2014-2015 NBA Power Rankings at the Quarter Mark of the Season
Can you believe it? A quarter of the 2014-15 NBA season has already come and gone.
It seems like only yesterday basketball fans were wondering when Kevin Durant would be back, whether LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers could defend, if the San Antonio Spurs would simply pick up where they left off after their successful title run and to what extent Kobe Bryant would still be, well, Kobe Bryant.
The answers, so far: Dec. 2, yes, not quite and pretty darn close, all things considered.
Of course, six weeks of hoops have spawned countless other queries and concerns across the league.
Can the Golden State Warriors and the Memphis Grizzlies maintain their franchise-record paces atop the Western Conference? Can the Toronto Raptors and the Atlanta Hawks fend off the Cavs and the Chicago Bulls in the East?
How long will it be until this vaunted rookie class starts performing at a level commensurate with its collective talent? And with Anthony Davis, Stephen Curry, DeMarcus Cousins and James Harden all in the midst of next-level campaigns, is there a clear favorite in the MVP race?
We can revisit those questions once the Association hits the halfway mark in early February. For now, let's take some time to reset the league from top to bottom based on how its 30 constituents have performed so far.
For reference, you can find last week's power rankings here, and the order is based off what we know about how good (or bad) each team is so far.
30. Detroit Pistons
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For the third time in as many weeks, there's a new team occupying the cellar of these power rankings. Step right up, Detroit Pistons!
How did Detroit wind up here? By being terrible, of course.
As in, being in the bottom 10 in both offensive and defensive efficiency. As in, 13 losses in a row.
OK, but how and why are they terrible? Let an anonymous scout tell you what he told Bleacher Report's own Ric Bucher:
"Where's your leadership coming from? Any time you have Josh Smith on your team you're going to have chemistry issues. ... Then Greg Monroe—he's a free agent expecting big things and not looking to stay in Detroit.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is a quiet, small-town guy, so he's not going to be the guy to bring you together. Brandon Jennings can be a handful, but I also believe he's also a guy who will listen in the right situation. They simply have a bad mix, and I think Stan [Van Gundy] knows it.
"
That is probably why Van Gundy signed on to be not only the head coach but also the team president. After all, it's not like the guy's going to fire himself after a 3-19 start like former Pistons general manager Joe Dumars might have.
29. Philadelphia 76ers
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If the Philadelphia 76ers aren't careful, they might once again fail to lock down the league's worst record.
A 108-101 overtime win in Detroit has left the Sixers just a half-game ahead of the Pistons in the race for the most pingpong combinations in next year's NBA draft lottery. Once Tony Wroten returns from injury, there may be no stopping Philly from not scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Not with reigning Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams practically putting up lines of 16-7-7 every night and Nerlens Noel holding opponents to 45.6 percent shooting at the rim, per NBA.com.
Next thing you know, the Sixers might start to look like an actual team.
28. New York Knicks
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Carmelo Anthony and Tim Hardaway Jr. may or may not be feuding. Melo might miss significant time while dealing with a knee injury that could require surgery. The players are already grumbling about the triangle offense. The team, as as whole, has lost 10 a row to drop to a franchise-worst 4-20.
All of which is to say, the New York Knicks are still very much the New York Knicks.
It's no wonder, then, that Phil Jackson told reporters this squad has "a loser's mentality." Nor should it be any surprise that there's been such resistance to the Zen Master's attempt to change the culture in an organization that's pretty much been in a rut since sneaking into the NBA Finals 15 years ago.
Clearly, that's going to be a painful process, one rendered more difficult by the metropolitan crucible in which it's taking place.
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27. Minnesota Timberwolves
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The bright spots have been few and far between for the Minnesota Timberwolves this season. Injuries to Ricky Rubio, Kevin Martin, Nikola Pekovic and Mo Williams—and the youth movement those absences prematurely initiated—have clouded the skies over the Twin Cities mere months after another homegrown star (Kevin Love) took up arms with an instant Eastern Conference contender.
