The Biggest Playoff Pretenders in the NBA

It was only three months ago that we suspected there wouldn't even be a 2011-12 NBA season.

We were too busy dealing with business jargon and legal mumbo jumbo. Listening to David Stern, Billy Hunter and Derek Fisher talk about percentages and money only made us angrier and more frustrated that we were listening to something that was meant for CNN. We wanted to see basketball, and money had put that in jeopardy.

Three months later, we're talking about the playoffs. It's funny how things work out sometimes.

With only a little more than a month remaining until the start of the highly anticipated postseason, it's becoming the time to begin separating the pretenders from contenders. We take the time to weed out the pretenders in this particular piece. These teams are lacking either the system, the competitive edge, the defense or the star power to make a strong push to a possible championship.

Of course, anything could happen between now and then. Teams can get hot going into the postseason and won't be stopped until it's too late. However, until that happens, these are the five playoff pretenders in the NBA.

Atlanta Hawks

For the past three seasons, the Atlanta Hawks have been the definition of an above-average team that has peaked.

With three consecutive second-round defeats, the Hawks have just about proven that they're good, but not great enough to make it to the conference finals. They have plenty of talent to beat up on a No. 5 or 6 seed, but not enough consistency on either side of the ball to tangle with a No. 1, 2 or 3 seed.

The Hawks are 12-8 in the first round since 2009. They're only 2-12 in the second round, with the lone two wins coming last year against the Chicago Bulls. They were swept by LeBron James' Cavaliers in 2009 and the Orlando Magic the year after.

The three teams they beat before that? A one-dimensional Miami Heat team, an injury-plagued Milwaukee Bucks squad and an Orlando Magic team that took 24 three-pointers per game.

Once the competition is raised, the Hawks can't seem to compete. This year shouldn't be any different when they take on the likes of Miami or Chicago in the second round.

Let's not take anything away from Atlanta this season. It's astounding that they're 27-20 when they're playing without arguably their best player in Al Horford. The power forward-center tore his pectoral muscle 11 games into the season, and the Hawks have been scrambling to find someone to replace him. While they haven't found a suitable replacement, Josh Smith has stepped up his game and has played some of the best basketball of his career.

Joe Johnson is also having a bounce-back season, averaging 19 points and nearly four assists and four boards per game. Most importantly, he's hitting 39 percent of his three-pointers after only converting on less than 30 percent last season. The Hawks will need him to score in high volume if they ever expect to make it past the second round.

Simply put, the Hawks don't have the offensive consistency to compete with the elite teams in the East. They've been known to go through tremendous lulls on offense, which explains why they're 23rd in points per game.

Even if Horford returns in time for the postseason, the Hawks aren't any better from last year and will be looking at the likes of Willie Green, Tracy McGrady and Jannero Pargo to fill in for Jamal Crawford.

Philadelphia 76ers

One of the biggest surprises in the NBA this year, the Philadelphia 76ers have held the top spot on the Atlantic Division all year.

Even with the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks quietly closing in, the Sixers remain confident behind the strong-minded coaching ability of Doug Collins, who has completely turned around the direction of this team under his guidance.

After a 27-55 record in the 2009-10 season, Collins took over and led his Sixers to a 41-41 record despite starting off 3-13. He would lead them back to the postseason, where they would prove to be a formidable opponent to the powerhouse Miami Heat. The Sixers would lose in five games, but they sent a message by having all but one game decided in the final minutes.

Philadelphia has leveled out since the All-Star break but should still maintain a good enough record for a playoff spot. Thanks in part to Collins, arguably the best bench in the NBA and a strong defensive mindset, the Sixers will make it to their second consecutive postseason and will certainly give fits to their first-round opponent.

While this team does have a terrific leader and unbelievable depth, they're going to most likely be out by the end of the first round. They lack the offensive consistency out of the starting lineup and have been involved in plenty of games where the bench will actually outscore the five that start the game. In fact, the leading scorer on the team is the sixth man, Louis Williams, who is averaging nearly 16 points per game.

The third-leading scorer in Thaddeus Young is also coming off the bench. Jrue Holiday is the second-leading scorer.

The Sixers don't have the offensive talent to compete with a team like Miami or Chicago. As good as Williams, Young and Evan Turner have been this year, they're not going to be able to compete and keep up with a team that has guys like Dwyane Wade and LeBron James or Derrick Rose and Luol Deng.

Philadelphia ranks 22nd in the league in scoring. Without a proven scorer who can step up and completely take over a game, the Sixers are not going to be able to keep up with the teams that have those types of players.

Orlando Magic

The Orlando Magic lost in six games in the first round of the playoffs last year, and it might have been one of the most embarrassing displays of team basketball you'll ever see.

In the Magic's six-game series loss to the Atlanta Hawks last year, Dwight Howard averaged 27 points and 15.5 rebounds per game. He absolutely abused any shred of frontcourt defense, and he was taking less than 14 shots per game. Howard even managed to shoot nearly 70 percent from the free-throw line, an improvement for his standards.

