January Power Rankings (20-11)
Mar 13, 2019 12:41:22 GMT
Ian Noble, Allen Iverson, and 5 more like this
Post by Jerry West on Mar 13, 2019 12:41:22 GMT
20 - Philadelphia 76ers (+3) Allen Iverson (18-27) (8-7)
Philly finished the month with a winning record and they are the polar opposite of the team below them in the Rankings, they are the living proof that chemistry matters, and a group of misfits near their prime (4 of their starters are either 25 or 26) find themselves climbing in the rankings for the 2nd month row.
Their bright spot has to be Jakob Poeltl who is averaging nearly 13 rebounds per game at the age of 23 and on Landry Shamet potential who is still perfect from the line this year (although on only 11 attempts) and shooting nearly 55% from downtown.
The bad news is that their supposed future star player hasn't played yet and there's no news about him or when he is supposed to return, which still leads to the question if Michael Porter Jr. will ever play basketball again.
19 - San Antonio Spurs (0) George Gervin (21-23) (6-8)
The good news for the Spurs this month is that they basically managed to trade Derrick Rose for Henry Ellerson, James Young, Frank Mason, Casspi and Luwawu, and I know there are still some bad contracts in there, but at least they are shorter and easier to trade then that Rose contract ever was. Now they're only left with the bad contracts of Parsons and Danny Green, which just shows how much George Gervin has improved this franchised ever since becoming the GM.
Despite that, the Spurs should be happy both their starting backcourt members are 20 years young and together are averaging 36, 8 and 11 which is amazing for 2 young players still learning the game.
18 - Portland Trail Blazers (+2) Brandon Roy (20-23) (6-7)
You might not believe it but I don't like hating on Brandon Roy, in fact, he was my favorite player to watch during the time he played for the Blazers, and luckily, I won't have to this month.
Despite still posting a losing record we saw signs of improvement from the Blazers who now post a not so bad negative 2.1 point differential, that's better than Cleveland for example who are still a couple of spots ahead of them in the rankings.
To be honest I kinda like the Blazers chances of making the playoffs, the two teams above them are the Lakers and the Spurs, and one of them has been has been very vocal about their players being on the market and the other is a team compiled of a lot of young players who might struggle when we start reaching the 60 game mark.
Look out for the Blazers making a push for the playoffs.
17 - Orlando Magic (-3) Blake Bowman (23-20) (8-8)
The Magic are the first team with a winning record on the season to appear in this month's Power Rankings. And that's mostly due to their bench. GM Blake Bowman has still been quiet on the market despite Oladipo going down for the season, probably due to believing this team is good enough to make a run for it next year in their current state, but that means that this year Andrew Harrison is still their best bench players, yikes. And worst of all, the team is expected to be over the hard cap next year, which means they might lose their draft picks and the chance of using their MLE.
Maybe the Magic are holding out for the best deal possible in this market, but let's hope for their sake that they won't hold out for too long.
16 - Chicago Bulls (-4) Shane Battier (24-21) (8-7)
An 8-7 month is not what would you expect from a team with players of the caliber the Bulls have, but they still managed to finish the month with a 5.8 point differential, which is nearly on pace with the Grizzlies point differential for the season. Which is another reason for the Bulls being the opponent the top teams of the East least wanna face in the playoffs.
Let's all wait and see what happens with John Wall meanwhile, that will be the better indicator of what the Bulls hope to achieve this season. A season where they've been lucky enough to see DeMarcus Cousins comeback from a horrific injury and average 22 and 10 while being a top 5 shot blocker in the league.
15 - New York Knicks (-2) Billy King (24-20) (9-7)
The shocking news that exploded during the week that Ricky Rubio maintains some kind of "special" relationship with Billy King's wife which also happens to be Dell Demps sister took the league by storm. A player who is 2nd in the league in assists is now being shopped around attached with sexual favors that he will probably provide himself with his Spanish charm.
Meanwhile, he is still ruining the Knicks front office idea of tanking while also having Whiteside, Buddy Hield and Aaron Gordon on the team, since now Rubio is an easy target to put the blame on despite being a cult hero to Knicks fans.
The Knicks are making the playoffs whether their front office wants it or not, and Knicks fan love it.
14 - LA Lakers (+1) Mark Price (23-21) (8-6)
Despite being in a playoff position the Lakers seem ready to give up on the season and have put the entire team on the trade block. And that might honestly be the right move. Or is it? I don't know, is it? I honestly don't know.
The Lakers aren't good enough to win and their best players are getting old, but that doesn't mean that they don't own solid pieces in DJ, Conley, Warren and Dinwiddie. But they for sure aren't getting their pick back from the Knicks, not even if they take on Rubio. So what's the point really unless it is to create cap space?
