Report Card Grades for Every NBA Team Entering Final Stretch
With a month left in the NBA season, it's evaluation time.
You know how report cards work, yes? Great! The only tweak here is we're grading performance relative to expectation. Teams measuring up to the preseason title hype or exceeding lower bars are eligible for top marks. Those failing to meet expectations? They'll fail…obviously.
Talent, coaching, transactions and injuries are factors, and we'll give them weight where appropriate. Sometimes, for example, we'll take pity on a team struggling to meet its goals because it lacks enough healthy NBA bodies to compete.
Red pens ready.
Atlanta Hawks: B+
Just about anything feels like a step back after that 60-win effort a year ago, but the Hawks have met every reasonable expectation. And in some areas, they've been better. Defensively, for example, Atlanta has been fantastic.
With a defensive rating of 98.6 through their first 67 games, the Hawks rank second in the league, per NBA.com. That's been helpful, as the offensive inferno that set the league ablaze last season is more of a controlled burn now.
The Hawks are within easy striking distance of a top-three seed in the Eastern Conference, which is the absolute high end of what their talent makes possible.
Boston Celtics: A
Built into the incessant (and deserved) praise lavished on head coach Brad Stevens is a poorly concealed implication that the Boston Celtics aren't all that talented. We don't often herald coaches as high-achieving geniuses if they're directing a bunch of superstars.
The Celtics are talented, though, even if they don't have anyone resembling a conventional star.
Jae Crowder has developed into one of the league's best two-way players, Isaiah Thomas can control games with his offense and Evan Turner is a terrific redemption story. What a job by Stevens! What a triumph…see? It's hard to avoid talk like that.
Boston is significantly ahead of where it was last year with roughly the same roster. And it didn't do anything rash at the deadline, so its vast horde of draft picks and cap space is still at the ready. Of course, if the Celtics use those assets to eventually land a star, Stevens probably won't get the same adoration he's enjoyed to this point.
He'll take the trade-off, I'm sure.
Brooklyn Nets: D+
It's easy to forget the Nets won 38 games and made the playoffs last season. Based on those criteria, it's tempting to give this year's version (on pace for a win total in the low 20s) a failing grade.
But look: The Nets have actively pared down since then, buying out both Deron Williams and Joe Johnson to make way for younger options. Without a draft pick, this quiet tank job won't have much of a payoff. But what the Nets have done this year makes sense. Plus, Brook Lopez has had a career year while staying healthy.
And there's this from ESPN.com's Zach Lowe: "Don't tell anyone, but the Nets have almost been watchable over the past two weeks!"
If the Nets had any internal plans to make the playoffs again, they scrapped them quickly enough and did what they could to build for the future. The low win total has to factor into the grade, but measured against what was realistic this season, Brooklyn hasn't been horrendously disappointing. Just mostly disappointing.
Charlotte Hornets: A-
When you trade then-19-year-old Noah Vonleh for Nicolas Batum (on an expiring deal, coming off a down year) in the offseason, you're not thinking too hard about a five-year plan. So we have to view the Charlotte Hornets' work this year through a win-now prism.
Good news: They've won. A lot.
Even with Michael Kidd-Gilchrist missing nearly the entire season, the Hornets have ridden a three-point attack and stellar defense to one of the most pleasantly surprising seasons in the league. They surpassed last year's victory total of 33 in early March, and their recently ended seven-game winning streak has them close to a top-three seed in the East.
If merely making the playoffs was the plan, Charlotte has carried it out and then some.
Chicago Bulls: D
We do it every year. We look at the names, the frontcourt depth, the seeming certainty of better health ("How could it be worse?" we wonder), and we project great things for the Bulls. Adding to the typical enthusiasm this season was new coach Fred Hoiberg, who was supposed to inject offensive punch into a team defined by its slow pace and defense.
The Bulls may very well still reach the playoffs, but they're nowhere near the contender so many expected before the season began. Joakim Noah lost his starting job and then broke down physically. Nikola Mirotic, Jimmy Butler, Taj Gibson, Pau Gasol and Derrick Rose have all missed time with various injuries.
