What it Would Take For Every NBA Playoff Team to be Title Contenders
Potential Trades, Acquisitions, and/or departures for every team in the hunt
By definition, if you are one of the sixteen teams to make it to the playoffs you are technically contending for a championship title. But every common NBA fan understands only a handful of teams, truly have a chance of lifting the Larry O’Brien Trophy in June. But for those other teams, they are either labeled “too young” (i.e. The Oklahoma City Thunder of 2011–2012), “one piece away” (i.e. The Washington Wizards of 2014- Present), or “happy to be here” (i.e. every 8th seed ever… except Golden State in 2007). With the regular season about 85% complete, here’s a quick look at what every current playoff team needs to be “real” title contenders.
Let’s start with the easy ones first…
Cavaliers, Warriors, Spurs, Rockets, and Celtics
These teams are all legitimate title contenders. I’ll be honest, I was debating leaving the Celtics off this list, but the way they’ve been beating up on the Warriors the past two years (granted, it was just the regular season), and the emergence of my new favorite player Isaiah Thomas, I can’t leave them off this list. By the way, can we get him a better nickname than “IT4”.
Now the “contenders”…
The Washington Wizards
This’ll be long-winded since its the hometown team…
The Wizards, in the past 10 years have either been pretty good or terrible… with no in-between. With John Wall playing his best basketball of his career and Bradley Beal finally being healthy they have shown promise. When asked on TNT’s “Inside the NBA” what the goal of the Washington Wizards is, John Wall answered “The Eastern Conference Finals.” Washington knows they can compete with Cleveland, but they certainly are not better.
Although Bogdanavić, has played well since being recently acquired, and I love the Brandon Jennings pick up, a bolder move would have made them a little better. Lou Williams coming off the bench would have been a match made in heaven for the Wiz Kids, who by the way… literally, have one of the worst benches in the league. But honestly, I don’t think Washington is a one-person fix. I think the young core of Wall, (a healthy) Beal, and now Otto Porter who has made a name for himself behind the 3-Point Arc, is great in the short/long run (4–5 years), but to be blunt, Wall needs to be better. How much better? Like, starting in the All-Star game good! And Beal needs to be A LOT better. How much better? Like 25+ a night good! Did I mention a lot healthier too? This is only if they want to think about make it to the finals, while the King is still playing in Cleveland.
Am I the only one who likes the way Marcin Gortat has been playing??
The Toronto Raptors
Serge Ibaka was one of the best moves before the trade deadline and it was exactly what The Raptors needed… well, sorta.
The Raptors are one of those borderline pretty good/really good teams that was unlucky to be constructed during the Lebron era. They have the all-star caliber back court, a solid rim protecting center (who can make threes) and good role-players in P.J. Tucker and DeMarre Carroll. So what’s the problem? They just aren’t good enough. Their two best players aren’t better than Cleveland’s two best players. Lowry is already 30, and has reached the peak of his career and isn’t better than Kyrie who isn’t close to his peak as a player or scorer. DeRozan has improved significantly but still no where near good enough to beat the Cavs, as the #1 scoring option on an opposing team; and I’m not even going to compare him to Lebron, so yea… that’s canceled.
So do you blow up the roster or just accept being 2nd or 3rd best in the east for as long as Lebron plays basketball?
The Atlanta Hawks
Rebuild. Next…
The Indiana Pacers
For a team that didn’t make a move at the trade deadline, the Pacers may have pushed Paul George out the door by just shopping him around. And good luck to them trying to woo any all-star free-agent to Indianapolis with only Miles Turner as an incentive. They need a new coach rather than an additional player, because they have been losing games, that they should win. They made a mistake by firing Vogel, and I think Larry Bird knows that. Like most teams that are in the east (besides the Cavs), they aren’t good enough to even compete for a championship in the next 5 years. They have a roster full of C+ role players and one A- player (in Paul George) who is more of a scorer than a facilitator. The Cavaliers have B+ role players, two A+ players, one of whom makes everyone better, so now those B+ players are now A- players.
Why is Lebron so good?
The Detroit Pistons
Probably, one of the most surprising underperforming teams in the league, are the Detroit Pistons. One of the best throwback big men in the league with Andre Drummond, who has a chance of getting 20+ rebounds a night, a more than decent coach in Stan Van Gundy, and solid 3-and-D wings (Caldwell-Pope and Harris) one would question why?
Just looking down the roster, its easy to notice the absence of a veteran presence. A solid, veteran pass-first point guard, (maybe a former all-star and/or champion) would be an ideal fit. I’m sure Reggie Jackson would disagree, because him and Dion Waiters have the most absurd confidence in the entire league. In addition, to that… they just need to play better. They aren’t winning because I don’t think they know how to yet. The free-agent crop this summer isn’t that enticing, but potential players who would help this team, is maybe a Jrue Holiday, who is an unrestricted free agent this summer but most-likey will get locked up by the Pelicans. Jackson coming off the bench I think could rival what Lou Williams is today.
