Disappointments can happen for a number of reasons. In the NBA if a player leaves, someone gets hurt, other players age or a team just doesn’t pick anyone up to improve the roster, they may perform at a lower level. Last year that happened to a few teams in the NBA like the Los Angeles Lakers, Denver Nuggets and Boston Celtics. This season a couple playoff teams might be seeing the exit from the playoffs all together or a drastic drop from where they once stood last season.
1. Houston Rockets
Last Season Finished- 54-28, 4th in the West, 2nd in the Southwest Division
This Season Projected- 46-36, 9th in the West, 4th in the Southwest Division
Why?
While many NBA teams got better, the Rockets got worse. Houston Rockets got rid of potential All-Star, Chandler Parsons and in return received declining Trevor Ariza. They let a cast of players go, like Omer Asik, Jeremy Lin and Aaron Brooks who all played important minutes for the team last year and only received Jason Terry and drafted Nick Johnson in return. While current Rockets forward Josh Powell may disagree with this, it is a harsh reality that may come sooner than Rockets fans would accept. The Rockets need to find some help for Dwight Howard and James Harden if they want to survive because Patrick Beverly and Terrence Jones, offensively, can’t put up crazy numbers.
2. Memphis Grizzlies
Last Season Finished- 50-32, 7th in the West, 3rd in Southwest Division
This Season Projected- 36-46, 11th in the West, 4th in Southwest Divison
Why?
Memphis Grizzlies got lucky last year. The injuries to potential playoff teams like the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets helped the Grizz bump up into the playoffs. This year, don’t expect alot of the same. The Grizzlies didn’t add anything major to their team besides Vince Carter and even then, that’s nothing too major too even talk about. Granted, the Grizz still have Zach Randolph aka Z-Bo, Marc Gasol and Mike Conley but it just doesn’t seem like it will be enough. They just do not score enough and injuries may play another major role this year as the Grizz are always often times injured.
3. Miami Heat
Last Season Finished- 54-28, 2nd in the East, 1st in Southeast Division
This Season Projected- 44-38, 7th in the East, 3rd in Southeast Division
Why?
There’s a simple reason. LeBron James. They got worse while the rest of the East got better. The Bulls, Hornets, Wizards, Raptors, Knicks and Cavs got a lot better. The Heat just didn’t get enough for the loss of LeBron. They brought in Danny Granger, Luol Deng and Josh McRoberts as well as drafting Shabazz Napier but they still lost LeBron James. Not only did they lose James, but Ray Allen is now a free agent, Shane Battier retired and James Jones and Mike Miller are both Cavaliers. This is not a recipe for potentially good things in Miami. Especially when Wade is still lost with the offense.
4. Indiana Pacers
Last Season Finished- 56-26, 1st in the East, 1st in the Central Division
This Season Projected- 36-46, 10th in the East, 3rd in the Central Division
Why?
Injuries are going to ruin the Pacers this year. They lost Paul George over the summer, starting power forward David West is possibly going to miss some time and Roy Hibbert seemed to hit a wall last season and can barely manage to get a rebound, even standing at over seven feet tall. The Pacers are just hurting and to put the cherry on top, they lost Lance Stephenson to the Hornets. Pray for Indiana that the worst is ending up as a 10th seed in the East.
5. Oklahoma City Thunder
Last Season Finished- 59-23, 2nd in the West, 1st in the Northwest Division
This Season Projected-52-30, 5th in the West, 2nd in the Northwest Division
Why?
Losing Kevin Durant for a period of time will hurt. Losing Durant and having Russell Westbrook being the leading scorer isn’t bad. Durant has to come back eventually though and if Westbrook succeeds as expected as an individual player then this may mean some bad things when Durant returns. Durant is very calm and laid back but there might be an instant where neither player is going to give in to the other. They both demand the ball, create with the ball in their hand and make sure that no matter what, the best shot by them goes up. One of these type of players work for a team, but two of them on the same team? No way. This injury may go deeper than the Thunder missing some wins this season.
