Updating our NBA power rankings, where the Golden State Warriors have suffered the biggest loss of the season.
All-Star break has come and gone and so too has the trade deadline. While the Sacramento Kings decided DeMarcus Cousins wasn’t worth a 200-plus million-dollar extension –judging by the return they got in the trade they might not have thought him worth 200-thousand dollars– Boogie was the only big name to be moved. Danny Ainge and the Boston Celtics decided to once again sit on their assets. Jimmy Butler and Paul George’s name were discussed but the Indiana Pacers and Chicago Bulls did not find the right deal to move on from their superstars.
Elsewhere, the Toronto Raptors went all-in acquiring Serge Ibaka and P.J. Tucker. The Washington Wizards fortified their bench by adding Bojan Bogdanovic in a deal with the Brooklyn Nets and securing Brandon Jennings after he was waived by the New York Knicks. The defending champs were active in the buyout market as well. They scooped up Andrew Bogut and Deron Williams from the Dallas Mavericks.
However, the biggest story since the season has gotten back underway is the injury to Kevin Durant. The Golden State Warriors forward is out indefinitely with a Grade 2 MCL sprain and tibial bone bruise in his left leg. Durant got hurt when his teammate fell back into his leg while tussling for position against Marcin Gortat. The word is the team expects Durant to be back for the postseason, maybe even a couple games to close out the regular season, but the question is whether or not he’ll be playing at 100 percent when he does suit up again.
February brought numerous notable injuries (Durant, Kevin Love, J.R. Smith), but it’s March now and that means madness is right around the corner. To get you prepped for the final push let’s take a look at where all 30 teams stand now.
I mean, at least they got that Caris LeVert guy right?
After teasing us with a potential Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid tandem takeover, both players are being shelved for the rest of the season. Is that a tank I hear driving around the streets of Philadelphia?
After failing to turn him into Paul George 2.0, Frank Vogel has finally come to his senses and is playing Aaron Gordon at power forward again. Now Vogel just needs to figure out the right way to use Mario Hezjonia and this team might be on to something.
Magic Johnson has taken over and we at The Step Back were able to unearth this secret tweet he sent out just before taking the job: “Lakers Nation: The Lakers mean everything to me and that is why I will give it my all to keep OUR team at the top!”
Devin Booker is an up-and-coming star AND an irritant to opposing players. Draymond Green and Reggie Miller approve.
Again it’s worth noting that this team has looked better since Zach LaVine went down for the year. Minnesota will have an interesting choice this summer with LaVine and Wiggins both eligible for contract extensions.
Positive: Cousins and Anthony Davis have been nothing short of spectacular in their first three games together. Negative: the Pelicans have lost all three of the games in the Boogie-Brow Productions era.
Vlade Divac said that if the team is not in a better place in two years that he will step down. Does anyone else think that Divac has some inside information about how good Coachella 2019 is going to be?
Kristaps Porzingis is piling up the injuries in year two, an ankle injury has seen him play sporadically in February. However, Carmelo Anthony will still hit the occasion game-winner. That’s got to count for something to the Big Apple faithful right?
Mark Cuban thought he wouldn’t have to bat an eyelid as he watched his team secure a top three pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. Then Harrison Barnes, Seth Curry and Yogi Ferrell happened. Now Cuban is trying to jettison any excess talent in hopes of recouping the high pick that once looked like a guarantee.
Jusuf Nurkic has been a really good pick-up for this team. With an easier schedule in the second half of the season the Portland Trail Blazers should make a run for the eighth seed in the West in the coming weeks.
The wheels have really fallen off the train in the Queen City. The Charlotte Hornets have not been stinging opponents like they were to begin the year. [Insert another bad bee/hornet/wasp pun here].
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kris Middleton might end up being all the Milwaukee Bucks need to get back into the postseason. Then again, with his play this year, they might be able to make it just because of Antetokounmpo.
Mason Plumlee and Nikola Jokic have yet to transform the Denver Nuggets into the Mile High version of the Harlem Globetrotters yet, but offensively this team is looking very elite. The defense is probably making Mike Malone cry himself to sleep at night.
This team has the pieces, but not the chemistry. The Detroit Pistons were the team that most needed to make a move at the deadline, yet they were unable to get the right deal even after offering Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Andre Drummond as bait.
