BDL’s Most Interesting Power Rankings: 1-2-3 … Cancun!
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 week, BDL’s Most Interesting Power Rankings track the teams most worthy of your attention.
This week, in a tribute to Nick Van Exel we take a look at those who are laughing all the way toward the end of the regular season. Or, at least, making us laugh.
THE TOP 15
1. Sacramento Kings (27-42; last week: 11):
We’re cheating a bit here by reaching back to last week in bringing up the fact that DeMarcus Cousins was caught screaming at coach George Karl on March 10, but the Kings have been cheating their fans since the days that saw Gawen DeAngelo “Bonzi” Wells play for the team.
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Cousins was suspended for the team’s next game, by said team, a day after Karl had to undergo a frightening “cancer-related procedure.” Boogie the responded by making it clear that rookie chief of personnel Vlade Divac likely wanted nothing to do with suspending his center, and that Karl (the man who has done nothing but antagonize his team’s best player for the last year) was behind the understandable move. Neither the indifferent coach nor the indefensible All-Star look anything more than embarrassing at this point.
Meanwhile, months after pointing out that the triangle offense wasn’t to his liking, Kings guard and future free agent Rajon Rondo effusively praised the New York Knicks’ chosen (or, at least, “hoped-for;” because the Knicks barely run it) offensive frame. This came on the heels of a report that Rondo’s agent had already met with Knicks ostensible general manager Steve Mills in the “anything goes” hallways of Oracle Arena.
Then the Kings beat the Knicks on Sunday night; and every Kings win hurts the team’s chances at keeping its lottery pick this year! If the Kings do keep their pick and somehow vault ahead of Philadelphia in the lottery, the 76ers get to swap places in the draft with Sacramento!
2. New York Knicks (28-43; last week: not ranked):
Meanwhile, in New York, the Knicks continue to reel under “interim” (come on, guys, own it.) coach Kurt Rambis. Sunday’s loss left them at 5-12 following the loss to the Kings. The New York Post reported that Mills met with Rondo’s agent (totally not tampering) during the team’s loss to Golden State earlier in the week, and Kurt Rambis kept doing Kurt Rambis-y things:
The Knicks send a team to the Las Vegas summer league in July and hold practices and games. Rambis believes it could stunt [Kristaps] Porzingis’ growth as a player to have too much time away from Knicks coaches and training staff — even if the decision is not to play in summer league. The No. 1 goal is for Porzingis to get stronger and put on weight to avoid the rookie wall he hit this season.
“When I’m talking about playing, I’m talking about here,’’ Rambis said Friday. “Players growing up today, they play too much. A lot of summer can be used to develop strengths and work on aspects of your game. When you play you’re going back to your strengths and instincts. Sometimes playing can be bad and not conducive to player development.”
(Kristaps Porzingis has shot 36 percent in 12 games under Kurt Rambis.)
Also, Carmelo Anthony did firmly commit to his future with the team, offering a no-nonsense “S—, I don’t know” when asked about his prospects of escaping the club via trade this summer.
Phil Jackson watched a couple of road games in person, though, so there’s always that.
3. Los Angeles Lakers (15-47; last week: 28)
Great news. After months of inconsistent playing time, benching, and repeated browbeating in the media, Lakers coach Byron Scott is going to finally playing his young players consistent minutes! Sure, there’s less than a month left in the season, but the strong post-All-Star break play of contributors like Jordan Clarkson and D’Angelo Russell – totally not in spite of Scott and Kobe Bryant’s 35 percent stare-downs – have led to a breakthrough for the final handful of games:
Scott will even encourage his rookies to try new things!
4. Phoenix Suns (19-50; last week: not ranked)
The Suns actually enjoyed a relatively successful week, winning two games over the lowly Lakers and Timberwolves while also being blown out by 34 points at the hands of the Utah Jazz but let’s not get into that and improving interim head coach Earl Watson’s record on the season to 5-15. The team obviously wants to play for the much-respected ex-NBA point guard …
… but unless the squad is making its way out of the lottery soon, center Tyson Chandler doesn’t want to hang around. From the Arizona Republic, via CBS Sports:
“For me, especially where I am in my career, I want to win,” Chandler said Friday, via the Arizona Republic. “I want to win now. I’m not in any kind of rebuilding stage. So if that’s the case, it ain’t where I’m supposed to be.”
