NBA: Power Ranking Every Team’s Bench Unit Entering 2016-17
By Mason McFee
As the 2016-17 season approaches, we take an in-depth look at every NBA team’s bench and rank them from the very worst to the best of the best
Many-a-joke have been made about them, but it doesn’t seem to phase them. Some of them choose to sulk and complain publicly about not receiving enough playing time, others choose to be… you know, actual, genuine, sincere teammates.
Who am I taking about? The bench unit, the bench-warmers, the understudies.
It’s a unit that isn’t appreciated enough across professional sports, but in the NBA they are (I believe) what makes or breaks teams and games. Sure, you can have a starting lineup like the Warriors are going to have this upcoming season and jump out to a 20 point lead early, but if your bench stinks they can lose that lead as quickly as the starters gained it and you’re back to square one.
The starting unit can head into the fourth quarter with a decent lead and take a breather, only to come back in minutes later to fight to hold onto a 1 point lead. While the Warriors had an impressive and historic season, they didn’t win all of their games by blowouts. Heck, they lost late in the season to a very unimpressive Lakers squad where they were heavily favored.
My point in all of this is that people don’t really look at the bench units because they’d much rather watch DeAndre Jordan throw down his millionth dunk of the season than Will the Thrill Barton (and former Dunk Contest participant); or see Kyrie Irving crossover someone than see Patty Mills’ highlights going 5-7 from 3-point land.
Now, as Nacho Libre said to Sister Encarnacion, let’s get down to the nitty gritty.
(Editor’s Note: In case you missed the first part of this series, we ranked each team’s starting lineups here)
Next: The Ground Rules