LAVONIA, Ga. — Chris Madden led a one-two-sweep for Scott Bloomquist’s Team Zero Thursday night at Lavonia Speedway.

Madden won a side-by-side battle with his team owner, Bloomquist, during the last 15 laps of the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series feature. It was his second win of the season and 26^thof his career.

Bloomquist held on for second, fending off a fierce charge from home-state driver Brandon Overton in the closing laps.

Overall, both of the Sweet-Bloomquist Chassis pilots had terrific nights. Second-place finishes in their Drydene Heat races set Madden up for a pole position redraw result and earned Bloomquist a starting spot inside row two.

Madden took off instantly, grabbing the lead into turn one with Brandon Sheppard hot on his tail. The two were quickly locked into a battle of their own, Sheppard working the bottom lane trying to get underneath Madden in the middle.

Sheppard came close several times to pulling even with Madden in his bid for the lead but could never make the move. A restart at halfway restacked the field and gave Sheppard another shot at the leader, but again, could not get by Madden’s No. 0m.

Another restart came just four circuits later. Sheppard decided to try the top side of the speedway on Madden but slipped over the cushion and lost two spots to Bloomquist and Overton.

Overton cracked the whip with 15-to-go and caught the rear of the in-progress Bloomquist and Madden battle for the lead.

Bloomquist hounded his teammate down low, while Madden stayed smooth in the middle to defend his lead. Overton entered the picture and tried every lane to get around the two teammates, but after several laps of inside-outside racing, he could not find a way around the leaders.

A final restart with seven laps remaining allowed Madden to pull away a bit with less than 5-to-go and take it all the way home for his first World of Outlaws win at Lavonia. Both teams are happy, both drivers are happy, and it’s been one incredible summer of racing for Scott Bloomquist Racing that shows no signs of slowing down heading into the fall.

“It’s been awesome to unite back with Scott,” Madden said. “He’s been a big help to me, and I feel like we’ve been a big help to him. It’s just been awesome to put some cars together, put some teams together and be able to produce the way we have.”

Both battles Madden fought with Sheppard and Bloomquist were relentless at times, but through the restarts and all, Madden had his veteran skills working overtime for him on Thursday night.

“I just kept my composure and didn’t miss my marks,” Madden said. “I wasn’t even trying to ‘hold them off,’ I just had to find where I was the best at, and I found it, and won the race.”

Bloomquist played an incredible amount of defense in the final laps, holding off Overton’s late-race rally and bid for the lead.

“I couldn’t really hang as good as I wanted to early, but I thought if I just mileaged my tires and didn’t push it too hard, I might have been a factor later in the race,” Bloomquist said.

After a rough original start, Overton seemed to have driven his car as hard as anyone else in the second half of the feature to get back to the front

“Notoriously, I think these races around here are won on the bottom,” Overton said. “If you get out of that bottom, you just go backwards. But where I was at, I really felt like I had nothing to lose, so I was probably the first one to go to the top. When I moved up there, they were just in the wrong spot on the racetrack for a while.”

The finish:

Feature (50 Laps) 1. OM-Chris Madden [1][$10,000]; 2. 0-Scott Bloomquist [3][$5,000]; 3. 2-Brandon Overton [5][$3,000]; 4. 1-Brandon Sheppard [2][$2,500]; 5. 18-Chase Junghans [6][$2,000]; 6. 25-Shane Clanton [10][$1,700]; 7. 87-Ross Bailes [7][$1,400]; 8. B1-Brent Larson [17][$1,300]; 9. 28-Dennis Erb [9][$1,200]; 10. 29-Darrell Lanigan [8][$1,100]; 11. 6-Blake Spencer [21][$1,050]; 12. 99B-Boom Briggs [15][$1,000]; 13. 4-Matthew Nance [20][$950]; 14. 7-Ricky Weiss [4][$900]; 15. O1-Travis Pennington [12][$850]; 16. 22-Chris Ferguson [13][$800]; 17. F1-Payton Freeman [14][$770]; 18. 97-Cade Dillard [16][$750]; 19. 1c-Kenny Collins [11][$730]; 20. 42-Cla Knight [18][$700] Hard Charger: 6-Blake Spencer[+10]

BURIRAM, Thailand – Fabio Quartararo led a Yamaha sweep of the top three positions during MotoGP practice on Friday at the Buriram Int’l Circuit.

Quartararo shot to the top of the practice charts in the final moments of practice, leading the Yamaha onslaught with a fast lap of 1:30.404 aboard his Petronas Yamaha SRT bike.

Maverick Viñales was second fastest aboard one of the two factory Yamaha bikes, .193 seconds off the pace set by Quartararo. Franco Morbidelli was third fastest on the second Petronas Yamaha SRT.

Jack Miller broke up the Yamaha party at the front of the field by going fourth fastest for Pramac Racing, with Valentino Rossi giving Yamaha four bikes in the top-five after going fifth fastest.

Marc Marquez had a fairly rough afternoon, which started with a massive high side crash in the first practice. He was taken to a local hospital and was declared fit to compete despite some lower back pain.

Despite the crash, Marquez was able to return for the second practice and set the sixth fastest time of the weekend thus far.

Aleix Espargaro, Andrea Dovizioso, Joan Mir and Alex Rins completed the top-10 on the overall MotoGP practice charts Friday.

PHILADELPHIA -- Ed Snider, the Philadelphia Flyers founder who died in 2016, will be honored with a mural in South Philadelphia.

The Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation and Mural Arts Philadelphia will dedicate "Snider Hockey: Inspiring Our Youth" on Saturday at 10th Street and Snyder Avenue. Snider had long said he wanted his youth hockey foundation to become his legacy.

The Flyers won Stanley Cups in 1974 and 1975 under Snider, who was arguably the most influential executive in Philadelphia sports history.

Snider Hockey, which was founded in 2005, has about 3,000 students involved with the program. It targets inner-city boys and girls who otherwise would not have the opportunity to learn to skate or to play ice hockey.

The mural design was created by artist Jared Bader and highlights how Snider Hockey builds lives and unites communities through its on-ice and off-ice initiatives.

Dallas Stars forward Blake Comeau will miss multiple weeks with a lower body injury suffered in the season opener Thursday, but the team received good news on Roman Polak after the defenseman was stretchered off in the second period.

In the first period of the Stars' 2-1 loss to the Boston Bruins, Comeau fell awkwardly after getting hit in the cheek by a puck. Coach Jim Montgomery said after the game that Comeau will miss extended time.

Polak was hurt when he went headfirst into the boards after trying to check Bruins forward Chris Wagner with 12:56 remaining in the second period.

Polak barely moved while face down on the ice before being rolled onto a board and lifted onto the stretcher during a delay that lasted almost 10 minutes.

Despite the scary moment, Montgomery said after the game that Polak was OK following an evaluation at a hospital and could return soon.

"I think obviously we kind of didn't want to think about it after it happened," defenseman John Klingberg said. "We got to get back playing again. It's tough to see a teammate go down like that."

The Stars lost another forward after the first period when Jason Dickinson didn't return with an upper body injury.

"It's life in the NHL," Montgomery said. "Next man up. We went through it all of last year and we're a resilient group. We're a deep organization, and we're going to be OK."

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Before every new season, hockey fans start mentally separating teams into castes. The ones that could win a Stanley Cup. The ones that won't win anything. The ones for which it isn't love or hate -- just indifference.

The St. Louis Blues were in that "could win" category before the previous season. Then they plummeted to "absolutely can't win" by midseason. And then they won.

"The league is structured now that if you're one of the 16 teams participating in the tournament, you have a chance to win the Stanley Cup," GM Doug Armstrong told me during a training camp visit to St. Louis. "The Kings won it from the eighth spot. Nashville made it from seventh to the finals. So the parity is there. You just need things to happen along the way to reach your ultimate goal."

Which is to say that the annual Stanley Cup Contender Tiers presented here aren't necessarily the teams' lots in life. These tiers don't account for injuries, trades, hirings and/or firings -- or a rookie goaltender playing his way into Calder, Vezina and Conn Smythe consideration to resurrect a moribund team.

Here are the current groupings in the 2019-20 championship tiers:

The elite

Tampa Bay Lightning
Toronto Maple Leafs
Vegas Golden Knights

These are three teams that can taste the Stanley Cup -- or at least whatever they decide to put inside the Stanley Cup after winning it, like breakfast cereal or a puppy.

Despite last season's first-round disaster, the Lightning were a 128-point juggernaut in the regular season. The Vegas Golden Knights were great too, a 54.66 expected goals percentage team (No. 3 in the NHL), and the only thing at Vegas' games that's better than their forward group is that wacky pregame thing they do with the Medieval Times understudy fighting on-ice projections.

The Leafs have bolstered their blue line with Tyson Barrie and have a trinity of offensive players who cost more than the gross national product of some island nations. But it's starting to seem like this edition of the Buds has reached the same divergent paths as other potential champions in their history: One road leads to the Cup, and the other road leads to an unending parade of migraines about "what went wrong" that is compounded by the team's cap crunch. There's no Cup at the end of that road.

These teams have different levels of title droughts -- 1967 vs. "The Stamkos Era" vs. three long years of existence -- but all have what it takes to win the Cup this season.

The return contestants

Boston Bruins
St. Louis Blues

Like Kenny Omega, both of these teams can make an argument for being the elite. But in the past 20 years, only four teams have gone to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals, and two of them had Sidney Crosby. It's hard to reharness the energy of a months-long sprint sparked by a new coach and a rookie goalie. It's hard for a team with several key players north of 30 years old to stay healthy all the way to the finish line again.

Would seeing either Alex Pietrangelo or Zdeno Chara taking the Cup from Gary Bettman surprise us? Absolutely not. But the odds are against it.

The sequels

Nashville Predators
Pittsburgh Penguins
San Jose Sharks
Washington Capitals

This tier is filled with recent champions, such as the Capitals (2018) and Penguins, who defeated the Sharks in 2016 and the Predators in 2017.

Of the four, the Capitals and the Predators seem most primed for a return visit, with Nashville having made the biggest upgrade by landing center Matt Duchene and Alex Ovechkin's team having shaken off what ended up being a two-aspirin Cup hangover.

The Sharks remain a uniquely talented team with Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson devouring minutes, but flawed goaltending and the hole left by Joe Pavelski's exit are significant.

The Penguins are the closest of the four to falling out of the tier, as GM Jim Rutherford refilled his cupboard with generic products, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin with a dearth of forwards and perhaps the lowest skill level for a Penguins team in some time.

