Which Young Teams Can Make Playoff Leap?
Every season, one or two franchises make the transition from up-and-coming squad to legitimate playoff team. Last season, the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets were able to make this leap, ending their multi-year postseason droughts thanks to internal development and personnel moves.
In 2011-12, the Los Angeles Clippers made the jump. In 2010-11, it was the Indiana Pacers. In 2009-10, it was the Oklahoma City Thunder. Most perennial contenders start here – assembling a young core, sneaking into the postseason as a lower seed and, usually, experiencing failure. It’s how teams go from lottery fodder to battle-tested elite in just a few years.
Now, as the Warriors and Rockets look to take another step themselves – from late seed to legitimate contender – other young teams will compete to fill their vacant seeds at the bottom of the playoff picture.
This season, there are a number of franchises that are tired of accumulating ping pong balls instead of wins. Although not every franchise is ready to move forward, with teams like the Orlando Magic and Phoenix Suns continuing to develop their young core and stockpile draft picks, here are seven franchises that are looking to end their lottery run in the 2013-14 season:
Detroit Pistons
– Detroit has missed the playoffs in the last four seasons,
accumulating a 111-201 record during that span. After spending the last
few years drafting talented young cornerstones such as Greg Monroe and
Andre Drummond, the Pistons are clearly determined to make the playoffs
in the 2013-14 season.
The team finished with a 29-53 record last year, but every move Detroit has made this offseason suggests that the team is in win-now mode.
The Pistons will have a new one-two punch with marquee signings Josh Smith and Brandon Jennings, who were viewed as two of the top free agents in this class. They also hired Maurice Cheeks as the team’s new head coach and brought back veteran guard Chauncey Billups, who can provide leadership and championship pedigree.
Joe Dumars, who received a lot of warranted criticism after signing Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva to long-term deals in 2009, needs these moves to pan out and return Detroit to prominence.
Cleveland Cavaliers
– There’s no question that Cleveland’s best basketball is still a few
years ahead of them when players like Kyrie Irving, Dion Waiters,
Tristan Thompson and Anthony Bennett reach their collective prime.
However, that doesn’t mean the Cavaliers can’t start gaining some
playoff experience now.
The postseason isn’t just the goal for the 2013-14 season, it’s expected. While that may seem like lofty expectations for a team that finished last season with a 24-58 record, the Cavaliers have the talent to finish among the Eastern Conference’s top eight teams.
Irving is already one of the best point guards in the NBA, Thompson could be poised for a breakout season and Waiters should show improvement as well. However, it’s the Cavaliers’ offseason additions that make the postseason a realistic goal. Andrew Bynum missed all of last season due to injuries, but he’s still one of the best centers in the league when healthy. Jarrett Jack emerged as a top reserve with the Golden State Warriors last season, and he’ll play a similar role in Cleveland. Add in a healthy Anderson Varejao, who was averaging nearly 15 points and 15 rebounds before his injury last season, and the Cavaliers’ frontcourt is loaded. Returning as head coach is Mike Brown, who has never missed the playoffs in his six full seasons on the sidelines. If all goes as planned, Cleveland will break their three-year, post-LeBron James playoff drought next season.
Washington Wizards
– The Wizards were in this category entering last season. John Wall was
vocal that Washington was ready to be a playoff team and the team had
high expectations after acquiring veterans such as Nene, Emeka Okafor
and Trevor Ariza. However, injuries to key players such as Wall and Nene
set the Wizards back significantly, and the team dug themselves a deep
hole early in the season by losing their first 12 games and 28 of their
first 33 contests.
But, as bad as they were in the beginning of the year, the Wizards finished last season strong and managed to win 29 games. Washington was a .500 team once Wall returned from injury, including a number of wins against playoff teams. Now, with the team at full strength, the Wizards are once again entering this season with postseason expectations.
Unlike Detroit and Cleveland, Washington didn’t make any splashy signings this summer, choosing instead to re-sign Martell Webster and enter next season with the same core. Otto Porter, the team’s No. 3 overall draft pick, is the only key addition.
The Wizards are hoping that Nene can return to form next season, but they’re also relying heavily on internal improvement to turn their playoff goal into reality. They’ll need players like Wall and Bradley Beal to take the next step and produce at a high level. If Wall can play as well as he did toward the end of last season – he averaged 22.4 points, 7.9 assists, 4.8 rebounds and 1.9 steals in March – the Wizards should be able to secure one of the East’s final playoff seeds after five consecutive trips to the lottery.
