Which teams are most inclined to disappoint us in the coming regular season? We gave you the teams most likely to surprise, but now we have to turn around and consider a frown.
These are the predictions writers want to be wrong about… but don’t think they will be.
The envelope, please:
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JOE MANGANIELLO
New Orleans was a piss-poor defensive team in a season marked by injuries, but the team finished ninth in offensive efficiency by piecing together the nonessentials around the historic “Age 21” season from Anthony Davis. “The Unibrow” unites millions around a singular idea — that he’s the best basketball player to enter the league in more than a decade. Everybody loves Alvin Gentry and the “right guy, right place” vibes surrounding his hire. His defensive coordinator, Darren Erman, is a double-down by New Orleans that a sizeable improvement on the sideline will lift the underachieving core of twentysomethings around Davis.
Here’s the thing: The Pelicans can barely field a team at the moment. Tyreke Evans is sidelined for two months after knee surgery, around the same times Quincy Pondexter will come back from his own knee surgery. Omer Asik and Alexis Ajinca both got paid this summer, and neither player will be ready to start opposite Davis in the frontcourt on opening night. Norris Cole and Luke Babbitt are both battling lower body injuries, and Jrue Holiday, a walking injury report since the team dealt a first rounder for him, is inching toward his comeback from leg surgery.
Without teammates — both in quality and quantity — Davis’s otherworldly talents or the innovation from the new coaching staff mean very little. Some have predicted New Orleans will win upward of 50 games, but these injuries are a sobering reminder of how many things have to go right for a team to climb the standings.
JARED MINTZ
I really want to pick one of the Orlando Magic or Detroit Pistons for this spot, because regardless of how ready these teams are (or aren’t) to finally thrive, people love to claim they’ll finally be good because “East.”
Following that faulty logic, I’m going to go with the Indiana Pacers as this season’s most disappointing team.
That isn’t to say the Pacers can’t be a playoff team; they have one of the best collections of perimeter talent in the conference. However, it is delusional to think that getting rid of Roy Hibbert makes them better. Even if Myles Turner winds up being the Rookie of the Year, thinking that he and Jordan Hill will be able to replace Hibbert and David West
doesn’t seem fair.
The strength of those successful Pacer teams from a couple of seasons ago was their defense, which like it or not, was anchored by Hibbert, one of the best rim protectors in the league. Again, Paul George and George Hill are good players and defenders, but to think this team will still be able to play elite defense does not seem to match the evidence on hand. I’m not sure how they’ll look offensively, or even what their offensive
philosophy will be, but anyone expecting anything other than this team having to FIGHT to get into the playoffs is going to be disappointed.
SEAN WOODLEY
Everyone seems to be expecting the Miami Heat to become frontrunners in the pack chasing down the Cavs in the East. It’s not a crazy thought; the starting lineup of Goran Dragic, Dwyane Wade, Luol Deng, Chris Bosh, and Hassan Whiteside could be a load to deal with. However, a dearth of three-point shooters and the reality that Wade can no longer play a full season should temper expectations.
MATT ZEMEK
The Los Angeles Clippers don’t lack big names. They don’t have Vinny Del Negro as their coach anymore. They aren’t saddled by Donald Sterling. They gleefully reacted to the comedy-drama (or tragedy if you live in Dallas) of the NBA summer involving DeAndre Jordan. Their coach is also their general manager, a person who likes to run his mouth about how the Golden State Warriors were lucky.
If you are this team, win something. Do something. Justify the world-class players on your team. Justify the acquisitions you made over the summer. Break through the threshold which reminds everyone of the humiliation your franchise has tasted since its inception in San Diego. Don’t disappoint the nation. Don’t disappoint yourselves.
Yet, for all the ways in which the Clippers need to do something, the smart money says they won’t do anything worth remembering.
Prove me wrong, Clips, but the burden rests with you after “Game 6” last May against Houston, with James Harden sitting on the pine in Staples Center.
