2017 NBA Season Preview Part 2: Purgatory
Part two of the NBA Preview will cover teams that are in NBA Purgatory. These teams aren’t awful, but they aren’t that good either
25. New Orleans Pelicans
Coming off of a playoff season and getting Alvin Gentry as their new head coach, many believed the New Orleans Pelicans would be a sleeper team in the West. Those believes were quickly deflated. Sure, there were injuries but everything else went wrong as well. Anthony Davis didn’t take the step to the upper echelon of star players like we all though he would. New Orleans was forced to go back to the drawing board after a 30 win season. Buddy Hield is the favorite for Rookie of the Year and arguable the biggest acquisition the team made. Lance Stephenson also will be in New Orleans looking to resurrect his career. On the unfortunate side, Jrue Holiday is out indefinitely as he tends to his wife and our prayers are with him. Also, Davis is already hurt and will miss time.
New Orleans is a team that has few things going for them. They have a franchise player, but they must find a way to keep him on the court as he has never played 70 games in a season. Furthermore, they must get some help around him. Also, they need to play better defense. For a team with Davis and Omer Asik on the front line, the Pelicans were awful on defense a year ago and only mediocre on offense.
Best Case Scenario: The Pelicans find a way to survive the first half of the season despite missing key players. Anthony Davis stays healthy from then on and they find a way to sneak into the playoffs.
Worst Case Scenario: Injuries and lack of depth consume the team as they waste another year of Davis’ prime.
24. Phoenix Suns
The Suns serve as one of two boom or bust teams you’ll find in this section. They’re on the upswing with promising prospects along with a healthy Eric Bledsoe. They could make a playoff push, but only if everything breaks just right. The road to the postseason won’t be easy for a team that won 23 games, will have a first-time head coach and needs to improve itself on defense just to be considered bad. On top of that, the young prospects have to improve themselves to make their dreams a reality.
A common mistake when looking at this roster is to write this off as a youth movement. Yes Booker, Chiss and Bender will play a lot, but guys like Chandler, Bledsoe and Dudley will make up three-fifths of the starting lineup. Booker will benefit greatly if everyone stays healthy. The return of Bledsoe alone should open up the floor and stretch defenses. That means more open looks for Booker and more options for the Phoenix offense. If Chriss and Bender can fill their roles along the front court, this team could be dangerous and compete for a playoff spot. But relying a lot on young players and the health of typically unhealthy players is a big risk. We shall see.
Best Case Scenario: Everyone stays healthy and the young guns play well.
Worst Case Scenario: Bledsoe goes down with injury (or gets traded) and the young players fail to take the next step.
23. Orlando Magic
The Orlando Magic have been stuck in neutral since Dwight Howard departs for Los Angeles four years ago. Frank Vogel takes the helm of a team that is rich on big men. Maybe a little too rich on big men as Serge Ibaka and Bismack Biyombo join Aaron Gordon and Nik Vucevic on the front line. If anything, this team should rebound and protect the rim pretty well (or at least we hope). Vogel will have to sort out this log jam. With Victor Oladipo in Oklahoma City, Evan Fournier becomes the the focal point on the perimeter. Also, Jeff Green will be in Orlando as well to help out with the scoring load. Elfrid Payton will be running point once again as Vogel plans to help the young guard take his game to the next level.
Vogel’s imprint on this team should be obvious to everyone. The Magic will play defense and they will rebound. Fortunately they have the personnel on both fronts to get that done. So expect an improvement on that end. With the aforementioned big man log jam, competition for minutes will be stiff. Vogel will have to find a way to clear that jam as well as continue to develop Gordon and Mario Henzonja. The last thing they’ll need to figure out is who is the leader of this team. Perhaps Ibaka can assume the role he never got the chance to in OKC.
Best Case Scenario: The offense improves along with the defense. Fournier emerges as a franchise building block and Elfrid Payton takes a step forward as a player. If those things happen, maybe the Magic can get into the playoffs. But that’s a big maybe.
Worst Case Scenario: Having too many big men backfires and Fournier turns out not to be the answer.
22. Miami Heat
The Big 3 era in Miami officially came to an end during the offseason. Chris Bosh will likely never play another game in a Heat uniform due to his blood clot problems. Bosh does plan to continue his road back to the court, but it’s unlikely that any team gives him the opportunity. The greatest player in Heat franchise history is Dwayne Wade and even he is no longer there. It’s hard to believe that the Wade era in Miami would end on a note like this. This team was the sleeper everyone loved in the East a year ago. Now they’re in a purgatory type of situation.
The good news for the Heat is they still have capable players on the roster with Erik Spoelstra still on the sidelines. Goran Dragic and Hasan Whiteside are now the leaders of this team. Spoelstra is a great coach when it comes to playing to the strengths of his roster. So expect to see some uptempo play when Dragic is on the floor as he excels in that style. Whiteside will need to continue his development into an all-around center as he is now one of the franchise cornerstones in South Beach. He’ll also need to stay healthy. Another player to watch out for is Josh Richardson, who is injured to start the season. With Wade gone he likely steps into that spot on the floor when he's healthy.
Best Case Scenario: Spoelstra pushes the right buttons and gets the most out of this roster. Also, it’d be great if Pat Riley has some sort of plan moving forward. Since he’s Pat Riley, I’m sure he has something in mind.
Worst Case Scenario: They miss the playoffs due to injuries or simply not being good enough.
21. Milwaukee Bucks
Following a 41-win season, the Bucks took a step back with a 33-win total last season. The job is simple enough for Milwaukee: get back to .500 and back into the playoffs. It’s time to take off the training wheels in Milwaukee and see just how far they can get with their position-less philosophy. In the draft, the Bucks went bold and got Thon Maker at number 10 and Malcolm Brogdon at 36. In the offseason, they focused on picking up role players like Steve Novak, Mirza Teletovic, Jason Terry and Matthew Dellavedova. Most recently, the Bucks traded Michael Carter-Williams to Chicago for Tony Snell
The big story for the Bucks this season is Giannis Antetokounmpo running the point for the Bucks. Hopefully he can run the offense effectively enough to get more wins. Another big story out of Milwaukee is who will fill the shoes of the injured Khris Middleton. I expect that to come by committee led by the newly acquired Tony Snell and a more involved Jabari Parker on offense.
Best Case Scenario: The Bucks put it together and look like a team on the rise instead of a team in regression. They compete for and maybe even make the playoffs.
Worst Case Scenario: The East proves to be too deep and the Bucks prove to be too inexperienced.
That concludes the teams in NBA Purgatory. Coming up on Wednesday is a tier inspired by the Jalen and Jacoby podcast. It will be called “They’re alright but they’re not real”. These are the teams that will likely compete and make the playoffs, but aren’t really a threat to do anything.
