Ranking NBA teams by tiers for 2018-19 season

Edge Of The Playoff Field

New Orleans Pelicans, San Antonio Spurs, Portland Trail Blazers, Washington Wizards

The New Orleans Pelicans have a bona fide superstar and Hoops Habit‘s MVP favorite on their side, which has to count for something. If they start Nikola Mirotic as a stretch-4 with Anthony Davis at the 5 and deploy Julius Randle as a super sixth man off the bench, they should be able to compensate for the downgrade from Rajon Rondo to Elfrid Payton. That’s a big “if” though, and Payton can’t be the train wreck he’s been thus far in his career.

Another team facing a small margin for error out West is the Portland Trail Blazers, who had the wind sapped from their sails with that humiliating first round sweep in the playoffs. They may have been the 3-seed, but they only won 49 games — just three games ahead of ninth place. Did we mention the margin for error out West is razor-thin?

Even if the Blazers regress as many are predicting, the San Antonio Spurs have something to prove as well. They may be replacing nine games of a rusty Kawhi Leonard with DeMar DeRozan, but many are overlooking how important guys like Danny Green, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Kyle Anderson for the defense and locker room chemistry. That, plus offensive spacing concerns, means there’s no guarantee the Spurs’ playoff streak stays alive. (Then again, it probably will.)

As for the Washington Wizards, it’d be nothing short of abject panic if they failed to make the postseason. They snuck in as the 8-seed despite John Wall missing half the season, but if they somehow land in the same territory this year, Dwight Howard‘s locker room stench (and not just his infamous farts) will be at the center of the discussion.