New Orleans Pelicans
– The Pelicans have been one of the most active teams in the league in
recent weeks, trading for Jrue Holiday on draft night and signing Tyreke
Evans shortly after.
Holiday and Evans give New Orleans one of the most intriguing cores in the NBA since they will be playing alongside Eric Gordon, Anthony Davis and Ryan Anderson among others. While the Pelicans finished last season with a 27-55 record, the group that they’re putting on the floor this season is almost unrecognizable and the expectations have changed as well.
In a matter of a few days, New Orleans went from being a projected lottery team that featured a lot of young talent to a team capable of winning now and possibly sneaking into the eighth seed in the West.
Dell Demps has assembled a very interesting team and accelerated New Orleans’ rebuilding process. At one point, it seemed like the Pelicans would be lottery-bound for the foreseeable future. Now, their playoff drought may come to an end after just two seasons.
Monty Williams will have his work cut out for him since it remains to be seen if Holiday, Gordon and Evans (not to mention Austin Rivers and Brian Roberts) can coexist, but there’s no question that the Pelicans have a ton of talent and a very bright future.
Toronto Raptors
– Of all the teams on this list, the Raptors had the most wins last
season with 34. While Toronto got off to a slow start last year due to
injuries, they were a much better team in the second half of the season
once Rudy Gay joined the team, Kyle Lowry got healthy and Jonas
Valanciunas took on a bigger role.
Now, Toronto is hoping that a full season with this group will result in the franchise’s first trip to the playoffs since the 2007-08 season.
The Raptors had a team-bonding session in Las Vegas during the NBA Summer League, which was attended by nearly every member of the team as well as head coach Dwane Casey and new general manager Masai Ujiri. The message coming from the group is consistent – this team will show improvement in the 2013-14 season and compete for a postseason berth.
The Raptors will need Gay to play a high level and continue to be efficient. Casey and Ujiri also made it clear that they’re expecting DeMar DeRozan to take the next step in his development after the team rewarded him with a lucrative four-year extension last October. Throw in Lowry’s consistent production, Valanciunas’ contributions as the starting center and the help of a supporting cast that includes new veterans such as Tyler Hansbrough, Steve Novak and D.J. Augustin, and the postseason is certainly in reach for Toronto.
Minnesota Timberwolves – If the Timberwolves had been healthy last season, they may have been able to grab one of the final seeds in the West.
However, nearly every member of their core missed a significant stretch of games including Kevin Love, Ricky Rubio, Nikola Pekovic, Chase Budinger and Brandon Roy. The team was plagued with all sorts of ailments, and they never reached their full potential on their way to a 31-51 record.
Entering the 2013-14 season, their talented core is healthy and ready to make up for lost time. They’ve also added Kevin Martin, who is the scoring two-guard that they’ve been desperately searching for over the last several seasons. Corey Brewer was also added to give the team even more depth on the perimeter, and NBA-ready rookies Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng will make an impact as well.
Rick Adelman has been able to work his magic with this battered group in recent years, winning way more games than expected given their injury reports. Now, if the team is at full strength as expected, they’ll finally be in the mix for the seventh or eighth seed in the West.
Portland Trail Blazers
– Last season, the Blazers were better than expected. The team had just
parted ways with Gerald Wallace, Marcus Camby, Raymond Felton, Jamal
Crawford, Greg Oden and Nate McMillan, and was preparing to rebuild.
Fortunately for Portland, Damian Lillard exceeded all expectations and
had one of the best rookie seasons in recent memory, LaMarcus Aldridge
was his All-Star self and Nicolas Batum made huge strides to fill the
stat sheet every night. Portland finished the season with a 33-49
record, but their youth and lack of depth kept them out of the playoffs.
This season, Lillard, Aldridge and Batum will have one year of chemistry under their belts, but they’ll also have a considerable amount of help. Neil Olshey has been busy this offseason, filling Portland’s holes.
The team needed a defensive-oriented center who would do the dirty work so Robin Lopez was acquired. The squad needed a knockdown shooter who could spread the floor so Dorell Wright was signed. The Blazers lacked bench scoring so C.J. McCollum, arguably the best scorer and most NBA-ready player in this class, was drafted 10th overall. Add in Thomas Robinson, Earl Watson and Allen Crabbe, and it’s clear that this Portland team is much deeper and more talented than last year’s group.