The next wave

Carolina Hurricanes
Colorado Avalanche
Dallas Stars

The Hurricanes finally put it all together last season, riding a storm surge from analytics darlings to Stanley Cup contenders. Was the goofy enthusiasm that fueled the team a one-year vibe, or is that who they are? Because on paper, their defense is outstanding, their forward group has only gotten better, and ... yeah, the goaltending remains the spot where they once again have to outkick their coverage.

The Stars are "next wave" in the sense that Bon Iver was best new artist at the 2011 Grammys: a known commodity but one that hasn't broken through just yet. Joe Pavelski's arrival will help smarten them up about the whole "playoffs success" thing, in that sometimes the margin of victory or defeat is a goal scored off your face.

We'd love to create another tier for the Avalanche called the Nitroglycerin Tier, in the sense that they're an explosive but highly unstable contender. The hype train has left the station thanks to a tremendous offseason for GM Joe Sakic, but we're weary of crowning a conference king before we're sure they're going to be in the throne room. In other words, Colorado might have as much potential to win the Central as it does to be right back on the playoff bubble. But the Avs are very much a threat to win a Cup in the next three to four seasons.

The flawed contenders

Calgary Flames
New York Islanders
Winnipeg Jets

The Flames have two stellar lines and four solid defensemen (including the reigning Norris Trophy winner) but have entrusted their crease to David Rittich and Cam Talbot. Yikes.

The Jets have a few offensive stars, a solid goalie in Connor Hellebuyck and a defense corps that has been raided like a display at Best Buy on Black Friday. Ugh.

We're giving the Islanders the benefit of the doubt on being contenders, even if they seem like a PDO darling (1.022, best in the NHL) that rode some defiant energy to a playoff seed. But if we're buying them as defensively stellar contenders, their offense was below the median for expected goals last season, and there hasn't been much added to the mix. Curse you, Artemi Panarin, for choosing Broadway over Nassau!

The summer specials

Arizona Coyotes
Florida Panthers
New Jersey Devils

These are three teams that arguably made the most noise in the offseason and now have to show what their investments were worth.

• The Coyotes found their offensive focal point (and boon to their team shooting percentage) in Phil Kessel.

• The Panthers found their goaltender in Sergei Bobrovsky and their coach in Dale Tallon's old friend Joel Quenneville.

• The Devils found their best defensemen since the Scotts retired in P.K. Subban and drafted Jack Hughes to give them a discernible navigational point as a franchise, with or without Taylor Hall after this season.

I think two of three make the playoffs, none higher than a wild card.

The total mysteries

Anaheim Ducks
Chicago Blackhawks
Columbus Blue Jackets
Minnesota Wild
Philadelphia Flyers

ESPN's behind-the-scenes editorial maestro, Tim Kavanagh, compelled me to move the Wild from "flawed contenders" to "total mysteries" because he thinks they'll stink, and I think they're so good defensively that they're still a wild-card threat. But this level of disagreement almost begs for Minnesota to be among the conundrums.

The Ducks have an all-world goalie in John Gibson but flaws everywhere else. The Flyers have some interesting parts that could jell under Alain Vigneault and with a star-making run from Carter Hart. The Blackhawks are like the world's worst ice cream sandwich: Some offensive stars at forward, two potentially great goaltenders and the melted goop of a defense corps that managed to unite Brent Seabrook and Olli Maatta like someone was collecting old parts from championship machines.

Then there are the Blue Jackets. Writing them off is a mistake because there's a lot of talent on this roster and more on the way. When you add that to the wounded-animal comportment of a team that just suffered an exodus like "Tavares to the Leafs" to the third power, the Jackets are going to bring some effort. The problem is that effort doesn't replace a point-per-game winger, and effort can't obscure the fact that the goalies (Joonas Korpisalo, Elvis Merzlikins) have played 90 more NHL games than Jack Hughes.

The rapid rebuilds

Montreal Canadiens
New York Rangers
Vancouver Canucks

The Canadiens and Canucks are the teams that have me excited here. Montreal has an interesting collection of forwards in front of Carey Price and Shea Weber, but give them another year before players such as Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Nick Suzuki will be ready to take the leap. The Canucks are further along with their core of Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, Bo Horvat and Quinn Hughes. I like them far more than most, but health is the whole ballgame there.

The Rangers are an interesting beast. Adding Artemi Panarin, Jacob Trouba and Kaapo Kakko would seem to expedite the rebuilding process, but they have so many players between the ages of 18 and 21 who need some seasoning. They're just too green to trust right now, but they are very much on the right path.

The Oilers

Edmonton Oilers

Once again, they defy classification. This tweet from Sean Tierney was brutal in its accuracy:

If you put your thumb in the middle of this tweet, it looks like today's waiver announcements. https://t.co/181Mh7WWp3

— Sean Tierney (@ChartingHockey) September 30, 2019

It truly is stunning how little talent surrounds Connor McDavid on this team and how much heavy lifting he's going to have to do to drag the Oilers to respectability -- unless Dave Tippett somehow does what he used to do in Arizona, which is take a middling heap of average and fashion it into something that surpasses the lowest expectations and becomes moderately successful.

Otherwise, we continue to count down the days to the Seal Team Six extraction mission to rescue Connor from non-playoff captivity.

The basement

Buffalo Sabres
Detroit Red Wings
Los Angeles Kings
Ottawa Senators

Sigh. We don't want the Sabres here. At all. With Jack Eichel, Ralph Krueger and the potential for above-average goaltending, maybe they won't end up here. But at first blush, this is the tier that makes sense. The one with the three teams whose best interests are served by not being good this season. And also the Sabres.

My official 2019-20 prognostications

In the Eastern Conference, I'm going:

1. Toronto Maple Leafs (A)
2. Tampa Bay Lightning (A)
3. Boston Bruins (A)

1. Washington Capitals (M)
2. Carolina Hurricanes (M)
3. Pittsburgh Penguins (M)

WC1 Panthers
WC2 Devils

As you'll see, the Leafs winning the division has other implications. The Penguins are diminished, but I can't quite see them falling into that abyss where the decade's other titans -- Blackhawks, Kings -- tumbled into quite yet. The wild card comes down to the Panthers, Devils, Flyers and Canadiens. I'm intrigued by Montreal, as they're going to gobble up points in that division. But I'll take the infusion of defense and structure in Sunrise and the infusion of enthusiasm in Jersey, while also noting that expecting the Panthers to live up to expectations has burned many a prognosticator in the past. (2018 Greg stares longingly into the distance.)

Meanwhile, in the Western Conference ... please be gentle:

1. Nashville Predators (C)
2. St. Louis Blues (C)
3. Dallas Stars (C)

1. Vegas Golden Knights (P)
2. Calgary Flames (P)
3. San Jose Sharks (P)

WC1 - Colorado Avalanche (C)
WC2 - Vancouver Canucks (P)

The Central Division truly is the Group of Death this season. Nashville's good. The Blues are going to be good, even if Jordan Binnington is 70% of what he was last season. Dallas is good, and even better if Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn get going earlier. The Avalanche could be first in the division or on the bubble. And yet as much as I'm underwhelmed, I can't sleep on the Jets, Wild and Blackhawks.

The Pacific sends the same top three, as well as ... Vancouver. I'm sorry. I know. But I'm entranced by the young core, I like the goaltending, I'm hoping Travis Green -- one of the best coaches in hockey -- can make these disparate pieces fit. I don't know, maybe I just want to see Elias Pettersson become a transcendent sophomore and Vancouver fans try to wrap their brains around Jim Benning having built a playoff team. So I'm taking the Canucks over the Wild, Coyotes and Blackhawks for the last wild card. Let's go.

Jersey Fouls

From Dave:

I have literally no words. I told him I love his jersey, but when I saw the name I took it back pic.twitter.com/v70B31p7PS

— spooky dave? (@DavidKaca) September 26, 2019

An interesting Wayne Gretzky Foul. Please recall that The Great One coached the Phoenix Coyotes from 2005-09, proving once and for all that the best players never seem to make the best coaches. He was also a minority owner. As Dave noted in a subsequent tweet, Gretzky wasn't with the Coyotes when they wore the Kachina jersey, making this an Era Inappropriate Foul.

Ah, but here's the twist: Readers of this space know that because Gretzky has his number retired by every team in the league -- lamentably including the Calgary Flames -- The Gretzky Exception means his name can appear on any jersey worn during his time in the league. And Gretzky was still playing when the Yotes wore these sweaters. Not a Foul.

Winners and losers of the week

Winner: Laila Anderson

I had the honor of writing about the relationship between Laila and the St. Louis Blues during their Stanley Cup run, where she served as a source of inspiration for players like Colton Parayko and Alexander Steen. She is battling hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, or HLH, a life-threatening immune disease that only 15 other children in the world had been diagnosed with at the time.

The Blues treated her like part of the team, and this week Parayko and Steen made her feel part of a championship team. After the players received their Stanley Cup rings at a ceremony this week, the duo showed up at Laila's house and presented her with one of her own. Grab some tissues, because it's about to get dusty:

What a moment. What a story. What a fan.

Loser: Anyone that tries to follow that with a winners and losers list

What am I, a monster? The puck is dropping for real. We'll be back with the snark next week.

Listen To ESPN On Ice

Emily Kaplan and I are back! We have interviews with Henrik Lundqvist of the Rangers and Taylor Hall of the Devils, preview the 2019-20 NHL season and reveal our Stanley Cup Playoff picks. Plus, Phil Kessel Loves Hot Dogs, Puck Headlines and the Rant Line! Listen here.

Puck Headlines

We mentioned Sean Tierney before. He put together an awesome chart that featured a wide range of points predictions. Good news for Habs fans. Maybe not so much for Wild fans.

An Illinois high-school hockey player talks about coming out and going on to win Homecoming King.

Alex Prewitt on the NHL's inroads in China. "I don't think they have a traditional hockey infrastructure over there. I'm talking about ice, rinks, a hockey culture, tradition, history. So those are all things that have to be developed over time. You do that in a careful, slow and patient way. You do it through working at the grassroots level. One school or school system at a time, just exposing the game to more and more people."

Wild GM Bill Guerin talks hockey philosophy. "Individuals having great seasons don't win championships," he said. "Individuals that have great seasons that are playing like a team will."

Hockey fever hits Palm Springs, thanks to Seattle.

Ed Belfour is now a whiskey distiller. No word if the retail price is a billion dollars.

