NBA Tier List: Raptors off to dismal start, but showing signs of growth

Sportsnet's Brad Fay and Sherman Hamilton discuss the Toronto Raptors loss against the Golden State Warriors and although the Raptors had the lead late, they couldn't find a way to close the game out.

In case it wasn’t apparent before, the events of this past weekend in regards to the ongoing threat of COVID-19 around the NBA should solidify just how bizarre this season is going to be.

We saw a game between the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics postponed and the Philadelphia 76ers played a game with just seven players taking the court.

These are worst-case, extreme examples, but also feels like it’s how this NBA season is going to go, where the team that manages to have the most COVID luck emerging as the inevitable champion.

The Disney bubble was far from perfect, but it at least allowed games to be played in nearly an entirely coronavirus-free environment. And while we’re only entering the third week of the season and there’s certainly room for things to get better, you have to wonder if the league might not be better off looking into a bubble once again to try to complete the season safely because it just doesn’t seem feasible to believe what happened on the weekend won’t happen again.

For the time being, however, the league will keep chugging along trying to act like business as usual.

Here’s a look at how we view the league in this week’s edition of the NBA Tier List.

The temporary top

Chances are, with it still being early days and all, the top of the list will change soon enough.

For now, however, it’s hard to find much fault with any of these teams except for maybe the Los Angeles Clippers who have shown a worrying penchant for blowing leads. We’re giving them the benefit of the doubt, however, as they’re fully healthy and have the kind of talent that should catapult them to big win streaks.

Top-tier threats

This grouping of six here are teams that could find their way up to the top of the list in the weeks to come.

In particular, the Milwaukee Bucks feature the best net rating in the league but don’t yet have a true signature win on the season, something that could be corrected if they keep up their strong play and beat the Dallas Mavericks this coming Friday.

That won’t be a walk in the park, however, as Luka Doncic is once again playing like an MVP candidate and, more importantly, the Mavericks are due to see the return of Kristaps Porzingis perhaps as early as Monday.

Elsewhere at this level, Stephen Curry’s brilliance and the return of Draymond Green has the Golden State Warriors looking very dangerous again, while the 76ers might find themselves in a spot of trouble with both Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons day-to-day with injuries.

What are you?

As is usually the case early in the season it’s difficult to really know what teams are and this middle-tier section is a perfect example of that.

We’ve slotted nearly half the league in here as there are teams like the Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers and Orlando Magic who have had hot starts but have stumbled a bit lately, and there are clubs like the Denver Nuggets who had a poor start to the season and are now turning things around.

Most interestingly here at Tier 3 are the Brooklyn Nets and Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Nets saw the return of Kevin Durant from minor injury this past week, but it came at the expense of Kyrie Irving missing three straight games (and counting) due to “personal reasons.” Given his eccentric personality, you never really know what Irving may be up to but without him in the lineup Brooklyn has suffered.

As for the Thunder, while there was expectation that they weren’t going to be very good, they’ve racked off three straight wins and look to have a legitimate star in Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. So try as Sam Presti might, it looks like his plans to put OKC through a rebuild may be foiled once again by his personnel stepping up.

Not good, but probably not as bad as your record says you are

The Toronto Raptors are a dismal 2-7 but have seen encouraging signs that they’ll be able to turn this nightmare start around thanks to a Western Conference trip that’s seen Nick Nurse discover that the team might be better off playing small. Doing so has apparently helped Pascal Siakam re-find his old game and it’s improved the club’s defence drastically.

Looking at another team at this level, the Chicago Bulls feel a lot like what the Phoenix Suns were for the past few seasons before the bubble and this season. Blessed with a singularly great scoring guard in Zach LaVine, but not much else, they’re a fun team that can be dangerous if you put LaVine in position to try to win it, but they still need a lot more around him, particularly on the defensive end.

The season is far from over, but you may want to start planning for it anyway

Pray for Bradley Beal. The man put up 60 points -- 57 in three quarters -- and his team still got bombed out. The addition of Russell Westbrook, while exciting has done nothing to help the Washington Wizards as their biggest problem persists from last season: They can’t play any defence to save their lives.

Beal has a maximum contract extension with Washington set to begin next season, but given his obvious frustration with how poor his team is there’s a chance he may be planning an exit out of D.C. sooner than later.

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