The Miami Heat, or as I like to call them: The Fighting Dion Waiters of South Beach, are getting closer and closer to sneaking in and snatching the eighth seed in the East. They only trail the Detroit Pistons by a couple of games and aside from the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs there really hasn’t been a hotter team in the month of February than the Heat. Goran Dragic is back to playing at an All-Star level, Hassan Whiteside is still tall and athletic and Waiters has so much confidence I’m surprised his head isn’t as big as Jimmy Neutron’s.
All the credit in the world for this turnaround has to be given to Miami’s head coach, Erik Spoelstra. Spoelstra has cemented himself as one of the great coaches in professional sports today. He doesn’t get enough credit for his role in making the big three of Chris Bosh, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade coexist on the court and he isn’t getting enough credit for making Dragic, Whiteside and Waiters into a potential playoff team.
Praises aside, it’s been fun to watch Miami be the NBA’s version of The Little Engine That Could, but could all this fun have a negative impact on the Heat’s future? Many believed that with Bosh likely forced into retirement due to blood clots and Justise Winslow being out all year that this would quickly become a rebuilding season for Miami. With talents like Markelle Fultz, Lonzo Ball, Jayson Tatum, Josh Jackson and others available in the 2017 NBA Draft this season was the opportune time to bring the tanks to South Beach. As it stands, the Heat would be drafting in the middle of the first round and while there’s a chance they could hit big there each win they pile on now is at the cost of adding a potential franchise altering prospect this summer.
EVERY CHICAGO BULLS FAN SHOULD BE THANKFUL THAT JIMMY BUTLER IS STILL A MEMBER OF THIS TEAM! Gar Forman and John Paxson have probably run this franchise into the ground with their decisions, but they should at least get some recognition for not punting on one of the best players in franchise history. Now all that could be undone this summer if the Boston Celtics pony up the right assets. However, lets stick with the present for now.
“GarPax” did choose to let Taj Gibson and Doug McDermott go and in return they could possibly have found their point guard of the future in Cameron Payne. Payne is much more known for his dance moves and routines with former Oklahoma City Thunder teammate, Russell Westbrook, but when he isn’t injured he has been a very solid player. Payne is a decidedly better player than both Rajon Rondo and Jerian Grant and his ability to hit 3-pointers should provide even the smallest of improvements of spacing on the court for Butler and Dwyane Wade.
If Wade is able to remain healthy for the rest of the year that duo should be enough to carry the Bulls into the postseason, even if it is just to eventually get swept by the Boston Celtics in the first round. For the time being, Chicago is the best of the bottom half of the league (or to quote the infamous Forgetting Sarah Marshall, they are “the [kings] of the sorrow suckers”). The Windy City is a beautiful place in Spring and it would be a shame if the good folks of Chicago didn’t have Bulls playoff basketball to keep them entertained as the flowers begin to bloom and Lake Michigan unfreezes.
Future Los Angeles Laker Paul George has a decent amount to consider before he hits free agency in 2018 (and ultimately goes home to California). He’s on record saying that he wants to win in Indiana. The only problem with that is it doesn’t look like the Indiana Pacers have a shot at winning much before 2018. Myles Turner is a nice piece for the future, but they need to fill out the rest of their roster with quality players if they want to keep George around. The decision to do a complete 180-degree turn away from the bruising, defense-first approach that Frank Vogel brought –and brought them multiple trips to the Eastern Conference Finals– has so far been a dud. Their acquisitions of Jeff Teague and Thad Young in the offseason have not resulted in a spring up the standings for the Pacers. As a matter of fact, the team is on pace to finish with a worse record than they had a year ago.
If this new uptempo, small-ball era is going to work for the Pacers they need to get someone besides Nate McMillan to call the shots. McMillan is a more than capable coach and has a great basketball mind, but his previous teams were known to play some of the slowest basketball in the NBA. Giving McMillan the keys to a high-octane offense is like giving out driver’s licenses for being able to ride a bike. However, with George’s exit date fast approaching it may be too late to hand over the reins to someone else and expect him to both win and connect with George. Larry Bird might not want to deal George, but moving on from him now is better than watching him walk away for nothing as he goes to star in La La Land 2 with Magic Johnson.
The Russell Westbrook takeover is only just beginning. The fireball point guard has now gathered 30 triple-doubles on the season. For comparison sake, Michael Jordan (aka the G.O.A.T.) had a total of 28 triple-doubles in his entire career. Now that stat isn’t to say that I think Westbrook is a better player than His Airness (I don’t), but it just helps to put into focus just how ridiculous what Westbrook has done this season has been. The even crazier thing to consider is that there is still around a quarter of the season left to play before we get to the postseason.