Worst of all, Hoiberg's overhaul hasn't produced results. Chicago's offense ranks 26th in points per possession this season after checking in at No. 10 last year.
The only beneficiary in all this is Tom Thibodeau, who looks even more like a genius for squeezing so much out of a roster that hasn't produced at nearly the same level since his departure. His job prospects get an A.
Cleveland Cavaliers: Pass
The Cavs are a complicated case. Their obvious goal this year was title contention, though some regular-season slippage was foreseeable. Without a clear threat to their hold on the East's top seed, we knew some coasting was coming.
After finishing last year with 53 wins and the No. 2 seed in the East, the Cavs are on pace to collect 58 wins and the top spot. Even with David Blatt's firing, ongoing concerns about Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving's fitness for the big stage and the ever-narrowing LeBron James championship window, improvements like those can't be dismissed.
The Cavs took a step forward during a regular season they might not care much about and look even better-equipped (hi, Channing Frye!) to cruise through the East bracket again.
They're one of a handful of teams operating on a championship-or-bust, pass-fail grading system, and they're where they need to be.
Dallas Mavericks: C+
Before anyone freaks out about Dallas' sub-.500 mark since Jan. 1 or its ongoing slide into playoff limbo, remember what Mark Cuban told ESPN's Tim MacMahon when he thought he'd signed DeAndre Jordan:
Maybe Dallas is flawed, and maybe it's been getting by with smoke, mirrors and Rick Carlisle's MacGyver offensive scheming. But at least that whole tanking thing never came to pass after the Mavericks lost Jordan.
This is a team that will ultimately face a difficult transition whenever Dirk Nowitzki is done. Avoiding big, long-term overpays (though Wesley Matthews comes close) in the wake of the Jordan defection means this season's relative success didn't come at too high a cost.
Denver Nuggets: B
Nobody expected the Nuggets to compete for a playoff spot this season, and there was a strong case to be made that their roster was among the least talented in the league. Rookie Emmanuel Mudiay's brutal start had things looking particularly grim in the early going.
But over the course of the campaign, a few significant positives emerged. Rookie Nikola Jokic's incredible feel and skill make him one of the most promising young centers in the league. He's usurped phenom-big-man status from Jusuf Nurkic in a bloodless coup. Head coach Mike Malone got a terrific bounce-back year from Danilo Gallinari before an ankle injury harshed that buzz, and Will Barton has outperformed everyone's expectations.
Toss in a recent emergence from Gary Harris and a win total that could run into the mid-30s, and you've got a better season than even the most optimistic projections foresaw. I mean, it's not a good season by any objective measure. But the Nuggets have impressed.
Detroit Pistons: C+
It feels like we've been mostly kind so far, and we'll continue leniency with the Pistons, who get a solid, better-than-average mark for sticking around the playoff race. Mild offseason changes after a 32-win campaign meant it was risky to bet on a berth.
Despite losing Jodie Meeks for the vast majority of the season and playing without both Anthony Tolliver and Stanley Johnson for stretches, the Pistons are better than they were last year.
If you were among those expecting a 50-win campaign, maybe you're disappointed. But with Andre Drummond and Reggie Jackson's improvements, plus the shrewd acquisition of Tobias Harris on a team-friendly deal, a handful of key things have gone right for the Pistons.
And to mitigate some of this leniency, here's Stan Van Gundy ripping his team after a blowout loss to the Washington Wizards on March 14, per Rod Beard of the Detroit News: "We got our ass kicked at both ends. They dominated us. I'm not going to do a lot of analysis on this—there is none. They dominated us, both ends. They played hard; we didn't. They played well; we didn't."
SVG has higher standards than we do.
Golden State Warriors: A+
Owners of the longest home winning streak of all time and fastest to 60 wins in league history, the Warriors only get an A-plus because there's no higher available grade.
