The NBA Draft took place last week and we are in full swing of NBA free agency. Yes we have the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs who are trying to maintain rosters that are set up to win now but may not be set up to compete for a title 4 or 5 years in a row.
Besides those teams and a few other contenders like the Clippers, Pacers, Rockets, Warriors and Thunder, the other teams are trying to build up for the future.
So I will rank the top 10 teams that aren't built to win now but have the brightest future based on acquired young talent and future cap flexibility.
So we might as well dive into it.
First let's mention the teams that didn't make it.
Although they made the playoffs without Al Horford and have a ton of salary cap space it would seem as though they don't have any real cornerstone pieces to their future. They continue to be mediocre in a so-so market. This means that they wont be bad enough to get good draft picks that could help turn things around. It also means that it would be hard to get free agents to sign there without grossly over paying semi-talented players. both seems like they kind of dampen their future.
This is more because of the assets that they have now and the fact that tanking didn't really work out for them. I like Marcus Smart and James Young but both will need some time to develop. I like their upside but they might have a bigger curve than some of the other players that were drafted.
They have Rondo as a trade piece but Point Guard is a really deep position in the league. I also don't know if Rondo is the kind of trade asset that would field you a franchise player or a high draft pick. He seems like more of a great piece on championship team but not a player that makes a team great. The Celtics need a face of the franchise player at this point.
10. The Sacramento Kings
The Kings are last on this list because they have great talent on the team but they have to click to ultimately become something. The other thing that holds them back, which will be a theme for western teams, is how good their conference is. So the Kings have an uphill battle to become good again.There have recently been talks of them trading for Rajon Rondo and Josh Smith which would make them a little better defensively. A lineup of Rondo, Ben McLemore/Nick Stauskas, Rudy Gay, Josh Smith and Demarcus Cousins sounds great talent wise but it could also be one of the most unpredictable and tumultuous teams in the league. Rondo has a knack for rubbing teammates the wrong way. Josh Smith is still in a gym somewhere chucking up long twos and threes that he's not making. Also Demarcus Cousins is still prone to making plays like this.
As off right now the team could receive a boost if Rudy Gay continues to play the way he did last year with the Kings and Cousins develops defensively. But they are a team that future looks promising from a far but real murky up close.
9. The Detroit Pistons
The Pistons took a step in the right direction by hiring Stan Van Gundy. He is a proven coach with a style that has brought two teams to the Finals. If the Pitons are all in on Andre Drummond and they probably should be then they will be a lot better than they were last year.Their first priority should be to get rid of Josh Smith and maybe even Greg Monroe as well. There is a case to keep one of those guys as Josh Smith offers a lot more with defense and versatility but only as a power forward. Greg Monroe is a great scorer around the basket and could compliment Drummond more at times but he is to slow in defensive rotations and one on one situations for the Pistons to be able to defend top teams.
The Pistons might opt to keep Monroe over Smith because at least Monroe is young and has a chance to improve. That would give the Pistons more time to fill out the roster and find ways to play Monroe and Drummond together. Josh Smith is pretty much in his prime right now so it could be hard for the Pistons to try to build a championship team in the next year or 2.
The Pistons signed Jodie Meeks today so it looks like they might be trying to build the team in the mold of his Magic teams with Dwight Howard. Having a dominant pick and roll big man and surround him with shooting. Meeks is coming off of a career year and was shooting over 40 percent from 3. They already have Kentavious Caldwell Pope and could add a Ben McLemore in a trade to send Josh Smith to the Kings.
Right now they have great talent but they have too many ifs surrounding the team to rank higher on this list.
8. Philadelphia 76ers
They continue to draft players that are injured or wont play in the NBA for years. Nerlens Noel will play this year and Michael Carter Williams played way better than many people suspected so they have something to look forward to.
The fact of the matter is the Sixers will be absurdly awful for probably the next few seasons because they need Nerlens Noel and Joel Embiid to recover from injury and develop. You couple that with the fact that big men almost always need more time to develop than most other players.
The only reason that they are this high is because the potential is definitely there. Noel was considered the best player in his draft before he got hurt. Embiid was considered the best player in this draft before his injuries as well.
