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This is the third OTN podcast and it’s just me and Julian this time. Stupid Wagman and his evening shifts. Anyway, here we start off discussing the two ROY frontrunners and their teams. Then, we spend a lot of time looking at the Western playoff picture, more specifically analyzing the Rockets, Jazz, Spurs, Thunder, and the post-Oden Blazers. Finally, we talk about the bottom half of the Eastern playoff picture and what we can expect out of the Sixers, Wizards, Bobcats, and Bulls moving forward. Oh, and we cover LeBron’s recent shenanigans on the sideline. This was recorded just before Wednesday evening’s games, so we don’t get to talk about John Wall’s insanity or Chris Paul’s game-winner, but I should point out that we both predict what Brandon Jennings did to the Raptors.

Click here to listen to the podcast.

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I’m not a basketball lifer, I’m aware of this. I’m a white kid from Toronto. I didn’t see my first basketball game (in person or on TV) until 1995. I didn’t really get into basketball until I was 16. Yet here I am, confounded by the sheer idiocy that’s going on in and around the NBA. I can’t know more about basketball, interpersonal skills and basic math than people paid 6 or 7 figures to know these things right? Right? Well, can someone explain the following to me?

Memphis is paying Allen Iverson not to play. What is this, Groundhog Day? Didn’t they see what happened in Detroit? We all knew the deal, AI would not be a backup. Why were they surprised when he didn’t want to be one for the Grizz? And if AI was getting out of what he described as the worst situation in his career, where he claims he was stabbed in the back by former coach Curry, wouldn’t he have tried to get some assurances from the club that he wouldn’t be back in the same boat?

Byron Scott gets fired after a 3-6 start. He is replaced by his GM. Which would be fine, if the poor start wasn’t more related to the GM mismanaging that roster since the Hornets’ playoff run of 2 years ago than poor coaching. Or if they were replacing the coach with a better coach. Or if they weren’t hiring a lead assistant who they already have fired. Or if they tried to find a wing player who could actually play some ball. As Chris Paul read this, a single tear rolled down his cheek. He knows he doesn’t have the teammates. He knows.

The Knicks suspended Eddy Curry because he wasn’t in shape. Now he’s in shape. The problem: he may have lost 70 pounds but he’s still EDDY MOTHER FUCKING CURRY! How in gods name is he going to run with a D’Antoni system?! The dude might not be a walking balloon boy anymore, but he still won’t suddenly turn into Amar’e Staudemire or something. He isn’t a fast break type player. He’s not. Either you form a system around the players, or get players that fit the system. Eddy Curry doesn’t fit either template for the Knicks. Speaking of the Knicks’ template, the whole run and gun score a lot of points only works if you SCORE A LOT OF POINTS! Not when you give up 108 a freaking game and score about 100. Shockingly, these Knicks are actually WORSE on offense than they are on D! This is not how D’Antoni-ball is supposed to work. But it’s okay, the Knicks play at Madison Square Garden. Of course LeBron wants to play there next season. Duh.

Don Nelson still has a job? I don’t even want to talk about the Warriors. I feel sick.

The Nets are so far down right now that they LITERALLY threw away (1:50 here) their first chance to win a game this season. These people play professional basketball. Help! I don’t care that people are injured. If you can’t inbound a ball even CLOSE to a teammate, there are far bigger issues at play than injuries.

The Blazers have some of the best young offensive talent in the league. So it makes perfect sense that they’re playing at the 3rd slowest pace of any team in the NBA. Yet they’re still 19th in scoring. 28th in pace, 19th in scoring. The team has Brandon Roy and LaMarcus freaking Aldridge! DON’T BE AFRAID TO SHOOT THE FUCKING BALL! YOU HAVE ODEN UNDER THE BASKET FOR GOD’S SAKE! They have a hyper-efficient offense so why not actually use it more?! This team is the jackass who buys a Ferrari, only takes it on cruises around the neighbourhood and won’t change out of 2nd gear. I watch basketball to be entertained. I play fantasy basketball to heighten that entertainment. I love defense, rebounding, hustle, and the down and dirty guys (see my Nuggets piece where I wax poetic about the likes of Birdman and Joey Graham). But I also want to see some end to end action! I want to see the best athletes in the world making the most of their talent and abilities. Moreover, I don’t want to see one more fucking boxscore where Roy, Aldridge and Oden have to get their stats from a total of 90-something points and 40-something rebounds! Let them loose a LITTLE bit. Please! I’m begging you. Last year, they were 30th in pace and 1st in efficiency. This year, they’re 28th in pace and a bit lower in the efficiency (8th). Still good, yes, but is it really going to negatively impact the team too much to maybe bump the offense up to 20th in pace? Really? They’re getting 89.4 possessions in 48 minutes. 2 more possessions a game gets them to 19th. That’s it! Will an extra 2 possessions hurt their efficiency THAT much?! Okay, maybe I’m just angry as a fantasy owner of Roy and Aldridge. And Oden. In fact, I’m pretty sure I just sunk any trade value that Aldridge had. Let’s just move on.

