Midseason Grades for Each NBA Team
Handing out midseason grades to each of the 30 NBA teams
The 2015-16 NBA season is now at the halfway point in terms of games played, not the more colloquial sense of the halfway point in All-Star Weekend. Even through the first half of the season, there has already been a plethora of excitement, surprises, and storylines throughout the league for fans to latch onto—for better or worse.
Perhaps the biggest storyline through the first half of the season is the fact that the Golden State Warriors, the defending NBA Champions, have somehow taken a step forward from their title-winning season just last year. They opened up the season by winning 24-straight games and haven’t taken their foot off the gas as they chase the best regular season record in NBA history.
Not far behind Golden State in terms of narrative, though, is the fact that this is the last season of Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant. Kobe made the announcement that many people expected to come over a month ago and the fanfare that he has demanded whenever he and the Lakers have gone on the road has been more than worthy of note as he’s been given a hero’s exit. Never mind the fact that the Lakers as a whole have been an abomination.
However, there are more than just those two storylines throughout the league as there are plenty of other topics or instances worthy of discussion. There are teams like the New Orleans Pelicans and Milwaukee Bucks that have fallen well short of expectations this season. Moreover, there are a handful of teams that have played far better than anyone could have expected, including the San Antonio Spurs, a team that might be the best team in the league at the midseason mark.
In terms of preseason expectations and in terms of how teams around the NBA have performed to this point in the season, the 2015-16 season has been pretty wild and is only going to get crazier with the NBA Trade Deadline still looming and many teams still looking to hit their stride. Moreover, the fact that the Eastern Conference is as much of a logjam as it is in the middle of the standings all but promises that mass insanity is set to ensue in the second half of the year.
That being said, it’s important for teams to assess where they are at the midway point of the season. So we’re going to do that for them. These are midseason grades for each NBA team, handed out in alphabetical order.
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