4 divisions down, only 2 more to go. This time it's the division that lays claim to the world champion Los Angeles Lakers. My rule is that whenever a team wins a championship, they're automatically the top team at the start of the next year as far as how I'm ranking teams. Of course there are exceptions when teams make drastic changes, almost always negative (see the Chicago Bulls in '98/'99), but Jordan Farmar and Adam Morrison just are not quite enough to make that difference. There's also the Suns who have undergone drastic changes this offseason as well as the rising Clippers (how often do you hear that?), the new look Warriors, and the young Sacramento Kings. However, the class of the division is clearly the Lakers right now.
Moving over to the west we start off with a division with four playoff teams from last season. Of those four teams, one, the Oklahoma City Thunder is an exciting up and coming team with one of the top players in the league. Another, the Portland Trailblazers, was that up and coming team of a few years ago, but due to injury has had their ascent slowed down. Another one, the Utah Jazz have lost a few pieces over the last year or so, but have also stayed active in adding other pieces. As for the fourth playoff team, the Denver Nuggets, they're coming off of a season that has seen its share of adversity as their top star, Carmelo Anthony has been supposedly asking for a trade and refusing to sign a contract extension. The other team in the division, the Minnesota Timberwolves was a very strong team only a little more than half a decade ago, but has since fallen on hard times and is working its way up.
With the Atlantic and Central divisions down it's time to focus on the Southeast. The Hawks and Magic have been the strongest teams in the division over the last couple of years, but last year saw a young Bobcats team make some noise. This offseason saw the Washington Wizards pick up some potency, highlighted by the drafting of John Wall with the #1 overall pick. The Miami Heat also did something this offseason, but nobody can remember what that is.
More preseason speculation is on the way here. This time it's a more in depth look at each division. For part one we are going to look at the Atlantic Division. Last year the Atlantic Division was the only division in the entire league to only have one playoff team. Not only was there only one playoff team, but the third best record in the division was New York, who had a grand total of 29 wins. During the 2005/2006 season the worst team in the league was the Portland Trailblazers with 30 wins. The bottom two teams in the division had fewer wins than the second place team in the division, and that second place team, again, did not make the playoffs.
Jason recently posted his power rankings for next season, and it's probably apropriate that the same is done by myself. Although mine are going to be pretty similar, there will be some differences as well. You will see the team and then an explanation of why they belong where they are in my opinion. Now, let's get going!
It's that time of year again, rosters around the league are finally filling out, and we can get a good idea of what most of the rookies roles will be on their teams. Let's take a look at what they should be doing this coming season.