Olshey has done a tremendous job assembling this group and it’s only a matter of time until they’re postseason bound. When the Blazers parted ways with McMillan and all of those veterans last summer, it seemed like they’d be rebuilding for quite some time. However, after just two years in the lottery, Portland may be ready to field a playoff squad again.
Wall, Wizards Agree to Extension
The Washington Wizards and John Wall have agreed to a five-year contract extension worth approximately $80 million. The two sides had been negotiating for several weeks, and now Washington will lock up their face of the franchise for the next five years.
“I am both proud and humbled by the belief that the Wizards organization, the fans and my teammates have shown in me since I arrived here three years ago,” Wall said. “I can promise all of them that I will repay that belief by representing the city of Washington and doing everything I can to get this team back where it belongs.”
Wall played some of his best basketball toward the end of last season. With Wall healthy, the Wizards looked like a completely different squad, with with impressive wins over playoff teams like the Atlanta Hawks, Denver Nuggets, Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Clippers, New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets, Milwaukee Bucks, Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers and Memphis Grizzlies.
For the first time in Wall’s career, his jump shot was falling consistently, which opened up the rest of his game. In the month of March, Wall shot 45.5 percent from three-point range and 48.4 percent from the field. The hard work that Wall had put in last offseason paid off. He had spent the summer working on his shot, floater and post-up game. When he wasn’t in the gym, he was watching film of elite point guards such Chris Paul, Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook to replicate aspects of their game. He’s doing much of the same this offseason, and he was also in attendance in Las Vegas for the NBA Summer League to lead Washington’s young players.
“Since drafting John with the first overall pick, we have been impressed with his maturation, hard work and commitment to our franchise,” said Monumental Sports and Entertainment Founder, Chairman, Majority Owner and CEO Ted Leonsis. “He is the cornerstone of our team, and we have clearly expressed our desire to build around him well before making it official by re-signing him today. We are extremely confident in his leadership abilities and are excited to see the continued improvement of the team.”
“John’s talent, ability and athleticism are unquestioned, but he is also a special player in terms of his will to win, unselfishness and ability to make his teammates better,” Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld added. “The impact he has in all of those areas was evident last season and we look forward to both him and the team reaching new levels of success together.”
Wall is still just 22 years old, and he has the potential to become one of the best players in the league. Whether that happens remains to be seen, but Washington is glad that he’ll continue his development while donning a Wizards jersey.
Every season, one or two franchises make the transition from up-and-coming squad to legitimate playoff team. Last season, the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets were able to make this leap, ending their multi-year postseason droughts thanks to internal development and personnel moves.
In 2011-12, the Los Angeles Clippers made the jump. In 2010-11, it was the Indiana Pacers. In 2009-10, it was the Oklahoma City Thunder. Most perennial contenders start here – assembling a young core, sneaking into the postseason as a lower seed and, usually, experiencing failure. It’s how teams go from lottery fodder to battle-tested elite in just a few years.
Now, as the Warriors and Rockets look to take another step themselves – from late seed to legitimate contender – other young teams will compete to fill their vacant seeds at the bottom of the playoff picture.
This season, there are a number of franchises that are tired of accumulating ping pong balls instead of wins. Although not every franchise is ready to move forward, with teams like the Orlando Magic and Phoenix Suns continuing to develop their young core and stockpile draft picks, here are seven franchises that are looking to end their lottery run in the 2013-14 season:
Detroit Pistons
– Detroit has missed the playoffs in the last four seasons,
accumulating a 111-201 record during that span. After spending the last
few years drafting talented young cornerstones such as Greg Monroe and
Andre Drummond, the Pistons are clearly determined to make the playoffs
in the 2013-14 season.The team finished with a 29-53 record last year, but every move Detroit has made this offseason suggests that the team is in win-now mode.
The Pistons will have a new one-two punch with marquee signings Josh Smith and Brandon Jennings, who were viewed as two of the top free agents in this class. They also hired Maurice Cheeks as the team’s new head coach and brought back veteran guard Chauncey Billups, who can provide leadership and championship pedigree.
Joe Dumars, who received a lot of warranted criticism after signing Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva to long-term deals in 2009, needs these moves to pan out and return Detroit to prominence.
Cleveland Cavaliers
– There’s no question that Cleveland’s best basketball is still a few
years ahead of them when players like Kyrie Irving, Dion Waiters,
Tristan Thompson and Anthony Bennett reach their collective prime.
However, that doesn’t mean the Cavaliers can’t start gaining some
playoff experience now.The postseason isn’t just the goal for the 2013-14 season, it’s expected. While that may seem like lofty expectations for a team that finished last season with a 24-58 record, the Cavaliers have the talent to finish among the Eastern Conference’s top eight teams.