Philadelphia has one really good low post player in Marreese Speights, but can’t play him big minutes because they fear the two vets ahead of him would become malcontents if moved to the bench. This team actually has a quality building block in their frontcourt, and Eddie Jordan must know that the kid is going to start eventually. The Sixers won’t be very good this year – common sense says that counting on Sam Dalembert in the first place destined this team for failure. They need to embrace the fuutre. Obviously, I am not a Dalembert fan. I am not a Brand fan, either. I do however enjoy Brand’s play if for nothing else than to laugh at James, who drafted big Elton right after I took Boozer. Sucker. (Ed.: Ugh, I want to make fun of you for not keeping Marc Gasol, but that Brand thing was too upsetting. You’re mean.)

Chicago brought in John Salmons at the deadline last year, presumably to groom a replacement since they’d already decided they weren’t keeping Gordon (I’d rather have the cap space too). The mistake: not recognizing that Salmons wasn’t a great basketball player and cashing out while he had serious value. Now they can’t do anything with him. Not that it really matters. Even if they had the pieces, they’d still find a way to fuck it up. James thinks I should give VDN credit for fixing the defense… but they replaced a defensive pylon at 2 guard with someone who plays, and Rose and Noah got a year better. VDN just happened to be along for the ride. And he’s supposed to get credit for that? Pfff. Last year, I thought Vinny Del Negro was an inexperienced moron in over his head. Now, I just think he’s dumb.

What’s my problem with Vinny? Well, he doesn’t know his personnel. He makes poor decisions. On the potential game-winning buzzer beating shot that Miller made against Denver the other day, Luol Deng actually said “I thought it was a fact you can’t shoot with 0.3. So that’s why I was kind of like, I mean, if it counted then they’ve got to change a lot of things because I thought it was 0.4.” Really. Wouldn’t you think this MIGHT come up during the timeout that preceded the play? What the hell was Vinny talking about in that timeout? It’s not like he was drawing up some top secret super-duper guaranteed-to-work play. The Outside The NBA team was watching that game from our hub of James’s basement (basking in post podcast glow), and while Julian and I disagreed with James’s assertion the basket should count (Ed.: I said it looked very close on the replay, not that it should definitely count), I think we could all agree that Denver’s curious decision to not bother to cover Brad Miller was far more of a factor in Miller getting that good a look than any genius that Del Negro came up with. Not to mention the fact that VDN STILL hasn’t figured out that for Rose to be effective he needs to be on the floor with someone who can great space for him by making shots. One person. Not 3 people standing 20 feet from the basket jacking contested shots while everyone stands still. When the fucking Toronto Raptors can shut you down in an entire half of basketball, you have problems. I don’t want to hear the “they were tired, they were on a back to back” excuse. That’s horseshit. I understand how the travel and lack of preparation can negatively impact a team, but 28 points in a half against what might be one of the worst defensive teams in NBA history? Just move the ball. Spread the floor. For god’s sake, it’s like a team of Jamario Moons over there.

My final rants and raves: Fans and GM’s. It’s between 7 and 9 games into the season. There are any number of key players on any number of teams missing for reasons varying from steroids to ‘personal reasons’. A bunch of teams are integrating new players. Everyone, myself included, needs to take a deep breath and relax a little bit. Just close your eyes and breathe deep. I’ll wait. Everyone ready? Ok, time to continue ranting with some assorted thoughts on this season thus far:

The Cellar Dwellers

Okay. The Toronto Raptors are playing without their supposed best rebounder. We don’t know if Reggie Evans will make a significant difference to the Raps’ lack of success on the offensive and defensive glass, so let’s at least wait till he gets on the floor before we start freaking out. If after a while the Raps still can’t play defense or at least grab the occasional rebound, then clearly there’s a problem.

