Rumble Pt. 6
The final five teams
Welcome back to our rumble across the NBA.
Part 1: Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets, Charlotte Hornets, Chicago Bulls.
Part 2: Cleveland Cavaliers, Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets, Detroit Pistons.
Part 3: Houston Rockets, Indiana Pacers, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Memphis Grizzlies.
Part 4: Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves, New Orleans Pelicans, New York Knicks.
Part 5: Oklahoma City Thunder, Orlando Magic, Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns, Portland Trail Blazers.
Sacramento Kings – I have a soft spot for the Sacramento Kings as a franchise. I rooted for them against the Lakers back in 2001 like many did and came to enjoy the teams with Boogie Cousins and then later, De’Aaron Fox and Buddy Hield. The Kings have some intriguing talents on their roster, led by Fox and Hield, as well as now second-year guard Tyrese Haliburton, and are once again hoping to get into the expanded playoff picture.
The long-awaited leap by No. 2 pick Marvin Bagley, who was drafted ahead of Luka Doncic, has yet to materialize. In fact, the best frontcourt player the Kings had last year was Richaun Holmes, who might have the best floater for a center in the league this side of Nikola Jokic. Harrison Barnes remains steady and lottery pick Davion Mitchell gives them a strong perimeter defender.
But I remain unmoved by the Kings, sentimental reasons aside, so long as they have both Bagley and Walton as big parts of their future. The Kings’ defense last season was 30th out of 30 teams and if they fail to crack the play-in portion of the playoff picture, Walton will likely meet the same fate as the front office that hired him and find himself out of a job in Sacramento.
San Antonio Spurs – While the San Antonio Spurs have pivoted to a youth movement, they have not pivoted back to any kind of NBA relevance. They squeaked their way into the 10th and final seed in the Western Conference Play-In tournament before losing to a better Grizzlies squad.
They have some old friends for people who have followed the Blazers, taking a chance on former Blazers lottery pick Zach Collins as well as bringing in former defensive specialist Al-Farouq Aminu. In addition to the former Blazers, gone are former contributors from the past few seasons in DeMar DeRozan and Patty Mills.
The Spurs have a plethora of guards they’ve selected over the past couple of years in the first round, with none of them really standing out as the must-keep player of the bunch. Dejounte Murray and Derrick White have both had their moments but I don’t consider them the backcourt of the future. Lonnie Walker has also shown flashes of brilliance but has yet to develop into a dependable player. Keldon Johnson has shown flashes as well, including enough to make the Olympic team, which was no doubt helped by Popovich running the team.
The Spurs are less experienced than they’ve ever been in the Pop Era. Expecting them to perform like the teams from Popovich’s past seems unwise at best. They’ll be competitive, but I can’t imagine them being much better than the team they were last year on the fringes of the Western Conference playoff picture.
Utah Jazz – Thanks in large part to their health and the second full season with Mike Conley, the Jazz may count themselves as the only team who benefitted from last season’s short lay-off helped. After losing an epic 7-game series to Denver in the bubble, the Jazz came back an even better version of themselves, winning an NBA-best 52 games in the shortened 72-game season.
Mike Conley, who at times looked like he had lost a step and was suddenly a shell of himself during his first season in Memphis, finally looked like himself. Donovan Mitchell had a career season and started developing even more synergy with Rudy Gobert at the rim. And finally, the Jazz bench became a fearsome weapon, led by a career season from Jordan Clarkson. But in my opinion, expecting them to once again be the best team in the regular season might be too ambitious.
I like some of their new additions, particularly Rudy Gay, and they have added Blancoté aka Hassan Whiteside. I expect they will be very good, but there should be plenty of challengers for the No. 1 spot in the West when you look at the Nuggets, Lakers, Clippers, and Suns. They also shot an incredible rate from the 3-point line last year and while they have many of the same shooters, slippage from 3 could be enough to knock them from No. 1 something like 3rd or 4th.
Also, while we in Portland are very familiar with the various teams trying to pry Damian Lillard from the Northwest, the Knicks have quietly been adding former Jazz coaches and front office members with eyes potentially on New York-native Donovan Mitchell.
Washington Wizards – The Washington Wizards suffered more than any team from the NBA’s coronavirus season, shutting down for multiple weeks at the beginning of the season as the virus spread across the team’s facility. After their bout with the virus, the Wizards were behind the eight-ball compared to the rest of the league but somehow managed to work their way into the play-in.
One of the biggest reasons for their success last year, Russell Westbrook, was traded to the Lakers in exchange for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Montrezl Harrell and Kyle Kuzma. The Wizards lost a lot of production by losing Westbrook but Caldwell-Pope should provide them some solid play on both ends while Kuzma improved as a defender in L.A. while also maintaining his scoring intuition. But the Wizards need Kuzma to improve his efficiency along with his doggedness.
As part of their efforts to replace Westbrook, the Wizards brought in the NBA’s Bitcoin Ambassador, Spencer Dinwiddie. Dinwiddie is a very good player and while he was a borderline All-Star in Brooklyn, perhaps he can re-discover his form. I’m not seeing it making that much of a difference in an Eastern Conference that is as deep and as good as ever.
Tuesday: My top-10 win-total over-unders.