The Thunder might have traded away dance partner and Mountain Dew commercial co-star, Cameron Payne, but this team has improved with the additions of Taj Gibson and Doug McDermott. McDermott’s ability to hit from the outside and play the slightest bit of defense –which Anthony Morrow could not do — is a huge positive as Westbrook needs the threat of shooting to keep the lane open for his explosive forays to the basket. Meanwhile, Gibson’s grit and lunch pail attitude will be welcomed with open arms in Oklahoma City.
Between Gibson and Steven Adams it’s hard to see big men on the opposing team looking forward to matching up with the Thunder. Both Gibson and Adams set one hell of a screen and know how to legally rough up the players they face off against. Despite being in seventh in the standings, the Thunder are just a game and a half out of the fourth seed in the West. If Westbrook can keep up this play to finish out the year then Oklahoma City may be able to secure home-court advantage in an opening series.
The Atlanta Hawks have been just below the national radar. They are a very solid team that is capable of knocking off any opponent on any given night (ask the Boston Celtics), but they are missing a certain je nais sais quoi to be taken seriously. The Hawks were supposedly undergoing a fire sale when they shipped Kyle Korver off to Cleveland. Every assumed the next move was to get Paul Millsap out and pick up some pieces for him instead of watching him walkaway this summer as a free agent. Teams were interested and it seemed like it was destined for him to end up north of the border until the Hawks inexplicably took him off the market. Well, the trade deadline has come and gone, but Millsap remains on the team.
It seems that head coach Mike Budenholzer was not as keen as some on the throw in the towel and rebuild idea as some others within the organization. Plus, Millsap is one of the pillars of the Budenholzer era. While they don’t possesses similar skill sets, Millsap is to Atlanta what Tim Duncan was to the San Antonio Spurs during his career. Shipping him out could’ve backfired in a big way on Coach Bud. Imagine Dennis Schroder and Dwight Howard being the token leaders of your basketball team –or the token leaders of anything at all. Schroder was suspended for one game following the All-Star break for not reporting back to the team on time. Howard has a laundry list of immature actions and behaviors that have followed him since his days with the Orlando Magic came to the end. Budenholzer has helped make this team a playoff mainstay and it seems he wasn’t ready to blow that up just yet.
Vince Carter obviously has built or discovered a time machine. It’s the only way to make any sense of the athletic feats that this man continues to accomplish at the age of 40. Though he may be leaping the space time continuum as if it were a 7-foot tall Frenchman, he stills does not have the time to be getting pushed around by today’s youth. Carter went toe-to-toe (or more accurately forearm-to-face) with Phoenix Suns rising stud Devin Booker after being fed up with the physicality which the sophomore was playing with. Carter might have the look of an old man, but his body remains just as young as it was when he was flying up and down the floor at the University of North Carolina. One of Chapel Hill’s favorite sons is still making noise in Carolina Blue.
As for the rest of this team, it’s the “Grit-N-Grind” Memphis Grizzlies that we all know and love, but updated for the modern world. David Fizdale has taken Memphis from operating on OS Grit to OS Spacing in just one season. The biggest developments have to be Zach Randolph playing off the bench and Marc Gasol being one of the best 3-point shooters in the NBA. The two staples of the Grizzlies frontcourt might not be bullying opponents in tandem anymore, but both are still critical parts to the Grizzlies success. Also, the fact that Mike Conley has quietly become an All-NBA guard has helped steady this team as well.
Chris Paul is back and Blake Griffin was not traded at the deadline. This means we get to see the same damn Los Angeles Clippers team give it one final hurrah this season. They were able to keep their head above water without Paul, but they dropped down to fifth place in the standings now. The talent is there for the Clippers that if they do not having home court advantage in their opening playoff series they could still emerge victorious. However they can’t afford to suffer an extended losing streak as the Memphis Grizzlies and Oklahoma City Thunder are nipping at their tails to leapfrog them in the standings.
The readjustment to Paul is definitely part of their early struggles to begin the post All-Star break home stretch, and blowing a 16-point lead to the Warriors isn’t very helpful either. Though they haven’t been past the second round as a group, this team has the playoff experience to be a real hassle to Golden State or the San Antonio Spurs in a series. If they ultimately fall flat on their face again it will lead to an intriguing offseason for Doc Rivers. If he keeps everyone together he’s guaranteeing himself 50-win seasons and high playoff seeds, but it would also lock them in place as the same team they’ve been since acquiring Paul. Will Rivers want to keep the band together or does he have bigger delusions of grandeur on his mind?