Finally, this drawing exercise that the Washington Post did with the Capitals in their preview is just ingenious:

Hockey is almost here and we have an awesome @PostSports print section for ya (designed by @bmferrill)

... more to come on those drawings from the Caps tomorrow ? pic.twitter.com/HLl2Z1KoGV

— Brianna Schroer (@briannaschroer) October 1, 2019

Hockey tl;dr (too long; didn't read)

Richard Deitsch polled The Athletic's several thousand writers to get their ideas on how to improve the way hockey is presented in the U.S. Some good stuff here. ($$$)

In case you missed this from your friends at ESPN

Check out our 2019-20 NHL preview at ESPN! There are previews of all 31 teams, a refresher on everything that's happened since last season, a primer on rules changes and a betting guide on ESPN+. Thanks for reading and supporting the work we do.

Three youth players from the Bordeaux academy have been suspended by the club after they attacked one of their teammates, causing him serious injuries, the club has told ESPN FC.

The incident happened on Sept. 30 at the training ground and the players involved are all 16.

"We are supporting our injured player and will be alongside him through this tough time," the club said in a statement. "We have reacted immediately to this incident and have suspended three players while we lead our investigation."

Sources told ESPN FC tensions started two days earlier when the Bordeaux under-17 team lost a match against Nantes.

An altercation happened on the pitch that day followed then by the physical attack. The victim, seriously injured on his thigh, was released from hospital on Thursday and is walking with crutches.

He will not be able to play football for at least two weeks. The three alleged attackers have been interviewed by the club as part of an internal investigation.

They were also placed in custody in Merignac police station on Wednesday to be questioned. They were released following interviews with the police.

HONOLULU -- Houston Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni smirked as he stood up and twirled his right index finger, signaling to the referees that he was challenging an offensive foul called on James Harden with 2:02 remaining in the second quarter Thursday night.

"In a preseason game?" LA Clippers coach Doc Rivers hollered with a laugh from the other bench.

"Somebody's gotta be first," D'Antoni replied.

It was the first instance of a coach utilizing the rule instituted by the NBA this offseason that allows them to challenge a call.

D'Antoni playfully took pride in making history during the Rockets' 109-96 win over the Clippers at the University of Hawaii's Stan Sheriff Center, despite the challenge being unsuccessful.

"Mike was saying he wanted to be the first one, so he beat me to the draw," Rivers said. "We were going to have a contest. Mike won. I forgot about it, to be honest."

D'Antoni figured the play was worth challenging because the Rockets were in the bonus, so a reversal of the call resulting in a defensive foul would have sent Harden to the free throw line. He admitted that he wasn't certain that the call was wrong when he decided to challenge it.

"It's easy to screw up," D'Antoni said. "It's going to be a little adjusting. It takes a while to get used to. We don't have the regular flow of information that we'll have in a regular game. They'll tell me before that I should go out there and challenge."

Coaches are allowed to use only one challenge each game, regardless of whether the call is changed after the replay review.

D'Antoni and Rivers both said that their teams' analytics staffs have encouraged them to not necessarily save their challenges for late-game situations.

"It's going to be something that is going to take a little bit for us to get used to and when to use it," Rivers said. "My guess is we are going to use it first half, if it's one of your better players that you think didn't commit a foul, you may use it to make sure he gets the foul back. Analytically they said we should use it anytime, which I don't agree with that. We'll see how it goes."

Some people like power rankings. I prefer tiers. It's a big-picture method of capturing how good teams are today, and where they are in the NBA's rise-and-fall cycle. It is an especially interesting exercise approaching the most wide-open season in recent memory. More teams than usual have claims to membership in the highest tiers. Boundaries are fluid.

As always, the listed order within each tier does not matter.

Tier 1: Top title contenders

• LA Clippers

• Los Angeles Lakers

• Milwaukee Bucks

• Philadelphia 76ers

• Utah Jazz

• Provisional status: Houston Rockets

• Some have eight teams here. Others cap it at the first four listed. Let's split the difference.

Clippers

• When healthy, the Clippers probably have the most complete postseason-ready roster. They are still one player away -- either a ball handler or a big man -- from being airtight on both ends, but no team is perfect anymore. The Kevin Durant-era Warriors created an impossible standard of star power and two-way balance. The 2017 and 2018 versions might well be the greatest teams ever built. Only injuries could defeat them.

Concerns about LA's overall ballhandling might be overblown. The Clippers could build closing lineups around the quartet of Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Patrick Beverley and Montrezl Harrell. Leonard is arguably the league's best player -- a shoulder-checking isolation bully who has made just enough progress hitting the open man. George is overtaxed as a No. 1 option, perfect as second banana. Beverley is a little underrated as an off-the-bounce threat, and he'll almost always catch the ball with a head start.

Is that enough against the league's very best defenses? Who are the best defensive teams in the West? The Clippers don't have to play themselves. Basketball gods forbid they acquire Andre Iguodala. Utah has been the conference's stingiest team two years running, but with apologies to Royce O'Neale and Dante Exum, they don't have wing defenders who unnerve Leonard and George.

Lou Williams, a walking shoulder fake who makes sweet, sweet pick-and-roll magic with Harrell, is LA's ballhandling boost -- provided he can survive on defense in high-stakes moments. He might be able to hide somewhere against Utah's new closing lineup of Mike Conley, Donovan Mitchell, Joe Ingles, Bojan Bogdanovic and Rudy Gobert. Utah has more ammo with both Conley and Mitchell to break from its offense and hunt the opponent's weakest link -- as Mitchell did in all but ending Carmelo Anthony's career during the 2018 playoffs. But with mean, long help defenders flanking Williams everywhere, I'm not sure Conley and Mitchell attacking him one-on-one will scare the Clippers. LeBron and James Harden are different stories.

If the Clippers have to yank Williams in favor of a superior defender -- Maurice Harkless, JaMychal Green, Landry Shamet, someone yet to be acquired -- they can still put a decent amount of scoring firepower on the floor.

Lakers

• It's fun teasing the Lakers for falling ass-backwards into LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and swinging wildly between schools of thought in building out their team. Last season: We don't need shooting! We want playmaking! We paid no attention to the first 15 years of LeBron's career! One year later: Turns out shooting is important!

Both James and Davis seem determined to play out of position, forcing the Lakers to shoehorn Dwight Howard and JaVale McGee into major roles. A year ago, Kyle Kuzma was a spot duty small-ball center. Now he'll have to defend some shooting guards to get on the floor with James, Davis, and one member of the Lakers' big man comedy duo. Weird.

But Kuzma chased wings last season with a grit that would surprise critics branding him an empty calories gunner. His 32% mark on wide-open catch-and-shoot 3s is alarming, but the bet here is that he rebounds to something closer to 38% -- his hit rate as a rookie. When it matters, the Lakers will slide Davis to center, allowing Kuzma to play closer to his natural position. Some Davis-at-center lineups won't include Kuzma at all. Remember: He is L.A.'s best (only?) realistic trade asset.

A more substantive problem: Rajon Rondo is the only perimeter player aside from LeBron who can, like, dribble multiple times in succession. LeBron's best teams featured All-Star secondary ball handlers.

Defenses ignore Rondo. Opponents outscored the Lakers by 5.4 points per 100 possessions last season when LeBron and Rondo shared the floor. Their best lineups probably don't feature Rondo. I don't really care that he drained at least 35% from deep in three of the past four seasons. That is a blah mark considering how open he is, and he'll never take and make enough to outweigh the damage he inflicts on spacing.

But Rondo's relative lack of shooting isn't as harmful in lineups featuring James, Davis, Danny Green, and one ambulatory perimeter guy with average 3-point accuracy. And when the Lakers excise Rondo, Davis can take on more of the playmaking burden from the post and elbows, and even by just dusting suckers one-on-one from the outside; Davis quietly averaged four dimes per game last season, by far a career high.

Green is rock solid. Alex Caruso can handle it some. He's good -- more than a meme. Someone from the Kentavious Caldwell-Pope/Avery Bradley/Quinn Cook pile will exceed expectations. (Bradley is getting all the camp buzz, but I'm more intrigued by KCP's size and versatility on defense.) They'll snag someone in the (rigged) buyout game.

That guy won't be an elite ball handler. Every contender has minor flaws in a post-supervillain Warriors world. The Lakers have two of the league's five best players -- a symbiotic pick-and-roll combination -- and competent shooting around them. Be afraid.

They will have to navigate the draining melodrama that follows LeBron. If things go badly, there will be passive-aggressive eye rolls and drooped shoulders. The Lakers volunteered for tension by hiring Jason Kidd as Frank Vogel's No. 2. Like any classic LeBron team, the Lakers are a 2-3 start away from DEFCON 1 speculation. I'm tired already.

Bucks and Sixers

• The Bucks and Sixers get to frolic in the junior varsity conference. They still make for an ideal fit-versus-talent contrast, at least on offense. The Bucks make sense: Giannis and shooting. Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons are never going to mesh as neatly on offense as the NBA's classic one-two punches.

And yet: I have pangs of anxiety about Milwaukee. Their best heavy-minutes lineup a year ago was Eric Bledsoe, Malcolm Brogdon, Khris Middleton, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez -- i.e. three guards/wings, Giannis, and a sweet-shooting center. One of those guards plays for the Pacers now. Another self-destructed in the conference finals.

The new perimeter-oriented versions of those lineups have some combination of Sterling Brown, Pat Connaughton, Wesley Matthews, Kyle Korver, and George Hill soaking up the Brogdon minutes. Brown might get first crack as a starter. Milwaukee should be all-in investigating whether he and Connaughton can handle more postseason minutes. Will Mike Budenholzer go that route, or default to aging veterans?

The bigger versions shift the Brogdon minutes to Ersan Ilyasova and (hopefully) D.J. Wilson. I'm not sure I trust those groups against the best competition. Does either lineup type have enough juice to overcome another ill-timed Bledsoe slump?

Maybe. Antetokounmpo is that good. Those creaky veteran shooters will get easier looks playing next to him. If Antetokounmpo improves his standstill triple to the point that defenders have to (kinda) honor him up top, the league might not have an answer. Al Horford, Philly's newest big, was an answer once, but Antetokounmpo solved him in last season's second-round dismantling of Boston.

We all know the questions in Philly. Rarely does a true-blue contender enter a season with so much uncertainty about so many fundamental aspects of its team. But the Sixers' size and talent are overwhelming. One of the rare defenders to trouble Embiid -- Horford -- is now on his team. Another, Marc Gasol, no longer plays for a contender.

