The NBA teams who are rocking the boat in the 2024-25 season

Basketball is a fast-paced sport. Players travel up and down the court almost as fast as the fixtures come. There’s so much action within the course of a season. As such, unpredictable storylines unfold, with former basement teams emerging as new competitors for the NBA Championship. Bet here on which of these underdogs will rise to disrupt the established order. Which teams have upset the apple cart this season?

The Cleveland Cavaliers: Kenny Atkinson’s Winning Machine

Not so many NBA followers would have expected Kenny Atkinson to have quite the impact he’s had since joining the Cleveland Cavaliers as their new head coach. Yet he took them to an awe-inspiring start with a 15-0 record into deep November 2024. The truth is that the Cavs haven’t been this good since LeBron James was with the team.

Now, at the tail-end of the regular season, the franchise is ahead of its projected trajectory with Atkinson. A 61-15 record puts them comfortably at the top of the Eastern Conference standings. If Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley can keep up their impressive performances, then there’s no ceiling to how far the team can go, and they could potentially end up winning the NBA finals.

Sportsbook and odds comparison sites think the Cleveland Cavaliers have a decent chance of winning the NBA championship. Most sites give them the third-favorite badge behind established super teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Boston Celtics.

Of course, Cleveland Cavaliers fans have PTSD from the thought of the NBA Finals, as the team has a very poor record, having played in five Finals series but only winning one time. Maybe this new Cavs setup will set that record straight in due course.

Poised for Postseason Basketball: the Detroit Pistons

The Detroit Pistons supporters have long waited for their team to be competitive in the NBA. It’s been a struggle. The last time the team made it to the postseason was in the 2018-19 season. COVID-19 wasn’t around, Twitter was still called Twitter, and Taylor Swift… wasn’t as big as she is now. She was still quite popular, though.

Clinching postseason basketball already marks an excellent achievement for the Pistons. J.B. Bickerstaff has come into the franchise as the head coach and hit the ground running, making the team go back to basics and securing their first winning season since 2016!

Cade Cunningham has found his passing game under Bickerstaff. He’s been one of the most creative players in the NBA. His pinpoint passes, linked up with the efficiency of Jalen Duran, have been a key partnership for the team and one that has elevated the team up the standings. Only time will tell if they can go further and challenge for the title.

Thoughts of the Pistons succeeding will bring back memories of the franchise’s golden age in the mid-2000s when the team won the 2004 NBA finals and finished runners-up the following season.

Memphis Grizzlies Welcome the Next Step with Tuomas Iisalo

The Memphis Grizzlies had stuck by Taylor Jenkins for a long time. He’d taken them to the playoffs but never flourished in them. However, with a playoff place almost clinched in late March, the team decided to fire him, even with a winning record, to appoint Tuomas Iiasalo, the assistant coach, as the leading man, as other franchises were considering poaching him.

While the move may have seemed cutthroat, it was a decision to build on their upward trajectory and take a new path at this elevated juncture. Jenkins’s work to get this team into the postseason (after not even qualifying last year) has to be applauded. Coaching #9 draft pick Zach Edey into a rebound specialist has proved to be exceptional, while rotating Jay Huff on and off the court has been a great move to sharpen up play.

While giving the Finnish staff member the head coach role seems like a good idea for the long-term project at the franchise, there is notable concern that it may hamper the short-term ambitions. He’s been in control of five games and lost four of them—the immediate four after he was appointed. This contrast in form isn’t going to help the team’s morale or help them reach their first-ever NBA finals.

While the team is already assured of some postseason competition, they could quickly slump into the play-in tournament and maybe exit at that stage. Many NBA commentators state that this decision was premature and that Jenkins should have been allowed to see out the season.