Top 5 Deepest and Shallowest Teams in the League

[MrGoat]

In no particular order so I put them alphabetically

Deepest:

Atlanta
Brooklyn
Denver
LA
Milwaukee

Shallow:

Boston
Charlotte
Dallas
Golden State
Philly

[ForeverTFC]

In no particular order so I put them alphabetically

Deepest:

Atlanta
Brooklyn
Denver
LA
Milwaukee

Shallow:

Boston
Charlotte
Dallas
Golden State
Philly

Think you'd have to work the Suns into the top 5 in some way, no? I think i take their depth over the Lakers.

[Gramercy Riffs]

Shallowest Teams:
5. Golden State Warriors - Their top end talent is there but with Klays injury it seems like they are gonna be counting on Wiseman, Kuminga, Moody to all play big minutes. Juan Toscano Anderson is also in that mix as well. I still am unclear who the backup point guard is and guys like Iggy, Otto Porter, and Bjelica all have seen pretty sharp declines over the past season or two.

You're a little backwards here. When healthy the starters will be Curry/Klay/Wiggins/Draymond/Looney and the double digit regular minutes off the bench guys will be Poole/Iguodala/Porter/Bjelica with JTA and Lee possibly in that mix as well. Wiseman, Kuminga and Moody will all be fighting for minutes and if they win them great but none of them will be depended upon out the gate.

[Bornstellar]

Deepest Teams:

1. Brooklyn Nets - Team has a ton of versatility and flexibility built around 2 Top 10 players and 1 Top 30. As of now, it's looking like Irving isn't gonna play, yet they still look like the best team in the East. They have a ton of proven vets that they can rely on at different roles and they should be able to rest guys or deal with injuries and still be fine.

I have a lot of trouble accepting the Nets as a deep team, let alone the #1 deepest team.

If Durant and Harden get injured for the season, they're not making the playoffs, let alone going on a run. That isn't depth.

They've got a GREAT top end, and the top end is probably good enough that they can cover for each other from time to time. But depth is about the drop off from the starters to the reserves. The Nets absolutely don't have a 'next man up' that's anywhere near the same level.

Really though, what team in the entire league is going to make the playoffs if their top 2 players get injured for the season? Probably none of them

[matt6715]

This guy just said the Knicks have 12 starters and called Tim Hardaway Jr a 6th man

[Bornstellar]

Also lol @ the Knicks being 12 deep the only notable players on their bench are Rose and Quickley...

Threads like this remind me of how homerish posters can sound when talking about their own teams.

[MrGoat]

In no particular order so I put them alphabetically

Deepest:

Atlanta
Brooklyn
Denver
LA
Milwaukee

Shallow:

Boston
Charlotte
Dallas
Golden State
Philly

Think you'd have to work the Suns into the top 5 in some way, no? I think i take their depth over the Lakers.

I think they're a little top heavy. Frank the Tank saw actual minutes in the Finals

[DCasey91]

In no particular order so I put them alphabetically

Deepest:

Atlanta
Brooklyn
Denver
LA
Milwaukee

Shallow:

Boston
Charlotte
Dallas
Golden State
Philly

Celtics isn’t shallow at all in fact they are pretty deep.

Smart/Pritchard/Schroder/Arci
Brown/Nesmith/Richardson
Tatum/Langford/Parker
Horford/Bruno
Williams/Kanter/Hern

They are my darkhorse team.

[JXL]

This guy just said the Knicks have 12 starters and called Tim Hardaway Jr a 6th man

Knicks have a bench that could be better than 3 teams starting 5 (Houston, OKC, Detroit)

[Texas Chuck]

Really though, what team in the entire league is going to make the playoffs if their top 2 players get injured for the season? Probably none of them

Yeah I'd have it at definitely zero. Even if we pretended Kyrie was going to play 70+ games the Nets aren't making the playoffs if both KD and Harden are out. Westbrook isn't leading the Lakers to the playoffs with Lebron and AD, etc...

Closest would probably be to find a team like Memphis who has a lot of depth and not a lot of top end talent. But hard to see them make the playoffs without Ja and whoever their current 2nd best player is. Or maybe Indiana if Sabonis was out and Warren was considered their 2nd best player and he never returned, could Carlisle work enough magic to get them in? Probably not, but those are your chances.

It's also interesting how people look at their own team and see rotation players as guys who would start on a bunch of teams and look at similar level players on other teams and see them as barely playable. Take Reggie Bullock who was a full-time starter for a good Knicks team last year. Right now he's set to come off Dallas' bench which should be a credit to Dallas' depth but because he's no longer a Knick I guess he sucks?

Dallas isn't deep, he has that right. But their role players stack up plenty well against New York. Kleber, THJ, DFS, Bullock, Brunson are all solid, but it drops off pretty good after that. But the Knicks don't have anywhere near 12 starting caliber players either lol. And I'm dying to see the 12 Knicks he would play ahead of former Knick Reggie Bullock which would have to include a significant number of players their coach did in fact not play in front of Reggie.

[BugginOut]

Miami has a terrible bench. I don’t think any of their bench players would get any burn on any other playoff teams in the East except Herro. Also Oladipo is going to be hurt all season. They are really relying on Lowry, Butler and Bam to be healthy to competent

[Antinomy]

Bucks are one of the deepest.

Holiday / Hill
DiVincenzo / Allen
Middleton / Connaughton / Semi
Giannis / Nwora / Hood
Lopez / Portis

Definitely a better overall team than last year.