Horford is a ballast against Philly's vulnerability when Embiid sits. A stat that blows me away four-plus months later: The Sixers outscored Toronto by 90 points in 237 minutes with Embiid on the floor during the conference semifinals ... and lost the remaining 99 non-Embiid minutes by 109 points. I mean ... what? Yeah, that's a small sample size. Whatever. A high-end playoff team losing one subset of minutes against one opponent by a Washington Generals margin is crazy -- and indicative of an issue that has dogged Philly for years now.

The Sixers are going to be brutal to score against. We tend to focus fit-related discussions on offense, but defensive fit is a thing, too. Point guards torched Philly last season until Simmons took the job in the first round and erased D'Angelo Russell. Now the Sixers have Josh Richardson, a long-armed menace, funneling those guys toward Embiid.

If they have to trade for one more bench guy, they will. Something in my gut just likes this team. Now they need to get Embiid to peak in May and June.

The Bucks might have also set the record for fastest transition from feel-good up-and-comer to contender facing almost existential pressure. Every slump will be magnified until Antetokounmpo says he is signing the supermax. If Milwaukee makes the conference finals, the entire league will watch with one thought in mind: Now we get to see if they have enough around Giannis.

All the noise has to matter. For some teams, it takes a real toll.

It can also push teams into risky future-for-present trades. The Bucks aren't exactly brimming with trade assets, but Jon Horst, their GM, proved last season in flipping four second-rounders for Nikola Mirotic that he will be bold.

Jazz

• Small pet peeve: any assumption that time is propelling Donovan Mitchell on a path to soon becoming prime Dwyane Wade. Prime Dwyane Wade was a freaking monster. The collective memory of this is fading because Wade passed the baton early to LeBron and spent prior seasons toiling on mediocre teams-in-waiting for LeBron. Prime Wade had a claim to the "greatest active shooting guard" throne. He shot between 51% and 55% on 2s every season, dished six or seven dimes per game, lived at the line, and lurked as the greatest shot-blocking guard in history.

The gap between Mitchell and that player is enormous. Mitchell closed some of it with a post-All-Star surge before struggling from the field for the second straight postseason. Good news: The entire point of acquiring Mike Conley is that Mitchell has to close only a little more of the Wade gap for Utah to become a serious contender.

Mitchell has hit 40% of his career catch-and-shoot 3s. He should get more next to Conley. Quin Snyder will find new ways to get Mitchell the ball on the move. Mitchell should be able to reserve more energy for defense. If he fulfills his potential on that end, the Jazz are going to be nasty.

The other pole of the Mitchell discussion -- the one emanating from analytics-heavy places -- is that he just isn't very good. Don't buy that. He just turned 23. His efficiency hasn't matched his Q factor, but he can do special things and has a certain ineffable quality -- courage, guts, toughness -- you need to win at the highest level. Maybe he'll never be Prime Wade, or some analytics darling, but I'd bet on Mitchell improving in ways that matter.

With Conley and Bogdanovic aboard, Utah should not fall victim to the Twilight Zone shooting slumps that torpedoed them in recent playoff defeats. Bump up their shooting, and the Jazz could sniff the top five in points per possession. That two-way balance nudges them a hair above Houston and Denver.

The Jazz might face some size and rebounding issues splitting power forward minutes between Bogdanovic, O'Neale (don't be shocked if he starts) and Jeff Green. They can dangle Exum to trawl for an extra big man if need be.

Rockets

• Everyone wonders if swapping Chris Paul for Russell Westbrook makes the Rockets better or worse. My boring take: They are about the same -- a really good team that probably isn't going to win the title. The trio of Westbrook, James Harden and coach Mike D'Antoni is talented and creative enough to paper over Westbrook's busted jumper, but only so much. You never know what the backup wings and bigs are giving you night to night. An injury to P.J. Tucker is death against LeBron and Leonard.

But the Rockets don't get enough credit for being the only Western Conference team to compete at all with the Durant-era Warriors. Those Warriors are the only team to beat Houston -- or really even trouble them -- in the playoffs since the Rockets paired Paul and Harden. The Westbrook/Harden/Eric Gordon/Tucker/Clint Capela grouping should be a championship-level closing lineup.

Houston deserves to be grandfathered into the top tier. I am a little afraid of what hard-chargin' Tilman Fertitta might pull in the event of a slow start. He could fire everyone and install himself as GM, coach, and head chef. He could also mandate the kind of nutty all-in trade (R.I.P. Nene contract) that fortifies the 2019-20 Rockets even if it hamstrings the team's future.

Prove it

• Denver Nuggets

Look: I'm a Nikola Jokic true believer. He lumbered over everyone in his postseason debut. He might already be the best passing big man ever. (Fun thing that won't happen: With Westbrook and Harden cannibalizing their individual assist totals, how cool would it be if Jokic made a run at leading the league in dimes? He tied for 13th last season with 7.3 per game; John Wall and Kyle Lowry tied for second, behind Westbrook, at 8.7 per game. Just saying.)

The Nuggets are deep, steeled with fresh playoff experience, and they know who they are. You can't point to any player other than maybe Malik Beasley who should (by the numbers) regress from last season. If you want to slide them up a tier, I won't fight you.

They are still quite young. A combination of bricky opponent shooting -- especially on a league-high number of corner 3s -- and an insane record in close games suggests Denver punched a little above its weight. Its 7-7 playoff run (after some expert bracket manipulation) doesn't exactly inspire. The Nuggets wheezed by a Spurs team that wasn't very good, and lost Game 7 at home against a Portland team missing its starting center. The gap between their best and second-best players will remain pretty big unless Jamal Murray makes another leap this season (totally possible, but he's still 22).

Denver compensates with enviable depth, but depth doesn't matter as much in the postseason. I've been beating the "Bradley Beal to Denver" drum for almost a year, and if the Nuggets ever cashed in some of that depth for a star, watch out. Denver can still break into the next tier as is if Murray hits another level and Michael Porter Jr. proves as good as the buzz emanating from Denver camp.

Strongish playoff teams/The East stinks again

• Boston Celtics

• Miami Heat

• Brooklyn Nets

• Orlando Magic

For the 872nd consecutive season, it's nice to be in the East. You could argue any of Miami, Brooklyn, and Orlando belong one tier down. Miami is weird and big, with potential shooting issues. Brooklyn is missing its best player and has something of a hole at power forward. There will be inevitable culture shock with three big personalities invading Brooklyn's environment of plucky all-for-one overachievement.

The Magic have every power forward in the league, and cannot expect D.J. Augustin to duplicate what stands as a career scoring season by almost laughable margins. (Augustin shot 51% on 2s last season. His prior career mark: 43%.) Their backup point guards are Michael Carter-Williams and a dude who shot free throws like this 11 months ago.

It is smart to view any scorching late-season run -- Orlando finished 21-9 and had the league's top defense after Feb. 1 -- with a little skepticism, since half the league stops trying around then. That run coincided with Khem Birch supplanting Mo Bamba, but Steve Clifford already announced Bamba has won the backup center job back. OK!

But all three should be safe in the East. Jimmy Butler is a top-15 player. Pair him with Erik Spoelstra and a decent supporting cast, and the Heat should end up with a top-8 defense and 45-plus wins. They have the contracts to swing a win-now trade.

Brooklyn has good guard and wing depth, and for all the rightful mocking of DeAndre Jordan's mail-in job last season, he and Jarrett Allen should give the Nets 48 strong center minutes (assuming Jordan is, umm, reinvigorated).

Kyrie Irving's know-it-all lecturing and ball dominance contributed to Boston's haywire chemistry, and it's tempting to anticipate Spencer Dinwiddie and Caris LeVert chafing at reduced roles. Kenny Atkinson can blunt tensions by staggering minutes; Dinwiddie already comes off the bench. D'Angelo Russell hoarded ballhandling duties to an even greater degree than Irving, so Brooklyn's holdovers have some practice at sacrificing.

I trust Orlando's continuity. There are no red flags indicating their defense was fool's gold. Clifford builds an infrastructure that beats every bad team and steals some wins against superior ones: force midrangers, protect the glass, prevent fast breaks, don't foul. I have faith in the Aaron Gordon midcareer leap.

(For much more on all four teams, listen to last week's Lowe Post podcast with ESPN's Kevin Arnovitz.)

Borderline playoff teams

• Indiana Pacers

• Toronto Raptors

• Detroit Pistons

• Chicago Bulls

• Golden State Warriors

• Portland Trail Blazers

• Dallas Mavericks

• San Antonio Spurs

• New Orleans Pelicans

• Sacramento Kings

• This is the biggest tier in the history of this column. If anything, it could be bigger.

Raptors

• Let me scream this for the Spooky Mulder contingent in Toronto: The champs are only here -- and not one tier up -- due to the possibility they trade any or all of Kyle Lowry, Marc Gasol, and Serge Ibaka. That said, folks parroting Toronto's record last season without Leonard as evidence that this will be easy are underestimating the challenge of filling 70-ish minutes on the wing that left with Leonard and Green.

The return of OG Anunoby helps. More of the Lowry-Fred VanVleet pairing absorbs some of those minutes, but Toronto has to be a little careful overextending that ultra-small look.

But this team is solid. I'm interested to see how the Pascal Siakam-Ibaka-Gasol supersized trio that helped in the Philly series might fare over more minutes.

Warriors

• OK, so, the Warriors. I had no idea what to do with them. If Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson are all healthy, Golden State is a Tier 1 contender. Deep in my soul, I think the Warriors would have won the Finals last season had Thompson been healthy all series -- and maybe even if he had missed Game 3 (as happened) but remained intact after.

But Thompson is out until the All-Star break, and no one can be sure when he will be Peak Klay again.

They still have two elite players and an Eastern Conference injury-replacement All-Star, which is like 50% of a Western Conference All-Star, but still. Curry might be the league's most powerful offensive force. He transforms lineups with four complete non-shooters into workable scoring outfits. He drags so many defenders so far from the basket that all those non-shooters have time to ping interior passes between them until Kevon Looney very slowly gathers the ball, bends his achy knees, and summons all his energy to jump two inches off the ground and slide the ball over the rim.

Russell will fit on offense. If you can shoot, you can fit next to Curry and Green. Russell can run the show when Curry sits, and he spent 2016-17 -- with the Lakers, under Luke Walton -- playing in a free-flowing system derived in part from Walton's time with Golden State.

