After ticking off a gold-standard NBA conversation trope and calling for the Utah Jazz to be talked about more as championship contenders, it feels like a good time to go back to the well with another classic.

Should we be worried about [insert team here]?

We're now over a quarter of the way through the 2020-21NBA season. We've seen enough out of some teams to know they're contenders (Lakers, Clippers, Nets, 76ers), and already tuned out of others that don't seem to be a chance of being relevant such as the Wizards, Pistons and Timberwolves.

But some teams are difficult to get a read on. In particular, those that are falling drastically short of their preseason expectations roughly 20 games in.

The Dallas Mavericks play with a future MVP of the league but are five games below .500 at 8-13.

The New Orleans Pelicans welcomed a defence-focused coach in the off-season, yet currently rank 27th in defensive rating.

The Toronto Raptors won the championship in 2018-19 and finished the 2019-20 regular season as the 2nd seed. Now, they're hovering around the Detriot Pistons and Washington Wizards in the Eastern Conference standings.

The Miami Heat reached the NBA Finals last season. They're behind the Raptors at 7-13 right now.

Not every team keeps improving or making the playoffs, but for these four, being in the basement of their respective conferences this far into the season is a genuine cause for concern.

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Dallas Mavericks (8-13)

Health and Saftey protocols have made things difficult for every NBA team. The Dallas Mavericks, however, have really struggled to get their best team out on the floor.

Dwight Powell, Dorian Finney-Smith and Josh Richardson only just returned after sitting out for three weeks. For the most part, they looked like guys that spent two weeks in a room as they struggled to get back into the groove.

While not every player has had to deal with health and safety protocols, 'struggling to get back into the groove' covers most of the team.

Outside of Luka Doncic who is putting up outrageous numbers of 27.3 points, 9.0 rebounds and 9.4 assists per game, there isn't a lot to write home about for the Mavericks.

Again, Covid struggles have played a part. It's difficult to build any cohesion when three key players in Doncic, Richardson and Kristaps Porzingis have played just 46 minutes together all season.

The Dallas Mavericks lost 109-108 to Phoenix Suns Monday night, their 12th consecutive loss in a one-score game.

According to @EliasSports, that is the 3rd-longest streak in NBA history. They're 2 away from the record held by the 2016-18 Hornets. pic.twitter.com/G3BDCKZRYn

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) February 2, 2021

The minutes Porzingis has managed haven't always been particularly productive either.

He scored 23, 27 and 21 points for a +21 plus-minus across three games (2-1) before sitting out the second night of a back-to-back against the Houston Rockets. Porzingis posted 16, 18and 11 points for -56 in three losses in the three games that followed. 

With Porzingis' inconsistencies and new recruit Richardson spending so much time off the court, it's not a surprise to see the Mavericks failing to meet expectations early. But to be inside the bottom-ten in both offence and defence, and already three games back from the 8th seed in a truncated season? That's a worry.

So yes, we should be worried about the Mavericks. While the expectation remains for them to 'look' like a 4-8 seed team by the end of the season, whether or not they pull things together quickly enough to get there remains to be seen.

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New Orleans Pelicans (7-12)

It's always dangerous to expect too much out of any team in the NBA in any given year. So much can change. This year, in particular. However, to expect the New Orleans Pelicans to improve defensively, especially in transition, didn't seem like an outrageous suggestion.

On Stan Van Gundy before the season tipped off: "He demands that his team gets back in defence to limit the opposition in transition. This translated into the Pistons finishing inside the top-five in transition points allowed across his four seasons in Detroit."

Now 18 games into the season, the Pelicans rank 23rd in transition points allowed and 27th in defensive efficiency (115.2) overall. They're a worse team defensively this season than they were in the last. And they're getting worse. Only the Thunder, Mavericks and Trail Blazers have recorded a worse defensive rating than the Pelicans' 119.7 over the last two weeks.

Van Gundy didn't mince his words after the Pelicans gave up 126 points to the Rockets, telling NOLA.com: “It’s frustrating to me because that’s a big part of my job. Or at least the way I looked at this job coming in, it was to try to get us to improve at the defensive end of the floor. I thought we came out of camp guarding at a pretty high level, especially for the early part of the season. The level that we’re guarding at now, it’s not acceptable.”