The Milwaukee Bucks
To round out the East, we have the MOST underperforming team in the league, but surprisingly… everyone is ok with it. Why? Because they are young and quite long. Check this out…
Giannis — 6'11"… Age: 22
Parker — 6'9"… Age: 21
Monroe — 6'10"… Age: 26
Brogdon (rookie) — 6'5" … Age: 24
Middleton — 6'8" … Age: 25
Maker (rookie) — 7'1" … Age: 20
That is a 6-man rotation with two (maybe three) players that can control the ball and run the offense. And it seems that The Greak Freak is getting better every day, and still isn’t close to his true potential. But if they wanted to compete right now, rather than wait for the inevitable emergence of Giannis, they would need a true scorer from the wing, that can get his own shot easily, like a Melo. This is just hypothetical people, working a way to get Carmelo traded to the Bucks, is a nightmare to even think about.
But in a couple years, when Giannis gets a consistent jump shot, and Milwaukee naturally picks up a 3-point specialist, they will be a team to be reckoned with; and a team that even the Cavs should take notice of.
Now the West…
The Utah Jazz
This season with Gordon Hayward taking the step from pretty good to really good, and Gobert taking the step from “he has some potential” to “potential all-star next year” the Jazz aren’t necessarily a player away from being a contender, but maybe a a year away. With the way Golden State has been playing as of recent and the injury to Durant, Utah could find themselves being in an interesting series in the conference semi-finals.
The only thing keeping me from putting them in the true contender list, is that there are already 3 other teams title contending teams in the West have either 4 all-stars, an MVP candidate, and/or (arguably) the best NBA coach of all-time. As much as I like (not love) Hayward, he is only scoring 22 ppg, which is good but not great. If he were averaging 26+, I would feel more obliged to put them in that category. And losing in a tough series against a good team this year, could be what the doctor ordered for the Jazz moving forward.
The Los Angeles Clippers
Looking at this roster, and even their record, you would think they deserve to be in the first group of real title contenders. But if you’ve witnessed the losses they have accumulate in the playoffs over the past 4 years, you would understand why they aren’t. With a roster like this, with solid role players, and a good bench, the only person to put the blame on is Doc Rivers. People don’t like holding Doc Rivers accountable because he has a ring, and he’s a player’s coach, but enough is enough. With the 2nd best rim protector in the league, the best pure-point guard in the league, J-crossover coming off the bench, a well-respected 3-point shooter in J.J. Redick, and oh yeah… Blake Griffin (who’s reached a speed bump in his career) who else can you blame.
40–27 isn’t a bad record, but I can’t seeing them beating the Spurs, Warriors, and/or Rockets (not even the Jazz, honestly). With this being said, I thought it was time to trade Griffin for young assets before the trade deadline but now the best option is to sign him and then try to trade him. I never viewed him as a #1 scoring option on a championship team, and with this move in the horizon, that will likely be Chris Paul’s cue to leave to a championship contending team.
So in short… it’s time to rebuild.
The Oklahoma City Thunder
As exciting as Russell Westbrook is to watch, can he be the #1 scoring option on a championship team? Of course he is capable of scoring 30 whenever he wants, but can he average 26+ while having another all-star alongside him scoring 20+ too? When KD was there, he was known as the #1 option, although Russ acted oblivious to it all; but now that the Thunder are officially his, another star or even superstar joining him (highly unlikely) will have to play 2nd fiddle to The Brodie, even if they are better than him.
The problem isn’t with 32 ppg, its with the manner that he does it. With the amount of shots that he takes a game, and how ball dominating he is, I don’t see how another scorer could reach 20+. KD is the exception because of how easy he can score. He (Durant) can get 27 without breaking a sweat.
With that being said, Sam Presti has two years to find Russ some talent or else he’ll end up in Lakerland where Paul George is most likely already there waiting for him. A player that’s a free agent this summer, that could be fun to watch in OKC, could be Blake Griffin. Blake would just have to adjust to that DeAndre Jordan role, where Billy Donovan doesn’t need to draw up plays for him to score.
The Memphis Grizzlies
They have everything you want, except an all-star scorer. Again this free agent list this summer isn’t anything special, but Memphis would be a legitimate contender with a scorer that his in his prime. So Melo is off the list.
The best thing to do would be to wait it out and wait for that all-star in free-agency or maybe try and trade for Paul George. Again, this is hypothetical, I don’t know it would work but everyone should be on the table, except for Gasol and Mike Conley.
The Denver Nuggets
The easier question is, what don’t they need? Jokić is really turning into a Porzingis-like player with a slightly different skill set. Also have a nice player in Murray, but really all these players, except for (maybe) The Joker, is expendable.
They should just be happy that they made it in this article.