And yet. They are relying on so many guys who might not crack rotations on lottery teams. One guy who would -- Willie Cauley-Stein -- is already injured. Who is their fifth starter? Seriously, start listing names! Threading all those interior passes before the defense recovers from blitzing Curry requires high hoops IQ, and the Warriors suffered major interior passing brain drain.

Green faces a huge challenge propping up the defense. Their margin for injury to Curry and Green is close to zero. Their margin for easing into the season is close to zero. Green needed a late-season crash diet to get in shape for the playoffs. Now, the Warriors need the roaring, snarling, in-three-spots-at-once Green every minute he plays.

Are Curry and Green ready to give everything after five straight Finals and three years coasting through the regular season? I bet they are. These guys love the game. Green says he is in playoff shape. They are surely eager to prove what they can do without Durant. But to live that 82 times while hoping Alec Burks and Alfonzo McKinnie and Glenn Robinson III make open 3s is a slog.

Some projections have Golden State as a playoff lock, and even a 50-plus-win team. I can't get there. Maybe I'm underestimating the talent and will of Curry and Green -- and the possibility Russell keeps growing. But it's hard to see Golden State winning more games than the Clippers, Lakers, Jazz, Nuggets or Rockets. That slides them into the No. 6 slot, and from there, one bad break has you fighting for your postseason life.

But if Thompson is healthy and they sneak in as a low seed? Whoa boy. Teams will spend the last two weeks of the season maneuvering -- and maybe tanking -- to avoid them.

Blazers

• Yup, for the second straight year I'm doubting the Blazers. I'm a moron, obviously. They have a rock-solid culture, a great coach, and one of those scoring stars who pulls even bad teams -- and this is far from a bad team -- toward .500. I didn't hate their offseason makeover, either. They lost size and defensive versatility effectively swapping Al-Farouq Aminu and Maurice Harkless for Kent Bazemore and more Rodney Hood, but I can't blame them after watching Aminu and Harkless brick wide-open 3s in the playoffs every season.

Hassan Whiteside in a contract year is as good a placeholder for Jusuf Nurkic as Portland was going to snare. Zach Collins is solid at both frontcourt positions, and the Blazers are confident Anfernee Simons is ready for major minutes. They have the means to make a win-now trade (or two) in February.

Their perimeter defense is a little squishy. I don't trust Whiteside. Can he make enough quick-hitting reads when opponents double Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum? Whiteside is boasting about triple-doubles, but he averaged 1.2 dimes per game last season.

The Blazers are good. Their placement here is more about life in the West, especially because ...

Mavs

• I am a little higher on San Antonio and Dallas than most projection systems. Delon Wright and Seth Curry are nice complements to the Luka Doncic-Kristaps Porzingis centerpiece. Almost everyone on the roster is, really. Rival executives are skeptical about the Mavs' depth, but Rick Carlisle always builds a functional misfit toys bench.

Wright and Dwight Powell seem like no-brainer starters. The last spot could go to a gunner -- Curry or Tim Hardaway Jr. -- or a low-usage 3-and-D facsimile like Justin Jackson or Dorian Finney-Smith. Three of those four will come off the bench, along with Jalen Brunson, Maxi Kleber, and maybe J.J. Barea. Carlisle can pull Powell early in quarters and use him as a backup center if Boban Marjanovic struggles. That's a real rotation.

If Porzingis is healthy, the Mavs could sneak into the playoffs.

Spurs

• The Spurs won 48 games last season (with a scoring margin akin to a 46-win team) despite: a slow start from DeMar DeRozan; Dejounte Murray tearing his ACL; Derrick White missing 15 games; an early-1990s shot profile; and Lonnie Walker IV, their first-round pick, spending most of the season in the G League. A sweet-shooting bench carried them, and it's perhaps unreasonable to bank on that group -- now with DeMarre Carroll in place of Davis Bertans -- incinerating opponents again.

The Spurs also lit it up from midrange. Overall, they outperformed their expected effective field goal percentage -- based on the location of each shot and the nearest defender -- by 3.6 percentage points, the second-fattest figure in the league by a mile, per Second Spectrum. Perspective: Third place checked in at 1.3 percentage points, and No. 1 was the Warriors -- an implausible shooting team. Some decline should be expected.

But if DeRozan is more comfortable in Year 2, maybe the Spurs will get some separation with DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge on the floor after playing those minutes about even last season. Trey Lyles is a worthy reclamation case. Their vaunted defense could snap back into place with Murray and White pairing up more.

Playing Murray, White, and DeRozan together drops San Antonio's 3-point shooting to dangerously low levels, but Gregg Popovich usually figures out enough answers to thorny rotation questions. The Spurs know how to win.

Kings

• There is a tendency to see Sacramento's negative scoring margin -- minus-92, 19th -- and suggest the Kings were a little lucky to win 39 games. But exclude garbage time, and they played to their record, per Cleaning The Glass. They did not outshoot expectations or enjoy fortunate bricky opponent shooting to any major degree, per Second Spectrum. They were (mostly) real.

Now they face expectations for another mini-leap that might be premature -- at least in this conference. They won't catch opponents off-guard again with their turbo pace. They fueled that run-and-gun game with a gargantuan turnover differential that might be hard to replicate.

Integrating Marvin Bagley III as starting power forward comes with pain on defense and stirs uncomfortable ripple effects across a deep rotation. The Kings can make the playoffs, but they have to figure out some basic stuff. The West affords very little time to figure stuff out.

Pelicans

• Perhaps no team has more to figure out than New Orleans. The Pelicans have 12 rotation-level players before Jahlil Okafor and Jaxson Hayes, and half of them have 3-point shooting track records ranging from spotty to "My Eyes! Ze goggles do nothing!" Playing even one non-shooter alongside both Zion Williamson and Derrick Favors strangles the half court.

Cramped spacing doesn't matter as much in transition, and Alvin Gentry wants these guys running like hell. It will just take time to sort through all the possible lineup contortions -- and land on the right offense-defense balance. There is a playoff team in here. Will they find it in time?

Pistons

• We might have to name this tier after the Pistons.

Bulls

• Jim Boylen is probably the biggest coaching wild card in the league. Will Chicago post up 100 times per game, or play fast, as the Bulls did late last season? No one knows! It might change week-to-week! Exciting!

Vegas has these guys around 33 wins. I am more (wait for it) bullish. With Tomas Satoransky and Thaddeus Young, the Bulls have the talent and balance to hang in the East playoff non-race. The major concern beyond inexperience: precisely zero reliable wings behind Zach LaVine and Otto Porter Jr. Playing Satoransky as a backup wing mitigates that, but it also could mean more of Coby White, Kris Dunn, and Ryan Arcidiacono (quietly solid last season).

It's time for LaVine to prove he can contribute to winning basketball. This is a huge Year 3 for Lauri Markkanen.

Pacers

• Indiana's presence here might surprise. I'll have more on them in future columns. Most of this is about Victor Oladipo's availability and projected play upon returning.

Netherworld of the West

• Minnesota Timberwolves

• Oklahoma City Thunder

• I'd have the Thunder here even if I knew they would keep their team together at the trade deadline. They have a playoff-caliber starting lineup but almost no proven depth on the wing or at power forward.

Paul hasn't played in more than 61 games since 2016. Danilo Gallinari cracked 65 last season for the first time since 2012-13. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is not an awesome fit hanging off the ball while Paul does his point god thing.

Throw in the likelihood that someone gets traded, and Oklahoma City lags behind the playoff race.

• Several projection systems -- including Kevin Pelton's at ESPN and the 538 forecast -- treat the Wolves more kindly. They outscored opponents by about three points per 100 possessions with Karl-Anthony Towns and Robert Covington on the floor, and Covington is on track to start the season healthy.

They made a bunch of nice fringe moves: Shabazz Napier, Treveon Graham, Jake Layman, Noah Vonleh, Jordan Bell and Tyrone Wallace. Some of those contracts could be handy in two- and three-team trades; Minnesota figures to be active.

Towns is a god on offense, and having just one scorer so talented -- a legitimate fulcrum -- tends to push even blah teams toward .500. He has missed five games in four seasons. The wrenching, energy-sapping melodrama of the Jimmy Butler/Tom Thibodeau saga is behind them.

But the talent gap between Towns and the rest of the roster is huge. Everyone else is either untested or underwhelming. This group has almost zero record of competent defense. A bounce-back from Jeff Teague, or any bounce at all from Andrew Wiggins, would shift the trajectory, but it's tough to bet on either doing enough to elevate Minnesota into the thick of the West playoff race.

The rest

• New York Knicks

• Atlanta Hawks

• Cleveland Cavaliers

• Washington Wizards

• Phoenix Suns

• Memphis Grizzlies

• Charlotte Hornets

• The Knicks seem to think they have a 35-win team that might approach .500. Fine. It's the East. Someone bad is sneaking into the potato sack race for No. 8. The bigs they added are all useful despite some positional overlap that isn't super convenient for Mitchell Robinson (or those who want to see Kevin Knox play more power forward, which I could take or leave). Most of the big-big pairings are semi-workable.

Wayne Ellington adds needed shooting, especially with both Reggie Bullock and Damyean Dotson dealing with some nicks. Maybe FIBA Frankie Smokes is a thing?

The guard and wing play -- the engine of most functional offenses -- is just so uncertain. Julius Randle might be New York's best shot creator, which is not on its face a bad thing. I just see a 27-30-win team, and most projection systems agree.

• The Hawks are getting some "pesky No. 8 seed" buzz. They went 23-30 after a 6-23 start. Trae Young found his swagger, even if he didn't quite find his jumper; Young cracked 35% from deep in just a single month -- February -- but given the difficulty and distance of his attempts, his rookie arc was encouraging. John Collins is good. Alex Len had a sneaky solid season.

But I'm pumping the brakes. This team is so young. The veterans they added or brought back -- Evan Turner, Jabari Parker, Allen Crabbe, Chandler Parsons, Vince Carter -- don't move the needle.

Playoff hype feels premature. Next season should be a different story.

• Phoenix should at least be competitive. Ricky Rubio is a big upgrade over ... nothing. Deandre Ayton learned the basics -- like, the most basic basics -- of guarding the NBA pick-and-roll, and might become a normal below-average defender. The Suns have a passable wing rotation in Devin Booker (an All-Star very soon), Kelly Oubre Jr., Mikal Bridges and Tyler Johnson. Dario Saric is an acceptable starter. Keep an eye on Cheick Diallo, who showed flashes last season in New Orleans.

