Post by Mark on Jan 3, 2011 23:27:28 GMT -5
Pre-Season Rankings!
I don’t see a team that stands out from the pack this season in BBS. It could obviously happen eventually with trades but as currently constructed there are a bunch of very good teams and no truly dominant squad. As a result, I expect this list to catch some criticism after it’s posted. So many teams are roughly the same pre-season. With that said, here are the rankings:
[/center]
29. Charlotte Bobcats (37-45 last season):
[/b]Yikes.
28. Portland Trailblazers (38-44 last season):
[/b]Donny Ballgame is in full tank mode right now. This should work out very well for him and it’s about time he has a true rebuild. He’s gaining some good assets (lucked out with Miami’s picks) and can tank his balls off over the next couple of seasons. He’ll suck this year but I really like that he is biting the bullet, pulling out of mediocrity, and doing a true rebuild.
27. Miami Heat (51-31 last season):
[/b]HeatFlash temporarily put together an outstanding core last season with the additions of Eddy Curry and Martell Webster. Unfortunately for the Heat, a salary oversight caused Miami to have to deal off Chris Bosh in order to get under the hard cap. He has started the rebuilding process after losing center Al Jefferson in free agency and dealing Curry to Detroit. HF is in full rebuild mode so this team should be pretty terrible from a win/loss perspective.
26. Los Angeles Lakers (24-58 last season):
[/b]Nanz is a very good friend of mine. He also loves to tank and probably will do it again in some form this season. Spence is already complaining in his DC thread about a tanking DC. Yikes. I love what Nanz did this offseason though. He played FA very well (the OKC thread + signing Yao). Rivers/Gilchrist could be building block pieces and he’s got picks/cap at the end of the season. He should probably just tank one more time and then enter his CY with a ton of assets.
25. Los Angeles Clippers (13-69 last season):
[/b]Martinez has an awesome young core going right now. Jonas Valanciunas had an amazing TC. Honeycutt looks great. Irving looks great. He signed a very good Al Jefferson in free agency. The future is great right now in LA assuming he doesn’t fuck it up. Damn, I want some of this young talent. I assume he’s going to somewhat tank again here before entering his CY? They won’t be great at all this season but he really does have a sick thing going in LA.
24. Philadelphia 76ers (18-64 last season):
[/b]Damn, this team has some young talent. Tyreke is such a beast at PG that I think he’ll win quite a few games this year. Fuck, I wanted Tyreke so badly and cannot trade for him. Philly’s young core is more impressive than it’s actual roster for this season but he shouldn’t be a punching bag at all with Tyreke at PG.
23. Cleveland Cavaliers (33-49 last season):
[/b]I don’t know, I don’t feel like Cleveland has mattered for months. They had that fluke finals appearance but eh. He still has Gerald Wallace (and Kobe) so they won’t be terrible but I don’t see any reason for them to improve upon their win total from last season. Maybe 35-47? Maybe 37 wins if GWall is absurd? Not a relevant team though. Time to rebuild.
22. Atlanta Hawks (30-52 last season):
[/b]The Hawks sucked last year and won the right to draft Fab Melo. It’s tough to get a read on this team before seeing how he sims, but overall they look pretty average for this season. Blake was a pretty cool add in free agency but he’s a second tier type player. I really liked the Barbosa addition. His percentages are always crazy good and should work very well with stud Derrick Rose in the backcourt. I am going to conservatively rank them at the moment until I see how Melo/Griffin sim together.
21. Golden State Warriors (32-50 last season):
[/b]Game did such a bad job last season. He gave up a lottery pick to Martinez which became Tyler Honeycutt. Honeycutt looks like he is going to be a legitimate player for Martinez now after TC. Quinn Cook had a good TC for Game but this team isn’t very good. Derrick Williams looks sick though.
20. Indiana Pacers (35-47 last season):
[/b]This team will probably suck, right? I haven’t looked at their roster yet but I assume it’s pretty bad? OK, let’s look at it. Yup, pretty bad but I guess it could be worse. Wow, Wall is amazing. He has a bunch of solid players and Wall. Strange that he won 35 last year with such a bad team. I guess he is going to be in the high 30s with the team as presently constructed.
