As promised here is our continued look at the NBA. For the last installment of this series (on the top 8 teams) we might switch things up a bit.
13. The Portland Trail-Blazers (72points)*
The Blazers started off this season as
one of the best teams in the West and they looked like they could potentially
pull off a few upsets in the playoffs and get to the finals. Their starting
five was solid on both offense and defense, but they also had key contributors
off the bench. Then things started trending downwards and the team has not been
able to pull it together. McMillan decided to sub Crawford into the starting
lineup instead of Felton (who apparently forgot how to play basketball) which
was obviously not going to work, since Crawford will never primarily look to
pass. He is a great scorer off the bench and can go off for 50 (did so while
playing for three different teams) on any given night, but he should not be
forced into playing like a distributor. The other move McMillan made was
subbing Batum in for Matthews, which turned out great for Batum, but put
Matthews in a giant shooting slump. So then came the trade deadline which
involved rumours surround the Blazers. Will Crawford go to the Wolves? Will
Felton go to the Lakers? Well neither of these two happened, but the team said
fuck it and just traded just about everyone else away. Camby was shipped to the
Rockets, Wallace to the Nets (I still don’t get why the nets did this…it’s not
like Wallace will make Deron stay), Oden was waived (go to Pheonix, it’s your
only chance at playing again!), and McMillan was fired. What did the Blazers
gain from this? Not much to be honest, except more playing time for their
younger players. Where will they finish the season? At home on their couches
watching the NBA playoffs (hopefully Felton stays away from whatever he was
eating prior to this season). Now the Blazers can look forward to the NBA
lottery and hope the team rebounds next year, since they do have some good pieces
to surround Aldridge with.
-Igor
*Editors Note: It really speaks volumes
as to how much this team fell off from the start of the season.
12. The Denver Nuggets (72points)
When we initially picked the teams that we wanted to write
about, I jumped on this Nuggets squad. They were playing a fun, up-tempo style
and were winning games without a true star, but unfortunately, injuries got the
better of them and they were unable to sustain their red-hot start to the
season. As of this writing (insert joke about how out-dated some of these
rankings are) the Nuggets are in a three-way tie for 7th in the Western
conference, but are a half game out of fourth, and four games out of third. The
West basically breaks down to nine teams fighting for the last five spots, as
the Thunder, Lakers, and Spurs have created separation from the rest of the
pack. So where do the Nuggets fall in that mix? If I had to choose, I think 8th
is the spot that they will end up with. For starters, Denver is still not fully
healthy, and the constant flux of line-ups and minutes has not allowed them to
be consistent whatsoever. Secondly, the Nuggets have only six (!) home games
remaining in the regular season, are they good enough to scrape some road
games? Yes. Can they win more than 54% (their current winning percentage) of
them? Probably not; From April 13th to April 25th Denver
plays the Lakers, the Rockets twice, the Clippers, the Suns, the Magic, and
lastly the Thunder in that order. That stretch of games will determine whether
or not they make the playoffs, but until then all they can do is try to keep
winning games and hopefully get healthy for the playoffs. If Denver makes it in
I firmly believe that anything can happen, even Mark Cuban is on record as
saying that “seeding has never mattered less”. So the key is to just make the
playoffs and hope that the match-ups work out in your favour. Until the
playoffs actually start however, we know nothing.
-Daki
11. The Orlando Magic (82 points)
So after much speculation, Dwight Howard has decided to
exercise his player option for the following season and remain with the Orlando
Magic. It would have been interesting to see how he would have fared in New
Jersey with Deron Williams, which seemed to be the only plausible city Howard
was going to end up in. The Lakers were not going to trade Bynum, and no one
else was offering any trade the Magic would be willing to accept. So now that
Howard is still with the Magic, they have the exact same team they’ve had all
year. They’re 3rd in the Eastern conference, which is impressive
considering the inconsistencies they’ve been battling all season, especially
from Jameer Nelson, who seems to be finally picking up his pace and playing the
way he should have been playing all season. Howard has had his usual great season,
and hopefully his level of effort picks up now that he knows he’s going to be
staying in Orlando this year. One of the biggest surprises for the Magic this
year has been the improved play of Ryan Anderson, who is leading the league in
both threes attempted and threes made. The Magic are playing well right now and
they are 3rd in the league points allowed per game. They have the
ability to go far in the playoffs, but they’ll need their starters to be more
consistent more often. However, it will be difficult to beat the Heat in the
playoffs, as they are, in my opinion, still the favourites to win the title
this year.
-Jovan
