BDL’s Most Interesting Power Rankings: Houston, we have some questions
Let’s face it — the best and most powerful teams in the NBA don’t really change from week to week. A handful of results in the middle of winter can only mean so much to a franchise’s championship hopes. What does shift regularly, though, is how much interest a squad can hold over the course of a season. Every Monday, BDL’s Most Interesting Power Rankings track the teams most worthy of your attention.
THE TOP 15
1. Houston Rockets (last week: 15): The league’s most confounding contender showed its worst side this week, losing three in a row (including the Brooklyn Nets’ first win and a Mavs victory without arguably their three best players) to eclipse the promise of the preceding four-game winning streak and run its record to 4-6. James Harden is putting up some of the worst shooting nights of his career with astonishing regularity, Dwight Howard looks too slow to be the defensive stopper this team needs, and even an optimistic view of Ty Lawson would have to cast him as a poor fit as a starter. This absurd fast break between Lawson and Marcus Thornton helped no one’s cause:
Something looks very wrong with this team. Now watch them win five in a row.
2. Golden State Warriors (last week: 1): The defending champions are still undefeated despite near-losses to the woeful Brooklyn Nets and a Minnesota Timberwolves group playing without Ricky Rubio. Yet the mere fact that the Warriors won’t blow out everyone does not take away from that gaudy 12-0 record (2 1/2 games better than the next-closest Cavs) and the possibility of Stephen Curry doing the improbable in the midst of another terrific performance. Keep an eye on them until they lose, at the very least.
3. Sacramento Kings (last week: NR): At 3-7, the Kings are proving right any pundit who claimed that this batch of well-known players would fit together as well as … um, as well as George Karl and DeMarcus Cousins. Lo and behold, those two seem to have kept nice for less than three weeks of the regular season — here’s a dramatic reenactment of their argument — to the point where it’s possible that the Kings will dump Karl less than a year after they hired him. At least Cousins’s development into a credible three-point threat has continued at a reasonable pace.
Also, this happened:
Hey baby, I hear the blues a-callin’ …
4. Oklahoma City Thunder (last week: 7): Kevin Durant’s lone trip to Washington D.C. turned out to be rather anticlimactic, but the hamstring injury he sustained in that game has inspired a whole new set of questions over a team that had previously been fairly disappointing. With Durant out at least seven days, OKC has returned to the Russell Westbrook-centric attack that they were forced to rely on last season and have split a pair against the Sixers (win) and Celtics (loss). The question is now how long Durant will miss and if his hamstring nags throughout the season just as his foot did in 2014-15. His health could determine the course of this campaign and beyond.
5. Dallas Mavericks (last week: 14): It’s difficult to predict big things for an old team with so many injury concerns, but the Mavs just experienced something like the best-case scenario for the team that assembled after DeAndre Jordan’s reversal. Wednesday’s victory over the Clippers was obviously the big story, but Saturday’s road win against the Rockets without Dirk Nowitzki, Chandler Parsons, and Wesley Matthews was arguably more impressive. They’ve looked good, no matter what their owner says about the level of in-conference competition.
6. New Orleans Pelicans (last week: 27): OK, so there are relatively few reasons to watch a 1-9 team that ranks last in points allowed per 100 possessions. But the ongoing troubles with a squad so many had tabbed for big steps forward means that the Pelicans cannot be ignored. Injuries have hurt, but at some point all the optimism that surrounded this season could curdle into the sort of disappointment that necessitates a rebuilding project.
7. New York Knicks (last week: NR): We’re as surprised as anyone that the Knicks have emerged as one of the more exciting non-contenders around, because recent franchise history would seem to ensure that they’d screw up any situation that required patience. But the combination of hard workers like Robin Lopez, a motivated Carmelo Anthony, and organizational backing has given fans a squad that can be fun even if they seem likely to top out as a fringe playoff team. Oh, and that Porzingis guy provides a new reason to get excited every game.
The Knicks arguably haven’t been so purely fun since Linsanity.
8. Memphis Grizzlies (last week: NR): What to make of a team that has had five losses of 15 points or more, one other that involved copious mistakes in the final few seconds, and enough wins to sneak into the playoff picture at this early juncture? The Grizzlies do not look solid by any means, but their resolve has kept them solvent for now. Like the Rockets, we could see a return to normalcy or a season full of extreme swings from good to bad and back again.
