Despite there not being a consensus top prospect in this year’s NBA Draft like there was a year ago when Victor Wembanyama dominated headlines from France, the race to the bottom in the NBA is far more aggressive this season. There are four teams on pace to finish below 20 wins on the season right now, as the Pistons, Wizards, Spurs, and Hornets all find themselves with 10 wins or fewer as we’ve crossed the midway point of the season.
What’s fascinating is that two of those teams — Detroit and Charlotte — weren’t actively trying to be this bad coming into the season, but have managed to bottom out, anyway. The Pistons are still looking for roster upgrades as the deadline looms, determined to try and crawl out of the NBA’s cellar after enduring the longest losing streak in league history. The Hornets have gone the other way and seem to just be embracing a rebuild after trading Terry Rozier in what looks to signal the start of a fire sale to build around LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller for the future. Washington tore it down this summer and seemed hopeful they wouldn’t be quite this bad with Kyle Kuzma and Jordan Poole, but this group has just not panned out. The Spurs, however, are closer to where everyone thought they’d be as they preached patience building around Victor Wembanyama.
The rosters for all four teams have real issues and not a lot of clear fixes. They’re probably going to be in this position for awhile as they try to rebuild and acquire talent, and they are just a rough watch on most nights. However, this week was a round-robin of sorts for the bottom 4, as the Spurs beat the Wizards (131-127), Pistons beat the Hornets (113-106), and Hornets beat the Spurs (124-120) in three competitive and exciting games, which we don’t often get involving these teams.
What I propose after watching this mini-tournament at the bottom of the league is the NBA just scrap the rest of the schedule for these teams and have them exclusively play each other for the rest of the season for the betterment of everyone involved. Why make them travel the country getting bludgeoned by the rest of the league? Instead, we could have them play each other and actually get their young players some reps in competitive games that come down to the fourth quarter. You could even give the team that wins the most in the Tank League the top pick in the NBA Draft to incentivize them to actually keep trying all the way through if you wanted to. The downside to this plan, of course, is that we’d lose out on some very funny moments, like when the Hornets completed an outrageous comeback to beat the Timberwolves despite Karl-Anthony Towns scoring 62.
I know none of this will happen, but this week was a reminder of how close all four of those teams are to each other as they swapped wins and losses and pushed each other in a way we rarely get to see when they face the rest of the league. There’s no real drama as to where these four teams land in this week in DIME’s Power Rankings, but let’s dive in to the full list for Week 13 of the season.
TIER I: The Contenders
1. Boston Celtics (35-10, Last week: 1)
2. Oklahoma City Thunder (31-13, Last week: 3)
3. Minnesota Timberwolves (32-13, Last week: 2)
4. Los Angeles Clippers (28-14, Last week: 4)
5. Milwaukee Bucks (31-13, Last week: 6)
6. Denver Nuggets (31-15, Last week: 5)
7. Philadelphia 76ers (29-14, Last week: 7)
There’s no change at the top this week, as the Celtics just keep rattling off wins and, even with the occasional hiccup here and there, they look like the league’s most complete team and have not lost back-to-back games once this year. The Thunder jump into the 2-spot fresh off of four straight wins, as they show no signs of slowing down and seem to just keep gaining confidence as a unit. The Timberwolves have not had their best week with losses to OKC and Charlotte, which was one of the worst losses of the year with KAT going for 62 in defeat and Chris Finch torching his team’s focus after. They have bounced back with two wins since and they still have the West’s best record, it just all looks a touch more difficult right now for the Wolves than it did previously.
The Clippers keep rolling along, with Kawhi Leonard playing some truly outrageous basketball right now (and, really, for the last year). Milwaukee moves up this week as they rattle off three straight wins despite firing their coach in his first year and hiring Doc Rivers. That’ll bring plenty of playoff questions but it certainly seems like it should be an upgrade for the time being. Denver slides one spot after getting demolished by the Knicks, but there aren’t any real concerns for the defending champs. Philly also has been cruising for the most part, with Joel Embiid putting up one of the greatest scoring seasons in NBA history, most recently putting 70 on Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs.
