With health and safety protocols taking centre stage around the NBA, precisely judging how good or bad teams actually are has become more of a crapshoot than anything else.
So, to make things easier, we’re primarily judging clubs based on how they’ve performed in their most recent games to try to keep things as fair as possible.
Here’s how we view the league right now in the latest edition of the NBA Tier List.
Tier 1: The NBA’s Fab Five
No changes at the top from last week as these five squads remain the cream of the NBA’s crop.
In particular, the Golden State Warriors and Phoenix Suns look to be the two teams to beat this season and their highly-entertaining Christmas Day contest over the weekend really did feel like an early preview of what this season’s Western Conference Final will be like.
Tier 2: Just a tad outside top tier
The four sitting here in the second tier could very well make a run at the top tier sooner than later with no bigger surprises than the Cleveland Cavaliers and Memphis Grizzlies.
The Cavs are 11-3 in their last 14 games and have done so without Colin Sexton, who is out for the season with a knee injury, leading to a huge step up from his backcourt-mate Darius Garland, of whom is making a major all-star push.
Rookie sensation Evan Mobley and key centre Jarrett Allen are both in health and safety protocols at the moment, so things may get a little tougher for the Cavs this week, but a 20-13 record on the season doesn’t lie. They are for real.
Similarly, the Grizzlies sports a 20-14 record on the season, and while they’ve recently lost three of their last four games, their 11-4 record in their last 15 games is good enough evidence that they have the right personnel to get the job done on a nightly basis.
There’s an adjustment period that Memphis is going through again with Ja Morant’s return to the lineup, as well as Dillon Brooks entering health and safety protocols, but there’s no reason to think they won’t be alright.
Tier 3: Decent teams of late
Kemba Walker was notoriously benched by New York Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau at the end of November, leading to him missing 10 straight games. However, with the Knicks dealing with COVID like much of the rest of the league, Thibodeau had no choice to rescind his decision and inserted Walker back into the lineup and it’s resulted in a 2-2 Knicks record that’s seen Walker explode for a 26-point, seven-assist per game average over those last four games, including a 44-point eruption against the Washington Wizards.
Looking elsewhere at this tier, the San Antonio Spurs have quietly won four of their last five games and have crept up into a play-in tournament spot at No. 10 in the Western Conference. Meanwhile, reigning MVP Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets is actually putting up better numbers this season than he did than a season before and his 32.72 PER is actually on pace to become the highest in NBA history.
Tier 4: The true moribund middle
There are 10 teams here at the fourth tier, and as the subtitle suggests, this is where the actual “middle of the pack” of the league lies. It just so happens, though, that the NBA’s middle at the moment is incredibly uninspiring with most of the teams at this level mired in slumps.
The best example of this: the Los Angeles Lakers, who have lost five straight including their last four where LeBron James has averaged an obscene 35 points, 9.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game on 58.2 per cent shooting.
It’s a tired narrative, as it’s one that’s been talked about for seemingly his entire career, but with Anthony Davis still expected to miss another month of action and Russell Westbrook as infuriatingly inconsistent as ever, you have to wonder if James does, in fact, need more help again.
Tier 5: The NBA’s Failing Five
Of the five teams down here in the basement, the most disappointing to see are the Portland Trail Blazers, although given how their season has unfolded it’s not altogether unexpected.
From the investigation to the eventual firing of general manager Neil Olshey, to all the trade speculation that was swirling around Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, to the bombshell news that McCollum had suffered a collapsed lung (although, thankfully it’s been reported that his lung has fully healed), it’s been a season of nightmares for the Blazers, who have now won only three times in their last 14 games.
