NBA Power Rankings

Another year, another offseason. In a year where the economy reached dangerous lows, this has been the craziest offseason in recent memory. Has there ever been a draft where 3 straight point guard needy teams passed Jason Kidd 2.0, then another team took point guards with consecutive top-6 picks? When was the last time that a scrub with a non-guaranteed contract was worth more than a borderline all-star for 2/3 of the teams in the league? Only in the NBA. With that it seems like the perfect time to make my top ten list.

1. Orlando Magic: This would be a no brainer if the owner had been willing to keep Turkoglu; Even so, I think the Magic have upgraded themselves by getting Vince Carter. When Vince plays hard he's a decent defender (certainly much better than Hedo), and Vince finally gives them someone who can do more than just shoot jumpers. Had they kept Turkoglu then I think they would have had a cakewalk to the title, but because the Lakers have gotten so much worse I think the Magic have earned the top spot.
2. San Antonio Spurs: How exactly did they get R-jeff for some gum wrappers and a bag of peanuts? When RJ is your 4th best player you know that you have a good team, even if RJ is a tad overrated. Jefferson can defend, hit the corner shot (this is a huge part of the spurs offense), and he now gives the spurs terrific depth; They no longer have to play Matt Bonner at the 3 and get abused defensively on a nightly basis.
3. Los Angeles Lakers: The media has already crowned the Lakers 2010 champions, because apparently no one has notticed that the signed the 2009 version of Ron Artest...not the 2004 Ron Artest. Ariza was such a perfect fit for this team (and trust me, he's a better defender than Ron-Ron). Now Ron Artest brings his stick fingers to the Triangle...not exactly a match made in heaven. Sure, Artest is more talented than Ariza, but when you factor in his ball-dominant style and Ariza's superior defense, Ariza contributes more on a minute-by minute basis. If you don't think the Lakers have gotten worse, than you probably didn't watch many Lakers or Rockets games this past year. The Lakers have so much talent and depth that they can't possibly drop out of the top-3, and if they had kept Ariza then I would put them at the top spot without a doubt. Unfortunately they signed Ron Artest. He's really that much of a ball stopper.
4. Boston Celtics: Boston should win 60 again if they stay healthy, but they got exposed by Chicago and Orlando in the playoffs. They clearly miss James Posey more than they thought they would, and Rondo needs an effective backup. I fully expected them to go after Trevor Ariza, Josh Childress, Marvin Williams, and Raymond Felton in that order. Instead...they used all their MLE on a 34-year old power forward. Great Job Danny Ainge, you ignored your biggest need (athletic wing player) to get 'Sheed on the downside of his career. Can we please stop overrating Danny Ainge? Sure he made a great move to get KG (albeit a move that anyone with common sense would've made), but he made a huge mistake in letting go of Posey, he didn't address the team's biggest needs this offseason, and lets not forget how bad the team was before KG got to Boston. While most of that mess was Chris Wallace's fault, Ainge also made some questionable moves in that time.
5. Portland Trail Blazers: They lucked out when Hedo pulled a Brett Favre. I would love to see them get Millsap, but it looks like the Jazz plan to match the offer at any cost. I still can't believe that Kevin Pritchard didn't use Raef Lafrentz's expiring contract to get Kirk Hinrich at some point in the season, and now it looks like they have to trade Jerryd Bayless to get him. Still, the young players should improve, and by default Portland gets a top-five spot because the rest of the NBA has gotten so much worse.
6. Cleveland Cavaliers: Now we approach a dropoff. Were only at the 6th spot and we already have a team that has no chance to win a title. Unlesss, you know, you think that Mo Williams is actually good enough to be the 2nd best player on a title team.
7. Denver Nuggets: Very smart move in not only restraining from overpaying the wildly overrated Dahntay Jones (the pacers signed him for 4 years/11 mil), but then they stole the wildly underrated Aaron Afflalo from the pistons. Afflalo is a younger, cheaper, better, and much less dirty version of Jones. Still, let's be honest, this isn't close to a championship contender.
8. Dallas Mavericks: Rick Carlisle's teams always maximize their talent. Unfortunately, this team only has the talent to win about 52 games if everything goes right, and even then there's no way they would win a playoff series against San Antonio, LA, or Denver. Overpaying for a way over-the-hill Jason Kidd and trading for Shawn Marion's rotting corpse isn't the way to improve your team.
9. Houston Rockets: If Yao Ming and Tracy MacGrady both come back completely healthy and have career years, then just hand the rockets the championship. If they both come back and are 75% of their old selves, then I would immediately elevate the rockets to the 5th spot and make them a dark-horse title contender (certainly good enough to take either LA or San Antonio to 7 games). Unfortunately, it looks like Yao and T-Mac will simply be wasted cap space and roster spots this year, so the Rockets have 12 role players who thrive playing off stars but can't win anything by themselves.
10. Atlanta Hawks: See how top heavy the NBA is? (But i'm not complaining-This is much better than having a bunch of mediocre teams that all have a shot at the title). When this team is in your top ten, you know the league isn't very deep.