Stephen Curry should win Most Improved Player this year, and his MVP case was unassailable by January. In terms of both team and superstar player, the best got better. The Warriors have vaporized every expectation to the point that the great teams of the future will judge themselves against the level they've established this year.
They've wrecked the curve for years to come.
Houston Rockets: D
You could point to Houston's underwhelming 2014-15 point differential and somewhat lucky success against the Clippers in last year's playoffs as signs decline might have been forthcoming. Of course, you could have also cited the Ty Lawson acquisition and the potential for better health as reasons to see the Rockets' returning to (at least) the conference finals.
What nobody saw coming was this: a wholly disappointing season marked by wavering effort on defense and a record that, for a good chunk of the season, ranked the Rockets outside the Western Conference's top eight. Kevin McHale lost his job early in the underachieving year, which demonstrated Houston's internal belief in a high ceiling.
The lottery looks less likely now, but any team fiddling around .500 after preseason hopes of contention isn't going to grade well.
Indiana Pacers: B
Downsized lineups, pace and space haven't yielded the identity overhaul Indiana was gunning for ahead of the season. But the legacy of stout defense persisted, so the Pacers are back in the postseason mix during Paul George's first full year since breaking his leg.
Rookie Myles Turner profiles as an ideal next-generation big man, capable of defending the rim and shooting from range on offense. And Ian Mahinmi's inexplicable growth into a skillful weapon on both ends gives Indiana options up front. George's play has also been encouraging, as he's firmly back in the conversation as one of the league's best two-way wings.
Back in October, the Pacers felt like a team that could win 42 or 43 games if most things went right, and they're on target to finish right around that range. The floor for this club was low, though. Without defensive mainstay Roy Hibbert and locker room police officer David West (not to mention the uncertainty surrounding George), this could have been an ugly year.
Los Angeles Clippers: B+
A lack of progress doesn't always constitute failure. The Clippers are proof of that, as they've remained the same fringy contender they've been for the past few seasons. And they've done it while losing Blake Griffin for a huge chunk of the year.
Not only that, but most of L.A.'s infusion of purported bench talent never panned out. Josh Smith and Lance Stephenson are both playing elsewhere after failing to contribute.
Though it's hard to praise head coach Doc Rivers for overcoming the poor roster built by general manager Doc Rivers (can you pat yourself on the back and punch yourself in the face at the same time?), it's still pretty impressive the Clips have again survived with a shaky bench.
Chris Paul has been phenomenal, DeAndre Jordan remains a useful big man and J.J. Redick leads the league in three-point shooting percentage. L.A. is locked into a top-four spot in the West, has outplayed the OKC Thunder for the better part of Griffin's absence and should hit the postseason in good health.
Unless you really drank the Clippers Kool-Aid, this should be roughly what you expected.
Los Angeles Lakers: F
Everybody's been rough on the Lakers this year, criticizing Byron Scott's coaching, Kobe Bryant's high-volume, low-efficiency performance art and the franchise's inability to lure prominent free agents. It's easy to plunge into the bottomless sea of things that haven't worked out.
We don't need any of that stuff to hand out a grade, though.
All we need is Bryant's response to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports last August, when Spears asked if L.A. could make the playoffs: "Of course it can. Absolutely."
Take that comment with a hyper-competitive grain of salt, but don't make the mistake of thinking Bryant was the only one talking himself into the impossible. Flash-forward seven months and 14 wins (through March 15), and it's clear the Lakers fell way, way short of expectations.
Memphis Grizzlies: D+
As has been the case for the last half-decade or so, the Grizzlies were supposed to win somewhere between 50 and 55 games, then head into the playoffs as everyone's "watch out for those guys, they're a dark horse" team.
Season-ending injuries to Marc Gasol and (to a much lesser extent) Mario Chalmers changed everything, and now the Grizzlies struggle to field a full roster most nights. Mike Conley, Tony Allen, Vince Carter, Zach Randolph…you name the rotation Grizzlies player, and it's a certainty he's been hurt for a solid stretch of the year.
