7 Failing NBA Teams That Will Turn Their Season Around

With us already a quarter into this quick and exciting NBA season, it's hard to believe where some teams are sitting in the standings.

When you take a look at the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference you'll see the Cleveland Cavaliers tied for the eighth seed in the playoffs tied with teams like the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks and ahead of the New York Knicks. Then, on the other side of the country you see teams like the Lakers and the Trail Blazers sitting on the outside of the playoffs looking in.

So, what does this all mean? Are some of these teams just not as good as we thought they would be, or are there some serious turnarounds coming up?

Here I have a quick and concise look at how the teams that have struggled out of the gate are going to fare over the next few months and who is going to end up in a better position than they are right now.

Washington Wizards

There are a lot of things wrong with this Wizards team, but to think that they will finish this season with an 11.8 winning percentage (which would give them a total of eight wins) is just unfathomable.

With as many talented players as they have in their lineup, it's impossible to think that they are this bad. John Wall is playing back up to the level he was at last season, which should lead to the rest of the team playing better, but he can't do it all on his own.

JaVale McGee has played well, but he's had a strange mentality over the past few weeks that makes it seem like he's okay with losing, while someone like Andray Blatche being the veteran presence on this team is painful to watch.

The Wizards won't have the turnaround that some of the other teams on this list will have, but they shouldn't be as bad as they are right now.

Miami Heat

This isn't to say that the Miami Heat have had a bad season altogether, it's just that they haven't really lived up to expectations, or possibly, other teams in the East have far outperformed their expectations.

LeBron James and the Sunshine Gang are sitting pretty with an 11-5, but their record has them in sixth place in the East. 

Interestingly enough, this sixth place team in the East is going off at 7/5 odds to win the title at the end of the season, even better odds than they were getting before the season started when they were at 9/5. I'm not saying that they don't have a great chance at winning the title, but it's obvious at this point that it's going to be a bit harder than we all once thought.

Anyway, Miami is too good a team to spend the rest of the season as the sixth team in the East, and while they aren't technically "failing" they are failing to meet expectations.

New Jersey Nets

I refuse to believe that any team with Deron Williams can possibly be this bad, but then again, this Nets team is built terribly.

However, with Brook Lopez having been out since before the season started after having foot surgery, it's hard to imagine that they won't be better with their second-best player.

Even though they're not going to improve by leaps and bounds, I have to imagine that with Brook Lopez in the lineup, this team is much closer to .500 than they are right now, sitting at 5-13.

Portland Trail Blazers

The Portland Trail Blazers look like they are going to have an up-and-down season, but they are a playoff team.

With the team that they have with LaMarcus Aldridge being the star player that he is and Gerald Wallace and Jamal Crawford playing at a high level, plus Wesley Matthews, Nicolas Batum and Raymond Felton having great games every once in a while, this team is built for long runs.

The only place that they'll have trouble is when playing a team with a dominant big man, as Marcus Camby and Kurt Thomas can defend well, but they can't do it for an extended period of time in their advanced age.

Still, Portland is built to win, and that's just what they'll do, unless of course an injury derails their season.

Los Angeles Lakers

The Los Angeles Lakers as we know them are an enigmatic team with few answers seeming to be on the horizon, but have hope all you Lakers fans, I think there are some answers on the way.

Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum aren't firing on all cylinders, Kobe Bryant seems to be playing like he doesn't even see Mike Brown on the sidelines and there is a huge drop off in production (offensively) after those three guys.

However, are we really going to count the Lakers out? Can we really take a look at a team with Bryant, Bynum and Gasol (regardless of who comes after them) and say they won't make the playoffs? I think not.

New York Knicks

Rarely would I take a look at a team and think, "You know what's going to turn this team around? Baron Davis." But you know what, I think it's true.

The biggest problem these Knicks have is that a "point guard" like Iman Shumpert will bring the ball up the floor and immediately pass it off to Carmelo Anthony. The offense will then screech to a halt, which is a big reason that New York's self-touted best frontcourt in the NBA has failed thus far. This is why Amar'e Stoudemire has taken fewer than 15 shots in four of their last six games.

However, once Baron Davis comes back (presumably this Saturday) they will have a point guard who thrives when he's on a good team with good fans, and if and when the Knicks start stringing wins together, Davis will just continue to get better.

If Mike D'Antoni can't untangle this Knicks offense with the help of Davis, however, he could be out of the job by the time the All-Star Break rolls around.

Boston Celtics

Already the Boston Celtics have started to put themselves back together with a blowout win over the Orlando Magic last night (they held them to 56 freaking points).

Everyone knew coming into the season that the aging and creaking Celtics would struggle to win when they were forced to play multiple games in a row, but I don't think anyone expected them to struggle as much as they have.

At one point, these Celtics were 4-8 and everyone was yelling that they needed to make a trade, and when I say at one point, I mean like last week.

However, when you think logically about it all, Boston is doing just fine, and yes, I'm completely serious.

The Celtics have one of the best defenses in the league at this point, allowing just 90.8 points per game and have yet to give up 100 points since the first two games of the season, at which point they were without Paul Pierce.

On top of that, they've been moving the ball well with over 21 assists a game, but the ball just hasn't been going into the basket.

In a season where everyone has struggled to put their offense together so quickly, one can only assume that it will all come together, and it's not going to happen later, it's happening now.

If you are one of those twitterers, you can follow me @JDorsey33.