Once in a while, though, a ray of sunshine manages to poke through, just as it did during the Wolves' 90-82 win over the Portland Trail Blazers. Andrew Wiggins shone brightest of all, piling up 23 points, 10 trips to the free-throw line, 10 rebounds, four assists and two steals in what was arguably his best game as a pro.
"The baby Wolves grew up a little bit," head coach Flip Saunders said, per The Associated Press, via ESPN.com. The young Wolves have plenty more growing up to do before they can start winning games regularly again. But every step forward, big or small, is something in which Minny can take heart.
At least until the reinforcements return, that is.
26. Utah Jazz
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The Utah Jazz killed two skids of equal length with one stone Tuesday night. By stunning the San Antonio Spurs at home 100-96, the Jazz earned not only their first win in their last 10 games overall but also their first in their last 10 against the defending champs.
For once, Utah didn't dig itself a massive hole at the outset and thus didn't have to work so hard to climb out. "We didn't get down by 20 points tonight, which has kind of been our calling card," Gordon Hayward said, per the AP, via ESPN.com. "Being able to stay in the game with a team like this was huge for us."
That shot of confidence should come in handy for the Jazz, who are due to hit the road for a six-game swing starting Sunday.
25. Los Angeles Lakers
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Kobe Bryant probably deserves some semblance of NBA MVP consideration—however cheeky the quotient may be—if only because he's single-handedly managed to keep the Los Angeles Lakers relevant.
The fact that he's averaging around 25 points, five rebounds and five assists in more than 35 minutes per game at the age of 36, after battling back from not one but two devastating injuries, would be reason enough to cast a cursory ballot his way.
Then again, the particulars of how he came to those numbers (i.e. by dominating the ball on a sad-sack, injury-riddled Lakers squad that's won six times in 22 games) would suggest that Mr. Bean doesn't belong in the same breath with LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Anthony Davis and Marc Gasol.
But if everything other than actual NBA basketball mattered, Bryant would run away with the Maurice Podoloff Trophy.
His pursuit of Michael Jordan's spot on the all-time scoring list has become must-see TV, even though the team around him is, well, garbage. His latest unleashing of his inner MJ in practice was nothing if not pure gold.
According to ESPNLosAngeles.com's Arash Markazi, Bryant taunted Jeremy Lin, traded trash talk with Nick Young and told general manager Mitch Kupchak, "I'm supposed to practice and get better, Mitch. I'm supposed to practice and get better. These m-----------s ain't doing s--t for me."
And it's not as though the Lakers' coffers are the only ones Bryant is lining. Per CBSSports.com's Ken Berger, the league's other teams are also making a pretty penny off the first phase of Kobe's farewell tour.
"Bryant's appearance in a road arena inflates ticket prices on the secondary market by an average of 42 percent, second only to LeBron James, who doubles road ticket prices, according to ScoreBig, an online ticket marketplace," Berger wrote.
That makes the Mamba's league-high $23.5 million salary look less like an egregious overpay and more like a bang-for-buck bargain.
24. Indiana Pacers
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There's only so much these Indiana Pacers can do to keep themselves within striking distance of respectability. The Pacers are playing hard and approaching each game with the proper competitive attitude, but there's only so much this short-handed squad can do to stay afloat without Paul George and George Hill.
"Something's got to change for us to get off to better starts," head coach Frank Vogel said, per the AP, via ESPN.com, after a 103-96 loss—Indy's sixth in a row. "That group is struggling. It's not clicking."
It's all well and good that the Pacers have a recent history of winning, but those long-learned lessons can't save them from the creeping inevitability of a lost season sans their injured superstar.
23. Charlotte Hornets
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Lost amid all the hoopla surrounding Lance Stephenson and whether the Charlotte Bobcats may trade him was the long-awaited return of Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. The former No. 2 pick chipped in nine points and six rebounds in 19 minutes off the bench in a 96-87 win over the Celtics.
Having Kidd-Gilchrist back in the fold should be a boon to Charlotte's surprisingly leaky perimeter defense. He probably won't do much to boost the Hornets' 27th-ranked offense, but that may not matter now that Stephenson is starting to play better ball, with 16.3 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.7 assists over his last three games.
22. Boston Celtics
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Another week, another spate of Rajon Rondo-related developments in the Boston Celtics' world.
