The 2020-21 NBA season will officially kick off Tuesday and with it renewed hope for all 30 of the league’s teams that by the end of what will be an anxious season played out in the middle of a pandemic the Larry O’Brien Trophy will be theirs.
With a season being played while COVID-19 remains very much a part of daily life and no Disney bubble to block out the outside world — plus the fact that this campaign will be a truncated, 72-game edition with the addition of a play-in tournament for Eastern and Western Conference seed Nos. 7-10, giving more teams opportunity to make some playoff noise as well — this season may prove to be more volatile and unpredictable than most.
However, there are still some teams that look better than others and no matter how much parity there may be in the league, there will always be the elite and bottom-feeders.
To help sort this all out, Sportsnet is back with its NBA Tier List, where we’ll be grouping the best, worst and every other team in between.
So, on the eve of the season’s start, here’s how we view the league before any real games have been played.
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Safe (boring) championship picks
You can make a case for all four of these teams to win the title this season. On paper, each figure to play the necessary level of defence and have enough top-end talent with legitimate superstars that can elevate their respective squads.
Chances are we’ll see more teams enter this top-tier level of the list this season because, as you’ll see below, there looks to be a lot of very good teams with a ton of potential. For the time being, however, this quartet safely — and boringly — look like the strongest in the league.
Many, many other possible title contenders
In case you didn’t bother counting how many teams we have placed here at this level, that would be nine teams. It’s a lot, but allow us to explain.
To begin, let’s address the elephant in the room here, shall we? The Brooklyn Nets have all the talent in the world, but until we see how it plays out for real it’s impossible to make a proper judgment on them. There’s just too much variance here with Steve Nash being a rookie head coach, the legitimate defensive concerns, and questions about how the offence will be distributed. Plus, there’s the fact that Kyrie Irving has proved himself a team irritant more often than not, and even though he and Kevin Durant say they’re friends now, if things start going south this season what happens then?
And this type of uncertainty surrounding the Nets is true for all of the teams we have listed at this level. As an example, the Toronto Raptors look very similar to the team we saw last season but with question marks around their front court depth and whether they actually are talented enough to go all the way.
What about the Dallas Mavericks, who have a legitimate MVP candidate in Luka Doncic but also concerns about the health of his co-star, Kristaps Porzingis? With Doncic, the sky’s the limit for the Mavericks, but the uncertainty around everything other than the Slovenian superstar has just about everyone rightfully giving pause to their chances.
Essentially, there’s a chance any of these teams could eventually see themselves at the top of our list, but until there are games played it’ll be crowded here at this level for the time being.
Solid, but maybe not ready yet?
All of these clubs look like they could be good enough to make the playoffs as they feature lots of dynamic, exciting young talent such as the Memphis Grizzlies‘ Ja Morant, the Phoenix Suns‘ Devin Booker, and the New Orleans Pelicans‘ Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram.
With that said, the two most intriguing clubs here in Tier 3 are the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets.
The Warriors will be without Klay Thompson for the season (again), something that dampens their prospects, but this is still a team with two-time MVP Stephen Curry and former Defensive Player of the Year Draymond Green (even if he’s likely missing the first two games with an injury). Those are two pretty good foundational pieces that can win basketball games for you. The question remains, however: just how many?
As for the Rockets, the James Harden saga isn’t likely to be resolved any time soon and it’s difficult to see how it might impact this team on the court. There’s been a lot of change with the Rockets, including a new head coach and GM, in addition to the acquisition of former Kentucky teammates John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins. This is a lot to try to integrate on such short notice and Harden behaving like a petulant child doesn’t help matters. The talent’s there, but is there enough cohesion to make this work — at least in the short term, perhaps before Harden might be traded?
Mediocre NBA basketball teams
Outside of the Minnesota Timberwolves being able to boast they have the No. 1 overall pick in Anthony Edwards, there’s nothing particularly exciting or outwardly notable you can point to with this tier.
Sure, Karl-Anthony Towns is a great player — we think — but the same could be said of the Orlando Magic’s Nikola Vucevic and the Sacramento Kings‘ De’Aaron Fox, and none of these players have done anything to actually help turn these franchises around much.
Though this isn’t the bottom of the barrel, this tier might be the saddest as these are teams that look like they may make the play-in tournament, and that’s it. They’re stuck in the doldrums of NBA purgatory brought on by mediocrity.
Already scouting G League Ignite
In case you were unaware, G League Ignite is a new G League team that’s looking to offer an alternative to college for top prospects where they can get paid while developing and preparing for the NBA Draft.
This will be the first season for this experimental team but it managed to attract some big-time talent in the likes of projected top-five prospects Jalen Green and Jonathan Kuminga, an electric pair who all the teams down here in the basement should keep a very close eye on.
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