His teammates? They were busy taking an absurd 24 three-pointers per game. They weren't hitting any of them either—below 30 percent, actually. While their star center was averaging 27 points on 14 shots per game, the rest of the Magic were taking and missing a whole bunch of three-point shots.

The Magic shouldn't have lost in six games. They had a center who was playing the best basketball of his career and made an opposing professional basketball team look like a recreational-league squad. Had he gotten 20 attempts per game, like Shaquille O'Neal in his Laker days, then the Magic probably would have made it to the second round instead of losing in six games to a division rival.

Orlando hasn't changed at all this year. Ryan Anderson, J.J. Redick and the rest of the shooters are converting on a whole lot of three-pointers, but that's not something you want to rely on in a seven-game series. Jump shooting is too inconsistent. You need a low-post presence that can influence the outcome of a game. The Magic have that player, but they don't use him enough.

It's understood what the Magic's offense is. They go inside to outside in order to get more open looks for the three-point shooters. However, if you have a player as dominant as Dwight Howard is, who can go for 30 points every night if you give him enough attempts, then there shouldn't be a reason why he's getting less than 15 shot attempts per.

That's not going to happen, so the Magic are pretenders.

Los Angeles Clippers

Coming into the season, the idea of Chauncey Billups being the starting shooting guard seemed a lot like wishful thinking. How on earth would he guard the likes of Kobe Bryant four times per season and Manu Ginobili another two or three times?

Then the season started, and we quickly forgot about Billups having any sort of trouble making the adjustment. In 20 games, he was averaging 15 points, four assists and 2.5 rebounds per. Sure, he was shooting an awful 36 percent from the field, but he was also hitting 38 percent of his three-pointers, and the Los Angeles Clippers were winning.

Achilles tendons can be a real pain, especially when you tear one like Billups did. The former NBA champion and NBA Finals MVP tore his left Achilles tendon on Feb. 6 and has been ruled out for the season. He's also been discounted from the postseason. A 35-year-old with that type of injury is not something you want to strain.

Luckily for the Clippers, he'll be back next season. Unfortunately for the Clippers, he was their ticket to make it to the NBA Finals.

Billups is a born winner. He knows how to win games and is one of the most lethal and volatile players in the league when it comes to delivering in late-game situations. The Clippers will have Chris Paul, Mo Williams and Caron Butler to compensate, but it's still incredibly tough to replace a player with the mental toughness and fundamentals that Billups had.

Nick Young has arrived to provide some needed scoring, but he won't be able to provide the passing prowess and late-game delivery that Billups was always ready to provide.

Aside from Billups, another huge factor in the Clippers' possible doomed postseason run is their lack of defensive consistency and their inability to find help off the bench outside of Williams. They've got plenty of defensive and rebounding help off the bench, but there's no way that guys like Kenyon Martin, Randy Foye and Reggie Evans can provide any sort of offensive help.

The Clippers can be turned into a jump-shooting team. Blake Griffin isn't the soundest jump shooter and will disappear on offense if you play him correctly. If you take away the lone post presence the Clippers have, you're going to look towards Paul, Young and Butler attempting to beat you with their jump shooting.

Dallas Mavericks

Shocker, right? How on earth could a team that is the reigning NBA champion be labeled a playoff pretender?

It's actually not that difficult. The Dallas Mavericks this year are clearly inferior to the team from last year. At 27-21, the Mavericks have gone through several stretches of awful basketball, including their 0-3 start to the season and losing eight of 10 games in a stretch that spanned the All-Star break.

They managed to recover with four consecutive wins but saw it come to an end with an ugly showing against the Los Angeles Lakers.

One of the biggest reasons as to why the Mavericks won't make it to the championship is in New York. Once the Mavericks allowed Tyson Chandler to walk and join the Knicks, their ticket to the NBA Finals was revoked. Even though they still have the core of Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry and Shawn Marion, Chandler was the most significant part of last year's team, as Nowitzki said last offseason:

"

Tyson, to me, turned everything around this summer when we signed him. I think he came off a two-year injury and we didn't really know what to expect. But looking back now, that was almost the key signing. His positive energy, his defense I think is really what turned this whole thing around and what really won us the playoffs. Every big game down the stretch we did it with defense.

"

The Finals MVP continued, "I never played with a center that's as athletic and as quick and able to cover that much ground and play with his energy. He was a pleasure to play with."

Losing a defender is one thing, but losing a post defender who can deter slashers is another. Centers like Tyson Chandler don't come around all too often, and I can guarantee that neither Brendan Haywood nor Ian Mahinmi will be able to replicate the defensive performance that Chandler had throughout last year's postseason.

Throw in the fact that they also lost Caron Butler and DeShawn Stevenson, and you have a team that will be out by the second round of the playoffs.