6 NBA Teams That Deserve More Respect
Both Los Angeleses, the Heat, the Thunder—these teams get all the hype all the time.
Will any of them be the one team still standing when the Larry O’Brien Trophy is handed out this summer?
Hard to know.
But they’re the ones hogging all the respect from the experts in the media.
Hidden behind these teams are a number of Al Czerviks. They don’t get the credit or recognition that goes along with a lead role. But they do their job and they do it well, and just like Rodney Dangerfield, these clubs deserve respect.
San Antonio Spurs
1 of 6The San Antonio Spurs have assembled a solid group of supporting players to surround the talented trio of Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili.
That has the Spurs a half-game ahead of Oklahoma City for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.
Yet San Antonio’s name does not come up in the NBA Finals conversation.
Why?
Because San Antonio is old. Because the Spurs are boring.
But they’ve been there before. They have the ever-important championship experience—the all-powerful intangibles that separate the men from the boys.
Parker’s lightning-quick crossover can cause problems for younger, quicker guards like Russell Westbrook and Derrick Rose.
Ginobili is now rounding into form after missing half the season with an injury.
And "The Big Fundamental" is one of the three steadiest players of his generation.
San Antonio still deserves to be respected as a championship contender.
Minnesota Timberwolves
2 of 6If the Spurs should be thought of as championship contenders, the Minnesota Timberwolves represent the other end of the spectrum.
Sure the Wolves have lost 11 straight games. And their last win before that was over the Charlotte Bobcats, so it doesn’t really count.
But that’s the sans-Ricky Rubio Minnesota Timberwolves.
With Rubio on the floor, this team is scary.
Rubio and Kevin Love can carry the Timberwolves not just into the 2012-13 playoffs, but possibly into the second round or the Western Conference Finals.
The Wolves are surrounding their pair of stars with plenty of offensive weapons.
Adding a defensive stopper in this year’s draft could go a long way toward positioning the Timberwolves as a respected team in the Western Conference for the foreseeable future.
Indiana Pacers
3 of 6The Indiana Pacers are the third-best team in the Eastern Conference. But, like the Philadelphia 76ers, they’re viewed as a novelty.
Because they share the workload—eight players averaging between 9-18 points a game—they’re said to lack a go-to scorer in the clutch.
Instead of relying on one player, though, they have several options.
David West, Danny Granger, Darren Collison—all are guys capable of making big shots.
This Indiana team is also physical. Big man Roy Hibbert and role players like Tyler Hansbrough and Lou Amundson aren’t afraid to mix it up with other teams. And Hansbrough has demonstrated throughout his career—collegiate and professional—that he will not be outworked by anybody.
This well-rounded group has earned more respect than it has been given.
Atlanta Hawks
4 of 6After three straight seasons making it to the second round of the playoffs, one might think the Atlanta Hawks would be taken more seriously.
Then again, that’s three straight seasons the Hawks have lost in the second round.
This year’s Atlanta team is different.
The Hawks have added veterans like Erick Dampier and Jerry Stackhouse who have played for winners. They’ve added gritty players like Jason Collins and Ivan Johnson who bring a layer of toughness to go along with the skill of Josh Smith and Joe Johnson.
Smith and Johnson are among the most consistently undervalued players in the NBA, in part because of their lack of postseason success.
Losing Al Horford for the rest of the season hurts the Hawks, but this Atlanta team is more balanced than its three predecessors.
The Hawks will not be an easy out in the playoffs.
Milwaukee Bucks
5 of 6If you ask them, the Chicago Bulls will give you the party line of “We don’t care who we play, we’ve just gotta worry about ourselves.”
But in reality, the Bulls have to be rooting for the Philadelphia 76ers to hold onto the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Otherwise the Milwaukee Bucks slide in and create a nightmarish matchup.
The Bucks have the most unusual and unorthodox roster in the NBA: Their only center is Kwame Brown, and he’s likely out for the season—if that even matters.
That leaves the team dependent on its backcourt—a backcourt no NBA team would want to face in a seven-game series.
With Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings, Milwaukee has two of the league’s quickest and most dynamic scorers. Defending both of them is a matchup nightmare.
Add in the three-point shooting of Mike Dunleavy and Carlos Delfino, if healthy, and preparing for this roster will give Tom Thibodeau fits.
Memphis Grizzlies
6 of 6It was only a year ago that the Memphis Grizzlies pulled off the rare eight-seed-over-one-seed upset.
Now they’re better.
The Grizzles should be respected if not feared by the rest of the Western Conference.
They can beat you inside with Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol.
They can beat you from the perimeter with Rudy Gay, Mike Conley and O.J. Mayo.
And they’ve added the X-factor that is Agent Zero, Gilbert Arenas.
The Grizzlies are currently the fifth seed with a two-game buffer on either side. Should they enter the playoffs as the No. 5 team, as it looks like they will, they’ll be one of the best five seeds the NBA has ever seen.
Memphis’ name hasn’t surfaced in Finals conversations yet, but the Grizzlies are a dark horse bet to make a run in 2012.
