ESPN FUTURE POWER RANKINGS.

why you get points for asking for a favor, haha. I was gonna post it but it’s 7 pages long. It takes into account all kinds of things like money, gm, market, current players, and other things to rank how teams will shakedown in the future. The top 5 were:

1-blazers
2-magic
3-lakers
4-thunder
5-heat

how about the basic list, or at least bottom five

6. Utah Jazz | Future Power Rating: 624
PLAYERS MANAGEMENT MONEY MARKET DRAFT
278 (5th) 142 (7th) 91 (19th) 39 (21st) 74 (5th)

The Jazz have often been among the most underrated teams in the league, and likewise our rankings here expose just how surprisingly dangerous they should be going forward.

Utah ranked fifth in the players category (the current roster and its potential), because it has significant talent, much of it young. Deron Williams (25) is a star point guard (even if he’s never made the All-Star team). Paul Millsap (24) is a tenacious rebounder and Ronnie Brewer (24) has improved every year in the league, while Kosta Koufos (20) and Eric Maynor (22) can become major contributors.

The franchise can keep adding to the talent base via several routes. Carlos Boozer is a useful trade chip, if the Jazz choose to move him this season (before he goes into free agency in 2010). And Utah holds New York’s first-round draft pick, likely a high lottery pick, thanks to the Knicks and Suns, who fumbled it away back in 2004. Adding another core player should stand the Jazz in very good stead for the next four or five seasons.

Utah has a strong front-office team led by the quiet but effective Kevin O’Connor, who has a terrific eye for talent, especially players who can fit head coach Jerry Sloan’s style of basketball. He has only a small staff on a tight budget, but no one does more with less than O’Connor. Meanwhile, Sloan is one of the few constants in the NBA, and his success figures strongly into Utah’s seventh-place ranking in the management category.

And while Salt Lake City itself is often cited as a liability in attracting NBA players, the Jazz have an excellent record in keeping their core players, and even in signing new players to reasonable contracts and offer sheets (including Boozer, Mehmet Okur, Corey Maggette and Jason Terry in recent years).

The main limitation the Jazz will have going forward comes in the money category. The team is over the salary cap and looks to stay that way until 2012. Any additions they make will have to be through trades and the draft.

7. Chicago Bulls | Future Power Rating: 609
PLAYERS MANAGEMENT MONEY MARKET DRAFT
256 (7th) 104 (13th) 130 (4th) 68 (6th) 51 (15th)

A dozen seasons after their most recent title, the Bulls and their fans are still suffering withdrawal pains from the Michael Jordan era. While the team has played the role of playoff spoiler two out of the past three years, Bulls fans yearn for more. And according to our assessment, they have a reason to — pardon the pun — be bullish.

The Bulls have a lot of young talent, headlined by Derrick Rose — the 21-year-old point guard has the potential to be the league MVP someday and figured heavily into the Bulls ranking seventh in the players category. Rose will have support from Luol Deng, Joakim Noah and, if he sticks around, Tyrus Thomas.

Even more encouraging should be the Bulls’ top-six rankings in the money and market categories. We project the Bulls to have max or near-max salary-cap room in 2010. Given the desirability of the city, the glamour of the franchise (thanks, MJ) and the opportunity to play with a superstar point guard, we think they’re likely to land another star to run alongside Rose.

So what’s holding the Bulls back from an even higher overall ranking? We have questions about them in the management category, starting with heavy-handed owner Jerry Reinsdorf and extending down to new GM Gar Forman and neophyte head coach Vinny Del Negro. The Bulls over the years have seemed paralyzed at key moments: They hesitated in hiring Mike D’Antoni and ended up with Del Negro, and they’ve passed on several great opportunities to land a post player while overvaluing and showing great reluctance to trade their young players.

So while the Bulls, on paper, have the potential to become contenders with some shrewd moves, their track record of the past few seasons means we have our reservations about their ability to actually pull it off.

8. San Antonio Spurs | Future Power Rating: 606
PLAYERS MANAGEMENT MONEY MARKET DRAFT
208 (14th) 189 (1st) 105 (12th) 67 (9th) 37 (22nd)

The Spurs have been the league’s model franchise over the course of the past decade. While they’re showing signs of slippage on the court, they should remain a winning team for the foreseeable future.

The roster is a concern but has promise, too, leading to a middle-of-the-pack ranking in the players category. Two of the big three for San Antonio are now moving past their prime: Tim Duncan (33) and Manu Ginobili (32) should still have some solid seasons in them, but we expect diminishing returns. But the sage Spurs also have some youth: Tony Parker (27) and Richard Jefferson (29) remain in their prime, and George Hill (23), DeJuan Blair (20) and recent draftee Tiago Splitter (24) appear to have bright futures.

