With 2023 here, there is plenty of talk about resolutions for the new year. Let’s apply that to NBA teams. Here are some New Year’s resolutions for NBA teams, one for a contender in each division.
Resolution: Stop playing to the level of competition
It’s no secret that the Celtics are one of the upper-echelon NBA teams. They aren’t too far removed from an NBA Finals appearance, and they started this campaign by racing to a 21-5 record behind some of the best offensive numbers in NBA history. However, the offense has regressed (as expected) and Boston has since gone 5-6. And even as the Celtics have cooled off a bit, they still sit atop the Eastern Conference with a 26-11 record.
Yet, the Celtics’ record should be better. You can break down Boston’s schedule and see where it has struggled. Losses to Cleveland and Denver on the road surely aren’t worthy of head-hanging, but some of the others might be. Seven of Boston’s 11 losses have come in games that its opponent entered either at or below .500, including home losses to Miami, Indiana and Orlando (twice). You can chalk some of those defeats to fatigue or simply bad stretches that teams endure throughout the 82-game slate, but I don’t find it coincidental that the embarrassing performances and no-shows have come against the inferior teams and not the top- tier ones.
If the C’s can fix that issue, they should finish the season at the top of the conference.
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Resolution: Get healthy
If you’re merely a standings observer, you’ll see that the Bucks are in a good spot. They’re in third place out of the East and only 2.5 games behind the top-seeded Boston Celtics. However, when you really lock in on what the Bucks have been up to this season, what you’ll find isn’t all that impressive. Milwaukee got off to a 9-0 start, which is something you can’t throw out, but the Bucks are quietly just 14-13 since, have lost five of six and have recently come up short against the league’s elite during that stretch.
Milwaukee’s offense has been hit-or-miss since the beginning of the season and its defense has waned quite a bit lately, and I can’t help but attribute their shortcomings to poor health. We know of the high ceiling for the Bucks’ four core players (Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jrue Holiday, Khris Middleton, Brook Lopez) when available (think 2021 NBA Finals). But getting that core on the court with one another is becoming infrequent.
Obviously, the injured Middleton, who has played in only seven games this season, is a key cog to what the Bucks do on both ends of the court, and they’re a much lesser version of themselves without his services. Yet, he’s hardly the only one who’s missed time — Antetokounmpo’s six missed games are noteworthy and Jrue Holiday’s 10 absences also factor into Milwaukee’s recent funk. And as the top of the East continues to improve, Milwaukee will need to be healthy at some point to start building the necessary reps.
Miami Heat
Resolution: Find another piece
This resolution is vague, but the language feels fitting. In short, the Heat simply need more help, which is hard to understand when realizing that PJ Tucker’s absence is the only real difference between this roster that’s currently the No. 7 seed in the East and the one that finished last season with the conference’s best record.
And as we can see with Tucker’s former role, the added piece doesn’t need to be a splashy one. Caleb Martin is actually playing well and doing a solid job filling in the starting left back spot, but he was also good last year in a similar role. Miami needs added production, not replaced production, which could be as simple as trading for someone like Jae Crowder, right? Maybe. Or perhaps there’s a difference-making free agent out there who could plug into the Heat’s rotation and play right away.
Either way, the season’s halfway point is approaching, and Miami needs to do something with this roster to make a run during the second half. Time is ticking.
Denver Nuggets
Resolution: Buckle down on defense
Criticizing a team for being worse without its two-time MVP winner on the court seems nitpicky, especially when that team is sitting atop its conference. So I’ve instead directed my attention towards another area that truly stands out when evaluating the Nuggets: their inability to find answers defensively.
You might not have noticed how troublesome Denver’s defense is. The Nuggets being in first place in the Western Conference standings while playing an entertaining brand of basketball led by Nikola Jokic certainly overshadows the faults. But none of that changes how uninspiring the defense remains — Denver is currently the 24th-ranked defense in the NBA (114.2 defensive rating). To put that into perspective, the only NBA champions of the 21st century not to feature a top-10 regular-season defense were the 2000-01 Lakers (22nd) and the 2017-18 Golden State Warriors (11th).
Recent history suggests that if this Nuggets team is serious about winning a title, which they obviously are, they’ll eventually need to crank up the defense a few notches.
Resolution: Don’t go overboard with the small ball
I’m not sure if any coach in the NBA loves playing small as much as Ty Lue. The first thing that comes to mind when linking Lue and the Clippers’ small-ball is how they downsized during the Western Conference Semifinals in 2021 and gave the Utah Jazz nightmares. So, it’s only fitting that these Clippers have one center on the 15-man roster (Ivica Zubac).
When Zubac sits, Nicolas Batum or Marcus Morris often get the nod as the “center” in those smaller lineups, which are rounded out by wings and other perimeter-oriented players such as Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, etc. But as the Clippers are getting healthier, some lineups are getting thinner. We’ve seen four-guard lineups in the past week featuring John Wall, Norman Powell, Luke Kennard and Terance Mann, and also seen similarly small units with George as the center. The results have been mixed, especially later in games when defensive stops are required. However, I can’t knock Lue too much for experimenting with a roster that he’s hardly had time with due to injuries the team has dealt with over the years.
That said, LA probably doesn’t need to get too small out there. Whether that means opting for more wings than guards or adding a second legitimate center to the roster, there’s a happy medium that the Clippers need to find.
Resolution: Find another perimeter shooter
Memphis doesn’t have many flaws, but one that seems to stick out like a sore thumb is how often their poor perimeter shooting shows up in losses.
In their 13 defeats, the Grizzlies are making fewer than 10 threes per game and converting only 28.9 percent of those looks, which is drastically different than their 12.4 makes on 37.1 percent in wins. Perhaps my view of these inconsistencies is an overreaction to seeing Memphis play most of its games this season without Desmond Bane, a career 42.8 percent shooter from deep on nearly six attempts per game. He’ll certainly help, but regardless of whether he’s in the lineup, the Grizzlies could use another guy out there who’ll demand attention from the opposing defense.
Thinking big picture, the threat of another knockdown shooter could potentially make life for Ja Morant that much easier while simultaneously unlocking Memphis’ offense even more.
(Photo of Jayson Tatum: Ron Chenoy / USA Today)
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