That’s entirely understandable, but the 33-year old Chandler tried to have his cake and eat it too last summer when he signed a four-year, $52 million deal with the slim hope that fellow free agent LaMarcus Aldridge would soon join him in Phoenix. LMA passed, and Chandler warmed himself with the idea that no other team would have offered a deal that approximated the one the Suns handed him.
Meanwhile, though he’s played darn well over the last month, at times Chandler has looked like his team’s second-best center. And even prior to his “rebuilding” comment, any trade leverage the Suns had in dealing him was shot to bits – the rest of the league knows Phoenix’s commitment to Chandler runs about as strong as his to the Suns.
At least they don’t have Markieff Morris to kick around anymore.
5. Milwaukee Bucks (30-40; last week: 13)
It’s Jason Kidd’s worst nightmare. His version of ‘The Producers’ is going over like gangbusters, and they might ask him to bring his performance back in the fall.
Kidd appears to prefer life as a personnel boss over the task of coaching, which is understandable in many respects. Despite Sunday’s loss to Utah (with the Jazz working on the second night of a back-to-back), the Bucks have played admirable and entertaining basketball, especially following Kidd’s move to put Giannis Antetokounmpo in the backcourt as his lead ball-handler.
As a result, while the Bucks are two losses away from ensuring a sub-.500 season, a sprightly run toward the finish could secure the re-printing of those “Jason Kidd, Head Coach” business cards yet again.
6. Chicago Bulls (35-33; last week: not ranked)
Listen, the best sports franchise in Chicago over the last six years has been the Chicago Blackhawks, so new Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg has clearly tapped in. Full shifts: five guys in, five guys out, a playmaking turn for Derrick Rose in the first half until his general soreness hits, Jimmy Butler gets to go in the second. Everything is all 90 degree angles with a Bulls team fighting for the final spot in the Eastern playoffs, which makes complete and total sense for a franchise that could never do anything with the triangle offense.
7. Houston Rockets (35-35; last week: not ranked)
The NBA doesn’t even know if it can or should suspend Dwight Howard for using Stickum because the league’s rulebook doesn’t explicitly state that the substance is band. Even though it can rub off on the ball, other players, a bag of Skittles, your favorite Whoopie Cushion, and just about any other game-altering part of that night’s program.
As a result, Dwight might play on! Counting down the days until he can finally be feted again, while James Harden limps into the playoffs, and coach J.B. Bickerstaff finds more potent bottles to actually hide behind the bench.
8. Washington Wizards (34-35; last week: 26)
The Wizards did what they were supposed to do this week, which has to have you cracking up.
The squad has won four straight, following its deepest hole of the season at 30-35, topping low-seed playoff rivals in Chicago and Detroit alongside goofballs like the Knicks and 76ers. This week features two games against the Hawks but also pairings against the Timberwolves and those young Lakers featuring Larry Nance Jr. at small forward.
A late season-swoosh toward a near-playoff berth could be all the team’s ownership group needs to sign off on the current coach and general manager. Wizards fans might even compare such a turn to the time a Chris Whitney-led near-playoff run in 1998 led to the team’s ownership retaining GM Wes Unseld, who in mid-May dealt Chris Webber to Sacramento for Mitch Richmond and Otis Thorpe!
You can do this, Washington.
9. Minnesota Timberwolves (22-47; last week: not ranked)
The push/pull with this team is maddening, as it sets up for its 12th consecutive playoffs miss.
Minnesota remains an engaging watch. Karl-Anthony Towns put up 32 and 11 against the Rockets the other night. Tayshaun Prince has been moved to the bench and Shabazz Muhammad’s yo-yo engagement from game to game will never stop acting as a draw. In a realm that we’re embarrassed to have ever ranked, Dave Benz and Jim Petersen remain the gold standard for local announcing pairings.
Irreverence aside (we’ll get back to it in a second), you want something in these final few weeks that shows that the team’s ownership is committed to The Big Next Step, that the squad can find a suitable head coach that will help in that area (though there is no shame in keeping Sam Mitchell on any bench as an assistant), and that the next full-on personnel chief acts as a pendulum swing from the three (!) years since David Kahn’s dismissal.
