Handing out grades to all 30 teams as we enter the 2019 NBA All-Star break
The NBA All-Star break is officially here, and we’re more than halfway through the 2018-19 NBA season. By the time each team hits the floor again for meaningful basketball, there will roughly be 20-some odd games remaining in the regular season.
Meaning that there’s roughly a quarter left of the NBA year remaining before the playoffs begin. Generally, the post All-Star break portion of the season races by as teams get more and more serious, and begin to round into shape before the post-season.
While there’s been a healthy amount of intrigue through the regular season this year, there’s no question that the playoffs is when the league manages to take it up a level. And there are so many variables that have yet to be settled in that regard.
For example, will the Golden State Warriors continue to power their way through the West with little-to-no resistance, or did the Houston Rockets give the rest of the conference a blueprint on how to beat them in a series?
Out East, the conference is wide open as we saw at the NBA Trade Deadline where there was an arms race between the Toronto Raptors, Philadelphia 76ers and Milwaukee Bucks. Not to mention that the Boston Celtics will have a say in who reaches the NBA Finals too.
Before getting too ahead of ourselves, let’s grade how each team has performed thus far through the 2019 NBA All-Star break.