The Tiers of the NBA: Ranking the Teams From Top to Bottom(Zach Lowe)

[HawkItus]

    http://grantland.com/the-triangle/nba-rankings-san-antonio-spurs-los-angeles-clippers-oklahoma-city-thunder-cleveland-cavaliers/     Atlanta Hawks

The third-best team in the East before Al Horford’s pectoral injury gets to reincorporate its best player into a pass-happy, triple-heavy system that the other guys mastered without him. Horford’s injury allowed Atlanta to discover the power of going five-out with a Pero Antić–Paul Millsap front line.

Horford has only dabbled with a corner 3, but he is by far Atlanta’s best interior defender, and he can guard power forwards if Mike Budenholzer decides to experiment with a bigger Horford-Antić frontcourt.⁴ The Hawks defended at a top-five rate when Horford was on the floor, and though they don’t have the personnel to maintain that level for a full season, Horford can transform this team into a real threat.

He gives Atlanta a legit post-up option when the shot clock is ticking away, key for a team that has really only one perimeter player — Jeff Teague — capable of creating his own shot.

This team is good, but the uncertain ownership situation clouds everything.

[DJlaysitup]

I dunno...I like AL Horford as well as the next guy - but really - Millsap has considerably better inside moves than the ones I have seen from AL.

[Atlantaholic]

I dunno...I like AL Horford as well as the next guy - but really - Millsap has considerably better inside moves than the ones I have seen from AL.

 

I like Horford's face up game more. His shot is so lethal that Centers are either forced to overplay or give him an open look, which gives him a big advantage, especially when he is in at Center and bigger slower players are forced to guard him.

[Diesel]

I think with the Expansion of Mike Scott's game, we will have some really hard decisions ahead.  We have the best PF rotation in the league:

 

Horford, Millsap, Payne, and Scott are all dominant.  Even if you roll Horf and Payne to the C position, we're still darn good. BUT....I watched some of the Orlando New Orleans game last night.  Say what you want, having a real C makes the game change. Asik, Davis, Vucevic makes it plain to see that the Bigs are back.  The Asik, Davis, and Anderson combination is the best PF/C combination in the game....I really have a hard time seeing anybody contend with New Orleans now.  I know their back court is turrible but their front court is so good!!!

[AHF]

New Orleans will be held back by age and their vastly overpriced backcourt.  Davis is the truth, though.

[Guest]

New Orleans will be held back by age and their vastly overpriced backcourt. Davis is the truth, though.

Their bench looks pretty thin also.

[Admin]

But man that front court are nasty! They can change up that trio any way they want and they'll be trouble on both ends for opposing teams.

[Plainview1981]

The strength is the team is obviously the 4 spot and good depth.

 

The issues are health, Teague and the lack of athletic ability on the wings. Horf and Millsap make for a somewhat redundant front court. It's hard to see 50 wins with this combo. Will Teague play like he did at the start of last season?

[JETSET]

The strength is the team is obviously the 4 spot and good depth.

The issues are health, Teague and the lack of athletic ability on the wings. Horf and Millsap make for a somewhat redundant front court. It's hard to see 50 wins with this combo. Will Teague play like he did at the start of last season?

We are about to have one hell of a season if one of our few issues is Teague. Teague played at an all-star level when the team was healthy at the beginning and end of last season. We stay healthy and Teague will outplay his counterpart on most nights.

[Plainview1981]

We are about to have one hell of a season if one of our few issues is Teague. Teague played at an all-star level when the team was healthy at the beginning and end of last season. We stay healthy and Teague will outplay his counterpart on most nights.

 

Teague shot poorly at the start of last season was what I was talking about. 

[Plainview1981]

I forgot to mention rebounding... The team gets so little from the Teague, Korver and Carroll trio. They could use a Shawn Marion like rebounder at the SF spot.

[JETSET]

Teague shot poorly at the start of last season was what I was talking about.

And we played pretty well while he shot poorly. He then shot much better for the rest of the season outaide of one other month.

[Admin]

And we played pretty well while he shot poorly. He then shot much better for the rest of the season outaide of one other month.

 

Not really, we were 16-13, not exactly world beaters with that record in the East. And while Teague had 2ish good months last year, he also had 2ish really bad months. I'm hopeful that the light came on in the playoffs but we'll see. 

[JETSET]

Not really, we were 16-13, not exactly world beaters with that record in the East. And while Teague had 2ish good months last year, he also had 2ish really bad months. I'm hopeful that the light came on in the playoffs but we'll see.

That 16-13 record also contained the ridiculous 8 games in 12 days stretch which most definitely cost us a couple of wins. We lost 5 games during that stretch. Out of the 8 games lost outside of the stretch, 4 losses were by 2 points each. We were playing far better than the record suggests.

He played very well at the beginning and end of the season when we had a consistent healthy lineup.

[Admin]

That 16-13 record also contained the ridiculous 8 games in 12 days stretch which most definitely cost us a couple of wins. We lost 5 games during that stretch. Out of the 8 games lost outside of the stretch, 4 losses were by 2 points each. We were playing far better than the record suggests.

He played very well at the beginning and end of the season when we had a consistent healthy lineup.

 

If I remember correctly we had the easiest schedule in the NBA the first 2 months as well. So while maybe the long stretch of games and close losses appears nice, it doesn't mask the fact that we still weren't "good". The East was just awful last year, especially early in the season. 

[MrMeltdown]

The dead horse and inaccurate argument that Teague had 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or how many ever bad months necessary for people to make there points is just mind boggling.

Edited October 29, 2014 by MrMeltdown

[Admin]

The dead horse and inaccurate argument that Teague had 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or who many ever necessary for people to make there points is just mind boggling.

 

Huh?  I'd genuinely like to discuss this but I can't comprehend what you just said. 

[MrMeltdown]

Huh?  I'd genuinely like to discuss this but I can't comprehend what you just said. 

We have already discussed or was is AHF? I obviously meant how many ever to get it started, and there simply was not that much variation in Teague's numbers from month to month last year.

[Admin]

We have already discussed or was is AHF? I obviously meant how many ever to get it started, and there simply was not that much variation in Teague's numbers from month to month last year.

There was a huge variation. Mostly because of his atrocious shooting numbers in the middle months of the season compared to the beginning and end. They even talk about that on 2k15 during the games lol.

Plus his demeanor and aggressiveness differences between his poor months and that final month and playoffs is drastic. He really didn't make anyone take notice of him until that late push and playoff series.

[MrMeltdown]

Teague averaged between 16 and 16.9 pts in 4 of the full 6 months during the regular season. That is not a huge variation. He had one month were he averaged 18.8, that is a big variation but no-one should be complaining about him having a better than average month. He had one month were he averaged 13.6 pts, that is something to complain about because it was below average for him.

 

One month out of the 6 full months played, that is all I see to complain about when it comes to variation.

 

In comparison Lebron's months had more variation.

 

The six full months.

 

27,25,28,31,26,31

 

That is a lot more variation in raw numbers than Teague.

 

My final point on this is because Teague is just average to slightly above average his variations are more noticeable than someone like Lebron who has even bigger variations in raw numbers throughout a season because Lebron is consistently great even with more variation

Edited October 29, 2014 by MrMeltdown