Truth be told, if they trade their top 2 guys they'll only have 25 million dollars on their books next year, which might give them the chance to overpay some slightly below the max players and convinced them to join Los Angeles. But then, in that case, their only pick in the next 2 years won't have much value.
It's a loose loose situation in La La Land, it's up to GM Mark Price to prove his worth.
13 - Cleveland Cavaliers (+4) Hanamichi Sakuragi (23-20) (7-5)
The self-proclaimed 2nd hottest team in the league were, in fact, a hot team for a while there, just not that hot.
Good news is that they find themselves only half a game back from the 6th seed, the bad news is that their point differential (which is always a good sign to see the true quality of a team) is a negative 2.7.
The Cavs are a playoff team, but that's mostly to the current state of the Eastern Conference rather than anything else, still, of the Cavs, Knicks, Bulls and Magic group, someone will have to miss the playoffs, so don't expect it to be an easy ride to the playoffs till then.
12 - Toronto Raptors (-4) Bryan Colangelo (30-15) (7-8)
How does a team with 3 All-Star caliber players go under .500 in a month? I'll tell you how.
W @ Hawks, L vs Magic, L vs Rockets, W vs Nets, W @ Bulls, L vs Hornets, W @ Jazz, W @ Blazers, L @ Thunder, L @ Lakers, L @ Nuggets, L vs Bulls, L @ Bucks and W vs Kings.
So short answer, have a long road trip and a mix of mostly average to good teams. If it wasn't for their thought schedule they would have dropped even further down in the Rankings, but it's still unacceptable for a team this good and so high in the rankings to have a negative record during a full month.
11 - Houston Rockets (-2) Charles Barkley (28-16) (8-8)
Kevin "The Tank" Love has been clear for take off. Despite being posting solid stats and shooting 40% from deep, and probably be the ideal big man to play alongside Giannis, things haven't meshed well in Houston so far between their start players.
Between Love getting back to rhythm and Giannis getting used to playing PF instead of Center this time around, you also have to take into account that Kemba it's adjusting to his new role, where he plays more off the ball and at times becomes a glorified version of his teammate Eric Gordon.
All of this things ended up with the Rockets dropping their last 4 games of the month, but that doesn't mean that they are out of contention for home-court advantage, with them being only 2 games back from the 3rd seed.
Still, expect them to get things together and be a real threat to cause an upset in the playoffs.
Philly finished the month with a winning record and they are the polar opposite of the team below them in the Rankings, they are the living proof that chemistry matters, and a group of misfits near their prime (4 of their starters are either 25 or 26) find themselves climbing in the rankings for the 2nd month row.
Their bright spot has to be Jakob Poeltl who is averaging nearly 13 rebounds per game at the age of 23 and on Landry Shamet potential who is still perfect from the line this year (although on only 11 attempts) and shooting nearly 55% from downtown.
The bad news is that their supposed future star player hasn't played yet and there's no news about him or when he is supposed to return, which still leads to the question if Michael Porter Jr. will ever play basketball again.
19 - San Antonio Spurs (0) George Gervin (21-23) (6-8)
The good news for the Spurs this month is that they basically managed to trade Derrick Rose for Henry Ellerson, James Young, Frank Mason, Casspi and Luwawu, and I know there are still some bad contracts in there, but at least they are shorter and easier to trade then that Rose contract ever was. Now they're only left with the bad contracts of Parsons and Danny Green, which just shows how much George Gervin has improved this franchised ever since becoming the GM.
Despite that, the Spurs should be happy both their starting backcourt members are 20 years young and together are averaging 36, 8 and 11 which is amazing for 2 young players still learning the game.
18 - Portland Trail Blazers (+2) Brandon Roy (20-23) (6-7)
You might not believe it but I don't like hating on Brandon Roy, in fact, he was my favorite player to watch during the time he played for the Blazers, and luckily, I won't have to this month.
Despite still posting a losing record we saw signs of improvement from the Blazers who now post a not so bad negative 2.1 point differential, that's better than Cleveland for example who are still a couple of spots ahead of them in the rankings.
To be honest I kinda like the Blazers chances of making the playoffs, the two teams above them are the Lakers and the Spurs, and one of them has been has been very vocal about their players being on the market and the other is a team compiled of a lot of young players who might struggle when we start reaching the 60 game mark.
Look out for the Blazers making a push for the playoffs.
