Now that we know the lay of the land for the upcoming 2017-18 NBA season, it’s time to sort the league by their various tiers.
After one of the most bizarre summers in NBA history, most of us are still waiting for the dust to settle. With No. 1 picks being moved, superstars trading hands and free agency madness to sort through, the 2017 NBA offseason was like one continuous heat check, sending Twitter into a frenzy with every new WojBomb or ShamsWow.
But now that Kyrie Irving has been moved to the Boston Celtics, the dust storm has finally settled and we can begin to see the oasis that is the 2017-18 NBA season in the distance. With only the drier months of August and September dying out, we’re almost back to basketball.
In that remaining time, it’s worth getting our bearings and trying to make sense of what’s become a constant swapping of all our recognizable NBA landmarks. Chris Paul is with the Houston Rockets. Paul George was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Jimmy Butler is with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Gordon Hayward and Irving are on the Celtics, Isaiah Thomas is on the Cleveland Cavaliers, Paul Millsap is with the Denver Nuggets…you get the idea.
The only domino left to fall is Carmelo Anthony’s departure from the New York Knicks, but at this point in time, we’ve got a pretty good idea of where everyone stands heading into the upcoming season.
As such, it’s time to take a look at the various tiers in the league to sort out the bottom-feeders from the fringe playoff teams, the dark horses from the legitimate title contenders and the possible tankers from the muddled middle ground. We start with the lowest tier in the NBA, The Undesirables.