Re-shaped Landscape: How do they Rank now?

[andalusian]

San Antonio, Okc, Golden State, Dallas all didn't change much. Rockets will be better with Bosh and like that transaction for them. LA got better with Hawes. It's hard to say if Portland got better because they lost a major scorer off their bench in Williams. In Portland's case and more Neil's case, it seems he is expecting a boom out of the young guys off the bench in McCollum, Robinson and Barton. And if that is the case, they will be improved. I wouldn't assume it though, especially by not addressing a major problem two of the last two years which is bench scoring. If the young guys don't grow. You have screwed the starters again. And that could be enough to run LA out of town.

While I agree with most of what you said, I still think that the situation is not that dire and the Blazers did improve, I would call the Blake/Mo change mostly a wash, Kaman is an upgrade over Freeland/Lenard - and even if the young ones do not prove themselves - the Blazers will likely go the trade route. We also saw a rather bad year from Wright, I would not be surprised to see him doing better next year as well.

 

[Rhal]

Tier 1
San Antonio Spurs
Houston Rockets
Oklahoma City Thunder
Los Angeles Clippers

Tier 2
Golden State Warriors
Portland Trailblazers
Memphis Grizzlies

Tier 3
Phoenix Suns
Denver Nuggets
Dallas Mavericks
New Orleans Pelicans

Tier Worst In The NBA
Los Angeles Lakers

This is how I see it and the big factor next year is going to be health because if any of the tier 2 teams are unhealthy a tier 3 team will be liking their chops ready supplant them in the playoff race.