The Suns will win more games in 2019-20. That doesn't mean they maximized their resources to position themselves for 2021 and (way) beyond -- the timeline they should care about.

There are nine different matchups in the postseason -- starting with the now-completed wild-card games, ending with the World Series -- and last year's nine winners all shared something in common: Their bullpens pitched better than the losing teams' bullpens.

That's not always true that the better relievers swing a postseason series, but it's true a lot more often than not. The 2018 postseason was the third year in the past five in which every winning team's bullpen allowed a lower OPS in the series than the losing team's bullpen did. Over the past seven years, the team with the better bullpen performance has gone 48-14 in wild-card games or postseason series. (Excluding three wild-card games, when the winning starter threw a complete game.)

That makes this bullpen season, baby. Bring on all the pitchers you've never heard of. Watch them set the trajectory of history. Bring on the parade of names you spent the whole season not quite getting the hang of. Watch them get their managers fired and/or to the Hall of Fame. With each pitching change, look deep inside your heart and ask yourself, "Is that a man I can trust?"

This postseason will almost certainly make history: Relievers will face more batters than starters for the first time ever. Last year, they came within two batters of breaking that threshold -- 49.96 percent of postseason time starred a reliever on the bump. Five years ago, that share was just 40 percent, but both the regular-season and postseason shares going to relievers have been rising steeply ever since. Relievers typically pitch about 20 percent more in the postseason than they do in the regular season, and if that holds this October then we'll see relievers for about 52 percent of our postseason innings.

You can't understand the postseason without understanding the relievers who will be dominating it -- and who will, as well, be blowing it.

So here is your Ultimate Bullpen Preview. Some terms you'll need to know:

Mnemonic to keep the final 15 outs of the game straight: A pattern to help you remember each team's five or six highest-leverage pitchers in order, from the first you might see in a 4-2 game to the last. Don't ever assume a starting pitcher is going to go more than four innings in the postseason. The endgame starts early, and managers have a plan to get the final 15 (or sometimes 18, or even 27) outs without using a pitcher they don't trust.

Bullpen Poochie: A term, probably invented by Rays analyst Jeff Sullivan, to describe the reliever in the bullpen everybody is thinking about all the time, especially when he's not in the game. Origin: the episode of The Simpsons in which Homer says, of an animated TV character he voices named Poochie, "Whenever Poochie's not on screen, all the other characters should be asking, 'Where's Poochie?'"

This year's bartender: The pitcher whose rise to bullpen relevance this year was most unforeseeable, whether a month ago, six months ago or five years ago. Origin: pop-up relief ace Tom Wilhelmsen, who famously spent six years out of baseball, sometimes bartending, before briefly emerging as a major league relief ace earlier this decade.

Pitching Ninja bait: A pitcher whose pitches are so unrepentantly sexy they are likely to be turned into GIFs by invaluable Twitterer, @pitchingninja.

These eight playoff teams are ranked, worst to first.

Jump to a bullpen ...

Astros | Braves | Cardinals | Dodgers
Nationals | Rays | Twins | Yankees

8. Washington Nationals

Mnemonic to keep the final 15 outs of the game straight: Suddenly, Volcanoes & Storms & Rockslides & Hurricanes & Doom! (or: Wander Suero -> Austin Voth -> Hunter Strickland -> Fernando Rodney -> Daniel Hudson -> Sean Doolittle)

Bullpen Poochie: We saw it in the wild-card game: It's Stephen Strasburg, it's Max Scherzer, it's Patrick Corbin, it's every super-aggressive opportunity Dave Martinez can find to get his ace starters (and, probably, Anibal Sanchez, too) into games they're not starting. The model here is Boston last year: a bad bullpen (though not nearly as bad as the Nationals') that found its heroes in spillover innings from starters Chris Sale, David Price, Rick Porcello and Nathan Eovaldi. As I wrote at the time, Boston's starters "were collectively the elite closer every team wants in October, and they were cooked up entirely out of ingredients lying around the pantry."

That's Washington's best way forward with the bullpen they actually have. Anticipate that in most games there will be a starter available in relief, either because it's his throw day, or because he's already made his last start in the series, or because it's a must-win clincher. Indeed, to that last scenario, I'd bet that if the Nationals win the World Series -- and maybe any series going forward -- it won't be their closer who gets the final out, but one of Strasburg, Scherzer or Corbin pitching in relief.

This year's bartender: Rodney was never a bartender -- he's second among all active pitchers in career saves, as a matter of fact -- but his status in the middle of a postseason bullpen is, nevertheless, one of those bullpen miracles. At the end of May, he was released, with an ERA of 9.42, the fifth-worst WHIP in the majors and nearly as many walks as strikeouts. He was the oldest player in the majors, by three years.

The Nationals -- 24-33 at the time -- signed him and sent him to Triple-A, where at 42 years old he walked nine batters in eight innings, with a WHIP of 2.13. That got him called up, and he began the hard work of lowering his season ERA, all the way down to ... well, to 5.66. But he was pretty good as a National, pitching the seventh or eighth inning in close games. He was about as good as he was in 2018, when he was on the A's postseason roster, or 2017, when he was on the Diamondbacks' postseason roster.

Rodney has done this sort of turnaround a bunch. That's how he became the oldest player in the majors in the first place. In 2015 he had a 5.68 ERA in Seattle, got traded for a little cash to the Cubs, and had a 0.75 ERA the rest of the way. And then the next year, he had a 0.31 ERA with the Padres, got traded to the Marlins for Chris Paddack, and had a 5.89 ERA the rest of the way. For that matter, after a brutal two years in Anaheim when he was "only" in his mid-30s, he went to Tampa Bay and had a 0.60 ERA, which is the second-lowest in history. Fernando Rodney's career is a collection of mystery short stories, and everything you think you know changes at least twice per chapter.

Pitching Ninja bait: It has to be Tanner Rainey's slider, which had the highest whiff rate of any pitch thrown by any pitcher this year. (He also touches 101 mph with his fastball.) Only problem is that Rainey's outlier strikeout rate is often undone by an even more outrageous walk rate. Out of 400 pitchers who threw 40 innings this year, his whiff rate was second; his strike rate was 372nd. It's not clear yet whether Rainey will get the postseason call at all, as he was used mostly in low-leverage situations in the second half.

Tanner Rainey, Filthy 88mph Back Foot Slider...and Sword. ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/flINQhlfys

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 19, 2019

The bottom line: It was bad. This was a very, very bad bullpen, a bullpen that was worse than the Tigers' or the Marlins' or the Royals' -- three teams that averaged 107 losses this year. This was the worst bullpen in franchise history. It was the NL's worst bullpen in the first half and, generously, the NL's second-worst in the second half. It was the worst bullpen ever to make the postseason.

But, in fairness to Washington, the bullpen that gets you there isn't always the one you're stuck dancing with. Some names change -- Trevor Rosenthal isn't here anymore, while Hudson is -- and the ones that stay the same come out of the short funks or tired-arm periods that might pollute their stats for the entire year. The Nationals used more relievers on no-days' rest than any NL team this year -- because they were so bad, they had no choice, but surely that took a further toll. (They had the fewest outings of more than three outs, though that might be because they didn't have anybody capable of it.)

So, for example: Doolittle, the closer, has been one of the best relievers in baseball for almost a decade. He probably still is, but then what do we make of his career-worst ERA, career-worst FIP, career-worst WHIP? We might make of it that he was exhausted by August, having been worked fairly hard in June and July. Ten of the 27 runs he allowed -- and five of the 11 homers he allowed -- came in a nine-day stretch. He went on the injured list shortly after, with right knee tendinitis. He was very effective, if not overpowering, in September when he returned: Batters hit .111/.172/.222 off him. Maybe it was just the knee, or overusage. Or maybe he just needed a little regression to the mean.

The Nationals' faith has to be that everybody they'll throw this offseason has been good at some point not long ago -- and Hudson, added at the trade deadline, was good this year. Suero had a snakebitten ERA, but he also had a better FIP than Josh Hader. Rainey sort of threw strikes in September. Rodney is an institution. And Voth, a very effective starter for Washington this year, could now be available in relief.

And if all else fails, just pencil Strasburg in for three innings of relief every day.

7. Atlanta Braves

Mnemonic to keep the final 15 outs of the game straight: Oddball Jazzmen Need Grittier Melodies (or: Darren O'Day -> Luke Jackson -> Sean Newcomb -> Shane Greene -> Mark Melancon)

Bullpen Poochie: The Braves don't have a real relief ace, so much as they have five very different pitchers who are all good enough to be the third or fourth reliever on a pretty good staff. Jackson has the most potential to break out as something more this October. Just consider his penultimate outing this year: He faced four batters, struck all four out and got nine swinging strikes in 18 pitches. Jackson finished with the fifth-most strikeouts of any reliever in baseball this year, and both of his breaking balls -- a high-80s slider and a mid-80s curve -- are extreme ground-ball pitches, perhaps the most extreme ground ball breaking pitches in the game. He went more than one inning 10 times this year, and in those 10 outings he allowed one run in 18 innings, striking out 28 and walking two. He's got the arm to be Poochie if he gets hot.

This year's bartender: Based on what I knew one month ago, O'Day would have been the most unexpected pitcher to see in the 2019 postseason, because who knew he was still active? The Orioles traded him to Atlanta in summer 2018, but he never threw a pitch for them, as a hamstring strain and then a forearm strain kept him inactive until this month. During 15 months of inactivity, he apparently considered retiring, and I apparently considered him retired. He threw five innings in September, his first innings for Atlanta, and that got him on the postseason roster as a right-handed specialist. He was the first arm out of the pen in the first game of the LDS, to face exactly one batter: Paul Goldschmidt. That'll be his role.

Pitching Ninja bait: It's Jackson.

Luke Jackson with 3 straight Ks by Sliders & Swords. ?⚔️?⚔️?⚔️ pic.twitter.com/RfIFQpUyQO

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 16, 2019

The bottom line: The Braves went 28-16 in one-run games this year, the second-most one-run wins in baseball, which is a big reason they won six more games than their run differential would have suggested. This is normally when we would say "thanks to their excellent bullpen." But the Braves didn't have an excellent bullpen; they actually had the best offense in baseball from the seventh inning on. They were only 11th in the majors in bullpen ERA, 14th in bullpen win probability added.

