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[Sport] Handicapping the NBA teams most likely to tank in the Western Conference next season


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The sentiment surrounding increased balance between the two NBA conferences this season is based on only partial truth. The top halves of the two conferences have indeed been relatively even this season. The top six teams in the Eastern Conference have won only four more combined games than the top six teams in the Western Conference, and while the Bucks ruin the curve in terms of net rating, the teams seeded 2-6 in each conference have nearly identical average net ratings, with the difference coming in at less than 0.2 points per 100 possessions. For maybe the first time since Michael Jordan's second retirement, the teams at the top of the East are just as good as the ones out West. That balance just doesn't extend to the bottom of each conference. Currently, all seven non-playoff teams in the East have 24 or fewer wins. Only two teams in the Western Conference have so few. One of them acquired a former All-Star point guard in February. The other has been without two All-Stars for most of the season. And therein lies the conundrum facing the Western Conference next season: Every team is good. There are only eight playoff spots for those 15 teams. Seven of them are probably going to be disappointed. Figuring out who those teams are going to be at this point relies on a number of largely unpredictable factors. Injuries are going to knock a team or two out of the race. So wiloffseason moves. Yet as it stands right now, the 2020-21 Western Conference figures to be arguably the most competitive in NBA history. Barring something very unexpected, the Lakers and  Clippers aren't going anywhere as the conference's favorites. The Denver Nuggets and Utah Jazz are good enough and young enough to seem like reliable playoff locks. The Houston Rockets have two former MVPs. The Dallas Mavericks, New Orleans Pelicans and Memphis Grizzlies were all already in the hunt this season behind future MVP candidates and don't seem too eager to take a step back. And then we have the big, bad Warriors, who will presumably be back to full strength and ready to huff and puff and blow the whole conference down.The top-of-the-conference war among those teams and whatever unexpected contenders arise to challenge them will dominate most of next season's discourse, but quietly fascinating are the teams that weren't listed above. One of last season's Western Conference finalists didn't make the cut. Nor did this season's No. 5 seed. All six teams left out of that paragraph are earnestly attempting to win, but barring an unexpected pivot from their better-equipped geographical neighbors, will be crowded out of actually doing so. Somebody has to finish last in the Western Conference next year. A few of those teams, intentionally or not, will be forced to tank. Although plenty of this is subject to change in the offseason, the 2019-20 season's lull provides an early opportunity to figure out who that is going to be, and whether there are moves they might be able to make to embrace their lottery destinies. As it stands right now, the six unnamed teams can be divided into three tiers, from least to most likely to wind up tanking next season

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