Irving is already one of the best point guards in the NBA, Thompson could be poised for a breakout season and Waiters should show improvement as well. However, it’s the Cavaliers’ offseason additions that make the postseason a realistic goal. Andrew Bynum missed all of last season due to injuries, but he’s still one of the best centers in the league when healthy. Jarrett Jack emerged as a top reserve with the Golden State Warriors last season, and he’ll play a similar role in Cleveland. Add in a healthy Anderson Varejao, who was averaging nearly 15 points and 15 rebounds before his injury last season, and the Cavaliers’ frontcourt is loaded. Returning as head coach is Mike Brown, who has never missed the playoffs in his six full seasons on the sidelines. If all goes as planned, Cleveland will break their three-year, post-LeBron James playoff drought next season.
Washington Wizards
– The Wizards were in this category entering last season. John Wall was
vocal that Washington was ready to be a playoff team and the team had
high expectations after acquiring veterans such as Nene, Emeka Okafor
and Trevor Ariza. However, injuries to key players such as Wall and Nene
set the Wizards back significantly, and the team dug themselves a deep
hole early in the season by losing their first 12 games and 28 of their
first 33 contests.But, as bad as they were in the beginning of the year, the Wizards finished last season strong and managed to win 29 games. Washington was a .500 team once Wall returned from injury, including a number of wins against playoff teams. Now, with the team at full strength, the Wizards are once again entering this season with postseason expectations.
Unlike Detroit and Cleveland, Washington didn’t make any splashy signings this summer, choosing instead to re-sign Martell Webster and enter next season with the same core. Otto Porter, the team’s No. 3 overall draft pick, is the only key addition.
The Wizards are hoping that Nene can return to form next season, but they’re also relying heavily on internal improvement to turn their playoff goal into reality. They’ll need players like Wall and Bradley Beal to take the next step and produce at a high level. If Wall can play as well as he did toward the end of last season – he averaged 22.4 points, 7.9 assists, 4.8 rebounds and 1.9 steals in March – the Wizards should be able to secure one of the East’s final playoff seeds after five consecutive trips to the lottery.
New Orleans Pelicans
– The Pelicans have been one of the most active teams in the league in
recent weeks, trading for Jrue Holiday on draft night and signing Tyreke
Evans shortly after.Holiday and Evans give New Orleans one of the most intriguing cores in the NBA since they will be playing alongside Eric Gordon, Anthony Davis and Ryan Anderson among others. While the Pelicans finished last season with a 27-55 record, the group that they’re putting on the floor this season is almost unrecognizable and the expectations have changed as well.
In a matter of a few days, New Orleans went from being a projected lottery team that featured a lot of young talent to a team capable of winning now and possibly sneaking into the eighth seed in the West.
Dell Demps has assembled a very interesting team and accelerated New Orleans’ rebuilding process. At one point, it seemed like the Pelicans would be lottery-bound for the foreseeable future. Now, their playoff drought may come to an end after just two seasons.
Monty Williams will have his work cut out for him since it remains to be seen if Holiday, Gordon and Evans (not to mention Austin Rivers and Brian Roberts) can coexist, but there’s no question that the Pelicans have a ton of talent and a very bright future.
Toronto Raptors
– Of all the teams on this list, the Raptors had the most wins last
season with 34. While Toronto got off to a slow start last year due to
injuries, they were a much better team in the second half of the season
once Rudy Gay joined the team, Kyle Lowry got healthy and Jonas
Valanciunas took on a bigger role.Now, Toronto is hoping that a full season with this group will result in the franchise’s first trip to the playoffs since the 2007-08 season.
The Raptors had a team-bonding session in Las Vegas during the NBA Summer League, which was attended by nearly every member of the team as well as head coach Dwane Casey and new general manager Masai Ujiri. The message coming from the group is consistent – this team will show improvement in the 2013-14 season and compete for a postseason berth.
The Raptors will need Gay to play a high level and continue to be efficient. Casey and Ujiri also made it clear that they’re expecting DeMar DeRozan to take the next step in his development after the team rewarded him with a lucrative four-year extension last October. Throw in Lowry’s consistent production, Valanciunas’ contributions as the starting center and the help of a supporting cast that includes new veterans such as Tyler Hansbrough, Steve Novak and D.J. Augustin, and the postseason is certainly in reach for Toronto.
