Ahhhhh...who doesn't love a good power ranking? Hundreds are made after every basketball season trying to predict how the next one will play out. If you grimaced after reading that last sentence than you know that it's a fool’s errand. No matter the advanced stats or metrics used to ascertain the offensive/defensive efficiency of a team, there are too many variables in place to swing a basketball season. These include chemistry, coaching, bench production, or even the work ethic/will to win of the players. Despite the pure foolishness of the task I decided I would bite and try my hand at ranking the current 30 NBA teams myself…yet with some very large twists. This isn’t your average 1-30 ranking with some short description. Rather, I divided the best players in the NBA into three separate tiers, each followed by a point level. I know it is very opinion based but it gives a good insight into where a team stands. It shows us if a team has all its bases covered. For instance, does it have a top tier point guard, a bruising big man, and some elite wing players? What about a top tier bench along with a proven coach? This point system shows us all that.
Before you proceed to the actual rankings and/or fall asleep let me tell you how I devised such a system. I’m an avid reader of http://www.nfl.com/, and senior analyst Mike Lombardi is one of my favorite writers of all things NFL on the planet. He came up with a system a couple years ago in which he organizes the best players in the NFL into Red Chip (the best) and Blue Chip (elite but slightly below red chip) levels and assigns point values to each position under both the red chip and blue chip levels. What results is a clear indicator of where a team stands and how successful it will be over the course of the coming season. It’s an ingenious system in my opinion; far superior to your average power ranking. After reading Lombardi’s column pertaining to the 2010-2011 season I wondered whether I could create such a system for the NBA. I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into….
After several failed attempts I feel like I finally settled on the best way for converting the system to work for basketball. Instead of just having two levels (red chip and blue chip) I created three tiers for the best basketball players in the world to fall under. Because of the far fewer positions played on the basketball court I thought it was necessary to expand to three levels for greater variety. After starting with just two it became clear that there were some players that did just not belong in tier two but needed to be on the list somewhere. Hence the three tiers of basketball were born.
I also gave teams points if I believed they had a top tier coach, top tier bench, had a superstar on their team (yes it’s a bit subjective…sue me), or had a top 8 offense, and top eight defense. In addition, I subtracted some points if a team had a bottom five offense or defense. What results is a highly convoluted, opinionated, subjective, yet fairly accurate assessment of where all 30 NBA teams stand heading into the 2010-2011 season.
Rules/Guidelines
Tier 1 players (12 points) Tier 2 players (7 points) Tier 3 players (4 points) Top Tier Coaches (+6 points) Superstar (+5 points) Top Tier Bench (+8 points) Top 8 Defense (+8 points) bottom 5 offense (-4 points) top 8 offense (+4 points)
SUPERSTARS: Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard
NOTE: I realize this is a subjective ranking and some may have different players in mind that they consider superstars but these five unarguably qualify for that title. Because these players are so damn good and essentially guarantee their respective teams a playoff spot I felt they deserved some extra points.
TOP EIGHT OFFENSE (2009-2010): Suns, Warriors, Nuggets, Jazz, Raptors, Magic, Grizzlies, Rockets
TOP EIGHT DEFENSE (2009-2010): Bobcats, Heat, Trailblazers, Magic, Celtics, Cavaliers, Bucks, Spurs
TOP TIER COACHES: Doc Rivers, Phil Jackson, Jerry Sloan, Greg Popovich
TOP TIER BENCHES: Magic, Nuggets, Suns, Lakers
Tier 1
Shooting Guard: Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, Brandon Roy
Point Guard: Chris Paul, Rajon Rondo, Deron Williams, Steve Nash
Center: Dwight Howard, Andrew Bogut, Brooke Lopez
Power Forward: Carmelo Anthony, Dirk Nowitski, Tim Duncan, Pao Gasol, Chris Bosh, Carlos Boozer, Ama’re Stoudemire
Small Forward: LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Gerald Wallace
Tier 2
Shooting Guard: Joe Johnson, Monta Ellis, Ray Allen, Manu Ginobli, Kevin Martin, Tyreke Evans
Point Guard: Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, Chauncey Billups, Jason Kidd, Tony Parker, Stephen Curry
Center: Joakim Noah, Andrew Bynum, Al Horford
Power Forward: Kevin Garnett, Josh Smith, David Lee, Zach Randolph
Small Forward: Paul Pierce, Danny Granger
Tier 3
Shooting Guard: Mike Miller, J.R Smith, Stephen Jackson, Jamal Crawford, Andre Igoudala, J.J Redick, O.J Mayo, Jason Terry, Mo Williams, Vince Carter, Jason Richardson, Eric Gordon
Point Guard: Jameer Nelson, Aaron Brooks, Brandon Jennings, Rodney Stuckey, Ty Lawson, Andre Miller
Center: Kenderick Perkins, Anderson Varejao, Marcus Camby, Al Jefferson, Robin Lopez, Brendan Haywood, Marc Gasol, Mehmet Okur, Andrea Bargnani, Chris Kaman
Power Forward: David West, LaMarcus Aldridge, Rashard Lewis, Lamar Odom, Carl Landry, Louis Scola, Kevin Love, Jeff Green, Troy Murphy, Andray Blatche
Small Forward: Rudy Gay, Ron Artest, Grant Hill, Trevor Ariza, Loul Deng, Caron Butler
LAKERS: 58
No surprises here; The Lakers possess the strongest starting five in the game today. They have two top tier players in Bryant and Gasol, one of the five best coaches of all time, a solid bench bolstered by the addition of Steve Blake, a superb defense, and an above average offense. All that combined equals the NBA’s best team even though it might not have the flair of the new look Miami Heat.
MAGIC: 53
Again, an extremely solid team that has all its bases covered. They have the world’s best big man, surrounded by a stable of long range bombers. It’s a wonder that the Boston Celtics actually beat this team this past season. Look for the Magic to contend for a championship again in 2010-2011 (…or Dwight Howard to improve his much maligned post moves, or lack there-of.)
HEAT: 50
The Heat went from Dwyane Wade and homeless people in basketball uniforms to Dwyane Wade and two of the best basketball players in the game today. OF course this team was going to grab a ton of points, with two superstars and a Tier one power forward. The big question (one this formula doesn’t account for) is how the players will all mesh together, and whether they can get some defensive stops. Although they were a top eight defensive team last year, it is hard for me to believe they will be once again with the addition of the all offense, no defense Chris Bosh. With no elite defensive big man, and only small Dwyane Wade and LeBron James holding down the fort I’m not sure how this team will stop opponents from scoring all over them. Of course, with Wade, James, and Bosh all on the same team it wouldn’t surprise me if they score 115-118 points per game.
CELTICS: 47
Oh, the Celtics…how I love thee. Oh, Celtics…how old can thy get? As Bill Simmons aptly put it, the 2010-2011 Boston Celtics…your all corpse team! Despite their advanced age though, I think the Celtics can hang in there for one more year. Hopefully Nate Robinson will be given a little more free reign (did I really just say that?) and with the addition of Diesel and Jermaine the C’s post game might improve just a little. If the team could just improve their offense a bit who knows what could happen? Oh, and if they coast through the regular season one more time I truly fear for the safety of my television.
Well, there you have the top four teams, and considering this column is already too long I will save the other 26 for my next installment…
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