Panic?

As an addendum to C's excellent advice post I wanted to offer one of my own. I think its fair to say to Jazz fans that they shouldn't panic. We shouldn't celebrate emphatically, as we're likely the league's ninth best team or so, but panicking is not a good idea, given how crazy this summer was and how (relatively) painlessly our team seems to have adapted. There are other teams out there, however, and their fates don't seem to be looking as good. So my question is which teams performing below expectations should begin to panic? The Rockets are missing Mao, but are, in theory anyway, deep enough that that shouldn't matter. Nevertheless, their record is the second worst in the West (tied with Philadelphia's for the worst in the East). The Trailblazers, while still managing to sort of play decently due to a great set of role players, are missing their two stars to injury, maybe forever. And the Heat have drastically underperformed given the hope that they would be best team ever (still possible if they go on a 65-3 run).

With Minnesota, Washington, New Jersey, the Kings, and the Clippers seeming better than they have in years past (sorry Raptors) we might be finally entering an era of pretty evenly distributed basketball talent. It could be a basketball dominated by a few teams at the top, but not as dominated as it has been in recent years. That's good news for the fine people of Minnesota and the future fine people of Brooklyn, but bad news for those in Portland, Houston, and Miami that thought they would dominate. Do these problems seem bad only by dint of the natural overreaction that comes with limited data? Or are they actually damning? In other words is it time to chill or panic? And if so, should each team panic equally, or is Portland particularly screwed? Only two votes in 6 days will decide (see sidebar).