Five non-playoff NBA teams that could make the postseason next year

The Pistons missing the playoffs is a product of losing Reggie Jackson for 36 games. When Jackson plays, the Pistons are 27-13; when Jackson sits, the team is 15-21. The Pistons with Jackson play like a 51-win basketball team, which would place them on the same level as the 76ers and Cavaliers. Without him, they play like a 34-win team.

Andre Drummond had an excellent season and the team added Blake Griffin at the trade deadline. Those two with Jackson create quite a trio, but they’re going to have to put in a bit of work if they’re going to make up for games lost to injury. Of all of the title contenders this season, only the Raptors haven’t had to deal with significant injury issues. The Rockets, Celtics, Cavaliers and Warriors had the depth to make up for injury to talent much more valuable to their respective teams than Jackson. Even the Wizards without John Wall were able to tread for a bit longer without their leader.

This is a playoff team next season if everyone is healthy.

Los Angeles Clippers

The Clippers could be the most difficult non-playoff team to evaluate because there’s way too much riding on who will be back and what that potential cap space will look like. DeAndre Jordan has a $24 million player option for next year. Austin Rivers, Milos Teodosic and Wesley Johnson all have PO’s from $6.1 million to $12.6 million. Avery Bradley comes off the books (and they should want him back).

If everyone leaves, the Clippers could have up to $50 million in cap space this summer to sign a couple of pretty high profile free agents. If everyone stays, this is an incredibly competitive basketball team. With a healthy Patrick Beverley and Avery Bradley leading the attack on the perimeter and Jordan shoring things up on the backend, the Clippers could feature one of the five best defenses in the NBA next season.

Rivers has shown that he belongs at this level and is much more than a coach’s son while Tobias Harris has been excellent since coming over in the Blake Griffin trade. These are no longer your Lob City era Clippers, but if the roster construction remains the same, this is a team that is going to win close to 45 games next season.

Charlotte Hornets

The Hornets won 48 games in 2016 and have regressed in each of the next two seasons and it’s unfathomably difficult to understand. The biggest pieces who have left since the playoff season are Al Jefferson and Jeremy Lin, and as good as both players were in their prime, they simply are not the difference between a 48 and a 36-win basketball team.

The entirety of the core remains from that team in Kemba Walker, Nicolas Batum, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Marvin Williams and Cody Zeller. The team even added Dwight Howard. Despite the fact that his best years are behind him, he’s still a plus defender and averaging 16 and 12 in his healthiest season since 2012.

Cody Zeller’s injury issues hurt the team when Howard was forced to sit and Batum missed 18 games, including 12 to start the season. Other than that, this is just a basketball team that hasn’t quite figured out how to develop a culture of winning.

Mitch Kupchak is set to become the Hornets new general manager, and expect some changes during his first summer working for Michael Jordan. Malik Monk, while not in the ROY conversation, is going to be one of those players who blossoms during his sophomore year. Charlotte has a fairly decent shot of becoming one of the eight best teams in the Eastern Conference next season.

Los Angeles Lakers

Finally, you can start to see the Lakers working their way up from the deepest depths in franchise history. The Lakers set three consecutive franchise records for fewest wins in a season following Kobe Bryant’s retirement, but there was a silver lining. The team acquired a tremendous amount of talent through the draft. D’Angelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance are gone, but those who remain will likely become a part of a core that shapes the team’s future. While the exit of the youngsters mentioned above has cleared up cap space for one, and potentially two, max-level free agents, Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, Josh Hart and — if he stays — Julius Randle are going to be the guys who make or break the team’s future postseason hopes.

Despite a litany of injuries and a team driven by youth, the Lakers have several wins against playoff-level basketball teams and were a bad month (an 11-2 December) from, at the very least being in the playoff hunt heading into the final month of the year. There are a lot of ifs in that hypothetical, but another year for the Ball-Hart-Ingram-Randle core could be enough to put them right in the mix with the Nuggets and Clippers next season.

Denver Nuggets

For the second consecutive season, the Denver Nuggets went into the last day of NBA action with an opportunity to extend their season. Instead, they ceded the final playoff spot to the Minnesota Timberwolves after losing yet another win-and-you’re-in basketball game (albeit an ugly, down-to-the-wire one). We saw some growth in Denver, which included six more wins than they had last year and the maturation of what is still a relatively young basketball team.

Nikola Jokic has blossomed into one of the league’s best passers from any position, Gary Harris is on the verge of becoming a bonafide star and Jamal Murray kind of ties everything together with his penchant for scoring and bringing a much-needed swagger to Denver.

The Nuggets still have a ways to go on the defensive end of the floor, and if they’re able to get stops, this is a team that can clearly score with the best of ‘em. They’ll have another mid-1st round draft pick and the majority of their core coming back. Adding a 3-and-D wing could mean a one or two game difference in wins, which is all it took to keep them out of the playoffs for consecutive seasons.