With the All-Star break upon us we are little over halfway through the season and teams are going to get a small break before making their late season pushes for the play-in, playoffs and/or better seeding. The NBA feels very top heavy this year as if there are a few teams who are true title contenders and then the rest of the league is figuring it out.
However the trade deadline just recently passed as well as shaken up a lot of rosters, and has given some teams fresh starts as well as pushed other teams towards focusing on the lottery.
We have seen teams in recent years, like the Mavericks last year or the Celtics a few years ago, make post All-Star break runs, but with a lot of stars moving locations and a lot of teams figuring out their identities, this season it looks like we can see who the true contenders are going to be.
This list is composed of the best ten teams in the NBA that have a real chance of winning the finals.
This is not the best regular season teams, this list is based off of what teams have shown and who looks like they are ready to win it all.
For example if this was two years ago the 76ers although having the MVP and being one of the best teams in the league would have only been around the 5th or 6th spot because although they were dominant in the regular season, they did not show anything that looked like it would translate to the playoffs.
With that being said, here are my NBA power rankings going into the All-Star break.
HM: Rockets, Pacers and Bucks
Making my honorable mentions are the Rockets, Pacers and Bucks, all these teams are having phenomenal regular seasons, but I do not see any of these teams are true contenders for the finals. Since the trade deadline has passed and these rosters are pretty much set, I do not think these teams have what it takes to win a 7 game series.
The Rockets are a fun and exciting young team to watch this year. Jalen Green and Alperen Şengün are playing great and improving as usual and the emergence and improvement of Amen Thompson and Dillon Brooks has been great to watch. However this team lacks a true superstar, Green and Şengün are great but both inconsistent and not reliable enough for a 7 game series.
This team lacks playoff experience outside of Fred Vanvleet and Brooks, and they lack the true ability to space the floor. Vanvleet and Jabari Smith Jr. are their best shooters, outside of them they do not have any great three point shooters. Green is inconsistent and Brooks is having one of his best shooting seasons, but relying on him to hit shots consistently in a playoff series does not seem like a recipe to make it out of the first round.
The Pacers have a fun and fast offense but they as well do not have a true superstar. Tyrese Haliburton is a phenomenal player with great pieces around him like Myles Turner and Benedict Mathurin but the Pacers will not have the best player on the court in any series they play and that tends to be a problem in the playoffs.
The pacers are also one of the worst defensive teams in the league, that can work during the regular season due to their high powered offense and ability to speed the pace of the game up, but in the playoffs where most sets are halfcourt sets and every possession matters this team will get picked apart by most offenses. I do not think most NBA players, analysts, and followers see the Pacers as a true threat.
As far as the Bucks go they have the talent to be a top 5 team and with the addition of Kyle Kuzma I think offensively they just get better, but I think we have seen how this team plays out, and how Doc Rivers coached teams play out and I do not see them as a real threat. It has been proven there is a formula to slow down Giannis in the playoffs and as amazing and great as Damian Lillard is I am not sure if he has the pieces around him and coaching to make a real run.
Lillard is also 34 so asking him to be the best player for the Bucks come April-May will get harder for him every year. This is not a slight, just my honest opinion and observations. I would like it to be known that the Yak community are very big Damian Lillard fans and have a lot of respect for his abilities and impact.
- The Orlando Magic
The Orlando Magic may be a surprise here at 10, right now they are 7th in the east with a 27-29 record. However the Magic are only in this position because of their extremely injury riddled season. Anyone who watched the Magic last season and in their first round series against the Cavs know that the young Magic team is destined to do great things.
They were off to a terrific start as well until the injury bug was spread around the locker room. Both the Magic’s star players Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner went down with the same injury and had to miss extended amounts of time. The Magic did their best to keep the team running as they awaited the return of their star players with some key role players like Anthony Black and Cole Anthony stepping up, but the injury bug was not done yet.
Possibly the best backup center in the NBA, Mo Wagner, tore his ACL which ended what looked like to be his best season so far, Jalen Suggs has been dealing with multiple injuries all season, and obviously it’s not an Orlando Magic season without Jonathan Isaac missing a few games.
That being said both Banchero and Franz Wagner have returned to lineup and they seem to be picking up right where they left off. With the team getting some time to rest with the break ahead to hopefully allow guys like Suggs, Isaac, Banchero and Franz Wagner to get fully healthy, I am predicting an outstanding second half for the season for the Magic
I think they will end up as the 4-5 seed and I think they could make a deep playoff run as long as they stay healthy for the rest of the season.