First, there was the now-infamous breakfast powwow between Rondo and Bryant prior to the C's shellacking of the visiting Lakers, per ESPN's Baxter Holmes.
Then, Rondo hardly played after halftime as Boston's bench battled back in what turned out to be double-overtime loss in Washington.
"I'm very competitive. I wanted to play. I wanted to compete and be on the floor," he said after the game, per the AP, via ESPN.com. "But, the guys in front of me, the guys that were out there were playing great, and I don't want to mess up any momentum."
Most recently, Rondo took the opportunity to elbow Lance Stephenson in the throat during Boston's defeat in Charlotte.
Love him, hate him, whatever; he always makes things interesting.
21. Orlando Magic
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Lo and behold, the Orlando Magic are starting to resemble an honest-to-goodness basketball team as they approach three years since Dwight Howard last wore their jersey.
They split their recent six-game road trip, with wins in Phoenix, Utah and Sacramento—the last two on back-to-back nights to end the swing. That excursion also saw Orlando come within a bucket of ending Golden State's ongoing winning streak at nine games. And it took a buzzer-beater for the Washington Wizards to beat the Magic once Orlando had returned to more comfortable climes.
We'll soon see if the Magic can continue their upward trend. They'll play a home-and-home with the streaking Atlanta Hawks this weekend before embarking on a quick jaunt to Toronto and Boston.
20. Brooklyn Nets
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ESPN.com's Marc Stein and Ohm Youngmisuk reported earlier this week that the Brooklyn Nets are looking to offload pretty much anyone with a recognizable name and the salary to match—specifically, Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Brook Lopez and Andrei Kirilenko.
In short, it's a fire...sale!
And not exactly a surprising one. The Nets swung for the fences two years ago when they traded for Joe Johnson and re-signed Deron Williams, and they gave it another go last summer when they sent a basket of draft picks upstream to Boston and scooped up from the rushes a year of Paul Pierce, a hobbled Kevin Garnett and a soupcon of Jason Terry.
Apparently, even team owner Mikhail Prokhorov, with his dubiously collected billions, won't abide by an expensive season that yields only middling results, not after losing $144 million on last year's second-round ouster.
So, if you're an NBA team with some cap space to burn and a need for a gifted point guard who may or may not be fully healthy again (Williams), an aging but effective wing (Johnson), a skilled but oft-sidelined center (Lopez) and/or a dude with the worst back tattoo/haircut combo in NBA history (Kirilenko), then call the Nets now. Operators are standing by.
19. Miami Heat
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Dwyane Wade's return hasn't sparked an uptick in fortune for the Miami Heat. They've lost five of the seven games they've played since Wade came back, despite the All-Star guard averaging 22 points and 5.1 assists in those outings.
Of course, it's not Wade's fault that six of those seven games were on the road and that five were against teams that would be in the playoffs if the regular season were to end today. It's entirely possible that Miami's struggles are simply the product of a relatively thin roster helmed by two aging superstars.
Which is to say, these Heat may well wind up as little more than another itinerant playoff team in the East.
18. Denver Nuggets
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Streakiness is nothing new for the Denver Nuggets. They were prone to extended stretches of both good and poor play under George Karl, and they have certainly shown the same under Brian Shaw, with three separate streaks (wins or losses) of four games or more so far this season.
Denver's latest—a four-game downturn—saw it drop heartbreakers to Portland and Toronto, with blowout losses to the Wizards and the Hawks sandwiched in between. A 20-point pounding of the Heat in the Mile High City marked the end of that skid, but it might not spark an extended string of wins for the Nuggets.
Not if the Rockets, the Spurs and the Clippers have anything to say about it.
17. Sacramento Kings
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The Sacramento Kings have started to show a bit more spunk in the absence of DeMarcus Cousins. In fact, none of their last six games have been decided by more than nine points.
Still, the Kings clearly miss their budding superstar at center, who's been sidelined by a case of viral meningitis. Sacramento has dropped to 2-6 in the eight games since Boogie last played, with an overtime loss to the Houston Rockets as the latest result. That defeat to the Dwight Howard-less Rockets doubled as the Kings' fifth such result after blowing a double-digit lead this season.