10. Orlando Magic (29-40; last week: 27)
The Scott Skiles Bump most assuredly did not take place, and the Magic have gone 10-27 after a strong start to the season. The team has been incapable of getting over the hump offensively, and its defense ebbs and flows so much that the squad ranks in the absolute middle of the league on offense.
As with the Timberwolves, though, the sheer amount of excitable parts makes the team worth paying attention to. We just don’t know if owner Rich DeVos will have the temerity to see that his team might need to move away from Skiles after one year. Not because Skiles is a Magic legend, but because he has three years left on his deal following this season.
11. New Orleans Pelicans (26-43; last week: not ranked)
There’s no point in bringing the snark to New Orleans, we talked about Anthony Davis’ demise at length on Sunday. Davis and his teammates’ inability to stay healthy is an absolute shame, he’ll finish this season once again playing just three-quarters of his team’s games, and a major roster overhaul will be needed to fit coach Alvin Gentry’s schemes.
The real fun will be watching various Pelicans audition at length over the next few weeks for an upcoming role as New Orleans’ (or some other team’s) ninth man.
12. Memphis Grizzlies (40-30; last week: 6)
The Grizzlies could have hit their low point on Saturday in the wake of Matt Barnes’ suspension, with the contending Clippers in town. Barnes joined a litany of teammates on the unavailable list, a list that we thought was going to include forward Zach Randolph.
Randolph surprised in his return, though, and led the Grizzlies to a statement win with his best game of the season. Zach notched a triple double with 28 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists as the Grizz prevailed by a 113-102 score.
This team refuses to go away. Make America grind again.
13. Los Angeles Clippers (43-26; last week: 9)
The same Clippers have artfully dodged the Blake Griffin situation both on and off the court, winning two-thirds of their games behind the brilliant play of Chris Paul, all while mostly keeping Blake Griffin at arm’s length (pun was not intended at first, now fully intended) as he recovers from quadriceps setbacks and a broken hand.
Just 13 games remain, with the Clippers having to both re-learn how to implement Griffin into the proceedings, with the consideration that he will serve a four-game suspension once he returns to cleared health. Off-court injuries are always tricky to predict return dates for, and it’s possible that the Clippers will have a very uneasy situation on their hands coming up. Pun, once again, intended.
14. Cleveland Cavaliers (49-29; last week: 1)
Weeks ago, with the Chicago Bulls fading and former competitors in Atlanta and Washington losing too many times to improve ranks, it was just assumed that the Cavs would glide into the East’s top spot no matter how many beautiful minds ran the team.
Suddenly, though:
15. Golden State Warriors (62-7; last week: 2)
I told you this was all a mirage. The losing streak starts here.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
26. Toronto Raptors (48-23; last week: not ranked)
See, if we start to ignore the Raptors (or, as many of their fans do – needn’t do, but nevertheless do), the team will keep winning, and it could end up with home court advantage for three rounds in the playoffs.
Every third Raptor fan just yelled at me to never bring up the third round until it happens, so as to avoid the jinx. I’ll remind THEM that THIS American columnist don’t speak Canadian.
27. Atlanta Hawks (41-29; last week: 41-29)
You get the feeling this team is in purgatory, working through yet another pretty good season prior to a playoff exit and the questions regarding roster turnover.
Worse, watching a pained Mike Budenholzer stomp around has ceased to be fun.
28. Oklahoma City Thunder (48-22; last week: 4)
Russell Westbrook, dashing around and always in danger of hitting his head on the rim prior to leading the break? Nah, never fun.
Kevin Durant, trying to make this desperately work in Oklahoma City, back to putting up legendary numbers? CLICK. Not my thing.
29. Charlotte Hornets (39-60; last week: 3)
Steve Clifford’s team is rolling back into the postseason after having won 22 of 32, peaking at the right time. Still, I refuse to recognize Frank Kaminsky as anything other than an unpaid college basketball player. Amateurism is to be cherished.
30. Philadelphia 76ers (9-61; last week: 30)
No explanation necessary. Only 12 games left to maybe watch a part of.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
