The 2020-21 NBA season is officially in the books, so I wanted to take a little look at every team's season in total with some power rankings! To provide a nice summary, I am listing record, playoff seed if applicable, point differential, and rankings in offensive and defensive efficiency from NBA.com along with (what I consider) an interesting note for each. These are how I personally view them based on their complete season profile and how they look heading into the playoffs.
#1. Nets: 48-24, #2 seed, +4.5 (#1 offense, #22 defense)
I'm reluctant to really call Brooklyn the championship favorite with this defense, but at 117.3, they just broke the NBA record for offensive efficiency that Dallas set last year at 115.9. While it's hard to get a true idea of their ceiling since Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving only played 8 games together, they had a +7.2 net rating (119.6, 112.5) in 202 minutes together. Furthermore, a torn Achilles is the only thing that has stopped Durant in his last three postseasons, and I don't think a big enough deal has been made about how ridiculously well he has bounced back from that. Averaging 26.94 points, 7.06 rebounds, 5.57 assists, 0.71 steals, and 1.29 blocks in only 33.03 minutes with 53.73%/44.97%/88.24% shooting is unheard of after that massive of an injury. The two time Finals MVP made 57.73% of his 2's with an 83.3% mark in the restricted area, and with a career-high 25.4% of his shots coming from the mid-range, he converted an efficient 53.6% of those shots. Rolling with him flanked by two other offensive savants and a multitude of interesting options feels like the right call.
#2. Jazz: 52-20, #1 seed, +9.2 (T-#4 offense, #3 defense)
Objectively, Utah have been the best team in the league by far as they followed up a 27-9 first half of the season with a 25-11 finish. This strong of a point differential and record typically fits the profile of a big title favorite, and indeed, they win it all in 36.8% of Basketball Reference's simulations while the next closest is 13.3%. Interestingly, FiveThirtyEight's projections have them as the favorite to win 26% of the time using their Elo forecast with the next closest at 14%, but they're only third with a 14% chance using their RAPTOR player ratings. I lean towards the latter with regards to the postseason considering that this core group has only won one playoff series in the past three years since Donovan Mitchell was drafted, and it doesn't help that he hasn't played since spraining his ankle on April 16th. They deserve this high of a ranking based on the regular season, but I wouldn't be surprised if an upset occurs in the first two rounds.
#3. Clippers: 47-25, #4 seed, +6.2 (#3 offense, #8 defense)
I was tempted to follow suit with the RAPTOR ratings and pick LA to win it all like I did last year, but I'm hesitant after their collapse to blow a 3-1 lead in the second round last year. I also didn't love how much they rested players down the stretch in what appeared to be an avoidance of any chance of the Lakers in the 1st round, which dropped them to the 4 seed. Still, the dynamic duo of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George looks even better this season: they had a +17.6 net rating in the 1,028 minutes played together. The team went 32-11 when both played, which would translate to over 61 wins in a full 82 game schedule, and that was with different lineups around them. The original starting unit with Patrick Beverley, Nicolas Batum, and Serge Ibaka went 14-5 with a +16.7 net rating in 264 minutes of sharing the floor, and then injuries actually led to an even more cohesive group as the stars paired with Reggie Jackson, Marcus Morris, and Ivica Zubac went 15-5 with a +18.8 net rating in 215 minutes. Now that Beverley and Ibaka have recently returned, it will be interesting to see what combinations new coach Ty Lue rolls with, but in any case, they'll go as far as Leonard and George take them. Remarkably, the two of them actually posted incredibly similar stats that included elite efficiency and well-rounded contributions:
