Actually on first read, I thought the other 2 were jounin as well. It was kinda like "wtf what's shikamaru doing w/ 3 jounin?". then the idea of them being 2 chuunin was brought up earlier and i prematurely accepted it. Plus it seems more feasible that in a 4-man team, there is one superior.

I'd rather not create artificial tiers but if i were to...i'd say asuma is a high-tier jounin along with kakashi, kurenai, gai, and i may be missing one more. these 2 questionables i would label as high-tier chuunins, and shikamaru would be mid-tier chuunin with 3 years under his belt. with shikamaru consistently beating asuma in shogi, i'd say he'd be the strategist/tactician of the team rather than a frontliner.