Sacramento should have an easier time closing out games once Cousins comes back, though some better shooting from Rudy Gay, who missed 14 of his 18 attempts on Thursday, would certainly help in the interim.
16. Milwaukee Bucks
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The Milwaukee Bucks need just four more wins to match their entire total from last season. That says as much about how bad the Bucks were as it does about how much better they are now.
As Grantland's Zach Lowe wrote prior to Milwaukee's loss to the Thunder, "At 11-11, the Bucks are decent, with a scrambling top-10 defense and a solid veteran bench left over from last season's accidental disaster. They are exactly the kind of middling Milwaukee team that would have traded Tobias Harris for J.J. Redick on an expiring contract in years past. Not anymore."
Not bad for what had been a 15-win team.
Milwaukee has the pieces and the overall upside to develop into a far more competitive team than any this franchise fielded under its previous owner, former Senator Herb Kohl. That growth will probably depend on the dynamic duo of Jabari Parker and Giannis Antetokounmpo, who are on track to become the first teenage teammates in NBA history to average double figures in scoring during the same season, per Vice Sports' Jack Moore.
Just don't expect the Bucks to morph into some juggernaut by the end of the calendar year. Their win-loss record figures to take a serious hit or two soon, with seven of their final 10 games of 2014 on the road and eight coming against teams with winning records.
15. New Orleans Pelicans
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We here at Anthony Davis Watch had a somewhat mind-blowing thought occur to us during the New Orleans Pelicans' 112-107 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday: The Brow is probably the best power forward in basketball.
That may not seem like an earth-shattering revelation, not after seeing him pile up 31 points and 11 rebounds in Dallas—or produce at a top-10 rate in seemingly every major statistical category, for that matter.
Except Davis hasn't even been a pro for three years now, and he's already the top player at his position.
And it's not a thin position. Blake Griffin, Kevin Love, LaMarcus Aldridge, Dirk Nowitzki and Tim Duncan (if you even consider him a power forward) were all established stars by the time Davis first set foot in the NBA.
It's taken Davis just 26 months to blow by a field of fantastic peers. How long will it be before LeBron James and Kevin Durant are looking up at him?
14. Phoenix Suns
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The Phoenix Suns can't be pleased to see the Oklahoma City Thunder rounding into form right now. OKC's four-game spurt has coincided with a three-game slide by the Suns, who now sit just 2.5 games up on Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Co. in the race for eighth place out West.
Of course, OKC still has to leapfrog three other teams (i.e., Sacramento, New Orleans and Denver) before it can set its sights on Phoenix. The Suns are also anticipating the return of Isaiah Thomas, in whose absence the team has gone 3-5.
Having Thomas back in the fold should help Phoenix's fortunes, though it would do well to get him on the court by Sunday, when the Suns embark on a surprisingly important trip to OKC.
13. Oklahoma City Thunder
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Here come the Oklahoma City Thunder...like clockwork.
Their 103-94 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers was the Thunder's fourth in a row and the sixth in their last seven. As a result, OKC, with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook back in tow, now stands just 2.5 games shy of a playoff spot in the crowded Western Conference.
As small as that gap may be, OKC still looks to be far from ready for championship contention. The Cavs squad it beat was without LeBron James, and its previous five victories came against sub-.500 competition.
A stretch of four out of five on the road, beginning in Minnesota on Friday, should test the Thunder's mettle a little more.
12. Washington Wizards
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The fact that the Washington Wizards barely beat Boston in double overtime and needed a photo finish from Bradley Beal to escape from Orlando with a win isn't the best indication of success for this squad, though there's something to be said for pulling out positive results from such close contests.
As it happens, last year's Wizards went just 5-9 in games decided by three points or fewer and won just four of the 12 games they played that required overtime. So far this season, Washington has won four of five three-point games and is 2-0 in OT.
Now comes the really hard part for Washington: taking down other winning teams. So far, the Wizards have beaten just one opponent with a record of .500 or better—the Cleveland Cavaliers, just prior to their recent run of eight straight victories.