Not sure how well the front court of Embiid and Noel can be but it does has promise of having a lot of athleticism defensively and scoring ability.
It wasn't talked about a lot but the Bobcats made a huge turnaround last season.
People questioned the Al Jefferson signing last summer but it definitely worked out. Jefferson flexed his dominance in the paint offensively and earned a spot on the third team All-NBA.
Other players like Kemba Walker and Josh McRoberts progressed to make the Bobcats/Hornets a playoff team. They also have the youngn's Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Cody Zeller on the roster who should get a better.
Noah Vonleh will also be a great addition if Zeller doesn't work out he has the ability to shoot from the outside and versatility to compliment Al Jefferson. Now all the Hornets have to do is keep improving on a solid base.
The reason that the Hornets are so low on this list is because they're growth is still up in the air. Although they improved a lot last year they still were only the 7th seed in the east and didn't really put up a fight once Jefferson got hurt.
6. Milwaukee Bucks
The Bucks certainly have a bright future after taking Giannis Antetokounmpo with the 15th pick in the draft last year. He came on later in the year to show flashes of crazy athleticism, length and talent.
The Greek Freak only averaged 6.8 points and 4.4 rebounds but he did have flashes that showed that he could be a good player in this league.More importantly he is the perfect compliment to Jabari Parker, the Bucks second pick who will come into the league ready to lead the Bucks in scoring. Giannis has reportedly grew 2 inches over the year to 6'11 so he'll be a nightmare for opposing shooting guards and small forwards that he will guard.
With the Addition of Jabari Parker the Bucks will have a scoring small forward and a stretch power forward. They still have John Henson at center and could get Larry Sanders back to a level he was playing two years ago. Henson came on last year to preform at a pretty decent level.
Here is Sanders' stats from 2 years ago and Henson's stats from last year.
Sanders: 9.8 pts 9.5 reb and 2.8 blocks and lead the league in opponents field goal percentage around the basket.
Henson: 11.1 pts 7.1 reb and 1.7 blocks .
So the Bucks have rim protectors and athleticism the only thing they have to worry about is Brandon Knight playing point guard and O.J. Mayo learning to share the ball more.
I don't expect them to be good next year but if they add a true point guard or Knight develops than they could be a playoff team in the next 2 years.
5. Phoenix Suns
The Suns should be higher on this list. They won 49 games last year, more than all the teams in the east except the Pacers and the Heat. They have a crazy new age backcourt that includes two point guards that wreck havoc in the open court.
Last year they were surrounded by a lot of shooters that spaced the floor and allowed both point guards to run multiple pick in rolls on the same possession.The Suns ran a fast paced offense and competed with some of the best teams in the league on a daily basis even after losing Eric Bledsoe for a portion of the season. They also got contributions from unlikely heros like Miles Plumlee, Gerald Green, and the Morris brothers.
They now have ample cap space to bring in more talent to build on their success. So the Suns should be able to get better.
The Suns main concern has to be keeping Bledsoe on a longterm contract. They also have to be worried about bringing in more talent because it is hard to see the talent on the team replicating what they did last year.
As for now the franchise is looking up and apparently they have made a pitch to LeBron James as well. But if they strike out with marquee free agents it could sink the ship. But if they grab a free agent or land a guy like Kevin Love in a trade then things can certainly get interesting.
4. Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cavaliers may or may not get LeBron to come home but either way the franchise should have a decent future ahead of it.
After drafting Andrew Wiggins the Cavs got a player who will immediately compiment Kyrie Irving as a 2 guard. Wiggins is an athletic wing player who can run in the open court and already plays great defense. Wiggins defense might be the one thing the Cavs could use the most.Wiggins fits in a lot better than Dion Waitors who has had reported issues with Irving in the locker room and has fit poorly with the team on the court.
The Cavs could still get a player like Gordon Hayward if they strike out with LeBron and have a young core of players that can continue to grow. Even last years #1 pick Anthony Bennett can't be discredited. Many people fail to remember that Bennett was coming off of a foot surgery and had times where he still showed promise.