- The Los Angeles Clippers
The Clippers are having a surprisingly good season sitting at 31-23 which puts them at 6th in the West. Clippers star Kawhi Leonard missed the first three months of the season, for most teams, if their star player missed the first three months, their season would be over, but not all teams have Norman Powell on their roster.
Norman Powell has decided to let the world see the “what if” scenario if Michael Jordan had fallen to the 8th pick and been drafted by the Clippers. Obviously I’m just yaking around, but the outstanding play of Norman Powell this season is no joke. His play along with James Harden having a quietly phenomenal season has made the Clippers one of the tougher matchups in the NBA this year.
The Clippers also did some mandatory retooling at the deadline that shows they are all in for this season. They got rid of some pieces that did not fit and added some much needed shooting in Bogdan Bogdanovic. They also added some big man depth in Drew Eubanks, some young talent in Marjon Beauchamp and some veteran leadership in Ben Simmons and Patty Mills.
This new retooled roster took away some depth, but looks to be ready to make a run right now. All this being said, I have not even mentioned the return of Kawhi Leonard last month and he has been playing some really good basketball since he came back. If Leonard is able to lead the way with Powell and Harden behind him this is a team that no one wants to see in the playoffs.
The All-Star break could give the Clippers older stars some rest and allow them some time to figure out how to effectively use the new pieces of their roster. If the Clippers come back rested and ready to ball they have the talent and roster to make a run in this year’s playoffs.
- The Minnesota Timberwolves
The Timberwolves are currently 31-25 which puts them at the 7th seed in the West. The Timberwolves are still trying to figure things out after one of the most shocking trades in NBA history and in my opinion one of the worst. They traded a top 3 center in the NBA Karl-Anthony Towns for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo.
After starting out pretty slow they have started to learn how to play with each other and with Anthony Edwards at the helm of your team, anything is possible. Let’s not underestimate how long it takes for teams with big changes to gain chemistry. With them already starting to get back on track it is scary to think how good they actually could be if they put it together.
They have a superstar, a DPOY center, and some really good role players. Naz Reid is having another really great season, and they have a top 5 perimeter defending wing Jaden McDaniels. They have also finally started to unleash the scoring machine that is rookie Rob Dillingham.
As the season progresses and the team gets better it is expected that they will be hitting their stride and playing their best ball come playoff time. The Timberwolves are already a top 10 defensive team in the league, a top 5 three point shooting team and one of the best paint protecting teams in the league. Being able to shoot and play defense at every level are the two most important traits to have in the playoffs.
The Wolves are not higher on this list because they turn the ball over and they lack a second superstar and scoring option to be the Robin to Anthony Edward’s Batman. Regardless, with a defense like theirs and a superstar like Edwards there is no limit to how far this team can go.
- The Memphis Grizzlies
The Memphis Grizzlies are having a spectacular season that is not getting talked about enough. It was said last year that a healthy Grizzlies team with a healthy Ja Morant are a top team in the West, and their 36-18 record that has them in 2nd place in the West shows that those rumors were absolutely true.
The Grizzlies are led by their 3 headed snake in former DPOY Jaren Jackson Jr, their three point savant Desmond Bane, and their superstar leader Ja Morant. The Grizzlies are not being talked about as serious contenders because they seem to have come out of nowhere, but most NBA fans will remember that they were 2nd in the West two years ago and were supposed to do great things last year until they dealt with some injuries and off the court issues.
Now they are right back where they left off with a roster that is the best it has been in some years. Jaren Jackson Jr. is having the best season of his career, Morant is doing usual Ja Morant things by being electric, and they have tons of young contributing pieces in Jaylen Wells, GG Jackson, Scottie Pippen Jr and a true center in Zach Edey. They have two rookie of the year candidates as well as some other young guys who are improving in their first few seasons. This is a team that can do it all on both sides of the floor, they hold very few weaknesses.
Offensively the Grizzlies are the highest scoring team in the league, they are top 10 in the league in field goals made per game, field goal percentage, three pointers made per game, three point percentage, free throws made per game, rebounds per game, and assists per game. Defensively they are top 10 in defensive rating, steals and blocks per game.
This shows that they are one of the best all around teams in the league and the season that they are having is not getting enough attention. They are not higher on the list due to their youth, their bench is talented but very young and lacks experience. They also turn the ball over a lot which also may be due to having a lot of youth on the team. Regardless, they have almost no weakness and they will most certainly be one of the toughest teams to go against in the playoffs.
- The Los Angeles Lakers
This may seem like recency bias, but you can not put a team with Luka Doncic and LeBron James any lower than the other teams on this list. Luka has only played two games with the Lakers at the time this article is being written both against the Jazz. The ceiling on this team is just too high and if Luka and LeBron learn how to play side by side there’s no reason that this isn’t a top 5 team in the league.