The Bucks have lost to Philly, beat Detroit, the Bulls, the Wolves, the Knicks and the Nuggets. Not to take anything away from that Nuggets win, but Denver was on the second day of a back to back. Either way, that’s hardly a murderer’s row of teams the Bucks have beaten. Let’s wait a little longer before we start sucking Skiles off again. (Ed.: You bastard. The Bucks are awesome. If you had said something negative about Jennings here, I would have lost it.)

Sacramento is .500 for the first time in YEARS. Fact: James actually tried to convince me to trade him Casspi. Even offering players AND burgers to be named later. Alas, Sacramento can’t keep this pace up forever but at least we can all enjoy it while it lasts.

The Contenders

The Boston Celtics are off to a fantastic start. They are also the oldest team in the NBA. Thankfully, almost every stadium in North America comes equipped with a defibrillator. Let’s just say I’m glad I’m not on the hook for their insurance premium this season.

Orlando has missed one of their best players, Rashard Lewis, for the entire season thus far. And will for a few more games. Vince Carter, Mickael Pietrus, and Ryan Anderson have missed games, too. Tonight, Brandon Bass isn’t even playing. Dwight Howard has kinda learned to shoot free throws and is becoming good as passing out of double teams. I regret not picking them higher in the predictions piece. Just a scary, scary team.

Denver just got J.R “Don’t call me Earl” Smith back into the lineup. The Nuggets have beaten Utah at home and Portland on the road back-to-back. And since then, they have proceeded to beat Memphis, Indy, the Nets and the Bulls. But don’t forget that they have lost to Miami, Atlanta and Milwaukee. As much as it pains me to say: we can’t really read too much into Denver’s hot start. Should they beat the Lakers tonight though, it’s a whole new ballgame.

Phoenix has only played 2 home games so far. The first loss they had was to Orlando, when Steve Nash seemed tired on a back-to-back (the only game he had less than 8 assists). They got spanked by the Lakers, again in a game where Nash looked tired. So it seems like the Suns will go as far as Nash can take them. Here’s hoping that’s a long way, but I’m not going to get my hopes up just yet.

San Antonio just beat up Dallas while playing without Duncan and Parker. Well then. I don’t even have anything to add. That’s where amazing happens, ladies and gentlemen.

The Cavs have started to put it together, and they’ll get it eventually. Despite Mike Brown’s best efforts, the Cavs will be fine. The east is going to be interesting yet.

Summer 2010

Call it a hunch, but somehow I doubt any of the big name free agents this year will even CONSIDER where to go next year without seeing how competitive their current teams are. It’s not like the more times reporters ask said big name soon to be free agents where they are going, the more likely the players are to answer in anything more than jock-speak and cliches. All these reporters are doing is torturing dozens of already tortured fan bases. Cleveland already has the Monday Night Debacle (you’ll see on the 16th) in its future. They also got to see their 2 former best pitchers face off against each other in a World Series game. Do they really need to be subjected to this crap every game day? It’s bad enough these poor people live in Cleveland. Just leave them alone. I’m begging you. LeBron has finally asked for this.

Fantasy

James is currently beating me in the fantasy league that I blogged about. But I’m beating him in the other fantasy league we’re in. When asked for comment, James couldn’t really garble out a reply. All I could make out was that James doesn’t like the head-to-head format. I guess he believes in keeping that kind of stuff for his personal life since I’m fairly sure his voice was being muffled by Ben Gordon’s dick. (Ed.: Ben Gordon?! WTF? I don’t even have him in the pool. If you’re going to make an absolutely tasteless joke, at least use Gilbert or Dwight or something. I’m disappointed in you. This blog post is over.)

Remember how crazy the West was 2-through-9 last year? We knew no one would catch the Lakers, and we knew you’d have to win close to 50 games to make the playoffs, but we had no idea how everything would shake out in the end. There was one great team in the conference, a bunch of very good teams, and then a whole bunch of crap. No Western team won between 29 (Golden State) and 46 (Phoenix) games.

Well, the East is even crazier than that this year, but the action is all in the middle. I see three teams that should easily win more than 46 games as presently constructed and only two that might finish with fewer than 29. That’s almost what happened last season, but what’s even more interesting is that, if forced to predict team records this season, I’d argue that there are ten Eastern teams that could hover around the 40-42 win mark.

Here’s a look at the big clusterfuck:

Atlanta Hawks

2008-2009: 47-35. 10th in offense. 11th in defense.

