NBA’s Top Five Most Overrated Teams Entering 2024-25 Season | Deadspin.com

It wasn’t long ago that someone suggested commissioner David Stern get rid of the two-conference setup in the NBA.

When Stern retired 10 years ago, the Western Conference was dominating the East. In the post-Michael Jordan/Bulls era, Western teams captured 11 of 16 titles, leading into the end of Stern’s run.

What Stern was presiding over was getting embarrassing. If you didn’t have LeBron James, you had no chance in the East.

Twice within six years, the Suns won at least 46 games in the West and didn’t make the playoffs. Meanwhile, between 2004 and 2011, the East sent three teams forward with 37 or fewer wins.

Not only was it not fair that vastly superior Western teams were being denied shots at the crown, but with teams playing a majority of their games within their own conference, it was much more difficult just to reach .500 in the West than in the East.

Stern handed the problem to Adam Silver, who, like his predecessor, insisted the balance of power was cyclical. And sure enough, he’s been proven right.

In fact, it might not be long before analysts start complaining about the WEAKNESS of the West.

In compiling a list of the NBA’s Five Most Overrated Teams, it would be easy to list all Western teams.

Some have gotten old, yet nobody seems to have noticed. Some have made playoff runs that belie their regular-season mediocrity, which has led to bloated expectations.

And one, well, has LeBron, which makes them an automatic choice as a contender, even when recently history has strongly indicated otherwise.

In the end, you could argue more than half of the West’s 15 teams are overrated.

Meanwhile, the Eastern order of finish is about as predictable as college football. For the most part, it’s the same teams every year.

Missing by a couple of places in a projected order of finish in the East is inevitable. But on the overrated scale, that doesn’t compare to the West, where you have a projected finalist that’ll be lucky to survive the first round of the 2025 playoffs and a division favorite that’s more likely to finish last than first.

As the sun sets on a handful of franchises in the West, here are my Five Most Overrated Teams for the 2024-25 NBA season:

1. Phoenix Suns

Someone thought it would be a good idea to add a third “superstar” to the Kevin Durant/Devin Booker dynamic. He was wrong. Bradley Beal is your classic great scorer on a bad team. The fact that he’s never played an ounce of defense in his life wasn’t important on a perennial loser like the Wizards.

The Suns lacked depth in their thoroughly disappointing 2024 season; that was due in part to getting nothing out of Beal. Now someone has decided to run it back, with minimal additions, and oddsmakers are buying into the second-chance thing, making the Suns the favorites in the Pacific Division. Remember you heard it here first: The Kings are a lock to win the Pacific. If not for the mess known as the Clippers, the Suns would be a nice bet to finish last.

2. Dallas Mavericks

They were no better than the fifth-best team in the West last season, the beneficiary of lackluster competition in a run to the Finals. To get there—where they were shellacked by the Celtics—they took advantage of a reeling Clippers team, a not-ready-for-prime-time Thunder squad, and a favorable matchup against an oversized Timberwolves roster.

The Mavericks would like to think they’re better this season, but let’s be honest about the acquisition of Klay Thompson. He still thinks he warrants 10 3-pointers a night, but at his age, his vision seems to have become impaired, while his ability to play defense has disappeared. It’s a toss-up who complains first about a lack of shooting opportunities—Thompson or Kyrie Irving—and that should open the door for the Pelicans and Grizzlies both to pass the Mavs in the Southwest Division.

3. Cleveland Cavaliers

OK, we’ve got to throw an Eastern team in here, so here goes. The East has four tiers: The Elite (Celtics), The Only Teams With A Remote Chance of Unseating The Elite (Knicks, 76ers, Bucks), The First-Round Playoff Fodder (Magic, Pacers, Heat, Bulls, Hawks) and The Cooper Flagg Hopefuls (Hornets, Pistons, Raptors, Nets, Wizards). All very predictable.

Uh, forgetting one? Yep, the Cavaliers, who would like to believe they belong in Category II. In fact, that’s where they landed last year… by one game over the Magic, Pacers and 76ers. All three of them figure to be better this year, while the Cavs apparently think they were good enough last year. Perhaps disappointing is a better label than overrated, but they usually both land you in the same place.

4. Los Angeles Lakers

Having LeBron on your team gives you a chance. At least in the minds of some. Not mine. The Lakers made the playoffs through the play-in the last two seasons and are only likely to find themselves in the same situation this year because teams ahead of them have fallen while they’ve stood still.

Can LeBron and Anthony Davis still lift them to second place in the Pacific? Sure, but that only adds to their overratedness. As the Warriors have flamed out, the Clippers have floundered worse than ever, and the Suns have self-destructed, the Pacific has quietly become one of the NBA’s weakest divisions. And it’s getting worse. The good news for the Lakers, who are nowhere near a Top Four team in the West: When LeBron retires, they won’t be overrated anymore.

5. Boston Celtics

Bet you weren’t expecting this one. But overrated comes in many shapes and sizes, and often doesn’t mean: Bad team. Nobody would call the Mavericks and Cavaliers bad teams. Just ones that won’t meet expectations.

Nobody has higher expectations than the Celtics. Heck, there’s already talk of another dynasty. And, yes, the 2024 run was a dominant one—one equally the result of the best six-man foundation in basketball and a cupcake-lined red carpet being rolled out in front of them. They wouldn’t have beaten the Nuggets in the Finals last season, and they won’t this year, either. And that’s how you go from dynasty dreams to overrated reality. Dynasty, indeed.