2020 Season Power Rankings: November (30-21)
Jan 5, 2020 17:43:37 GMT
Ian Noble, Glenn Robinson, and 8 more like this
Post by Jerry West on Jan 5, 2020 17:43:37 GMT
Let me start off by congratulation the Milwaukee Bucks and Glenn Robinson on their D5 Championship. Truly an underdog story in the finals and on their way to reach it where they probably weren’t favorites in any series after the first round against New York City.
But what an exciting season we have in front of us. The East is better than never with LeBron James coming back after leaving Miami in a trade that will certainly never be forgotten, the Brooklyn Nets traded for Kyrie Irving and now seem to have a championship roster, the Milwaukee Bucks surprised everyone on draft night and decided to retool their roster before making another run at a championship this year and the Denver Nuggets still found a way to arguably have the best roster alongside the best player in the league in MVP James Harden. But while some teams rose others went down, the Bulls seem to have lost DeMarcus Cousins, the Rockets are between a rock and hard place, the Warriors have half their team in the hospital,the LA Clippers are in franchise hell and many others that we will discuss along as we go.
But what an exciting season we have in front of us. The East is better than never with LeBron James coming back after leaving Miami in a trade that will certainly never be forgotten, the Brooklyn Nets traded for Kyrie Irving and now seem to have a championship roster, the Milwaukee Bucks surprised everyone on draft night and decided to retool their roster before making another run at a championship this year and the Denver Nuggets still found a way to arguably have the best roster alongside the best player in the league in MVP James Harden. But while some teams rose others went down, the Bulls seem to have lost DeMarcus Cousins, the Rockets are between a rock and hard place, the Warriors have half their team in the hospital,the LA Clippers are in franchise hell and many others that we will discuss along as we go.
So strap in to what seems like it’s going to be one of the most unpredictable seasons we had so far.
And without further ado here are the first part of the monthly Power Rankings.
30 – LA Clippers Mike Krzyzewski (3-12)
What a better way to start the 2020 season Power Rankings than with a familiar face at the bottom? The Clippers ended last season at the number 30 spot, and you know what they say: “New year, old me”. Wait doesn’t sound right.
In the Off-season the Clippers made the obvious choice at 3 and selected R.J. Barret, sure it wasn’t the ideal drafting spot if we take into account that they had the highest odds of getting Zion Williamson, but they still got the 3rd pick in a draft most people agreed to have a big drop off after the 3rd selection. So why are the Clippers still here?
Well, in Free Agency they decided to add 3 at best mediocre players in Gary Payton II, Skal Labissiere and Trey Burke, while retaining Willy Hernandegomez. And then for some reason despite not owning their 1st or 2nd Round Pick next year (we will get back to that) decided to trade Carmelo Anthony when he is having a comeback year for the body of Nicolas Batum, an out of the league Salah Mejiri and overpaid Alex Len. Yikes.
Getting back to those picks for an instant, let this be a primary example of why people shouldn’t mortgage their future when your stars might be in expiring contracts or reaching a certain age where a drop-off seems imminent.
Last word, this one directed at their GM and please don’t take offense to this, Nic Batum, Greg Monroe or Jose Calderon are all starting and aren’t going to be part of anything good you can achieve in the future. Give the guys you signed in the off-season or traded for (Alex Len) a chance, you have nothing to lose by winning some games.
“Hello? This is Jayson calling. Can I get some help over here? What do you mean I’m the problem? Hello? Elton?”
Look, I know it has been a month but I expected a lot more from this Jazz squad. So I went to check what could possibly be causing this bad start, and then I found out what might be the worst start for a player in D5 history. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Jayson Tatum, shooter of bricks and passer of out of bounds, owner of an All-Time not great 0.48 TS% and an 0.27 A/TO ratio.
It’s still early but Zach Collins out for the year and with no real inside presence other than Tyler Zeller, it seems like another year of tanking awaits Utah. Who’s to blame? Is it Jayson Tatum? I disagree. I blame the man who drafted Sexton over SGA and then followed it by drafting another guard with questionable shooting (Jarret Culver) who still didn’t make a single appearance for the team. Why draft a guard and then play Kobi Simmons over him? Does Culver want out of Utah already? I don’t know but there
is a lot of questions to be asked in the Jazz organization. Specially when it comes to not playing your 7th overall pick.
is a lot of questions to be asked in the Jazz organization. Specially when it comes to not playing your 7th overall pick.
What a glorious year it is to be a Detroit Pistons fan, a roster with the 1st draft pick from just last year is less than a year away to add to it another 2 high draft picks. That’s right, Detroit’s own and the previously talked about Clippers pick. The prospect of possibly adding Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels to Coby White and Ayton seems exciting, let’s just hope it doesn’t end up in another Doncic over Ayton situation, but I’m being picky here, I’m sure Chauncey has every reason to be excited for next year.
Sometimes you look at a team and say yeah, they’ve got good prospects, but there’s no superstar talent there. Well, not anymore with Dallas, because now they drafted Ja Morant. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t questions in the air in Dallas.
