Atlanta Hawks: Eastern Conference Power Rankings, Dec. 24

No team has started out a season worse than the 2015-16 Philadelphia 76ers. They are 1-30 and boast a .032 winning percentage so far this season. Their only win was at home a few weeks ago during Kobe Bryant Appreciation Night.

It’s difficult to get my head around it, but the Philadelphia 76ers won’t win a game versus an Eastern Conference opponent until 2016, They will play six straight teams from the West before hosting the Atlanta Hawks on January 7th. Outside of a strike-shortened season, I didn’t think it was possible for an NBA team to go 0-for in conference play in the first two plus months. The 76ers did just that.

Entering Christmas, only the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers have worse records than the 8-21 Brooklyn Nets. This means that above-.500 Boston Celtics are likely going to have a great shot at winning the 2016 NBA Draft Lottery, as the Celtics have the rights to a Nets pick swap.

Brooklyn is 2-2 in the Atlantic and 6-9 at home, but are a lousy 2-12 on the road and 5-11 in the East. For the sake of not giving their division rival a chance at winning the Draft Lottery, the Nets have to find a way to get out of the Top 3 area of the draft. I’m not so sure that they will.

Jason Kidd will not coach the Milwaukee Bucks for the next 6-8 weeks as he will undergo hip surgery. Does this mean that Kidd wants to eventually get off the sidelines and into solely a front office role? He does in a very limited sample size as a head coach have a tendency to turn and bail on an underperforming team.

This Bucks team has talent, but desperately needs a veteran leader on the roster. Milwaukee went from being the only team to beat Golden State this season to embarrassing themselves after getting blown out against both Los Angeles teams because of lingering effects from a gentleman’s club incident. Milwaukee is running out of time to contend in 2015-16.

Next: Tier IV: Not Making the Playoffs