A lot of the Cavs woes had to do with Mike Brown as the coach who was never a great offensive coach and was touted for his experience with NBA defenses. His offenses ineptitude showed as the Cavs ranked 22nd in points but was only ranked 16th in opponents points against.
The Cavs should look into trading Waitors for another small forward or just to get rid of him. There is also an outside possibility that they keep Waitors and play Wiggins at small forward under new head coach David Blatt who has been lauded as the type of coach that takes chances and isn't afraid to get creative.
The biggest thing working for the Cavs is that they have an All-Star on the team and play in a wide open east that is begging for teams to get better.
3. Orlando Magic
The Magic shouldn't be good next year but it's hard to look at their roster and not see how much raw potential it has to grow into maybe a team like the Thunder.
They added a ton of great pieces in the draft the past couple of years and in a year or two their starting lineup could be scary.
You have a lineup of Elfrid Payton at point, Victor Oladipo, Tobias Harris, Aaron Gordon and Nikola Vucevic. That is a lineup that has a ton of athleticism, defense, and post scoring.
Aaron Gordon could end up being one of the best players from the draft if he learns to shoot which has been done before. Oladipo will continue to grow as a scorer now that Payton will be playing point guard full time.
Magic still have solid young peices like Moe Harkless and Andrew Nicholson on the bench that will also develop. I suspect that the Magic will be a problem for teams on the fast break will have highlights like the early lob city days.
The Magic will almost certainly be bad next season sort of how the Thunder were bad their first two seasons with Durant and Westbrook. Although the Magic don't have an individual talent as good as Durant or Westbrook, they have a collective talent that should grow together and scare the rest of the league.
Only reason the Magic isn't ranked higher for me is because they don't have a proven commodity on the team yet but I bet that changes after next year.
The Magic are coming.....
2. New Orleans Pelicans
The Pelicans probably shouldn't be this high on the list but they have something that the other teams on the list have. An Anthony Davis.
The Brow only needed a year to play at an MVP level. Thats not an exaggeration either, his numbers were absolutely insane after a good but not great rookie season. The Brow averaged 20 points, 10 rebounds and lead the league in blocks.
He also was the only player on his team that significantly impacted the teams defense positively. According to SportsVU Davis had an opposing field goal percentage of 45.8% at the rim.Meanwhile his team had a net defensive rating of 110. Don't know what that means? Well the Pelicans were last in the league in defensive rating so it is really bad.
Sure this sounds like I'm praising Davis but bashing the Pelicans but they still have tremendous talent with Jrue Holiday, Eric Gordon, and Tyreke Evans. They have a crazy amount of offensive firepower and still have solid bench players.
The reason why they will be better next year and threaten to make the playoffs is because of Davis' continued growth and the addition of Omer Asik.
Asik is a great defensive center that will take some of the burden off of Davis to be the sole rim protector. He is also a great defendor in the pick in roll and rotation defense. All things he learned from Tom Tibadeau in Chicago.
The West is tough but they Pelicans have more than enough young talent to grow into a great team for years to come.
1. Washington Wizards
The Wizards were already a few games away from making it to the western conference finals so it would make sense for them to be atop this list.
The Wizards went under the radar all year because they were up and down all year due to injuries to Nene and Bradley Beal at separate times in the season. So the Wizards didn't really play with their full team until the end of the season and they showed what they could do.
Beal was starting to become a deadly closer during the Wizards playoff run but now he has to become more consistent. If they bring it every night they have the skill to beat any team in the league.
Now that they signed Marcin Gortat back to a long term contract all they need is for Otto Porter jr to get better or they need to resign Trevor Ariza who was a major factor in their playoff run.
As much as I like Ariza I do think that they need to make sure that they don't give up flexability to sign Ariza who has a knack for playing really well during contract years. His play last year warrants a pay day but he usually isn't completely worth it the rest of his contract.
Either way the Wizards will still have the same mix of a young core and experienced bigs that could put them in the top 4 of the east next year.
The Wizards might need one more piece to legitimately contend in the east but they are closer than most people think.
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