[Courtside]

Nobody is going to beleive this, but I think the raptors are going to be really deep in a way. Not nearly the top end they need, but too deep 7/8-13.

I could see it:

Achiuwa/Birch/Gillespie
Siakam/Boucher/Watanabe
Anunoby/Barnes/Svi
Trent/Dragic/Dekker
FVV/Flynn/Bonga

Does that look about right? Who are you expecting to make the leap?

i mean guys like Yuta, Flynn, Birch, Banton, Chjampagnie, Svi, Are the bench guys from 7-13 spots that are going to be competing pretty hard for the 7-13 spots (and could do that on most teams) and that doesn't include dekker, johnson, wainright or bonga who to me are on the outside. up to 7 is Barnes, FVv, Siakam Og, Boucher, Dragic, FVV, trent jr. I doubt those guys make it to the top 7,

Yeah, the team has good talent right down the line. A different way to look at the Raptors roster - in terms of depth - is that there will be a number of guys that are quite interchangeable. Many players in the league are single position guys, or specialists, or whose size and speed dictates how they can be used. Toronto has basically broken the team into two groups... smalls and bigs. There are 4 guys that can really only play at the guard positions (fairly interchangeably). You gave two guys that can only play C or PF, and then you have 8-10 other guys that are interchangeable pretty much everywhere, if needed. Obviously the team is loading up at forward, but a good number of them can play up and down the line up if needed, as we have already seen in one game that both Barnes and Banton (long 6'8ish guys) can be primary ballhandlers when the guards are off. Or against most teams, any one of the forwards can go out at play C if that's what the play or matchup or game calls for. Someone getting injured or traded is much easier to replace when "next man up" is an extremely similar Swiss Army Knife of a player.

This of course takes some real work to develop skills beyond certain positions and roles, but the FO has been very adept at picking up long, athletic, high motor players with two-way skills and switchability at both end of the court.

Yhe Raptors are going to catch a lot of teams - players and coaches alike - completely flat footed and unprepared. Just wait.

[HayKee]

Bucks are one of the deepest.

Holiday / Hill
DiVincenzo / Allen
Middleton / Connaughton / Semi
Giannis / Nwora / Hood
Lopez / Portis

Definitely a better overall team than last year.

I mean... it's alright I guess? Don't see how it's close to the top of the league in terms of depth.

[art_tatum]

Lakers and nets top.

Shallow team? Only looking at teams trying for the playoffs (and not tanking/rebuilding)

Im gonna go with warriors if they expect iggy+porter and rookies/2nd yrs to ancher the bench. They signed a few washed up vets

[The_Hater]

Deepest Teams:

1. Brooklyn Nets - Team has a ton of versatility and flexibility built around 2 Top 10 players and 1 Top 30. As of now, it's looking like Irving isn't gonna play, yet they still look like the best team in the East. They have a ton of proven vets that they can rely on at different roles and they should be able to rest guys or deal with injuries and still be fine.

2. Washington Wizards - They have a ton of depth but lack elite talent outside of Beal. But they are going 3 deep at most positions filled with trusted rotation players and Rui, Avdija, and Kispert are all young guys ready for minutes.

3. New York Knicks -
Robinson/Noel/Gibson
Randle/Toppin/Knox
Barrett/Burks/Grimes
Fournier/Rose/Bacon
Walker/Quickley/McBride

Thats 12 deep with players that could start on teams. A mix of veterans and young guys that play two way basketball and should be able to take an injury or two and still keep rolling, especially with Thibs sometimes preferring to play a short rotation if he can.

4. Denver Nuggets - We saw how impressive they were even after Murray went down and they didn't miss much of a beat. Surely they need Murray back to be legit contenders, but they should still be a top tier team in the West even without their 2nd best player and starting point guard. That speaks a ton to their depth.

5. Miami Heat - 3 stars plus a ton of proven vets and young guys. If Oladipo can show any semblance of his old self then this team is 12 deep with really solid players.

I like your top 3 and they would all be high on my list but I don’t think Miami is very deep at all and it might be their biggest weakness this season. They’re waiting on a very unreliable Oladipo to come back and play at a decent level but I think he’s going to confide to slide backwards, fast. And Denver has front court depth, but really iffy guard depth without Murray and with Harris now gone too.

My five:

Brooklyn
Atlanta
Nee York
Memphis
Clippers

[ShootersShoot]

Miami has a terrible bench. I don’t think any of their bench players would get any burn on any other playoff teams in the East except Herro. Also Oladipo is going to be hurt all season. They are really relying on Lowry, Butler and Bam to be healthy to competent

Herro, Oladipo, morris, tucker, dedmon
is not a terrible bench on paper. Oladipo is a wild card. Front court depth needs some work though.

[kenwood3333]

Well OKC should be one of the deepest team, if you take away any 3 players from that team, the record wont be much different.

[RHODEY]

Also lol @ the Knicks being 12 deep the only notable players on their bench are Rose and Quickley...

Threads like this remind me of how homerish posters can sound when talking about their own teams.

The Knicks are notably deep, the Mavs are notably shallow, the Spurs are notably irrelevant.

[The_Hater]

In no particular order so I put them alphabetically

Deepest:

Atlanta
Brooklyn
Denver
LA
Milwaukee

Shallow:

Boston
Charlotte
Dallas
Golden State
Philly

I actually think Boston has much better depth this season after last years bench debacle. Closer to League average this year.

Prichard and Nesmith look ready to contribute far more after their rookie years. Schroder, Horford, JRich and Kanter all came off the bench Tuesday night and all were solid NBA starters as recently as last season.