NBA’s High 5 Most Overrated Groups Getting into 2024-25 Season

It wasn’t way back that somebody urged commissioner David Stern eliminate the two-conference setup within the NBA.

When Stern retired 10 years in the past, the Western Convention was dominating the East. Within the post-Michael Jordan/Bulls period, Western groups captured 11 of 16 titles, main into the tip of Stern’s run.

What Stern was presiding over was getting embarrassing. In the event you didn’t have LeBron James, you had no likelihood within the East.

Twice inside six years, the Suns received a minimum of 46 video games within the West and didn’t make the playoffs. In the meantime, between 2004 and 2011, the East despatched three groups ahead with 37 or fewer wins.

Not solely was it not honest that vastly superior Western groups have been being denied photographs on the crown, however with groups enjoying a majority of their video games inside their very own convention, it was rather more troublesome simply to achieve .500 within the West than within the East.

Stern handed the issue to Adam Silver, who, like his predecessor, insisted the steadiness of energy was cyclical. And positive sufficient, he’s been confirmed proper.

In truth, it may not be lengthy earlier than analysts begin complaining concerning the WEAKNESS of the West.

In compiling a listing of the NBA’s 5 Most Overrated Groups, it will be straightforward to checklist all Western groups.

Some have gotten previous, but no person appears to have seen. Some have made playoff runs that belie their regular-season mediocrity, which has led to bloated expectations.

And one, nicely, has LeBron, which makes them an automated alternative as a contender, even when not too long ago historical past has strongly indicated in any other case.

In the long run, you would argue greater than half of the West’s 15 groups are overrated.

In the meantime, the Japanese order of end is about as predictable as school soccer. For probably the most half, it’s the identical groups yearly.

Lacking by a few locations in a projected order of end within the East is inevitable. However on the overrated scale, that doesn’t evaluate to the West, the place you’ve got a projected finalist that’ll be fortunate to outlive the primary spherical of the 2025 playoffs and a division favourite that’s extra prone to end final than first.

Because the solar units on a handful of franchises within the West, listed below are my 5 Most Overrated Groups for the 2024-25 NBA season:

1. Phoenix Suns

Somebody thought it will be a good suggestion so as to add a 3rd “celebrity” to the Kevin Durant/Devin Booker dynamic. He was mistaken. Bradley Beal is your basic nice scorer on a foul workforce. The truth that he’s by no means performed an oz of protection in his life wasn’t vital on a perennial loser just like the Wizards.

The Suns lacked depth of their totally disappointing 2024 season; that was due partially to getting nothing out of Beal. Now somebody has determined to run it again, with minimal additions, and oddsmakers are shopping for into the second-chance factor, making the Suns the favorites within the Pacific Division. Keep in mind you heard it right here first: The Kings are a lock to win the Pacific. If not for the mess referred to as the Clippers, the Suns can be a pleasant guess to complete final.

2. Dallas Mavericks

They have been no higher than the fifth-best workforce within the West final season, the beneficiary of lackluster competitors in a run to the Finals. To get there—the place they have been shellacked by the Celtics—they took benefit of a reeling Clippers workforce, a not-ready-for-prime-time Thunder squad, and a good matchup towards an outsized Timberwolves roster.

The Mavericks want to suppose they’re higher this season, however let’s be trustworthy concerning the acquisition of Klay Thompson. He nonetheless thinks he warrants 10 3-pointers an evening, however at his age, his imaginative and prescient appears to have develop into impaired, whereas his capability to play protection has disappeared. It’s a toss-up who complains first a couple of lack of taking pictures alternatives—Thompson or Kyrie Irving—and that ought to open the door for the Pelicans and Grizzlies each to go the Mavs within the Southwest Division.

3. Cleveland Cavaliers

OK, we’ve obtained to throw an Japanese workforce in right here, so right here goes. The East has 4 tiers: The Elite (Celtics), The Solely Groups With A Distant Probability of Unseating The Elite (Knicks, 76ers, Bucks), The First-Spherical Playoff Fodder (Magic, Pacers, Warmth, Bulls, Hawks) and The Cooper Flagg Hopefuls (Hornets, Pistons, Raptors, Nets, Wizards). All very predictable.

Uh, forgetting one? Yep, the Cavaliers, who want to consider they belong in Class II. In truth, that’s the place they landed final yr… by one recreation over the Magic, Pacers and 76ers. All three of them determine to be higher this yr, whereas the Cavs apparently suppose they have been ok final yr. Maybe disappointing is a greater label than overrated, however they often each land you in the identical place.

4. Los Angeles Lakers

Having LeBron in your workforce provides you an opportunity. No less than within the minds of some. Not mine. The Lakers made the playoffs via the play-in the final two seasons and are solely prone to discover themselves in the identical state of affairs this yr as a result of groups forward of them have fallen whereas they’ve stood nonetheless.

Can LeBron and Anthony Davis nonetheless elevate them to second place within the Pacific? Certain, however that solely provides to their overratedness. Because the Warriors have flamed out, the Clippers have floundered worse than ever, and the Suns have self-destructed, the Pacific has quietly develop into one of many NBA’s weakest divisions. And it’s getting worse. The excellent news for the Lakers, who’re nowhere close to a High 4 workforce within the West: When LeBron retires, they received’t be overrated anymore.

5. Boston Celtics

Wager you weren’t anticipating this one. However overrated is available in many sizes and styles, and sometimes doesn’t imply: Unhealthy workforce. No person would name the Mavericks and Cavaliers unhealthy groups. Simply ones that received’t meet expectations.

No person has larger expectations than the Celtics. Heck, there’s already speak of one other dynasty. And, sure, the 2024 run was a dominant one—one equally the results of one of the best six-man basis in basketball and a cupcake-lined crimson carpet being rolled out in entrance of them. They wouldn’t have crushed the Nuggets within the Finals final season, and so they received’t this yr, both. And that’s the way you go from dynasty goals to overrated actuality. Dynasty, certainly.