The Lakers are 32-20 and were 31-19 before Doncic started playing. They are currently 5th in the West with a better record then the Wolves and the Clippers with barely starting the Doncic in LA experiment. The leaders of this Laker team are evident, but there has been a lot of really great play from players like Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and newly acquired Dorian Finney-Smith.
This team has experience, leadership, star power, depth and a top 5 rookie who just wants to play ball in Dalton Knecht. This team does not specialize in anything specifically, but they can do just about everything really well and they have their late game closers that come alive in the 4th quarter, and make winning plays down the stretch.
One thing that they do well is efficiency, they are in the top half of the league in field goal percentage, three point percentage, and free throw percentage. The addition of Luka Doncic should only improve these numbers and make their offense as a whole more challenging to guard. The sky’s the limit for this team if they can just do it right.
The Lakers are not higher on this list because their three point shooting is very inconsistent and because despite the possibilities, we still have not seen what this new star duo can do so we can not put them too high yet. Hopefully over the break they will be able to make a game plan that they can execute in the second half of the season and maybe get LeBron James another ring and Luka Doncic his first.
- The New York Knicks
The New York Knicks have been one of the most interesting teams to follow this season, in fact the attention on the Knicks started before the season began. As mentioned earlier after the Knicks lost in the second round of the playoffs they decided they were one piece away and traded Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo for star center Karl-Anthony Towns. The Knicks also traded for Mikal Bridges earlier in the offseason and they re-signed OG Anunoby as well.
All these moves had all eyes on Knicks going into the season and it came with a lot of expectations. This was fun until opening night of the season when the Knicks got their 
whooped by the Boston Celtics. They would then get hot and some stellar play from Towns and star player Jalen Brunson would push the Knicks to the top of the league. Since then they have cooled off and have struggled, leaving them currently at 3rd in the East at 36-18.
The Knicks have a true identity as one of the most unstoppable offensive teams in the league. They have All-NBA guard Jalen Brunson leading the way and if you try to double him then you leave All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns one on one, and if you try to double him then you have elite three point shooters Anunoby and Bridges waiting to shoot. They also have Deuce McBride and Cameron Payne bringing the buckets off the bench as well. This star studded offense has led them to top 10 in points per game, field goals made per game, field goal percentage, three point percentage and assists per game.
Defensively they sometimes struggle as a unit, but they have a lot of lock down defenders that can make plays on the defensive end and help slow down the opposing team’s best players. Anunoby, Bridges and Josh Hart are some of the league’s best perimeter defenders.
The Knicks are not higher up because they struggle to defend the paint, to play defense as a unit and they lack depth which becomes important come playoff time. I also do not see them beating any of the teams ahead of them in a 7 game series.
- The Denver Nuggets
The Nuggets who were NBA champions just two years ago are having one of their slower seasons in recent memory. That should say a lot about their greatness because they currently sit at 3rd in the West with a 36-19 record. Led by 3 time MVP winner Nikola Jokic, one of the all time playoff performers is Jamal Murray, and one of my personal favorite players to watch on television is Michael Porter Jr.. The Nuggets started the season very up and down but have seem to have finally found their rhythm as of recently-which is one of the scariest sights for other NBA teams.
A lot of that has to do with Russell Westbrook finally finding another great fit for him and playing like it is 2017 again and Christian Braun is having the best year of his young career and stepping up in place of the departure of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Both guards have made numerous big plays this season that have shown the Nuggets that they still have a contending roster after a lot of people wrote them off after their slow start.
The Nuggets are an offensive juggernaut that is almost impossible to contain-Jokic can score on anyone and can make any pass or play that is needed of him. All 5 players on the court are threats to score and it is all facilitated by the future Hall of Fame big man. The Nuggets are third in scoring-three point percentage and first in field goals made per game and field goal percentage.
The Nuggets also have one of the most experienced rosters in the NBA along with two former MVPS. They have a great coaching staff and there is not much that they are not prepared for come playoff time.
The reason that they are not higher is they lack depth, they really struggle on the defensive end of the floor, and they are very Jokic dependent. Their experience and talent could push them over the edge of some of the younger teams, but as of now, I think 4th is a really great spot for them.
- The Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cleveland Cavaliers got off to one of the hottest stars in the NBA starting off 15-0, they now are still first place in the East, tied for first in the whole NBA with a 44-10 record. They are led by their superstar Donovan Mitchell and All-Star point guard Darius Garland who may be having the best year of his career. Evan Mobley has also taken a major leap offensively, making him a real third option offensively, when he was already a DPOY caliber player on the other end. They also have another elite defender in Jarett Allen and some other key role players that have stepped up like Ty Jerome and Sam Merrill.