You might wonder why these guys are on the list, as they had home court advantage in the playoffs last season. They’re also the only team on this list that was above-average on both ends of the court last season. Plus, they’ve got continuity – in re-signing Mike Bibby, Zaza Pachulia, and Marvin Williams, they’ve kept their core intact. Adding Joe Smith and Jeff Teague should improve their bench, too. Still, I see a couple of reasons why they could slip back in the standings. First, there’s the Jamal Crawford signing. At first glance, this seems like a positive move. He is, if only slightly, a better player statistically than Filp Murray, the man he is replacing. However, he is allergic to defense. Murray isn’t great at that end of the court either, but I’d rather have him out there than Jamal. Additionally, Murray was only out there for 24 minutes a night, which is what he’s been used to as a sparkplug scorer off the bench. Crawford has been accustomed to a more prominent role and has received significantly more minutes than that since 2003-2004, which leads me to question how this will work out. There are two potential problem scenarios here – having a bad defender on the court for too long, or having an unhappy Crawford cause problems in the locker room. In addition to all this, I see a second challenge in the way of Atlanta getting back to 47 wins, one that faces all of the teams I will cover here: other teams have improved. Atlanta went 26-7 against the other nine teams on this list last season and I believe this will be a significantly more difficult thing to do this time around. Even if they are still the best of the group, there is a smaller gulf between the Hawks and the teams who finished beneath them in the standings last year, one that might not make up for the fact that they are clearly a couple of notches away from being an elite team. Unless their young talent and/or coach Mike Woodson provides the club with improvement from within, expect a step back.

Miami Heat

2008-2009: 43-39. 20th in offense. 11th in defense.

If Jermaine O’Neal plays like he did in the first half of the decade for Indiana, and he manages to stay on the court, this team can improve. Reading the reports in Miami might make you seem optimistic about this, but I’m here to remind you that this is the same exact stuff we heard in Toronto last year. I truly hope Jermaine will be more than a half-decent jump-shooter and shot-blocker this season, but I remain very, very skeptical. Even if Jermaine O’Neal remains average, though, shouldn’t Mario Chalmers and Michael Beasley improve enough to add some wins? I’m not sure. Chalmers is a nice piece but I don’t see him being much of a game-changer this season. Beasley is more interesting – this is an extremely talented kid that deserves a bigger role than he had last season. If they park him on the block and give him the ball, he can score at will. With more minutes and more touches this season, he could help the Heat win more games. I’m worried about him, though, because Erik Spoelstra is going to try to play him at the 3. This is not his position. He’s going to struggle to guard 3s and he’s going to have a tougher time scoring. If they don’t get more offense out of Beasley and O’Neal, I think they could drop in the standings even if Wade turns in another MVP-level season – the drop-off on the defensive end from Marion/Moon to Beasley/James Jones/Q-Rich is huge.

Philadelphia 76ers

2008-2009: 41-41. 19th in offense. 13th in defense.

This team has some good players and a good coach, but there’s no way to know if they’re going to put it together, or put it together in time to really make a mark. They struggled integrating Elton Brand last year – we knew it would take some time to integrate a traditional post player into their athletic, fast-paced, turnover-causing attack, but didn’t think it’d be so difficult that everyone seemed relieved when the team’s best player was sidelined with an injury. Since last season, they’ve lost their starting point guard in Andre Miller and haven’t done much about it. Sure, he was lazy at times, but he was solid and, no, Jrue Holiday is not a replacement. This season we’ll see some improvement from Philly’s young guys, we’ll see a lot of Andre Iguodala handling the ball, and we’ll (hopefully) see a much more effective Elton Brand than we saw for bits of the 2008-2009 regular season. With the time it’ll take for this team to properly learn Eddie Jordan’s offense, though, and its still-obvious lack of shooters (even with Jason Kapono on the roster), I find it difficult to imagine them separating themselves from the pack in the East.

Chicago Bulls

2008-2009: 41-41. 14th in offense. 18th in defense.

Having John Salmons and Brad Miller around for the full season will help. So will having Luol Deng back. It even seems like Taj Gibson can contribute. So, why am I not projecting a big leap? Well, for one, they lost Ben Gordon. Complain all you want about his shot selection and his defense, but he is a very, very good player who the Bulls haven’t replaced. Before you scoff at the contested jumpers he puts up, realize he is an incredibly efficient scorer – his TS% of 57.2 is absolutely an elite number for a shooting guard, on par with that of Brandon Roy and Dwyane Wade. I’m not going to argue that he is a great defender, but Scott Skiles was able to effectively mask his defensive deficiencies for years. Please don’t think of Jannero Pargo as an adequate replacement. Still, with improvement from Derrick Rose, Tyrus Thomas, and Joakim Noah, this team might have the highest ceiling of any on this list. To finish at the top would require a fantastic coaching effort, though, and with Vinny Del Negro at the helm I am definitely not counting on it.

