East power rankings: Detroit Pistons come in at fifth after recent play

Middle of the pack

10. Washington Wizards (9-14)

While the Wizards are a mediocre 5-5 in their last 10 games, this team has been a huge disappointment.

This early into the season and Wizards front office has already made it known that both John Wall and Bradley Beal are now tradeable.

Wall has suffered a major hit to his reputation, and has already been fined this year for going off on head coach Scott Brooks in practice.

Off-season addition Dwight Howard has only played nine games, and is now undergoing surgery on his lower back. He is expected to be out for 2-3 months. This could have maybe a little bit to do with a their failures, but I doubt it.

Wizards have played over the years like a team who feels entitled, yet they haven’t won anything. Beal has reported to have asked out, and Markieff Morris has spoken out about how messed up the locker room is.

Locker room issues have been oozing out this franchise for a few years, and it seems to finally have met its match this year.

9. Miami Heat (9-14)

Miami was involved in the Jimmy Butler sweepstakes earlier on in the year, but pulled out due to the asking price,according to reports.

They probably could use Butler right now.

Hassan Whiteside is coming off of a 23 point and 20 rebound game in a 102-100 win over the Utah Jazz, but they’ve struggled to start the year.

They’ve lost six of their last 10 games, and find themselves behind two shocking teams in the east; Orlando Magic and the Charlotte Hornets.

Dwyane Wade, however, is enjoying a decent year off the bench for this Heat team. Wade is averaging 15.3 point per game playing 25 minutes a game. Wade is shooting a career high 38.7 percent from downtown, a nice add on this late into his career.

It’s still fairly early in the year, with plenty of time to right this ship. However, with Charlotte and Orlando ahead of them and playing well, it’s going to be a race all year for the bottom spots in the playoff seeding.

8. Orlando Magic (11-12)

Nikola. Vucevic.

Vucevic has played so outstanding this season, this whole summary will be strictly about him.

Vucevic has been a fairly good player throughout his career, but this year is just insane.

Not only is he playing out of his mind, it’s finally translating to some wins, as the Magic sit in the eighth seed.

On the season, Vucevic is averaging 21 points a game, 11.3 rebounds a game, and 3.8 assists per game. He’s doing this on, wait for it, 55.3 percent from the field and 41 percent from downtown.

That is good for a true shooting percentage of 62 percent!

For comparison, a fellow Nikola, this one being Jokic, has a true shooting percentage of 57.

Vucevic may not be in Orlando’s long term plans with Aaron Gordon, Mo Bamba, and Jonathan Isaac on deck. However, he’s going them all he has this year while chasing a playoff berth.

It’ll be interesting to see how Orlando handles his situation moving forward.

7. Charlotte Hornets (11-12)

I could do the same thing here for Kemba Walker, but that would be too repetitive.

Walker has been nothing short of outstanding for the Hornets this year, though, puting the whole league on notice with a 60 point game against the 76ers in mid-November.

Walker is in a contract year, and he’s proving that he deserves every dime he’s going to be paid this summer; whether that’s from Michael Jordan and the Hornets, or another team in free agency. He’s going to get paid.

However, a unsung hero for the Hornets that no one is talking about is Jeremy Lamb.

Lamb is now 26 years old, and it doesn’t seem that long ago when everyone thought he was oozing with potential. He may finally be tapping into that potential in his seventh season.

Lamb is averaging 15 points per game (career high)  for the Hornets this year, on 46 percent shooting from the field and 37 percent from beyond the arc. That is good for a true shooting percentage of 57 percent.

The Hornets are 4-6 in their last 10 games, though, and have struggled to win on the road going 3-7 in those games. In a tight race at the bottom of the playoff seeding, the Hornets will have to get better on the road if they plan on making use of Walker and Lamb’s career years.

6. Indiana Pacers (13-10)

Indiana has played decently well thus far into the season, but suffered a major setback on November 17th.

Star guard Victor Oladipo suffered a right knee injury and has not played since. Before the injury, Oladipo had been averaging 21.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 4.7 assists per game.

The Pacers have went 3-4 in these games without Oladipo. Oladipo was ruled out indefinitely on November 30th. The Pacers are on a two game losing streak, and would very much welcome the return of Oladipo sooner rather than later.

Offseason addition Tyreke Evans has been a bit of a disappointment so far this season, after having a tremendous season last year with the Memphis Grizzlies.

Evans was brought in to bring some much needed bench support for this team, but his point per game average has dropped from 19.4 to 10.6.

The worst part about this is he’s taking five less shots a game than last year, but is shooting eight percent worse from the field.

Last year Evans shot a respectable 45 percent from the field on 15 shots. This year he is shooting 37 percent of 10 shots a game. Not what the Pacers were expecting when they paid him 12 million dollars this year.

With Oladipo out, the Pacers need Evans to bring what they were expecting when they signed him a few months back. Heck, even when Oladipo returns they’re going to need Evans to play better if they plan building upon a successful season last year.