Remarkably, Memphis made enough hay before and immediately after Gasol's departure to secure a playoff spot. Barring a complete collapse, it'll get in. But nobody will fear this group, and a rebuild looms in the offseason.
Hanging tough without Gasol is incredible, but there's no way to put an overall positive spin on what's happened to the Grizzlies this year.
Miami Heat: B-
The Heat are pretty good. But they haven't recently stepped over the line to great, and that means they've missed on the absolute top-end projections some had for them.
Realistically, Miami has done well to craft an excellent defense with the personnel on hand. That's been the foundation of its success this year.
Dwyane Wade continues to age well, though his high usage late in games sometimes does more harm than good. Chris Bosh's health has thrown a shroud over the season, obscuring a step forward from Hassan Whiteside and real promise from rookies Justise Winslow and Josh Richardson.
That last thing, the rookie growth, is huge for a Heat team that has for years put more value on attracting established talent through free agency than cultivating its own in-house.
Good luck on the health front could push the Heat as high as No. 3 in the East, which might warrant a B-plus in the final calculus. For now, a 47-win pace and a good defense is enough for an above-average mark.
Milwaukee Bucks: D+
The extremely young Bucks won 41 games and secured the sixth seed in the East last year, which made progress feel like an inevitability. Toss in a terrific defense that ranked second in the NBA during 2014-15, plus the return of Jabari Parker, and the building blocks for serious success were there.
At least it seemed that way.
The defense collapsed with Greg Monroe's replacing Zaza Pachulia in the middle, and the Bucks won't reach 41 wins or the postseason without a miraculous closing surge. Though Parker has looked better as the season has gone on, and though Giannis Antetokounmpo's trial as a point guard remains one of the league's most tantalizing storylines, the Bucks have taken a step backward overall.
Think of this small slip as proof a franchise's upward trajectory isn't always an uninterrupted line. There's still hope here for big things, but they were supposed to start happening this season, and they haven't.
Minnesota Timberwolves: Excused
It's hard to get too critical of the obviously talented Timberwolves without turning an eye toward head coach Sam Mitchell, whose curious rotation decisions (Zach LaVine at the point, for one) and outdated offensive strategy are the main reasons Minnesota didn't take a major leap forward this year.
Karl-Anthony Towns? Andrew Wiggins? LaVine? Ricky Rubio? Kevin Garnett as mentor-in-residence? We should have seen huge improvements on last year's 16-win effort, right?
But Mitchell was never supposed to be in charge, only taking the position following Flip Saunders' death before the season. Sad and unforeseeable circumstances of that magnitude earn the Wolves a reprieve. This year was just unsettled from the start, and Mitchell was never going to be the guy to guide this group toward the playoffs.
Minnesota is better, and it could end this season with at least 10 more victories than it secured in 2014-15. But it didn't make the leap. That's fine. And hey, drafting future superstar Towns at No. 1 means there's nothing but sunshine ahead.
New Orleans Pelicans: D-
What do you do with all these injuries?
The Pelicans have fallen short of some lofty hopes this year, but can their shortcomings really result in a failing grade when the roster has completely collapsed around Anthony Davis?
Tyreke Evans and Eric Gordon are done for the year, Jrue Holiday spent months with a minutes limit and virtually every other useful perimeter player has fallen prey to the injury bug at some point. Giving New Orleans an F would be like failing the kid whose dog really did eat his homework.
All the same, Alvin Gentry didn't bring the offensive overhaul many expected, Davis' play hasn't reached last year's levels and the personnel mix just never worked. Even when relatively healthy, the Pels looked like a fringe playoff team.
This is a franchise in need of an offseason soul search. It'd be unforgivable to squander another year of Davis' prime.
New York Knicks: C
The Knicks didn't land a free-agent star last summer, and nobody saw Kristaps Porzingis making this kind of immediate impact. Sure, Carmelo Anthony's return from knee surgery pointed to more than the 17 wins New York collected in 2014-15, but he came with plenty of question marks himself.