Rather, the bullpen went through six months -- or at least four-and-a-half months -- of trying to figure things out. The Braves used five closers this year:

• Arodys Vizcaino's season ended after just four outings

• A.J. Minter's ERA went from 3.23 last year to 7.06 this year

• Jackson was fine, but stumbled in July and got replaced by the high-profile addition of Shane Greene

• Greene lost the job after three outings, having allowed as many earned runs (five) as he had with Detroit in the previous four months

• Melancon, of all people, held the job the rest of the way

Melancon, Greene and Martin were all acquired at the trade deadline. That didn't settle everything down: The Braves were still middle of the pack after the deadline and in September. But it did at least give them stability -- until the first game of the playoffs, when right-hander Chris Martin strained his oblique while warming up. Martin was probably the third-best reliever in this bullpen, and got himself removed from this article. Curse missed opportunities.

6. St. Louis Cardinals

Mnemonic to keep the final 15 outs of the game straight: Weeding Broadens Gardeners' Minds, Maybe? (or: Tyler Webb -> John Brebbia -> Giovanny Gallegos -> Andrew Miller -> Carlos Martinez)

Bullpen Poochie: It breaks my heart to say it's not Miller, the original Modern Poochie. Miller still pitches high-leverage innings, but he's not the multiple-inning force he once was, and more than half his appearances this year were actually less than an inning. Instead, the Cardinals need it to be Gallegos, the reliever they got back in the Luke Voit trade a little more than a year ago. He arrived with 30 career innings and a 4.75 career ERA, but broke out this year with the majors' third-lowest batting average allowed (minimum 50 innings). His best pitch is a slider with unusual movement -- it doesn't move side to side, but down, almost like a spike curveball, sometimes even "backing up" to his arm side -- that induced a 95th percentile whiff rate this year. That slider hit a lull in August, as his release point changed subtly and the pitch backed up more frequently. His September slider seemed to return to form. If he can dominate in October he'll be a multi-inning threat, with 25 appearances of at least four outs (and eight of at least two innings) this year.

This year's bartender: Brebbia was a 30th-round pick who was released after three years by the Yankees. He spent not just a quick recharge in independent ball but two full seasons, putting up a 0.98 ERA for Laredo in the American Association in Year 2. His pitching coach in Laredo describes it: "20-hour bus rides, it's 115 degrees and you're not making any money. ... I told his dad, 'I really think John is going to pitch in the big leagues.' He kind of chuckled because it's hard to get to the big leagues when you are in independent baseball." But Brebbia had made some mechanical changes and added velocity, and the Diamondbacks signed him. Then the Cardinals claimed him in the Rule 5 draft. Since then, he's got the 30th best reliever ERA in the majors, minimum 150 innings.

Pitching Ninja bait: It's still Miller's slider, which, more than almost any slider in baseball, sliiiiiiiiiides:

Andrew Miller, Disgusting 82mph Slider. ? pic.twitter.com/bynrhG3g1g

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 24, 2019

The bottom line: The Cardinals have been without their 104-mph closer, Jordan Hicks, since late June, but Martinez held down the ninth afterward. He blew only one save, and even that one comes with excuses -- it was a one-run game on the road against the mighty Dodgers, he inherited the tying run, and lost on a fairly weak ground-ball single. The club's bullpen ended up just 0.03 runs behind the best ERA in the National League, and 0.01 runs behind the best FIP, but, of course, a postseason bullpen doesn't always have much in common with the group that was pitching in April or May. The Cardinals' bullpen ERA in September was just 24th in the majors, and Miller -- used in both the eighth and ninth innings, depending on matchups -- had a couple meltdowns.

But the Cardinals do one thing better than any other contending team with their bullpen: They keep the platoon advantage. They faced 57 percent of hitters with the platoon advantage, a higher mark than any playoff team. They'll have three lefties in the LDS, with Miller, Webb and Genesis Cabrera. They also got two of their best setup men, Gallegos and Brebbia, accustomed to pitching multiple innings, with both of those pitchers in the top 10 for outings of at least four outs this year.

It's not clear yet where the Cardinals will fit into the postseason trends of short starts and aggressive relief usage. All four of their playoff starters qualified for the ERA title -- one of only three teams that had four horses like that -- and their rotation was clearly their strength in the second half. But we've also never seen their manager, Mike Shildt, manage in October.

5. Minnesota Twins

Mnemonic to keep the final 15 outs of the game straight: Literary Man, Romantic Dunderhead: Romeo (or: Zack Littell -> Trevor May -> Sergio Romo -> Tyler Duffey -> Taylor Rogers)

Bullpen Poochie: It's Rogers, the closer. For the first couple months of the season, the Twins used the lefty as a multi-inning reliever, sometimes letting him get the save but more often not. He'd just come in and mow through the heart of the order late in a game, whenever that needed to be done. By June he was the primary closer -- and throwing harder than he ever had -- but even then he was used very aggressively: His 12 saves of at least four-plus outs would have been the most by any closer since 2006, except Josh Hader had 15 this year. Given that experience, it'll be a fun game to see how early we start wondering about him. He probably has a three-inning save in him this postseason, if the Twins can stay in the playoffs long enough and get him a lead against one of the superteams they're in line to face. He sits at 95 mph with a sinker, has two breaking pitches he throws about half the time, and one of the half-dozen highest zone rates in baseball.

This year's bartender: Randy Dobnak went undrafted out of West Virginia's Alderson-Broaddus College, which had previously produced no major leaguers. He has said no team ever made it out to scout him. He began this season in High-A, driving for Lyft and Uber to try to cobble together a living wage. (He has boasted of his 4.99 Uber rating, with only one four-star review among a mass of 5s.) He ends it on a postseason roster, where he could be the longman in a "bullpen" game in LDS Game 4. Dobnak throws a low-90s sinker that has a 90th-percentile ground-ball rate, and he managed, in the year of the juiced ball, to allow only one home run against 118 batters. The nature of bartenders is they usually don't have large samples of success we can depend on, so it's not clear he can really handle the Yankees or Astros for three or four innings, but he could get a chance to prove it.

Pitching Ninja bait: By the end of the season, Brusdar Graterol threw the second-hardest sinker in the majors -- in part because three pitchers ahead of him had suffered season-ending injuries, perhaps a cautionary detail. He just turned 21 and is a, er, bruiser: 6-foot-1 and 265 pounds. He finishes his 100 mph delivery squared up intimidatingly at the batter, like Bald Bull preparing to charge. He's not reliably dominant yet -- he spent most of the year in Double-A, doesn't yet have a gaudy strikeout rate, and spent most of his 10 big-league outings in low leverage -- but he's got one of the prettiest fastball/slider combinations in this postseason:

Brusdar Graterol, Unfair 100mph Sinker. ? pic.twitter.com/06S8usrhG0

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) September 15, 2019

The bottom line: The Twins' starting rotation crumbled in the second half, but the bullpen got better, especially once Duffey -- who went two months without allowing a run before his final outing of the season -- emerged as a setup ace to backfill Rogers in the seventh and eighth innings. It's likely the Twins' bullpen will be asked to handle a lot of innings, considering Minnesota's starters were worst among playoff teams the third time through the order this year. Rocco Baldelli's plan might look a lot like Aaron Boone's in New York: three or four innings from the starter, then reflexively get somebody warming in the bullpen. The Twins' staff isn't nearly as famous as the Yankees', nor as established, nor as hard-throwing -- they actually have the slowest fastball velocity among postseason clubs -- and, if you had to bet on one team's bullpen going forward, you'd definitely bet on the Yankees. But the difference between each team's top five relievers this regular season was not only small, the Twins' unit actually had the slight advantage:

• Twins' top five: 2.74 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 11.2 K/9, 3.10 FIP

• Yankees' top five: 2.80 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 11.8 K/9, 3.12 FIP

4. Los Angeles Dodgers

Mnemonic to keep the final 15 outs of the game straight: Many Kooky Ballplayers Keep Urgently Making Jazzhands (or: Dustin May -> Adam Kolarek -> Pedro Baez -> Joe Kelly -> Julio Urias -> Kenta Maeda -> Kenley Jansen)

Bullpen Poochie: The best bet for this title is the 22-year-old May, a top starting pitching prospect who debuted in August. He probably won't start the postseason as the Poochie, but in October it often takes only one or two outings for a pitcher to jump three spots on the bullpen chart. May -- 6-foot-6 and rail thin, with a wild scorch of orange hair and huge spin rates on all his pitches -- has the best stuff of anybody in this bullpen, including a high-90s fastball and a low-90s cutter. (Of his final 100 pitches this year, the slowest was 89.) In his final stretch of the season, after moving from the rotation to short relief, he threw 10 innings, struck out 14 batters and walked one, and held batters to a .152/.222/.182 line. The lone red flag in that stretch was he didn't get all that many swinging strikes, but that could change if he unleashes his curveball, which was often his best pitch in the minors. He has mostly pocketed it in the majors -- perhaps struggling to command it -- but plans change fast in October.

This year's bartender: Kolarek was an 11th-round pick who didn't make his debut until he was 28, in 2017. He then spent more of his age-29 season in the minors than in the majors. But he has a funky, drop-down pitching motion, and he has finally emerged as one of the game's premier lefty specialists. In the past two years, only three left-handers have allowed a lower OPS to left-handed batters: Hader, Aroldis Chapman and Giants closer Will Smith. Right-handers crush him, yes, so he might face five batters in the entire LDS, and they might be Juan Soto five times.

Pitching Ninja bait: It's May:

Dustin May, Nasty 95mph Front Hip Sinker. ? pic.twitter.com/0rt1y9tJHW

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) August 27, 2019

The bottom line: Jansen isn't the game-stopper he once was: He had a career-worst win probability added this year, a career-worst eight blown saves, his velocity is down almost two mph from 2017 and it kept dropping bit by bit as the season went on. That said, he's still pretty good, so it isn't like the Dodgers have a liability in the ninth, or anywhere else in the bullpen, even if we do have to continually cite it as the team's lone "weakness." Compared to their lineup, their rotation, their defense and their depth it is, but the Dodgers' bullpen tied for the best ERA in the National League!

It's also better now than it has been all year. Maeda moved from the rotation to the bullpen, as he has done in the past two Octobers, and once again saw his strikeout rate shoot up as he leaned more heavily on his slider:

• 2017-2019 as starter (including postseason): 4.12 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 9.8 K/9, .688 OPS

• 2017-2019 as reliever (including postseason): 2.87 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, 11.7 K/9, .635 OPS

He's just one of the ways the Dodgers' rotation depth ultimately contributes to bullpen depth: Urias, a perfectly qualified postseason starter, will be in the bullpen, giving the Dodgers a second lefty (along with Kolarek) in a postseason bracket that is otherwise notably short on left-handed matchup pitchers. Unlike Kolarek, Urias can face Soto or Freddie Freeman without having to immediately leave the game afterward. And you already know how high we are on May, another starter whose stuff will play up in the postseason 'pen.

