Ty's 2017-2018 NBA Preview: Bulls, Hawks, Nets

This is getting rough, but before I get into my 2017-18 NBA countdown, I have to say RIP to the great Tom Petty. I know there were conflicting stories all day yesterday about his passing, but it was confirmed that Petty had died at the age of 66 today. He was an all time great. He was a great guitar player and one of the best song writers ever. I will greatly miss his music. He was one of the first musicians that made me respect the guitar and rock music in general. He was a master, and he will be deeply missed. RIP.

Okay, hopefully I don't have to talk about crummy or horrific current events for awhile. Now, lets get to my NBA countdown. For the next 10 days or so I will be counting down the NBA teams from worst to best as I see them coming into this season. At the end of my countdown I will pick all the award winners and who I think will win the title, spoiler alert, it will be the Warriors. But, before I get all the way to the good stuff, I have to start with the teams that I think will be the worst of the worst. Also, these rankings have no reflection on the playoff picture. I will tell you know that I have, at least, 9 teams from the West in my top 18. So, there will be some shitty team, or teams, from the East that make the playoffs. This is just how I see all the teams. Okay, lets start with the bottom of the barrel.

At number 30 I do not have the Philadelphia 76ers anymore. In fact, I have a team that was in the playoffs last year. My number 30 team is the Chicago Bulls. Yes, they were in the playoffs, as just mentioned, but EVERYONE of importance from that team is gone. Jimmy Butler, Rajon Rondo and Dwayne Wade all skipped town for greener pastures. What the Bulls have left leaves a lot to the imagination. The roster is filled with unproven players or guys past their primes, if they ever had one, or just mediocre NBA players. I'm pretty sure the best player on this team is Robin Lopez. Now while he isn't that bad, he is not a modern day center, and no team will ever even make the playoffs with Robin Lopez as their best player. Denzel Valentine may make a jump this year, but he was real bad as a rookie, and barely saw the floor. Zach Lavine and Kris Dunn, the guys they got for Butler, are very meh. Lavine will not be ready for the start of the year, still recovering from his torn ACL, and I think it speaks volumes that the Timberwolves got better when he got hurt. Kris Dunn was horrendous as a rookie, and I picked him to be the rookie of the year last year. He was just awful whenever he was on the floor. Maybe he will get better, but he has a long way to go before he is any kind of threat. Nikola Mirotic just signed a big contract extension, but what is he other than a liability on defense and a guy who's shot comes and goes. Cristiano Felicio could be better now that he won't have Wade chastising him for grabbing rebounds, but I just can't peg his game yet. Cam Payne is hurt and looking like a bust. Same for Bobby Portis, except he isn't hurt, his game just hasn't translated to the NBA. And taking Lauri Markenan number 7 overall was the worst pick of the whole draft last year. That guy is soft as tissue paper and he is going to get devoured by power forwards in the NBA. The rest of the roster is filled with D League guys and deep bench players. The Bulls stink. They will most definitely be in the lottery next draft, and I would be shocked if their head coach makes it through the whole year.

At number 29 I have another playoff team from last year, the Atlanta Hawks. This is the same team that just 4 short seasons ago won 62 games and sent 4 players to the All Star game. No one is left from that team. Hell, they lost a ton from last year's playoff team. Dwight Howard, Tim Hardaway Jr and, most importantly, Paul Milsap are gone. They all jumped ship. Their starting point guard this year, Dennis Schroder, just got arrested for some kind of assault. They are already off to a horrid start. Kent Bazemore is over paid and not producing like he did when he was a bench player. Marco Bellinelli and Ersan Ilaysova bring nothing to this team besides some lackluster experience. I'm curious to see how Dewanye Dedmon does away from the Spurs model. The only thing that the Hawks really have going for them is Deandre Bembry and Tauren Prince. Bembry looks like he could be a decent role player, and I really like what I saw from Prince last year. He looks like he could be the third or fourth guy on a title contending team. Problem in Atlanta, he will be the center piece. He isn't ready for that yet. The Hawks are going to take a GIANT step back. That's unfortunate because I have always kind of liked the Hawks. They are going to be horrible this year though.

My final team for today, coming in at number 28 is the Brooklyn Nets. They have been either 30 or 29 in my first 2 countdown's, but they moved up this year. Sure, it's only one spot, but progress none the less. Trading Brook Lopez was much needed, and they didn't get anyone great, but D'Angelo Russell isn't terrible, and Mozgov has played in a Finals. But, lets be serious for a minute about these guys. Mozgov is toast. He will bear no effect on how the Nets play. And Russell, he was the second overall pick a few years ago and the Lakers were eager to trade him. He just hasn't figured it out yet. Brooklyn is a better fit, but he needs to become a complete point guard. I think the Jeremy Lin hype is more about his hair and less his game now. He can still score a little bit, but he gets hurt far too often, and he is not the guy you want to build around. They took on Allen Crabbe's ridiculous contract, but that is what this team needs to do. They need to grab these guys that had one good year and hope they rekindle that magic because they have no draft picks of any note for a few more years. Maybe Crabbe finds his stroke again, but if I were a betting man, I'd say that one season was an anomaly. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson has not turned into the type of bulldog, rebounding and defensive force I thought he could be. He has moments here and there, they are just too infrequent. They took on Demarre Carroll's contract, a la what they did with Crabbe, and maybe he can find his defensive prowess that got him paid so much by Toronto. But I seem to think that he is done as a player of importance in the NBA. They took the center from Texas, Jarrett Allen, and I think he will be a decent replacement for Lopez, but he is a teenager, and I think he will find the NBA interior to be tough sledding. Tyler Zeller left Boston for the Nets, but who cares. He is of no consequence. The player I like most on this team, and yes I am being totally biased here, is Caris Levert. If he can stay healthy, and that is a big. big if, he can be a player in the NBA. He has a decent inside out game and he can defend. I watched him do it for 4 years at Michigan, and he has played better than his former Wolverines teammates, Nik Stauskas, Trey Burke and Mitch McGary, all have in the NBA. I think Levert has a very good chance to be a player that other teams have to game plan for. But, the Nets still stink, and they will for some time.

That's it for today. Come back tomorrow when I get to the next group of crappy teams. I have to say though, I'm so excited for the NBA to be coming back in 2 weeks. It's wonderful.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet. 

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