NBA Power Rankings Tier 2: Playoff teams (for now)
8. Philadelphia 76ers
The 76ers have been in the news for not-so-basketball reasons (Ben Simmons, mainly). They’ve been pretty good, but haven’t beaten any quality opponents. I’m interested to see what their roster eventually looks like – but I also don’t think Doc Rivers is the right coach for this team. Also, shouts to Korkmaz, who has already had a great game this year.
9. Atlanta Hawks
The Hawks were one of my favorite teams entering the season – and they still are. But I can’t ignore a loss to a Cavs team that didn’t even have Darius Garland. There’s so much depth on this team – and while it’ll help in the playoffs – maybe it prevents Atlanta from actually using their best players as much as they should.
10. Chicago Bulls
As stated earlier, the Chicago Bulls are a quality basketball team. There’s not many teams that can beat a starting lineup of Lonzo Ball, Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Patrick Williams, and Nikola Vucevic. That’s a lot of talent – all of which fits better than what I personally expected. They’re a top ten team right now, and I think results will hold against better opposition.
11. Charlotte Hornets
LaMelo Ball looks every bit of a star right now, and the growth from some of the role players on the Charlotte Hornets has been incredible. Miles Bridges might be taking a leap – and we haven’t seen what this team is capable of with leading scorer Terry Rozier fully healthy. Charlotte got better – and it is more apparent with every game that they play.
12. Dallas Mavericks
The Dallas Mavericks have Luka Doncic. They also have Kristaps Porzingis. Only one of those players has been good this season. The role players on the Mavs haven’t been ideal this season thus far, but it’s still enough to find themselves in comfortable playoff territory – and that’s also in the Western Conference.
13. Boston Celtics
The Boston Celtics are an interesting team. They lost a rough (and I mean ROUGH) game to the New York Knicks to open the season. They then were handed a pretty significant loss by the Raptors, and squeaked by the Rockets on Sunday. They face the undefeated Hornets on Monday, and things might not look great after that with a stretch of games against the Wizards and Bulls – both of which have looked good this season.
14. New York Knicks
The Knicks beat the Celtics in their season opener. They beat the Magic on Friday night. BUT. They also LOST to the Magic most recently. That’s not great, although things are generally looking positive for them this season. Hopefully Kemba Walker improves though – as he is a shell of what he once was.
15. Miami Heat
The Miami Heat had a great offseason, they just have yet to piece everything together on the basketball court. They had a resounding win against the Bucks, but left a lot to be desired against the Pacers in their overtime loss. Still, the core of Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, and Kyle Lowry should be great this season.
16. Memphis Grizzlies
The Memphis Grizzlies are such a strange team. From a roster perspective, they got worse. Downgrading from Jonas Valanciunas to Steven Adams wasn’t great – and there simply does not seem to be enough spacing on this roster. Still, Ja Morant will ball out and that matters more than the other factors. Also: Jaren Jackson.
17. Washington Wizards
This is going to be the Bradley Beal (and other guys) show, but the Wizards are better than they were last season – and could be a pretty decent playoff team. If the goal is to take a team into a deep series in the first round, the Wizards could do that. In terms of actually winning a series, well… it’s hard to see.