";s:4:"text";s:6250:" Karl-Anthony Towns has become an undeniable force, Ricky Rubio has played perhaps the best ball of his career in recent months and Andrew Wiggins has gradually improved his scoring efficiency. This also happens to be the one thing you’ve been great at for four straight years. It’s tempting to give the Celtics a solid “A” given that they’re closing in on a reasonable approximation of their preseason best-case scenario: claiming the East’s top seed by being a well-balanced team with a clear identity and an offensive superstar leading the way. Not often. Chicago’s biggest bets backfired in predictable fashion: Signing Dwyane Wade proved to be a waste of everyone’s time, signing Rajon Rondo led to nonstop cycling at the point guard position, and clinging to Fred Hoiberg for a second full season only exacerbated the locker-room frustration that started percolating last year. Should George base the rest of his prime banking on Myles Turner’s development into a superstar sidekick? NBA 2016-17 Regular Season Standings This page features the complete 2016-2017 NBA season standings, including conference and division ranks, wins, loses, percentage, games behind and teams that qualified for the playoffs. Lottery pick Buddy Hield struggled out of the gate and was traded by the All-Star break. So much for building off of last year’s trip to the playoffs.Stan Van Gundy the president hasn’t done Stan Van Gundy the coach any favors: Reggie Jackson was a mess all season, Andre Drummond plateaued, and the Pistons are looking at a future in which Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, a very nice complementary player, will be the roster’s top talent and earning a max or near-max contract. Instead of rallying for a big post-deadline push, the Hawks meandered along with inconsistent play, looking positively dreadful when Millsap missed a good chunk of March.While sticking with their All-Star forward this season helped ensure short-term respectability, it now forces a painful decision: to pay big money to the 32-year-old Millsap and remain slightly better than average during his age-related decline, or to watch him leave and slide further down the standings.
The Lillard/McCollum pairing suddenly looks more palatable if there’s a space-filling, screen-setting big man to help make it work. The defense never gelled under new coach Frank Vogel. The season hasn’t even started yet it’s hard to find anyone choosing a team other than the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers to win the 2016-17 NBA title. Second, and perhaps more importantly, the Bucks enjoyed Giannis Antetokounmpo’s meteoric rise into the type of all-around superstar capable of one day grabbing the “Best player in the East” baton from LeBron James. Midseason grades, Grades are determined by performance relative to preseason expectations and take into account health-related issues, signings and trades made since the start of the season, as well as the impact of major off-season moves. If those off–season decisions weren’t bad enough, Chicago’s inexplicable midseason deal for Cameron Payne saw multiple rotation players, Taj Gibson and Doug McDermott, depart for a very questionable return.If not for Jimmy Butler’s All-NBA caliber contributions and good health, the Bulls would have been neck-and-neck with the Knicks when it comes to big-market disappointments. The 2016-17 season will be remembered for Golden State’s casual brilliance, an MVP race for the ages, triple doubles and 50-point explosions galore, and a tightly-packed playoff picture that remained unsettled until the final day of the regular season. Lose. In other words, Duncan walked and Popovich somehow didn’t skip a beat. For now, though, the Rockets deserve full marks for their 82-game body of work and their representatives deserve serious consideration for MVP (Harden), Coach of the Year (D’Antoni), Executive of the Year (Daryl Morey) and Sixth Man of the Year (Gordon and Williams).It’s way, way too early for 26-year-old Paul George to slip into Carmelo Anthony-like irrelevance, settling for mediocre shots and offering inconsistent effort for mediocre teams plagued by inconsistency.