That leaves Baez and Kelly, two veteran nerve-rackers who, nevertheless, are used to the postseason and had fine seasons (especially after April). The Dodgers don't have the best postseason bullpen, but, along with Tampa Bay, they can throw the most different looks at opponents, they have a variety of short/long guys, they spent September setting everybody up for the postseason, and the relievers won't have to paint over the weaknesses of a thin starting rotation. The ninth innings will be a little scary, but they should be fine.

3. Houston Astros

Mnemonic to keep the final 15 outs of the game straight: Smelly, Rotten Jackfruit Hastens Premature Osteoporosis (or: Joe Smith -> Hector Rondon -> Josh James -> Will Harris -> Ryan Pressly -> Roberto Osuna)

Bullpen Poochie: It's Pressly, who just returned from a month on the injured list and finished the season with four appearances, four shutout innings, seven strikeouts and two baserunners. Pressly was already a fine reliever with Minnesota before the Astros traded for him last summer. Then Houston told him to throw his breaking ball more often and he turned into a genuine relief ace, with the seventh-best WAR and fifth-best ERA among all relievers in that time. Last October, he threw almost 80 percent breaking balls in the postseason, and allowed one hit in five innings.

This year's bartender: The Astros are so loaded with talent they don't really do much shopping in the bartender bin. But here's a note of appreciation for Harris: The Astros picked the former ninth-round pick off waivers just after his 30th birthday, back in 2014. He had thrown 99 career innings, with a 4.26 ERA. Since then he has the third-best ERA in baseball. He ended the season with an immaculate inning -- three strikeouts on nine pitches -- in his final outing.

Pitching Ninja bait: James, who was a top starting pitching prospect but has been in Houston's bullpen this year. He was wild, man, but he also had the 13th-highest swinging strike rate in baseball this year, the 13th-fastest fastball, and nearly 15 Ks per nine innings. He struck out 20 and walked four in 10 September innings, and this is what it looks like when he's in a GIF:

Josh James, 93mph Fastball...and ⚰️⚔️. pic.twitter.com/tGfayRM0op

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 21, 2019

The bottom line: The Astros are so strong at everything else that their bullpen is sometimes offered as the closest thing they have to a non-strength. But their relievers had the second-lowest ERA in the majors this year, and closer Osuna has plenty of postseason success on his resume. Their bullpen usage was pretty conservative this year -- Osuna attempted only one save of more than three outs, for instance -- and, with Justin Verlander/Gerrit Cole/Zack Greinke set to start most games, Astros relievers will probably be asked to throw fewer innings than any team's except Washington's. If there's anything that really stands out from traditional bullpens, it's that they have no lefty in the pen. But here's how much that mattered: Lefties hit .204/.279/.360 against Houston relievers, which is worse than lefties hit against any other team's bullpen.

2. New York Yankees

Mnemonic to keep the final 15 outs of the game straight: Great Otherwise, Kangaroos Break Chandeliers (or: Chad Green -> Adam Ottavino -> Tommy Kahnle -> Zack Britton -> Aroldis Chapman)

Bullpen Poochie: Technically I guess it's Green, not so much because he's better than the others but because the whole bullpen is Poochie. A team that's trying to beat the Yankees is trying desperately to get a lead before Green or Ottavino starts warming up and gets the Yankees' closing sequence rumbling. Green stands out in one way from his teammates: He's the only one of them who regularly went multiple innings this season, sometimes as an opener -- he started 15 games -- and sometimes as a mid-inning bridge, covering innings 4-6 once and 5-7 five times. His overall numbers are a little weaker than his teammates', but that's mostly left over from a disastrous April. Since returning from the injured list in mid-May, he's third in the majors in relief WAR (at FanGraphs), with 91 strikeouts and 15 walks in 60 innings. The standard take is that Chapman or Britton is the best reliever in this bullpen. The Galaxy Brain take is that right now it might be Green.

This year's bartender: One year ago Kahnle had a 6.56 ERA and didn't even make the Yankees' postseason roster. He started this year pitching low-leverage innings in Yankees losses. Now he's the main seventh-inning guy, with the second-best FIP and the highest whiff rate on the staff.

Pitching Ninja bait: I don't know who the most-GIF'd reliever on Pitching Ninja's feed is, but I count 66 different clips of Ottavino, whose glorious slider has the fourth-most movement of any pitcher's:

Adam Ottavino, Slider Movement (front view). ?? pic.twitter.com/xYPHQbMw1G

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 3, 2018

The bottom line: The Yankees' regular-season reliever strategy was nothing like what we tend to associate with postseason reliever strategy. Their nominal ace, Chapman, never threw more than one inning in a game. For that matter, Britton did it only once and Kahnle only twice. They hardly ever used relievers on back-to-back days -- only 83 times, lowest among contenders. They never used any of their top five relievers three days in a row, which is notably conservative. As Joel Sherman wrote in July, "The Yankees would rather sacrifice the singular game than push relievers to what the organization sees as a danger zone." It worked: Five of their top six relievers (Dellin Betances, who missed almost all year with a preseason injury, is the exception) stayed healthy and effective through the end of the season.

Presumably, the calculus shifts now: Manager Aaron Boone has said the Yankees are "going to be a little untraditional," which seems to mean short outings from every starter except James Paxton, and has said it's "certainly possible" they'll use an opener in some games. "New York is prepared to script each game with piggyback starters and six key relievers," Tom Verducci wrote last month, when it looked like Betances might be healthy enough to be the sixth. The math on that, and the urgency of each postseason inning, means relievers will almost certainly have to go beyond their regular-season usage. Last year, the Yankees' top relievers went more than an inning six times in the ALDS -- though Chapman didn't. In the 2017 postseason, they did it 20 times, including three times by Chapman.

The question, then, is whether the Yankees' regular-season usage is about to pay off in a big way. It could: Their relievers are still strong, not fatigued from blowing past career-high innings totals or laboring through the summer. But it could also mean their relievers are about to be asked to pitch in unfamiliar ways, which relievers tend to gripe about. (See, for example, Chapman, who complained about longer outings in the 2016 postseason, after just one four-out save that regular season.) In recent years, we've sometimes seen contending teams do exactly the opposite: stretching out their highest-leverage relievers to prepare them for their postseason assignments. Anyway, the Yankees' bullpen is great, for the third postseason in a row.

1. Tampa Bay Rays

Mnemonic to keep the final 15 outs of the game straight: Cash's Postseason Roster Dreamily Anticipates Parades (or: Diego Castillo -> Colin Poche -> Chaz Roe -> Oliver Drake -> Nick Anderson -> Emilio Pagan)

Bullpen Poochie: They have an actual Bullpen Poche -- Colin, who led the minors in strikeout rate in 2017 and 2018 and this year allowed the 10th-fewest hits per nine innings as a major leaguer. But anybody who watched the AL wild-card game knows now that the Poochie is Anderson, the reliever who warmed up (according to the broadcast) four times before finally getting into the game in the eighth and striking out four of the five batters he faced. Anderson had three of the most dominant months any reliever had this year. In April (as a Marlin) he struck out 27 while unintentionally walking zero in 13 innings. In August he struck out 22 while unintentionally walking zero in 12 innings. And in September he struck out 19 while unintentionally walking one in 10 innings. He had the seventh-best FIP in baseball this season, and the second best in the second half. His strikeout rate with Tampa Bay -- 52% -- is best in Rays franchise history by 10 percentage points.

This year's bartender: A bunch of them. Drake last year set an all-time record by pitching for five different teams -- and then got waived twice over the offseason. This year he not only pitched high-leverage innings for the league's best bullpen, but he was devastating against lefties, with the lowest OPS allowed against them. (Notable especially because he's right-handed. He throws around 80% splitters against them, and they hit just .147/.162/.196 against him.) Roe, whose slider has the most horizontal movement of any slider in baseball, pitched without much success for four teams before he became a Ray. He was still a minor league reliever when he was 30. Anderson's backstory is much scarier: He wasn't signed out of college in part because, after his role in a fight (he hit another person with a bat), he had spent eight days in jail. Before he ever reached affiliated ball he had spent three seasons in independent leagues and one pitching for an amateur team. He didn't make his major league debut until this year, for Miami, having been acquired from Minnesota in a minor league trade last winter.

But Pagan's the pick here. Last year, as an Oakland A, he pitched in the second-lowest leverage of any pitcher in baseball. He was a mop-up man. This year he's the closer in the best postseason bullpen.

Pitching Ninja bait: It's Castillo's slider. Castillo, who also throws 100 mph with startling movement, threw two shutout innings in the wild-card game.

Diego Castillo, 5Ks in 2 innings on 15 Sliders (in 28 seconds). pic.twitter.com/vfAXPGbyuy

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 22, 2019

The bottom line: Here's what a scout told Jeff Passan for ESPN's playoff preview: "The way they piece their bullpen together is ridiculous. I've seen Andrew Kittredge up in the second inning and seen him close. Chaz Roe pitched in the eighth inning one day and (Blake) Snell was struggling in the second and Roe picked him up. They don't work it conventionally. These guys have pieced together a very impressive group."

Indeed, the Rays relievers are all used to coming into almost any inning, making this not just a formidable bullpen but one well-prepared for the urgency and unpredictability of postseason games. They had the most appearances on no-days rest this year, and the most multi-inning appearances. Here are the innings each of those top six relievers has appeared in this year:

Castillo: Every inning except the third
Poche: Every inning, first through ninth
Roe: Second, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth
Drake: Third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth
Anderson: Fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth
Pagan: Third, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth

They also have Yonny Chirinos, a starter who will presumably be available in the bullpen this month, and Kittredge, who started seven games as an opener and finished the season with 10.5 Ks per nine and stats not unlike the six we've been focusing on here.

Three of the majors' 11 lowest batting averages allowed are in the Rays' bullpen: Pagan, Drake and Poche. They have four of the 20 most whiff-inducing fastballs in the majors: Pagan, Poche, Drake and Anderson. The bullpen as a whole had the best ERA in baseball, while throwing 100 more relief innings than any other postseason team. That this is probably the least famous collection of relievers in this postseason adds to the charm, but that designation might be endangered. The Rays relievers might be about to get really famous. 'Tis the season for it.