17 - Orlando Magic (-3) Blake Bowman (23-20) (8-8)
The Magic are the first team with a winning record on the season to appear in this month's Power Rankings. And that's mostly due to their bench. GM Blake Bowman has still been quiet on the market despite Oladipo going down for the season, probably due to believing this team is good enough to make a run for it next year in their current state, but that means that this year Andrew Harrison is still their best bench players, yikes. And worst of all, the team is expected to be over the hard cap next year, which means they might lose their draft picks and the chance of using their MLE.
Maybe the Magic are holding out for the best deal possible in this market, but let's hope for their sake that they won't hold out for too long.
16 - Chicago Bulls (-4) Shane Battier (24-21) (8-7)
An 8-7 month is not what would you expect from a team with players of the caliber the Bulls have, but they still managed to finish the month with a 5.8 point differential, which is nearly on pace with the Grizzlies point differential for the season. Which is another reason for the Bulls being the opponent the top teams of the East least wanna face in the playoffs.
Let's all wait and see what happens with John Wall meanwhile, that will be the better indicator of what the Bulls hope to achieve this season. A season where they've been lucky enough to see DeMarcus Cousins comeback from a horrific injury and average 22 and 10 while being a top 5 shot blocker in the league.
15 - New York Knicks (-2) Billy King (24-20) (9-7)
The shocking news that exploded during the week that Ricky Rubio maintains some kind of "special" relationship with Billy King's wife which also happens to be Dell Demps sister took the league by storm. A player who is 2nd in the league in assists is now being shopped around attached with sexual favors that he will probably provide himself with his Spanish charm.
Meanwhile, he is still ruining the Knicks front office idea of tanking while also having Whiteside, Buddy Hield and Aaron Gordon on the team, since now Rubio is an easy target to put the blame on despite being a cult hero to Knicks fans.
The Knicks are making the playoffs whether their front office wants it or not, and Knicks fan love it.
14 - LA Lakers (+1) Mark Price (23-21) (8-6)
Despite being in a playoff position the Lakers seem ready to give up on the season and have put the entire team on the trade block. And that might honestly be the right move. Or is it? I don't know, is it? I honestly don't know.
The Lakers aren't good enough to win and their best players are getting old, but that doesn't mean that they don't own solid pieces in DJ, Conley, Warren and Dinwiddie. But they for sure aren't getting their pick back from the Knicks, not even if they take on Rubio. So what's the point really unless it is to create cap space?
Truth be told, if they trade their top 2 guys they'll only have 25 million dollars on their books next year, which might give them the chance to overpay some slightly below the max players and convinced them to join Los Angeles. But then, in that case, their only pick in the next 2 years won't have much value.
It's a loose loose situation in La La Land, it's up to GM Mark Price to prove his worth.
13 - Cleveland Cavaliers (+4) Hanamichi Sakuragi (23-20) (7-5)
The self-proclaimed 2nd hottest team in the league were, in fact, a hot team for a while there, just not that hot.
Good news is that they find themselves only half a game back from the 6th seed, the bad news is that their point differential (which is always a good sign to see the true quality of a team) is a negative 2.7.
The Cavs are a playoff team, but that's mostly to the current state of the Eastern Conference rather than anything else, still, of the Cavs, Knicks, Bulls and Magic group, someone will have to miss the playoffs, so don't expect it to be an easy ride to the playoffs till then.
12 - Toronto Raptors (-4) Bryan Colangelo (30-15) (7-8)
How does a team with 3 All-Star caliber players go under .500 in a month? I'll tell you how.
W @ Hawks, L vs Magic, L vs Rockets, W vs Nets, W @ Bulls, L vs Hornets, W @ Jazz, W @ Blazers, L @ Thunder, L @ Lakers, L @ Nuggets, L vs Bulls, L @ Bucks and W vs Kings.
So short answer, have a long road trip and a mix of mostly average to good teams. If it wasn't for their thought schedule they would have dropped even further down in the Rankings, but it's still unacceptable for a team this good and so high in the rankings to have a negative record during a full month.
11 - Houston Rockets (-2) Charles Barkley (28-16) (8-8)
Kevin "The Tank" Love has been clear for take off. Despite being posting solid stats and shooting 40% from deep, and probably be the ideal big man to play alongside Giannis, things haven't meshed well in Houston so far between their start players.
Between Love getting back to rhythm and Giannis getting used to playing PF instead of Center this time around, you also have to take into account that Kemba it's adjusting to his new role, where he plays more off the ball and at times becomes a glorified version of his teammate Eric Gordon.
All of this things ended up with the Rockets dropping their last 4 games of the month, but that doesn't mean that they are out of contention for home-court advantage, with them being only 2 games back from the 3rd seed.
Still, expect them to get things together and be a real threat to cause an upset in the playoffs.