The main talking point around improving the Pelicans surrounds their shooting. They don't have enough of it. Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram are capable cornerstones, but they need shooters around them to take some heat off. Still, even if Van Gundy filled the rest of his rotation with elite shooters and ball-handlers, a poor defence acts as the strongest of handbrakes in this league.

Through a player’s first 40 games:@Zionwilliamson’s FG% (58.5) is the best in NBA history and his 31 games with 20+ points is 2nd only to MJ’s 34 games (via @EliasSports) #WontBowDown | #NBAALLSTAR pic.twitter.com/Raji5lCDNX

— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) January 30, 2021

Just look at the Nets who lost to the lowly Wizards on Monday. They have played with the best offensive rating in NBA history since trading for James Harden (6-3), but have backed that up with the worst defensive rating in NBA history. 

Williamson and Ingram are good, but they're not Harden, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. If a trio of All-Stars can't dominate the league with a poor defence, Williamson, Ingram and the Pelicans are no chance.

Van Gundy fired a rocket up his team towards the end of January. Put a line through the Pelicans as a possible playoff team if we don't see a response on the defensive side of the ball soon.

RELATED: It's Time To Talk About The Utah Jazz As NBA Championship Contenders

Toronto Raptors (8-12)

The Toronto Raptors have been the best team in the Eastern Conference over the last seven years, but right now, they're languishing towards the bottom of the standings, behind two of the worst franchises of the last seven seasons in the Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks.

Many predicted their downfall last season after losing Kawhi Leonard in the wake of an NBA championship. However, the Raptors climbed up to the East's 2nd seed before losing the conference semi's in seven games to the Celtics.

It appears as though that downfall is here now, though.

The element of the unknown is no longer. Pascal Siakam, in particular, is struggling under the weight of sharper and more intense scouting and scheming. He's scoring four fewer points this season at 18.9points per game as the Raptors hover around the middle of the league in offensive efficiency. 

Fred VanVleet offered a fairly simple explanation for Toronto's recent form:

"Dumb stuff" or inconsistency, whichever way you slice it, Toronto's spiralling defence comes out smelling bad.

After allowing just 105.3 points per 100 possessions for 2nd in the league last season, the Raptors are giving up 111.3 points for 15th according to Cleaning The Glass. Even with Leonard in the lineup, questions remained about Toronto's offensive talent at a championship-contending level. But they got by with an elite defence. We've not seen it often enough to start the 2020-21 season.

28 points.
Career-high 8 threes.
IN THE FIRST HALF.

Fred VanVleet is feeling it for the @Raptors! pic.twitter.com/2OiANAMyGu

— NBA (@NBA) February 3, 2021

Miami Heat (7-12)

To call the Miami Heat's run to the NBA Finals last season a "fluke" isn't fair. You don't see a team continue to defy the odds throughout the playoffs or Jimmy Butler's performance in the Finals and call it anything other than impressive.

But it looks as though that unlikely run to the Finals will be Miami's best chance at lifting the Larry O'Brien Trophy for a couple of seasons yet.

They've not been able to carry over their level of play from the bubble to the outside world. Like others, they've had to deal with players missing time due to Covid. But most notably, their previously Top-10 offence has fallen to 25thto start the 2020-21 season.

Through games on Feb. 1, here's how all members of the Miami Heat have fared on both ends of the court during the 2020-21 #NBA season, per TPA. pic.twitter.com/kjpp6Pnx2t

— NBA Math (@NBA_Math) February 2, 2021

Miami's 38.6% from beyond the arc was 2nd in the NBA last season, but hasn't survived the start of this one. Despite 42.5% of their shots coming from three-point land (4th), Miami is connecting on just 35.5% (23rd). As a result, they're not getting to the rim. Only 29.4% of their shots come at the rim (26th), but their 68%accuracy ranks 4th in the NBA.

The numbers don't look good in Miami right now. A return to the Finals looks a long way off. However, with Butler's infectious tenacity and Erik Spoelstra capable of scheming his way to the playoffs with any playing group, there's still hope of a return to the playoffs at the very least.

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