BDL’s Year-End Most Interesting Power Rankings: Golden State, wow.
Let’s face it — the best and most powerful teams in the NBA don’t really change from week to week. A handful of results in the middle of winter can only mean so much to a franchise’s championship hopes. What does shift regularly, though, is how much interest a squad can hold over the course of a season. Every week, BDL’s Most Interesting Power Rankings track the teams most worthy of your attention.
Today we present to you the final rankings of the 2015-16 NBA regular season.
THE TOP 15
1. Golden State Warriors (72-9; last week: 1): All they did was make the regular season a wonderful place to be, tying the NBA record for wins in a season with a game to spare. All they did was make us reconsider how we approached the game, from the youth level on up to the strata that was beating the Cavs, Bulls, Pacers, Spurs and Mavericks by an average of 25.4 points per game in a nine-day span. All they did was inspire thousands to text their friends to ask them to surreptitiously lend them their League Pass name and password. For a game on a Monday. All they did was make October until April sublime.
Nicely done, champs. You got two more months left in you?
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2. San Antonio Spurs (65-15; last week: 2): If they had gone all-out, like an angry Michael Jordan and Co. had done in 1995-96, the Spurs may have been able to match or even exceed Golden State’s win total. Even with GSW’s 3-1 season series against the Spurs. Jordan had played just 27 total NBA games in 32 months prior to his Bulls gunning for their record. This year’s Spurs model? Even with last year’s first round ouster … they’ve played a bit more than 27 games of late.
We respect them for going hard when they did, though, and giving us the autumn-to-winter-to-spring execution we’ve come to expect we deserve from this legendary cast of characters.
3. Oklahoma City Thunder (54-26; last week: 7): For the duration of their existence, these rankings haven’t always been about teams featuring unending precision and eventual glory. Watchability swings both ways, and the Thunder’s fourth quarter woes are sometimes nearly as compelling as watching Kevin Durant’s return to form or Russell Westbrook’s ease at making the court go “boom.” Toss in a rookie coach and goofball bench and you’ve got must-watch action, ‘ere. Durant’s ability to adroitly address his upcoming free agency was also much appreciated.
4. Toronto Raptors (54-26; last week: 6): Considered to be amongst a batch of would-be Eastern also-rans, the Raps emerged from the field by midseason and are in with a (remarkably solid) chance to grab the East’s top seed as the last few days unfold. The combination of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan’s batty intensity and the ever-evolving cast of well-scouted role players has given Toronto yet another Atlantic title winner and, for the first time since Vince Carter’s college graduation, a Finals contender.
5. Atlanta Hawks (48-32; last week: 10): The Hawks have won three straight to emerge from the East’s middling miasma, continuing to build on a defense that has been second to San Antonio (that is to say, “second to just about legendary”) since the start of 2016. Jeff Teague has turned his season around in the wake of February trade rumors, and Paul Millsap remains an absolute delight with his all-around play.
6. Los Angeles Clippers (52-28; last week: 3): It’s easy to turn away from this team. The squad still constantly whines. Doc Rivers’ endless collection of acquired Role Players Everyone Has Heard Of lets the stars down, and Blake Griffin’s off-court issues were inexcusable. Hack-a-DeAndre Jordan is no fun. With that in place, and with Chris Paul in point, the Clippers are still capable of playing the perfect game from possession to possession as he dominates the ball. It makes for a fascinating watch that overpowers the other mitigating factors. Sometimes.
7. Portland Trail Blazers (43-38; last week: 5): Observers both paid and otherwise were right to pick Portland to fall out of the playoff picture entering this season, even if everyone respected each of its offseason pickups, while understanding why Portland didn’t howl too much at their inability to bring the whole (limited) gang back. Terry Stotts has turned in yet another Coach of the Year-type performance, and Damian Lillard remains one of the league’s guttier and talented stars.
8. Minnesota Timberwolves (28-52; last week: NR): Every year you get a League Pass Wonder, and there’s no surprises behind this selection. There’s very little to reveal about these young Timberwolves outside of the fact that they’re super fresh, oozing with potential, and that they might boast what is already the NBA’s best center in rookie Karl-Anthony Towns. With most other lottery participants tanking, un-engaging, injured, or some combination of the three, the Wolves stand out. This isn’t an obscurant pick.
9. Boston Celtics (47-33; last week: 9): Just a pleasurable watch all around, with Jae Crowder bounding into opponents five or more inches taller than him and Avery Bradley (and this isn’t hyperbole) making you wonder at times how, exactly, any point guard makes across half-court in the face of his pressure. It’s true that coach Brad Stevens has managed to turn exhaustive research into entertaining basketball, but credit Danny Ainge for supplying him with the workers needed to give us that show.
10. Cleveland Cavaliers (56-24; last week: 4): At some point, the drama tends to bore. Cleveland has played the entire year with the sort of panache that usually befits an ex-championship team that has earned the right to take its time, and while we applaud minute restrictions and an intent to think long-term (an ideal the Cavs haven’t attached themselves to this year, we should point out) you would think that a little accomplishment would fall before. They’ve got two months to get it right.
11. Dallas Mavericks (41-39; last week: NR): A Rick Carlisle-coached team featuring Dirk Nowitzki, even if it hasn’t clinched a playoff berth by April 11, still deserves consideration – barely edging out the Utah Jazz in both the standings and our Rankings at this point due to the 20-game absence of Jazz center Rudy Gobert. The offense was crisp if not dominant, it was fun to watch both Wesley Matthews and Chandler Parsons approximate their former ways at times this season. And, well, Dirk.