What’s up with Reggie Jackson? He is on the trade block when he returns from injury? Or will he be splitting minutes with Morant? Will Barton is having a breakout year and is probably going to be paid in the off-season, question is, how much does Dallas want to keep him? Is Malik Monk ever going to breakout? Why is Spencer Hawes still on a D5 roster? And the worst question you can ask on a loosing team, what’s the goal for this year without your first-round draft pick? That’s right, Dallas is also without a first or second this year, a pick they used to acquire the Reggie Jackson who now they replaced with Ja Morant.
With Will Barton being an expiring and possibly out of Ja Morant’s window, look for him to be one of the most looked after trade targets during the year.
Remember trading Durant for Josh Jackson? Glad we got that out of the way.
Anyway, the pleasant surprise of last year didn’t hit the ground running this year. After taking the Denver Nuggets to 6 games in the Western Conference Semifinals the Thunder decided to let Gary Harris and Julius Randle walk, followed by trading another piece of their starting lineup, Serge Ibaka, to San Antonio in exchange of *checks notes* Cody Zeller? Did I get that right?
It seems clear around the league that this is a rebuilding season for the Thunder, which leads to the question of the future of Al Horford. But despite not having any superstar talent on the roster, at least the Thunder have their draft picks and a clear direction for the franchise future, which is more than some can say.
This can’t be right, you are telling me the team that starts Dennis Schroeder, Evan Fournier, Otto Porter Jr., Paul Millsap and Rudy Gobert is dead last in the East?
Yes, we all know that Oladipo is out, but even then, is this team ever going to contend? Or are they just stuck in an endless cycle of mediocrity? Unfortunately, it seems like the answer is getting clearer by the day.
With the team already close to the hard cap next season with 166 million on the books, it might be time to blow it up while your assets still hold value. Specially with talents like Oladipo and Gobert locked in to their contracts for another 4 years.
I’m not sure what’s going on in Orlando, but maybe it’s time to start working the phone.
Warriors are 6-11 after pulling the biggest and one of the smartest trades in league history, where they came out a better team after trading arguably a top 3 player of all time in a 1 for 1 trade. Can you imagine a team with Curry, Klay and Durant? Because I can’t see this happening in any other league.
But why are they 6-11 then? Well, as everyone knows, everyone is in the hospital.
Fun fact, the Warriors are 2nd in the league in 3PT%, without Curry, Klay and Durant. And without whoever they draft with their high 1st round pick next year.
Next year a starting lineup of Curry, Klay, Richardson, Durant and Mitchell Robinson sounds like a sure-fire championship on paper, but imagine adding a bench of TJ McConnel, Richaun Holmes, another MLE player and let’s say Obbin Toppin.
I’m sure it must be hard for the fans who recently witnessed 2 championship wins (2015 and 2017) to go trough a bad season, especially in their brand-new arena with overpriced tickets, but if I can guarantee one thing is that they won’t sell their season tickets with what’s coming up next year.
It’s hard not to bash the Wizards after looing a league high 8 straight games, so I will. So please join me, and let’s all start a petition for the Wizards to start Jonathan Isaac.
Surprisingly a team that could be fighting for the playoffs stood still in the FA market, but with names like Kendrick Nunn, Duncan Robinson and P.J. Tucker still available, maybe it’s time for the Wizards to put their MLE to use and fight for a playoff spot. After all, Wizards fans deserve a winning season after passing trough the difficult times of Tracy McGrady as their GM.
The Spurs didn’t have an ideal start to their season, I think proof of that came when they quickly moved and made a trade to acquire defensive big man Serge Ibaka. But to be honest, it’s just a matter of time until the Spurs start climbing up the rankings because it’s highly unlikely that Luka Doncic will keep shooting under 40% from the field. But that maybe has something to do with him playing the PG role.
It feels like Gervin found the perfect backcourt due to compliment each other in one draft alone, but maybe it’s time to give SGA a shot to play his natural position while moving the bigger, slower Luka to the SG role.
But none of this matter long term, and everyone in the league knows that the future doesn’t shine brighter anywhere else than San Antonio.
The Pacers started the year off by trading for Draymond Green, had an amazing draft night where they drafted: NAW, Carsen Edwards, Daniel Gafford and Eric Paschall, signed Julius Randle in FA to a big contract, created cap season for future years, and then the regular season happened.
A nothing less than shocking start to the 2019-2020 season forced the Indiana Pacers to trade for FVV, and well, they are so different now that it seems pointless to talk about their past. It seems now that they are to well-rounded for most teams to figure out, you never know who their top scorer might be on any given night with Randle, FVV and Bojan Bogdanovic on the floor, not to mention that they have the perfect pair of defending bigs in Draymond and Jarret Allen to cover up for their defensive short comings.
With an incredible bench boosting Marcus Smart, Bobby Portis, Marcus Morris, Thaddeus Young, Landry Shamet and Dillon Brooks, the Pacers bench unit is better than some actual starting lineups around the league, and that’s very scary.
The Pacers have gone 5-2 since acquiring FVV, and I don’t expect them to slow down, but with the East having so much talent this year it still won’t be enough for a Top 4 seed.