The Cavs are one of the best two way teams in the league, they are 2nd in scoring, top 5 in field goal percentage and field goals made per game, three point percentage and three pointers made per game, and assists per game as well as being top 10 in defensive rating. They also made a move at the deadline to acquire Deandre Hunter from the Atlanta Hawks, who is having a career year, who is the perfect 3 and D fit that they have been looking for at small forward for years now.
They can shoot, take it to the rim, move the ball and lock up your team’s best players at the same time. They have had two 12+ game winning streaks this year and they have 14 wins of 20+ points. They have completely dominated their competition this year.
So why is this dominant team with the best record in the NBA only in 3rd?
This team has the recipe to be one of the regular season dominant teams that does not pan out in the playoffs. We have seen what this team looks like in the playoffs the last few years and it is not pretty, and they have some of the weakest depth of all the playoff teams. They also have a 1-2 and a 1-1 record against the two teams ahead of them.
- The Oklahoma City Thunder
The young Thunder team that had some of the highest expectations coming into this year have somehow surpassed those expectations and they are currently number one in the West and tied for number 1 in the whole league with a 44-10 record just like the Cavs. What puts them ahead of the Cavs is they have the same type of team, only better and younger. The Thunder are the best two way team in the NBA and they have superstar guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who will most likely be this year’s MVP.
The Thunder also have a lot more depth than the Cavs, the Thunder have at least 10 players that could contribute in a NBA playoff game. Beside their MVP they have a real second option in first time All-Star Jalen Williams, a DPOY candidate in Chet Holmgren, who just recently returned from injury, two All-Defensive team caliber players in Lu Dort and Alex Caruso, one of the best backup centers in the NBA in Isaiah Hartenstein, and they round their team off with two great bench scorers in Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe.
The Thunder have the best defensive rating in the NBA, they lead the league in steals per game and paint points allowed, their top ten in blocks per game and offensively they are top 10 in just about every stat that matters. OKC can truly do it all and it is just impressive how talented their team is while being one of the youngest rosters in the NBA. They have gone on four 5+ game win streaks this year including a 10 game win streak during this season.
The Thunder have 14 wins of 20+ points including one of those wins coming against the Cleveland Cavaliers. They have been just as dominant as the Cavs have been except the only difference is they have shown the ability to dominate the Cavs. The Thunder seem to be the favorites to come out of the West and I am not sure if there is a team in the West capable of taking this team out.
The reason that they are not #1 on the list is because since the injury of Chet Holmgren, the Thunder became very
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dependent on offense and although their defense is always amazing they struggled to score the ball when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander did not have the ball in his hands. Even with Holmgren back, their offense can be stagnant and off rhythm when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander goes to the bench. Holmgren being back does make the difference between them being 3rd or 2nd, but in the playoffs when teams really focus on Gilgeous-Alexander it will be interesting to see if they can still maintain a top offense.
1. The Charlotte Hornets
Yak joke.
1. The Boston Celtics (for real)
I know it is boring to have last year’s reigning champs to be number 1 again but I am yet to see a team that can defeat this Celtics team in a 7 game series. The Celtics are currently 39-16 which has them second in the East. After being so dominant last year the Celtics definitely have found them struggling a bit more than expected. This is widely due to some recent injuries and shooting struggles, but as every great team does they have gotten back to playing their brand of basketball.
The Celtics started this season hot after tying a record in their first game of the season and blowing out the Knicks and then they would go on to win 12 of their first 15 games. They then went on an inconsistent run where they would win a few games then lose a few and the C cycle would continue until recently where they have gotten back to their winning ways.
This team needs little explanation. They are lead by their two superstars in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, they have the two best defending guards in the league Jrue Holiday and Derrick White, one of the best big man in the league Kristaps Porzingis, the projected 6th man of the year Payton Pritchard, and other key bench pieces like Al Horford and Sam Hauser.
This is one of the best three point shooting teams ever, one of the best defensive teams in the NBA, they have star power, depth, elite coaching, and all the experience necessary for them to go back to back. Barring any major injuries this is the best roster in the NBA and something tells me come playoff time this team is going to be all the way locked in.
To be the champs you have to beat the champs and I need to see this team lose in the playoffs in order to dethrone them. Although they have not been as dominant as last year every great team runs into their struggles and I do not think this is anything to look too deep into. Yak playoff predictions will come closer to playoff time, but I think you can see what team Tru-Yak might like to win it all this year.
ONWARD!
TRU-YAK