Minnesota Timberwolves – If the Timberwolves had been healthy last season, they may have been able to grab one of the final seeds in the West.However, nearly every member of their core missed a significant stretch of games including Kevin Love, Ricky Rubio, Nikola Pekovic, Chase Budinger and Brandon Roy. The team was plagued with all sorts of ailments, and they never reached their full potential on their way to a 31-51 record.
Entering the 2013-14 season, their talented core is healthy and ready to make up for lost time. They’ve also added Kevin Martin, who is the scoring two-guard that they’ve been desperately searching for over the last several seasons. Corey Brewer was also added to give the team even more depth on the perimeter, and NBA-ready rookies Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng will make an impact as well.
Rick Adelman has been able to work his magic with this battered group in recent years, winning way more games than expected given their injury reports. Now, if the team is at full strength as expected, they’ll finally be in the mix for the seventh or eighth seed in the West.
Portland Trail Blazers
– Last season, the Blazers were better than expected. The team had just
parted ways with Gerald Wallace, Marcus Camby, Raymond Felton, Jamal
Crawford, Greg Oden and Nate McMillan, and was preparing to rebuild.
Fortunately for Portland, Damian Lillard exceeded all expectations and
had one of the best rookie seasons in recent memory, LaMarcus Aldridge
was his All-Star self and Nicolas Batum made huge strides to fill the
stat sheet every night. Portland finished the season with a 33-49
record, but their youth and lack of depth kept them out of the playoffs.This season, Lillard, Aldridge and Batum will have one year of chemistry under their belts, but they’ll also have a considerable amount of help. Neil Olshey has been busy this offseason, filling Portland’s holes.
The team needed a defensive-oriented center who would do the dirty work so Robin Lopez was acquired. The squad needed a knockdown shooter who could spread the floor so Dorell Wright was signed. The Blazers lacked bench scoring so C.J. McCollum, arguably the best scorer and most NBA-ready player in this class, was drafted 10th overall. Add in Thomas Robinson, Earl Watson and Allen Crabbe, and it’s clear that this Portland team is much deeper and more talented than last year’s group.
Olshey has done a tremendous job assembling this group and it’s only a matter of time until they’re postseason bound. When the Blazers parted ways with McMillan and all of those veterans last summer, it seemed like they’d be rebuilding for quite some time. However, after just two years in the lottery, Portland may be ready to field a playoff squad again.
Wall, Wizards Agree to Extension
The Washington Wizards and John Wall have agreed to a five-year contract extension worth approximately $80 million. The two sides had been negotiating for several weeks, and now Washington will lock up their face of the franchise for the next five years.
“I am both proud and humbled by the belief that the Wizards organization, the fans and my teammates have shown in me since I arrived here three years ago,” Wall said. “I can promise all of them that I will repay that belief by representing the city of Washington and doing everything I can to get this team back where it belongs.”
Wall played some of his best basketball toward the end of last season. With Wall healthy, the Wizards looked like a completely different squad, with with impressive wins over playoff teams like the Atlanta Hawks, Denver Nuggets, Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Clippers, New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets, Milwaukee Bucks, Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers and Memphis Grizzlies.
For the first time in Wall’s career, his jump shot was falling consistently, which opened up the rest of his game. In the month of March, Wall shot 45.5 percent from three-point range and 48.4 percent from the field. The hard work that Wall had put in last offseason paid off. He had spent the summer working on his shot, floater and post-up game. When he wasn’t in the gym, he was watching film of elite point guards such Chris Paul, Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook to replicate aspects of their game. He’s doing much of the same this offseason, and he was also in attendance in Las Vegas for the NBA Summer League to lead Washington’s young players.
“Since drafting John with the first overall pick, we have been impressed with his maturation, hard work and commitment to our franchise,” said Monumental Sports and Entertainment Founder, Chairman, Majority Owner and CEO Ted Leonsis. “He is the cornerstone of our team, and we have clearly expressed our desire to build around him well before making it official by re-signing him today. We are extremely confident in his leadership abilities and are excited to see the continued improvement of the team.”
“John’s talent, ability and athleticism are unquestioned, but he is also a special player in terms of his will to win, unselfishness and ability to make his teammates better,” Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld added. “The impact he has in all of those areas was evident last season and we look forward to both him and the team reaching new levels of success together.”
Wall is still just 22 years old, and he has the potential to become one of the best players in the league. Whether that happens remains to be seen, but Washington is glad that he’ll continue his development while donning a Wizards jersey.
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