Ranking NBA teams by tiers for the 2017-18 season

The Undesirables: Atlanta Hawks, Chicago Bulls

As of right now, these have to be the top candidates for the No. 1 pick of the 2018 NBA Draft. Whether by choice or not, the Atlanta Hawks and Chicago Bulls won’t have much say in how terrible they are thanks to the way their rosters are constructed.

The Hawks lost Paul Millsap, Dwight Howard, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Thabo Sefolosha this summer, which means they’re losing three starters and four key rotation players. Their best player is now Dennis Schroder, the only one on the roster to ever average 15 points per game in a season during his career.

No offense to newcomers Dewayne Dedmon, Luke Babbitt, Marco Belinelli, Miles Plumlee or the exciting rookie John Collins, but this team is going to be terrible.

As for the Bulls, they were going to be in trouble even if Dwyane Wade wasn’t heading for a buyout, thanks to the Jimmy Butler catastrophe. Once Wade is gone, their best player will either be a recovering Zach LaVine, an underwhelming Kris Dunn, an equally underwhelming Cameron Payne or Robin Lopez.

Here’s hoping youngsters like Denzel Valentine, Bobby Portis, the overpaid Cristiano Felicio and rookie Lauri Markkanen can show enough progress to make the pain worth tuning in for.