Even more encouraging is the league’s top-ranked management team, led by Gregg Popovich, R.C. Buford and supportive ownership. Popovich and Buford have a shown a brilliant touch when it comes to talent evaluation, the draft, cap management and team chemistry. Given that, and with the Spurs looking at significant cap room in 2011, we think they’ll spend wisely to keep the Spurs in contention. Despite the occasional misfire (e.g., trading Luis Scola, drafting Ian Mahinmi), the Spurs’ brainpower and spending power make it hard to be pessimistic about their future.

9. Cleveland Cavaliers | Future Power Rating: 554
PLAYERS MANAGEMENT MONEY MARKET DRAFT
284 (4th) 100 (17th) 90 (20th) 51 (15th) 29 (25th)
Cleveland was the toughest team in the league to rank.
If the Cavs lose LeBron next summer, they’re suddenly hanging out with the Kings, Bucks and Bobcats at the bottom of the barrel. If they re-sign him, LeBron alone guarantees the Cavs will be a force in the playoffs. At the moment, we’re leaning toward the proposition that LeBron is staying — that’s how the Cavs ended up 10th in the rankings. But that is far from a foregone conclusion.

LeBron alone pushed the Cavs to fourth in our rankings of the current rosters and their potential. He’s that good. The supporting cast leaves a lot to be desired, especially in terms of age. Mo Williams and Anderson Varejao are solid, but three key players — Shaquille O’Neal, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Anthony Parker — are all on the wrong side of their 34th birthdays; Shaq will be 38 this season.

The Cavs didn’t do nearly as well in any other category. Mike Brown has been a good defensive coach for Cleveland, but we have major concerns about his ability to get offense out of anyone but LeBron. Meanwhile, management and ownership have had such a “win now” mentality that they’ve utterly failed to surround LeBron with top-line talent for him to grow with — their big move to bring in a young star, the signing of Larry Hughes, was a flop. The Cavs have little cap flexibility and probably will continue to draft late in the first round.

Should LeBron seriously decide to look elsewhere next summer, the Bulls, Heat and Thunder, according to our rankings, offer him a better chance to win long-term and play alongside other young superstars, and all three have the money to pay him.

And while Cleveland has never been anyone’s idea of a great market, we could have ranked the franchise higher in that category, for a perverse reason — it’s really the main reason for LeBron to re-sign with the Cavs. He’s from Ohio, he’s has deep roots, and it will be hard for him to leave home.

10. Denver Nuggets | Future Power Rating: 545
PLAYERS MANAGEMENT MONEY MARKET DRAFT
254 (8th) 134 (11th) 85 (23rd) 51 (16th) 22 (28th)

The Nuggets are largely a veteran team, but the future remains fairly rosy because their few young players are so good. Leading the way, of course, is Carmelo Anthony, who looks like an absolute monster this year and at 25 has several productive years ahead of him. Rookie guard Ty Lawson is another keeper, while if J.R. Smith (24) is a potential star if he can keep his head on straight. Meanwhile, Nene (27) provides a solid keeper in the middle, and Denver still has the rights to Linas Kleiza (24).

In these ratings, we had a difference of opinion on the Nuggets’ management, with Denver’s ability to unearth diamonds in the rough weighing in its favor but its history of assembling combustible chemistry working against it. On available money, however, we saw eye to eye, and that’s Denver’s biggest issue going forward. Denver could potentially have some cap space in 2011, when Kenyon Martin’s onerous deal comes off the books, but the Nuggets will be a tax team next year with their starting five alone and don’t have the kind of market that can profitably support such a large payroll.

Fortunately they’re owned by Wal-Mart heir Stan Kroenke, but if things take a turn for the worse, the Nuggets could be forced into fire-sale mode, as they were a year ago with the Marcus Camby trade.

As with other highly ranked teams, Denver’s one poor score came in the draft. It’s difficult to imagine the Nuggets getting a high draft pick at any time in the near future.

what the hell the clippers have:

1. griffin, gordon, thornton, deandre jordan, chris kaman, and minnesota’s unprotected first round pick in 2012.

2. the LA market

3. They will have a bunch of salary cap space next summer

4. Dunleavy has actually been a very good gm. he drafted gordon, he got telfair and craig smith for zach randolph, he got rasual butler for nothing, he kept kaman rather than trading him while everyone called for kaman to be traded. he got john lucas to be on the coaching staff.

5. they are a current playoff bubble team with a bunch of young talent.

how is that not in the top 10?

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