Reasonable projections for the Knicks had them posting a win total somewhere in the 30s, which is pretty optimistic for a team with as little success as they had the year prior. You have to ignore the Phil Jackson-as-savior angles and filter out the perpetually overzealous hopes of New Yorkers to get there, but the Knicks have quietly met realistic forecasts.
They are less bad than they were last year—by a fair margin. That's not the same as being good, but nobody should have expected more in the first place.
Oklahoma City Thunder: C-
The Thunder shouldn't be getting outscored by more than four points per 100 possessions in close-and-late situations—not with their talent, and not with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook's considerable playoff experience. But that's what has happened this year, per NBA.com, as OKC has lost a ridiculous 12 games in which it entered the fourth quarter with a lead, according to ESPN Stats & Info.
"We're fooling ourselves if we want to be a great team the way we're playing," Durant vented to reporters after the Thunder coughed up a 22-point lead to the Clippers, per Ben Golliver of SI.com. "We want to win a bunch of games in the regular season, and that's cool, but we're fooling ourselves the way we're playing. There was no discipline."
Oklahoma City still has the third-best record in the West, and it outscores opponents by more points per game than everyone but the Warriors and Spurs. Yet, poor focus and stagnant offense have killed OKC late in games, and its defense (ranked fifth-worst in the league in the clutch) hasn't helped much either.
The standards are high for the Thunder. They've fallen short so far.
Orlando Magic: D+
Not a lot of progress here, and though a postseason trip might not have been necessary for a good grade, it would have been nice to see Orlando's young talent nudge forward.
Aaron Gordon has been excellent since Harris' departure, but Victor Oladipo, Elfrid Payton and Nikola Vucevic haven't moved the needle enough to get the Magic out of the East's lower reaches. That's a little discouraging, as Scott Skiles' first year with a young team tends to go well before his grating style wears it down in year two.
Part of this grade is Orlando's own fault. It looked like a playoff team through a large portion of December before coming apart in spectacular fashion. The Magic set themselves up to fail, flashing potential and then underwhelming in a big way.
There's always next year.
Philadelphia 76ers: Incomplete
The Sixers operate differently than any other team in the league, and if we graded them on the way they've achieved their own upside-down goals, they'd probably deserve an A. These guys have single-digit wins in the middle of March—mission accomplished for a tanking team.
Don't be fooled by the Jerry Colangelo addition or the Mike D'Antoni hire. Philly is still gunning for lottery position. The talent on the court and the ongoing flirtation with the salary floor prove that.
Failing the Sixers is tempting too. But that would mean believing they intended to be something other than the worst team in the league this year. They had no such aim.
In the spirit of trusting the process, the Sixers get no grade. As a project, they remain incomplete.
Phoenix Suns: F
Know who didn't intend to bottom out this year?
This team tossed a fat contract at an aging Tyson Chandler because it thought it might ensnare LaMarcus Aldridge to play alongside him at the 4. It also punted Marcus Morris, alienated his brother Markieff and fired its coach after team chemistry corroded and effort levels evaporated.
It has been an unmitigated disaster in Phoenix all year, and the only saving grace is a record bad enough to make a high lottery pick a certainty.
But this isn't at all what the Suns planned.
Portland Trail Blazers: Smiley Face
Hey, it's the Opposite-Day Suns!
Portland stripped down its roster over the summer, leaving Damian Lillard as the only returning starter. With C.J. McCollum, he was supposed to lead a plucky but ultimately doomed cast of young misfits to one of the worst records in the league.
Instead, the Blazers cooked through February and are now a feel-good postseason contender. Unlike the Suns, they prove mislaid plans can be pretty awesome.
Even if Portland slips out of the top eight in the West over the season's final few weeks, this year will still have been an enormous success.
Sacramento Kings: F
Whoa boy. Where to start?
Guided by the shortest of short-term thinking, the Kings gave away draft considerations and former lottery picks for middling free-agent help. Rajon Rondo was the big get, and his assist-hunting, defense-free play is a major reason Sacramento is headed for yet another 50-loss season.