In a league where Point God Chris Paul, two-time MVP Steph Curry and OMG RUSSELL WESTBROOK all play point guard, John Wall has been just as good as all of them this season. He might not control a game like Paul, shoot lights out like Curry, or average a triple-double like Westbrook, but he’s been one of the best players on the floor in every game he’s played. His ability to get into the lane as he pleases has opened up the entire game for him. Wall is a willing passer and if teams overreact to his penetration he will simply sling the ball to the open man. It helps that the open man is often Otto Porter who’s shooting a career-high on 3-pointers this season. It also helps that Bradley Beal has been the healthiest he’s ever been for the year. Still, you can’t take away from the brilliance that has been Wall’s play this year.
No other evidence is needed than the 19-assist performance Wall put together against the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night. The Warriors have one of the best defenses in the NBA (losing Kevin Durant does hurt that some) and Wall was easily knifing through it and getting good looks for himself or others. Washington will go as far as Wall takes them this year. Their starting unit scores the second most points in the league (only behind the Warriors). Adding Bojan Bogdanovic gives them a proven scorer off the bench — he just rained down 27 points on the Toronto Raptors Wednesday. If everything comes together for this team they could become a legitimate threat to the Cavaliers in the playoffs.
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Kyle Lowry being sidelined for the remainder of the regular season, most likely, puts a damper on the Toronto Raptors hopes of knocking the Cleveland Cavaliers off their perch atop of the Eastern Conference. However, they were the most active contender at the trade deadline. Bringing in Serge Ibaka and P.J. Tucker gives this team an additional boost of versatility. They can now go big with Jonas Valanciunas, Ibaka and Patrick Patterson on the court together, or go small with Ibaka, DeMarre Carroll and Tucker lining up in the front court; It also provides them with more options and bodies to throw at LeBron James — who has been the biggest thorn in their side during this two-year stretch.
Regardless of what they do in the frontcourt, this team will be powered by their star back ourt combination of Lowry and DeMar DeRozan in the playoffs. With Lowry watching from the sidelines, DeRozan has stepped into the role of lone superstar for the Raptors. He hero-balled his way to a win over the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, but has been slightly less impressive during a few of their other games. The Raptors are definitely going to need more out of DeRozan with Lowry unavailable, but it seems that DeRozan is forcing the issue at times instead of moving the ball around to his teammates. If he continues to try and do everything himself he will not only tire himself out, but the Raptors will likely see themselves drop in the standings as well. Getting to the playoffs healthy and developing chemistry are bigger priorities for Canada’s team than a high seed at the moment.
In case you needed any more of a reason to love James Harden try this on for size, the superstar Houston Rockets guard shops at Target. Harden rededicated himself to basketball and that focus has led to him having a career year this season. His acceptance of Mike D’Antoni’s system and basketball philosophy has been seamless and it’s led the Rockets to the third best record in the West this season, something not many people saw coming before this year began. Houston has also monopolizes the market on the Sixth Man of the Year race after adding Lou Williams to their roster at the trade deadline. Williams and Eric Gordon were the two highest scorers off the bench in the NBA this season and now both are part of the same second unit. The beautiful thing is that it works in D’Antoni’s system. Neither player will be lacking for shots.
Confidence is something this organization isn’t lacking either. D’Antoni has said he wants his team to regularly shoot 50 3-pointers a night; and Daryl Morey says he believes the Rockets can beat the Warriors in the playoffs by outshooting them on 3-pointers. Houston will be the quintessential “live by the three, die by the three” team this year. While I’m sure watching them will give former Rocket, Charles Barkley, an aneurysm, it is the easiest path for success given their roster compilation. A lot is riding on Harden’s ability to make plays and create shots for the others around him. So far this year it looks like he’s having no trouble at all doing that.
The Boston Celtics have stayed hot post All-Star break. After making a surge to the second seed to end the first half of the regular season they picked up right where they left off as the second half has gotten underway. A home victory Wednesday over the Cleveland Cavaliers is huge for this team. Everyone knows that Danny Ainge has put together a deep and capable roster for his former team, but the question has always been do they have enough punch to go toe-to-toe with the league’s elite teams. While it’s easy to overreact to one regular season game — and Cleveland was missing two key rotation pieces in Kevin Love and J.R. Smith — the talk coming out of the trade deadline was whether or not the Celtics had missed their window of opportunity to add another superstar and form a big three with Isaiah Thomas and Al Horford. Yet, it was players like Avery Bradley, Jaylen Brown and Jae Crowder that were key in getting the win over the Cavaliers.