19. Oklahoma City Thunder (30-52 last season):
[/b]Aaron just dealt off Gasol and got his pick back in the trade. Hmm, I wonder how easily I can find a post from Aaron saying he won’t ever tank again with his pick LOL. 99% sure he said some form of it in a sim thread during his amazing Curry team from two seasons ago. He’s doing the right thing though and will eventually build OKC back up. Fuck, I think I actually dealt that OKC 14 at one point. Yeah I did, I got it for David West. I marketed it saying “Aaron will need to rebuild by then”. BOOM. He’ll make his team suck this year with his pick so I’m going to put him damn low. Edit: Bumped him lol.
18. San Antonio Spurs (38-44 last season):
[/b]I’m not entirely sure if he is rebuilding or what right now. Martynas is nasty as hell. Wow, what a great season he had last year. It looks like Patric Young might be a very good player for him as soon as this year. San Antonio could probably get a late seed but they aren’t very good.
17. Toronto Raptors (33-49 last season):
[/b]Tough to get a read on this team. I can’t wait to see how Yarou sims for him. I guess he won’t block any shots but it would be pretty sick if he is just lockdown against other big men. AK/Yarou down low could be devastating from a defensive standpoint. KD is a nasty scorer, Ford is a good PG. Huge hole here at SG will hold them back. I honestly have no clue if he is tanking, rebuilding, etc.
16. Washington Wizards (37-45 last season):
[/b]Damn, this is a pretty weak contract year roster starting the season. Rondo is nasty and Harden developed nicely. West is a good player but I wouldn’t want to play him at the 5. I think he might barely get 42 with this squad but it’s not very good at all. He needs to make a move.
15. Boston Celtics (49-33 last season):
[/b]The Celtics during the Zach Randolph era have pretty much always been very good (49, 51, 49 wins over the previous three seasons as well as a 50+ win stretch over four seasons from 2003-2006) but never elite. He has two great players (Boris Diaw is the other) and very little else now that forward Carlos Boozer has been shipped off to Detroit. His current roster will probably be in the 45 win range but I suspect he isn’t done dealing and we will see Randolph and/or Diaw elsewhere sooner than later.
14. New York Knicks (46-36 last season):
[/b]I don’t love this team currently but it’ll probably get a lot better as Skillz wheels and deals. Right now he is running a Cook/Rodriguez/Prince/Thompson/Love starting 5 which really isn’t all that impressive. Definitely a cut below the top tier in the Eastern Conference IMO unless I’m completely misjudging the talent on this team. Trading back for Darko would obviously help him quite a bit.
13. Orlando Magic (42-40 last season):
[/b]Westbrook/Thabo/Odom/Lee/Aldridge with Arenas off the bench… really not a bad team at all. Not a title contender obviously but I think he will win some games with this squad. 46+ seems fair especially considering it won 42 this past season. Westbrook had a good TC and Arenas is a 6MOY contender. Probably a 6 seed in the East.
12. Milwaukee Bucks (44-38 last season):
[/b]DeRozan and Selby are sick. I was wrong on DeRozan. I remember telling Jeff that he would probably suck when he was thinking about drafting him. My bad, lolz. Paul George looks good too. Some good talent on this team. They’re not a title contender but 46-48 wins? I don’t see why not. I’m curious to see what Selby’s TOs are like at PG full time.
11. Houston Rockets (27-55 last season):
[/b]IIRC Andrew never has won 42 games in a BBS season so this CY will get interesting. JK, he randomly won 60 once with a Utah team. I’m getting bored of ranking teams. Hmm, Houston. I don’t get the criticism of his Hinrich deal at all. He made his team better with that deal and still has a ton of assets to move. Oh shit, I just remembered he got Marc Gasol today. That’s so sick. Gasol is amazing. Andrew will easily beat the CY and should actually have a very good core over the next few seasons. Weird.