Detroit Pistons

2008-2009: 39-43. 21st in offense. 16th in defense.

Do not count on the Pistons finishing 21st in offensive efficiency next season. With Ben Gordon, Charlie Villanueva, and Chris Wilcox joining Rip Hamilton, Rodney Stuckey, Tayshaun Prince, Will Bynum, and Jason Maxiell, new coach John Kuester has plenty of scoring options to work with. Kuester is the man who re-worked the Cleveland Cavaliers’ offense last season, when they jumped from the league’s 19th-best offensive team to its 4th-best. Even though they’ve been absolutely great in previous years, Allen Iverson and Rasheed Wallace hurt the Pistons on both ends of the floor last year. The long jump shots and sub-par defense we saw from these two last season is the reason we have the term “addition by subtraction”. Detroit fans should be expect a much more functional locker room than the one Michael Curry dealt with last season, plus potentially one of the league’s top offenses. This is all good stuff. There’s a reason I’m not expecting an enormous jump in the standings, though: defense. Charlie V. and Ben Gordon will be huge boosts on the offensive end of the floor, but these guys will never be mistaken for defensive stoppers. Same with Wilcox. They’ve brought Ben Wallace back, but at this point in his career I’d argue that Kwame Brown is a more useful defensive player. I would be very impressed if Kuester managed to keep this club at around the league average next season, that’s what it would take in order to move into the upper echelon of the conference, even if these Pistons are up there with Portland in terms of offensive potency.

Indiana Pacers

2008-2009: 38-44. 17th in offense. 19th in defense.

I’m not going to tell you that the Pacers are more talented this year. They’re not – swapping Marquis Daniels, Rasho Nesterovic, and Jarrett Jack for Dahntay Jones, Tyler Hansbrough, and Earl Watson shouldn’t get any Pacers fan excited. Here’s the thing, though: these downgrades don’t prevent Indiana from winning a few more games than last year. Brandon Rush had a killer end of the season, Roy Hibbert was already a very effective center in his rookie campaign, and T.J. Ford is better than what he showed last season. I’d bet on all of them being more consistent this season. You have to hope that T.J. can stay healthy and Hibbert will cut down on the fouls, but the potential is there for 3/5ths of the Pacers starting unit (at least until Mike Dunleavy returns) to show considerable improvement. In addition to this, Danny Granger will continue the ascent to stardom that got him an All-Star berth and the Most Improved Player award in 2008-2009. I’m not fond of the Pacers’ overall plan or long-term outlook, but I won’t be at all surprised if they’re in the thick of the playoff hunt next season. I’d encourage you to pay attention to this team even if they’re not, though, as Jim O’Brien’s club played at the 3rd-fastest pace of any team last season and were a ton of fun to watch.

Charlotte Bobcats

2008-2009: 35-47. 27th in offense. 7th in defense.

The Bobcats wanted that 8th seed last year more than perhaps any franchise I’ve ever seen. Eschewing the bottom-out-and-get-draft-picks plan, coach Larry Brown pressured management into acquiring veterans Raja Bell, Boris Diaw, Vladimir Radmanovic, and Juwan Howard in the hopes of having the Bobcats’ most successful season yet. To his credit, he technically did that, as the Bobcats had previously never eclipsed the 33-win mark. Brown managed to impart his defensive wisdom on the young and old on the roster, making Charlotte one of the league’s best defensive teams by the end of the season. While I think none of this was/is in the best interest of the team’s future, I expect the Bobcats will make another charge at a low playoff seed in 2009-2010. This time, the vast majority of the key players are already used to Brown’s coaching style and this could translate into a few more wins. It’s a shame they took a step down by trading the solid Emeka Okafor for the chronically-injured Tyson Chandler, but they gained some ground by adding some much-needed wing scoring in Flip Murray and Gerald Henderson. If their defense sustains and they make some strides on the offensive end (a good start would be increasing D.J. Augustin’s minutes), then they’ll be in the mix.

Milwaukee Bucks

2008-2009: 34-48. 23rd in offense. 11th in defense.