Being able to play nine or 10 players helps during the regular seasons. With 82 games being squeezed into about a four and a half month time frame getting as many different bodies on the court as you can helps saves the big guns for when it matters most: the playoffs. Rotations get shorter in the postseason so it remains to be seen just how many of these assets that Ainge has been hoarding will actually see the floor when the games matter most. Who knows, maybe Ainge does know what he’s doing.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have been dealing with an injury to a key Kevin as well, Kevin Love. Love is on pace to return to the floor in a couple weeks unlike Kevin Durant. That should help as it will give Love a couple of games to play himself back into game shape before the playoffs tip off. Yet, it’s the return of another player that has piqued the interest of Cavaliers faithful.
J.R. Smith has been out since fracturing his thumb on Dec. 20. It was reported that he accompanied the team to its game against Boston on Wednesday. And there’s photo evidence of him actually taking shots before the game. Smith’s return would help bolster what’s become the mostly deadly crew of outside shooters on any LeBron James-led team (Channing Frye, Kyle Korver, Kyrie Irving, Love and Smith). There aren’t many teams that have the defensive firepower or awareness to handle a Love-James-Korver-Smith-Irving lineup and it’ll be fun to watch Cavaliers head coach Ty Lue tinker with his lineups when this team is fully healthy again.
LeBron James knows what it takes to defend a title and you better believe he’s doing all he can to try and tutor the rest of the Cavaliers roster on what’s ahead for them in the long run. Irving’s ability to shoulder the majority of the scoring load (and Love’s too when he’s in the game) have been huge for James. He can now focus on facilitating and other areas of the game where he can still leave a mark. The additions of Deron Williams and Andrew Bogut could either prove really big or just end up being a footnote on the year when things are all said and done.
The biggest winner in Kevin Durant missing time is the San Antonio Spurs. As they are accustomed to doing, the Spurs have quietly put together a spectacular season in the shadows. As of this post they sit just three and a half games behind the Golden State Warriors for the top seed in the Western Conference. The Spurs and Warriors will face off two more times before the season ends. If San Antonio is able to win both of those games the race for the one seed will get a lot more intense as the season winds down. However, with Gregg Popovich at the helm this team will always prioritize health over playoff position. So even if the two teams’ records continue to inch closer to each other, Pop could ultimately be the one to wave the white flag if it means getting all his players at 100 percent in the postseason.
Kawhi Leonard continues to add to his MVP-caliber season, a game-winner over Paul George on Wednesday night the latest highlight added to his resume. In a year where everyone wrote in a Warriors versus Cleveland Cavaliers finals rematch, the Spurs have looked the part of spoiler all year, beginning with their blowout win over Golden State on opening night. I doubt either the Cavaliers or Warriors are overlooking the Spurs in the slightest, but if you just based it on how the national media has been covering the league you would think San Antonio was on the same level as the Memphis Grizzlies this season. The Spurs are never to be slept on and with Durant out for an extended time they might have their opportunity to wake people up.
It was all good just a couple weeks ago. The Golden State Warriors were riding high into the All-Star break and were actually on pace to eclipse the 70-win mark for the second consecutive season. Since then the following has happened: Klay Thompson didn’t get out of the first round of the 3-point contest, Stephen Curry got posterized in the All-Star Game, Draymond Green yelled at the elderly (read: Paul Pierce), Curry shot 0/11 on 3-pointers against the Sixers, and Kevin Durant sprained his MCL and bruised his tibia.
Not exactly a light-years-ahead-stretch for Bob Meyers and co. Despite all this “turmoil” the Warriors only lost their 10th game of the season a few days ago. With Durant likely out until April this team still has the core pieces of a 73-win team so it’s not as if the sky is falling or that the season is a loss for the Warriors. However, after looking all but guaranteed to get back to the NBA Finals for the third straight year, having Durant go down this late in the year puts a slight bump in the road. If KD is able to come back at full strength for the postseason then all of this would be for nothing, but we saw Curry go down with a knee injury last year and it might’ve ended up being the difference in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers last season.
Next: NBA Award Watch: Sixth man and Clutch City
Without Durant, Curry, Thompson and Green should be enough to allow them to hold on to the top seed. It might also unleash the MVP-level Curry that we had grown accustomed to seeing over the past two seasons. If that Curry comes back and Durant is all the way back before the second round of the playoffs this team could finally hit the supernova levels we all anointed them with once Durant signed their on Independence Day.