10. Dallas Mavericks (38-44 last season):
[/b]Damn, Bynum/Johnson down low is going to be sick. He needs a great shotblocker/rebounder to back these two up. He could be so good if he got that. Hey Greg, I’ve got Sean Williams and Chris Mihm. Either could go but I want something nice! Manu is nasty. My boy JJ is in his starting lineup. This team looks like it could be very good. 50 wins?
9. New Orleans Hornets (41-41 last season):
[/b]Aar has a pretty good core right now with Dwight Howard, Ricky Rubio, DWade, and Pau. They should win a good amount of games in the regular season before falling to the truly elite squads in the playoffs. They definitely have a lot of talent though. I never knew he got Pau, that’s sick. The hole at SF hurts him overall though.
8. Chicago Bulls (43-39 last season):
[/b]Play has a ton of talent on this team. Getting Emeka back is pretty sick. Maybe this happened last season but I never noticed. Bogut/Emeka up front will be great. Jones/Hayward/Holiday is stellar as well. I’m not sure how they will sim together overall at this age but it’s a pretty nasty core for the future. I’m going to conservatively rank Chicago behind some more proven cores at the moment but it wouldn’t surprise me to see them gel.
7. Utah Jazz (60-22 last season):
[/b]Utah was so sick last season and I fucking knew it the whole year. Ugh, so pissed that they beat me in the WCF. I think Don downplayed the loss of Arenas way too much though. That is a big hit to this team and bumps them below the top tier in the West. TC wasn’t kind to Arenas but he was still pretty damn great for Utah last season. They will win a lot of games but I would be shocked if they repeat.
6. New Jersey Nets (50-32 last season):
[/b]I would be really surprised to see Jeff make any substantial moves to his three man core of Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, and Joakim Noah this season. He seems pretty hesitant to do so for two reasons: a fairly weak Eastern Conference and a lack of good offers thus far. As a result, the Nets will be what they always are: a very nasty offensive team that wins a ton of regular season games but eventually loses in the playoffs. I think it gets overlooked that Jeff was something like 30-6 when Carmelo got hurt last season. He probably had a 60-22 team during the regular season and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if this current roster gets him 55+.
5. Minnesota Timberwolves (58-24 last season):
[/b]Roy/Monta is such a devastating backcourt. It sucks that he hasn’t been able to add another star to those two. Maybe he can use Durand Scott+ to do it. I was so surprised to see Scott fall in the real draft. I had him at 5th overall when I wrote my mock draft article. He had a pretty good TC. Minnesota lost to Phoenix in the second round last year and hasn’t done anything to improve since then (I think). Still a great team though. Elite.
4. Memphis Grizzlies (58-24 last season):
[/b]Lopez/Amare/Bosh. So good. I don’t get why Bosh simmed so poorly last season though. Insane has a block up trying to deal Bosh for depth so this ranking will probably end up changing before I finish this. Sucks. The Grizzlies return their studs and should be great again. I don’t think they’re winning the title but 55+ wins could easily happen. So much firepower down low.
3. Denver Nuggets (56-26 last season):
[/b]This team is definitely really good but I think it’s worse than Greeme thinks/realizes. I love Darko even if that contract is horrible (and it’s pretty funny considering the Millsap/Bogut debate from last month). He’s going to launch 3s, block shots, and get rebounds. I like it a lot. Very, very good team. Probably won’t be that good when Darko is making 30 million though lol’d.
2. Phoenix Suns (59-23 last season):
[/b]The Suns were 43-7 last year before completely sucking down the stretch, losing the 1 seed and probably losing the title as a result. Oh well. I’m bringing back my entire rotation from this past season and got better in TC (Favors/Horford). I should be a 55+ win team again with my current roster but I’m going to try and make a big move to put me over the top. I don’t want the window to close with Deron. I do think I have the best team in the West though now that Utah lost Gilbert Arenas.
1. Detroit Pistons (49-33 last season):
[/b]Damn, I love this team right now. Adding Curry is completely massive. Curry/Udoh will block shots, Jennings/Redd in the backcourt is sick, and Boozer fills out the starting lineup nicely. I’m only about ten teams in as of this writing but I’m pretty sure I’m putting them number one overall. I think Curry is that much of a game changer for a team. Jennings/Curry, damn.
