt them if they don’t improve. Their surrendered draft picks could come in at the top of the draft. Of course, if the other deadline additions of Malik Beasley and Juancho Hernangomez and holdover players like Jarrett Culver, Jake Layman and Josh Okogie all develop, the foundations of a good team suddenly appear.
That’s the focus in Minnesota: develop this young core and see if they can grow into a competitive unit.