TIER II: Good Vibes Teams
8. New York Knicks (28-17, Last week: 10)
9. Cleveland Cavaliers (26-16, Last week: 8)
10. Phoenix Suns (26-18, Last week: 14)
11. New Orleans Pelicans (26-18, Last week: 9)
12. Sacramento Kings (25-18, Last week: 15)
13. Indiana Pacers (25-20, Last week: 13)
The next tier features six teams that are all feeling pretty good about their standing right. The Knicks have been unbelievable with OG Anunoby on the floor since trading for him and they keep climbing the East standings, narrowing the gap to Philly to just two games. The Cavs have likewise been in a groove, as they took advantage of a soft spot in their schedule to pile up wins even with the continued absences of Evan Mobley and Darius Garland, and have gotten back to playing great defense and letting it fly from three (Sam Merrill is on an unreal heater of late). The Suns have won 7 straight and are looking an awful lot like the contender we thought they’d be, and while they seem to be on the hunt for some more depth, their Big 3 plus Grayson Allen (speaking of shooting heaters) have been tremendous of late. The Kings and Pacers both snapped losing streaks recently, but even after skids they both are feeling pretty good about things, with Sacramento a candidate to make a deadline move and Indiana just patiently waiting to finally get Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam on the floor together. The Pacers, in particular, are fascinating because for all their defensive shortcomings, they’ve been great against the top teams in the East this season.
TIER III: Change Is Coming
14. Miami Heat (24-21, Last week: 11)
15. Dallas Mavericks (24-20, Last week: 12)
16. Utah Jazz (23-23, Last week: 16)
17. Orlando Magic (23-21, Last week: 17)
18. Los Angeles Lakers (23-23, Last week: 18)
The Heat are in the midst of a 5-game losing streak, and while adding Terry Rozier should be helpful, they look like a team that’s in need of more help. They just don’t seem to have the juice on offense to hang with the top teams and the defense isn’t as good as it once was to make up for it. Dallas, meanwhile, has lost three straight and has the opposite issue where they need to be an offensive buzzsaw to overcome a below average defense and can’t seem to find that level consistently. Utah continues to hang around at .500, but have cooled off since their recent hot streak. Orlando just isn’t getting enough offensively from their backcourt and they’re a candidate to seek out a boost there. The Lakers likewise keep hovering around .500 and are connected to every big name in trade rumors, and it seems like a matter of when not if they shake things up.
TIER IV: Bad Vibes Teams
19. Houston Rockets (20-23, Last week: 19)
20. Chicago Bulls (21-25, Last week: 20)
21. Golden State Warriors (19-23, Last week: 21)
22. Atlanta Hawks (18-26, Last week: 22)
23. Memphis Grizzlies (17-27, Last week: 24)
24. Brooklyn Nets (17-27, Last week: 25)
25. Toronto Raptors (16-28, Last week: 23)
Bad vibes might be harsh for the Rockets, Bulls, and Grizzlies. Memphis has an excuse of everyone being hurt (and their young guys play hard every night), Houston is just kind of run of the mill mediocre rather than heavily underperforming like the others, and Chicago’s been perfectly fine after a dreadful start. The rest of the teams, however, are just not where they wanted or expected to be. Toronto has at least embraced a rebuild, but it’s ugly right now watching them play. The Warriors already complicated season now includes the emotional weight of the sudden passing of assistant coach Dejan Milojevic and the difficulty of navigating the grieving process in the middle of a season. The Hawks just need to blow it up, while the Nets are just not well constructed and have nights where they completely no-show, which is a bad combo.
TIER V: The Blazers
26. Portland Trail Blazers (13-31, Last week: 26)
Portland is fairly competitive in their current form and they’re a threat to win most nights, which is a step in the right direction for a young team figuring things out in a post-Dame world. To me, that stride forward is deserving of not being lumped in with the teams below that basically only get wins when they play each other or have a team forget to play basketball while trying to get a star to 100 points.
TIER VI: Let Them Fight
27. Charlotte Hornets (10-32, Last week: 28)
28. San Antonio Spurs (8-36, Last week: 27)
29. Detroit Pistons (5-39, Last week: 29)
30. Washington Wizards (7-37, Last week: 30)
I really think it would be to the benefit of everyone if we just quarantined this group into their own mini-league. We have a Wizards team that might be at rock bottom after firing Wes Unseld Jr. (while still employing him in an advisory role), a Hornets team that’s begun a fire sale, a Pistons team that is attached to every star on the trade market despite holding the NBA’s worst record, and a Spurs team where Victor Wembanyama is fun but when they play a good team they tend to get absolutely lit up, highlighted by giving up 70 to Joel Embiid.