9. Minnesota Timberwolves (last week: 5): Thank heavens for youthful teams full of potential, because they ensure that no apparent blowout (for them or the opponent) is ever decided. The Wolves salvaged a massive blown lead vs. the Hawks to wrap up a win and then occupied the other side of that equation against the Warriors three days later, proving that they can vacillate between great and terrible from moment to moment. It’s all pretty enjoyable when progress isn’t measured in wins.
10. Cleveland Cavaliers (last week: 2): If this seems low, it’s only because the best team in the East has become relatively familiar. They’ll get a bevy of incredible plays from LeBron James, star-level work from Kevin Love, quality showings from their 47 capable role players, and act all grumpy when even the slightest thing doesn’t go correctly. It’s probably going to be like this until Kyrie Irving returns, so just enjoy these amazing highlights for what they are:
11. San Antonio Spurs (last week: 8): The early weeks of the season can be very confusing, so it’s nice that the 7-2 Spurs are here to comfort us with no-fuss dependability so effective that it turned LaMarcus Aldridge’s return to Portland into a relative non-story. Plus, Kawhi Leonard is playing at a superstar level with such consistency that he looks likely to nab an All-NBA First Team selection.
12. Washington Wizards (last week: 12): Remember in the long ago (i.e. late October), when the Wizards’ new pace-and-space offense was all the rage. Well, they have now lost four of their last six, rank in the bottom half of the league in both offensive and defensive efficiency, and must contend with Randy Wittmann’s accusations that the team lacks toughness. On the plus side, Kris Humphries went 5-of-8 from deep in Saturday’s win over the Orlando Magic. Who needs sustainability?
13. Miami Heat (last week: 6): Just three weeks into the season, the Heat look as likely as any team to challenge the Cavs at the top of the conference. The emergence of youngsters like Justise Winslow and Tyler Johnson also indicates that they won’t have to rely solely on the bigger names in the starting lineup.
14. Chicago Bulls (last week: NR): It seems as if lots has gone wrong for the Bulls so far this season, but they’re somehow tied with Miami for the fourth-best record in the NBA and rank a Thibodeau-ish sixth in defensive efficiency. Meanwhile, Fred Hoiberg and Derrick Rose can’t agree on how long the latter will have blurred vision. Perhaps the team will be a functional mess for the whole season.
15. Charlotte Hornets (last week: 29): There’s something remarkable about watching a supposedly bad offensive team put up really good numbers. The Hornets rank ninth in points per 100 possessions and put up wins against the Wolves, Knicks, and Blazers, all while Jeremy Lin often plays like an elite bench scorer with arguably the best hair in the league. Catch them before it all comes crashing down.
THE BOTTOM 5
26. Portland Trail Blazers (last week: 3): This ranking is somewhat unfair, because the Blazers continue to play the high-energy style that made them a delightful early-weeks surprise. But they’ve now lost five in a row and face the Spurs on the road Monday night, which means that they’re probably falling back to their expected level as a mostly enjoyable also-ran.
27. Los Angeles Clippers (last week: NR): Under most circumstances, a contender going 2-2 would not be cause for concern. But the Clippers disappointed so thoroughly in the first three of those games that we must punish them in the rankings. The win over the Grizzlies must more like a de facto result than an earned one, the losses to the Mavericks and Suns seemed to involve a lack of focus, and a much better victory over the Detroit Pistons on Saturday still required 37 points from a previously iffy Jamal Crawford.
They now head into a light week that allows them to rest up before Thursday’s visit from the rival Warriors. Let’s hope they’re able to purge whatever ailed them. (The return of Chris Paul will probably help, too.)
28. Los Angeles Lakers (last week: 4): When Kobe Bryant plays, the Lakers take on the fascination of classic tragedy. When he doesn’t, the lack of a coherent plan rises to the fore and there’s nothing left to do but wonder why D’Angelo Russell isn’t given a real opportunity to prove himself.
Kobe missed the first two of four games this week, so we’re not going to pretend that the Lakers were especially fun to gawk at. They were just sad.
29. Brooklyn Nets (last week: 30): Such is the plight of the Nets that a team that beat the Rockets and nearly handed the Warriors their first loss Saturday can rise only one spot in these rankings. It’s just hard to get excited about a franchise that’s at least one season from heading in the right direction.
30. Philadelphia 76ers (last week: NR): The Sixers did not crack the bottom five last week only because our Kelly Dwyer enjoys Jahlil Okafor’s jump hooks. I do not care much for jump hooks.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