And we haven't even gotten to the oh-so-predictable friction between head coach George Karl and DeMarcus Cousins—which has festered and occasionally broken open.
Who could have seen this coming? Not Kings management, apparently.
You don't mortgage future assets and fling together combustible personalities if you don't genuinely believe immediate success will make it worth the risk. The cost—a total disregard for long-term, reasonably planned stability—was just too great for any sane team-builder to gamble like that without expecting a playoff payoff.
The Kings failed this season in a big way. And the great tragedy is that the organization was the absolute last to know this was inevitable.
San Antonio Spurs: A+
An all-time-great average margin of victory, the best defense in the league and as good of a shot at another title as anyone not named the Warriors—all achieved after the first major free-agent acquisition (Aldridge) in the Spurs' ongoing era of two-decade dominance.
Ever demanding, head coach Gregg Popovich would probably term that Unsatisfactory, but it's an A-plus for us.
You can't overstate how remarkable San Antonio's success has been. Talented and experienced, but also potentially fragile and definitely old, the Spurs essentially turned a transition-phase season into one for the ages. Kawhi Leonard's ascent to superstardom has happened seamlessly, and Aldridge has fit in fine.
Normal teams don't do this. They don't position themselves for a changing of the guard while getting even better in the interim. Shifts like this are supposed to be complicated, even messy.
All hail the Spurs.
Toronto Raptors: A
You've got to give it to Toronto, a team that played at an A-level for about half of last season before flunking after the All-Star break and getting expelled in the playoffs. No such implosion appears forthcoming this time around, as the Raptors have established themselves as the biggest threat to the Cavs in the East.
On pace for a franchise-record 55 wins, Toronto is a dangerous outfit. Kyle Lowry deserved his All-Star start, and DeMar DeRozan is only getting better at pump-faking and foul-drawing his way into the elite tier of shooting guards. Get DeMarre Carroll healthy in time for the playoffs, and this is a team capable of reaching the Finals.
(We hereby reserve the right to retroactively alter this grade in the event Toronto gets swept in the first round again.)
Utah Jazz: C-
The Jazz are still right there in the playoff race out West, but after defending better than anyone following last year's All-Star break, it seemed like they'd do more than hang around. It seemed like they'd jump up toward the fifth or sixth seed.
Dante Exum's torn ACL was a major blow, and losing Alec Burks (again) hurt. Rodney Hood's development into a legitimate No. 1b option is a plus, and it's entirely possible the Jazz will go on a closing run toward 43 or 44 wins. But that result would represent the low end of what seemed possible before the season began.
For the second straight season, it looks like the Jazz will be the team everyone expects to break out next year.
It'll happen eventually. Probably.
Washington Wizards: D
A blowout win over the Pistons on Monday preserved the Wizards' fading playoff hopes, but there's been an ill-fitting quality to this team all year.
Consider Fran Blinebury of NBA.com's update way back in December: "The Wizards have lost their identity, if not their willingness to coalesce and it adds uncomfortable uncertainty to [Randy] Wittman's job status. Center Marcin Gortat recently said he did not look forward to even showing up at the arena for practices and games."
Washington has played faster this year, upping its pace from 16th to fifth, but it hasn't scored with markedly greater efficiency. The defense has also suffered with smaller lineups and speedier runs up and down the floor.
Washington essentially guessed wrong about what its roster could do in an uptempo setting. It's easy to forgive; letting John Wall play fast makes a ton of sense. But the supporting pieces haven't taken to pace and space. As a result, the Wizards won't match their 46 wins from last year, and they'll be lucky to see the playoffs.
That's an ugly step back for a team that nakedly preserved cap space in hopes of luring Kevin Durant this summer. KD isn't coming to a lottery team, and whoever else the Wizards target as backups might be similarly reluctant.
Bad times.
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Stats courtesy of NBA.com and accurate through games played March 15.
