The Time Has Come To Overreact To ESPN's Post Free Agency NBA Power Rankings
The rest: Pacers (11th), Pelicans (12th), Spurs (13th), Wizards (14th), Timberwolves (15th), Bucks (16th), Clippers (17th), Grizzlies (18th), Mavericks (19th), Heat (20th), Hornets (21st), Pistons (22nd), Cavs (23rd), Suns (24th), Bulls (25th), Magic (26th), Knicks (27th), Nets (28th), Kings (29th), Hawks (30th)
Just when you thought with Summer League being over there wasn’t anything to overreact to that basically doesn’t mean anything, may I present to you our updated post free agency list for who ESPN thinks are the best teams heading into the 2018-19 season. I’m sure there are a few that are a bit surprising to certain fanbases, but overall I don’t have too many issues, at least with the Top 10. It’s pretty clear GS/BOS/HOU/PHI/TOR are the best five teams on paper and I don’t think anyone will complain about how those are ranked. There were a couple surprises though, like the Nuggets coming in at #8. I’m not sure how many people realize how good DEN is simply because their games are usually on pretty late on the East coast, but for a team that missed the playoffs by just 1 game, they are entering 2018-19 with a shit ton of talent. Shout out to that Northwest division for having 4 teams in the top 10 and 5 teams in the top 15. For those counting at home that’s every team in the entire division in the top 15. Not too shabby.
If you want to talk about teams getting boned, for the second year in a row it seems like there is this refusal to give IND any credit. They proved last year they were no joke and honestly got better this summer. I would have maybe put them at 9 and the Lakers at 10 or something like that. Having them at 11 just feels a little too low. I also disagree putting the Wizards ahead of the Bucks. I know these are two massively underachieving teams, but I feel like MIL was being held back by their coach last year. I’m also going to have to say as much as it pains me to say, the Knicks should be over teams like CLE and ORL. This isn’t a testament to how good NY is, but how bad those two teams are going to be. It wouldn’t shock me if CLE/ORL won like 25ish games next season and even with losing Porzingis, the Knicks still had 29 wins last year.
In looking at the full list, you’ll see that 9 of the bottom 11 teams are from there East. That’s not the best look, and a major reason why people think there is such a discepency between the two conferences. Mostly because there clearly is. Now obviously being so early this is really just a shot in the dark, and it wouldn’t shock me if one of these teams was actually much better than we initially thought. Remember before last season the Sixers were 20th in this list and Pacers were 26th. Now I don’t expect a team like ORL to all the sudden be a top 5 team, but if you’re a fan of one of these lower ranked squads, don’t give up hope just yet. Crazy things can happen.
So I’m curious, any ranking stick out to you? Do you mostly agree with ESPN’s list? If not, what would you change? Let’s all overreact together.