12. Charlotte Hornets (46-34; last week: 11): Entering the season, following a frustrating and playoff-less turn in 2014-15, the Hornets had two big pitching points to toss out. They hoped that new addition Nic Batum’s final season was a fluke, and that he would return to form, and that youngsters Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Kemba Walker would turn the corner and that internal development would be enough. Sadly, MKG’s season was most lost to injury, but Walker has improved considerably in his fifth season, and at times is the most entertaining player to watch on the NBA’s early slate of Eastern-ly League Pass games. He’ll make you forget the rice is still on the stove.
13. Milwaukee Bucks (33-47; last week: NR): Admittedly, the Bucks were tough to watch at the outset of the season, and the team’s recent 3-8 swoon hasn’t been a dandy to behold either. The defense has fallen off, badly, as a result the team milks too many possessions after taking the ball out of the net, while Michael Carter-Williams hasn’t exactly responded to Jason Kidd’s role as the Point Guard Whisperer. Still, if you manage to click up, the team boasts an embarrassing array of riches in the announcing department: Jim Paschke and Jon McGlocklin, long one of the best pairs in the NBA, alongside the occasional appearance from Gus Johnson and Marques Johnson. Then there’s that whole thing where Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jabari Parker peel off something that leaves you ready to click back up once 2016-17 hits.
14. Miami Heat (47-33; last week: 12): It has been another star-crossed year in Miami, but while that isn’t part of the appeal, it has been fun to watch them overcome a series of setbacks. Chris Bosh hasn’t played since Feb. 9 due a reoccurrence of blood clots in his calf, cutting short yet another brilliant two-way year. The typically nicked-up Luol Deng and Dwyane Wade, however, have been surprisingly reliable, Josh McRoberts has returned to play Mr. Second Quarter Difference Maker, rookie Justice Winslow is legit, and Hassan Whiteside’s athleticism on both ends never fails to astound.
15. Memphis Grizzlies (42-38; last week: 8): For the junkies, per usual. Memphis started the season hoping to reclaim its place as the West’s toughest middling spoiler prior to the odd injury to Zach Randolph and the season-ending setbacks suffered by Marc Gasol and Mike Conley. From there, though, the team managed to circle the wagons with a series of either add-ons, trade deadline pickups, D-League and 10-day contract helpers, veteran Who He Play For?-types, and Vincent Lamar Carter. Again, somehow, they’ll pull off a playoff berth.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
26. New Orleans Pelicans (30-50; last week: NR): The wrong mix of sad and unwatchable, even with Anthony Davis still ending some halves with us thinking that there’s no reason why this guy shouldn’t be the NBA’s Next Great Thing. Davis missed yet another quarter of a season, while the team’s too close for comfort series of supposed all-around guards just did not excite. It was fun to see Jrue Holiday spring back to what appears to be full health, though. At still only age 25.
27. Chicago Bulls (40-40; last week: NR): Calling the Bulls “passive/aggressive” would be inaccurate, as the phrase usually implies that the bouts of aggressiveness (be they on the court or on the record) come in equal doses, and that just wasn’t the case in a lost 2015-16. This, again, was a group of walking martyrs, led by a defeated point guard in Derrick Rose that clearly just isn’t interested anymore. They somehow made Pau Gasol sad, which prior to 2014 we thought unthinkable.
28. Los Angeles Lakers (16-64; last week: NR): It was just so damn rough, so needlessly rough, but that’s what you get when you employ the sort of basketball front office that the Lakers have, while retaining Byron Scott to mind Kobe Bryant’s last season. Watching Bryant, yet again, was tough – his usage far outranked his accuracy and what could have been a teachable season with Kobe dishing both the ball and advice was cut to the nub by the incessantly needling of an insecure coach in Scott. It shouldn’t have ended this badly.
29. Brooklyn Nets (21-59; last week: 29): It was interesting at times to flip over and watch Thaddeus Young’s wily ways, or notice (without having to watch) that Brook Lopez enjoyed a healthy season, but by in large this lark of a franchise played as you’d expect – they had nothing to work for, they were put together by someone considered a terrible general manager prior to his hire and an absentee owner. New general manager Sean Marks and announcer Ian Eagle, to say nothing of those that dole out ten bucks for the arena’s chips and salsa, deserve better.
Actually, those that spend ten bucks on chips and salsa absolutely do not deserve better.
30. Philadelphia 76ers (10-70; last week: 30): The Process wasn’t completely the problem. The personalities were. Sam Hinkie had a plan that dates back decades, back to when the NBA had its worst teams flip a coin for the chance at the next great 7-footer, for when even famous NBA front office lifers would encourage their teams to lose games. Hinkie no doubt left the Sixers’ list of assets in a better place than he found it, lest you were looking forward to more shots at 38 wins, but he failed in his communication and he failed in his ability to secure building blocks for what was a needed rebuilding project. Even skinflint, anti-analytic, front offices in New York and Los Angeles bested him.
The 76ers ownership, suddenly lacking temerity after diving into Hinkie’s plan initially, then over-corrected and ran right off the road – a sneaker company shill in Jerry Colangelo, and then the on-again/off-again work of his son Bryan. Trying to pull the wool – yes, that’s Mike D’Antoni on the Sixers’ bench – and underestimate the intelligence of everyone listening, as most corporate-types do.
Meanwhile, three full seasons of unwatchable basketball.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