You’ve got to love Scott Skiles, at least for the first few years he coaches a team. Even though they were overmatched some nights last season, the Bucks always competed. Even with guys like Luke Ridnour and Charlie Villanueva playing major minutes, the Bucks maintained an above-average defense and avoided toiling in the league’s cellar. Now, though, after losing three of their best players in Villanueva, Ramon Sessions and Richard Jefferson, can they be better? I say yes. The most impressive part about what Skiles accomplished last year in Milwaukee was the fact that he did it with Michael Redd and Andrew Bogut missing more than half of the season. With these guys coming back, expect a big jump on offense. And even though the Bucks failed to make any headline-grabbing news this summer, they did add some pieces to try to make up for what they gave away. Hakim Warrick, Kurt Thomas, and Carlos Delfino can contribute right away and they hope to get contributions from Ersan Ilyasova, Brandon Jennings, Jodie Meeks, and Roko Ukic as well. All this, plus the presence of the defensive-minded, brilliantly-named Luc Richard Mbah A Moute! I must say, there are plenty of reasons to be excited about the Bucks.

Toronto Raptors

2008-2009: 33-49. 22nd in offense. 22nd in defense.

Kelly Dwyer was right when he said last year’s version of Jose Calderon was only at full strength for about a third of his 68 appearances. This is the single biggest reason why I expect the Raptors to make a jump from their terrible record last season. As a Raptors fan, it pained me to watch Jose last year. This guy who couldn’t move laterally, couldn’t turn the corner on the pick and roll, and couldn’t get the proper lift on his three-point shots was not the same guy I had seen running the point in TO the year before. The guy I had seen before was a danger to shoot at all times, ran the offense perfectly, knew when to attack, and made his teammates much better. Sure, he wasn’t an all-world defender, but he wasn’t a liability on that end, either. This All-Star-worthy version of Calderon is the man who I expect to be running the team this year, and this is why I project them to jump into the playoff picture. In Jarrett Jack, Rasho Nesterovic, Amir Johnson, and Antoine Wright, the Raptors have a much-improved bench and the addition of Hedo Turkoglu into the starting lineup alongside Chris Bosh, Calderon, and Andrea Bargnani could give Toronto one of the most potent offenses in the league. Hence, there is optimism in Toronto. Don’t believe the 50-win nonsense, though – this team is still too weak defensively and at the 2-guard spot to approach that number. That is, of course, unless Bargnani drinks some magical defense-and-rebounding juice and Jay Triano does a Stan Van Gundy-esque job of getting his weak defenders to play intelligent team D.

Washington Wizards

2008-2009: 19-63. 26th in offense. 29th in defense.

I’m sure you know that this is a completely different team to the Wizards of last year. With a healthy Gilbert Arenas and Brendan Haywood, last year wouldn’t have been the nightmare that it was. Add Randy Foye and Mike Miller to the lineup, plus the coaching of Flip Saunders, and you have a team that will likely make a bigger jump than any other in 2009-2010. With a starting 5 of Arenas, Foye/Miller, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, and Brendan Haywood, opposing defenses are in for long nights against the Wiz. The problem, of course, is that opposing offenses may be in for easy nights. As great as this Wizards team looks offensively, with the aforementioned top six plus Fabricio Oberto, DeShawn Stevenson, Nick Young, JaVale McGee, and Andray Blatche, they look bad defensively. I love Flip, but he is more of an offensive guru and I doubt there’s a coach in this league that could make this bunch into a decent defensive group. If he does, they’re better than most teams here. If he doesn’t, as I expect, well… What do you get if you’re league-best on one end and league-worst on the other? Another middle-of-the-pack club.

What does this all mean? Well, all of the above teams are flawed. Flawed enough that they won’t approach the win totals of Cleveland, Orlando, and Boston if those teams stay relatively healthy. It also means they all have talent, though, and they’re all capable of beating better Western Conference teams on a random night in February. We know that, with trades and injuries, things will change for these teams and how they rank in comparison to each other as the season goes along. When we near the end of the season, though, I’m sure it’ll be a right mess trying to figure out which teams will make it into the playoffs and which of those will be lucky enough to get the 4th and 5th seeds and avoid facing one of the aforementioned juggernauts in the first round. Sure, the vast majority of these teams won’t play a game in May or June, but they will provide us with some pretty damn good basketball during the regular season. For a guy will be flipping from game to game on League Pass every night starting in two and a half weeks, this is something to be excited about.