11. Chicago Bulls
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The Derrick Rose who's suiting up for the Chicago Bulls this season isn't the same one who played most of a full season in 2011-12, much less the one who was named the NBA's MVP in 2011.
Nor should he be. He's older and wiser now, with parenthood and devastating knee injuries affecting his approach both on and off the court.
But the Bulls have made it clear that they'd like a little more of the old Rose rather than the one who settles for threes more than 45 percent of the time—while hitting a subpar 31.2 percent of them.
"He has to attack," head coach Tom Thibodeau told the media Monday. "That's the bottom line. Some teams are going under (screens) and some teams will adjust to a blitz. All I know is when he's pushing the ball up the floor and attacking, that's who he is. He can't defer. He can't pace himself. He's gotta go."
Rose did a better job of that Wednesday in a 23-point performance against the Nets. He still took nearly half of his 15 shots from three but only after driving into the paint for six of his first nine attempts.
"Just give me a little minute. I know where I'm going to be. I know how good I am," Rose told the media afterward. "I'm very confident with my craft and how good I am period."
The more confident Rose is, the better off the Bulls will be in their pursuit of prime real estate atop the Eastern Conference standings.
10. Toronto Raptors
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Good news for the Toronto Raptors: DeMar DeRozan is making progress in his recovery from a groin injury. According to TSN's Josh Lewenberg, the All-Star swingman has been hard at work with the team's trainers, even stepping to the free-throw line after a recent practice.
Bad news: It could still be a while before DeRozan's back in uniform. "Those types of injuries take time," head coach Dwane Casey told TSN. "He's rehabbing, coming along."
But good news: The Raptors can probably afford to forge ahead without DeRozan for a little while longer. They won't play any teams with winning records until Dec. 22, when they begin a six-game road trip in Chicago.
9. Atlanta Hawks
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For the second time in as many seasons, the Atlanta Hawks have taken advantage of an early power vacuum toward the top of the Eastern Conference to climb up the standings. They've won eight games in a row—all against sub-.500 opponents—to pull into second place in the East, just a half-game behind the Raptors for pole position.
Of course, last season's initial success was undermined by the loss of Al Horford to yet another torn pectoral. Horford still doesn't look quite right this season—he's not scoring, rebounding or getting to the line as much as he once did—though that's to be expected when a guy misses as much time as Horford has over the last few years.
They could certainly use more of the old Horford soon. Once their home-and-home with Orlando is through, the Hawks will embark on a tough year-ending stretch that features meetings with Chicago, Houston, Dallas, the Clippers, Cleveland (twice) and Milwaukee (twice).
8. Cleveland Cavaliers
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An unfortunate result for the Cleveland Cavaliers may well prove to be the one of the best pieces of evidence in support of LeBron James' MVP candidacy from the first quarter of the 2014-15 season.
James logged his first DNP of the campaign, on account of a sore knee, during the Cavs' trip to OKC on Thursday night. Without him, Cleveland stumbled to a 103-94 defeat, falling behind by as many as 20 points in the fourth quarter.
This after the Cavs had ripped off eight straight wins while looking much sharper and more spry on the defensive end.
Not that LeBron has looked as good this season as he did in recent years, as ESPN.com's Brian Windhorst pointed out: "League executives and scouts are seeing James not look as bouncy and athletic this season compared to recent years. They especially point to his field-goal percentage, which has alarmingly dropped 10 percent from last season."
Then again, if Cleveland's winning ways prior to James' absence were any indication, this team may not need the LeBron of old to win the weak East and compete for a title.
7. Houston Rockets
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The NBA MVP field is as crowded in the early going as it's been in quite some time, with a wide swath of up-and-comers mounting serious challenges to LeBron James and the recently returned Kevin Durant. But if there's any leader to be found in this pack, it'd have to be James Harden.
Yes, the same Harden whose often haphazard defensive effort has become the stuff of Internet legend. The same Harden whose flair for flopping can be almost as frustrating as the halt to which any game grinds when he keeps getting to the free-throw line.
He may not be the best player in basketball, but there's no doubting that Harden is arguably the most important to his team right now. It's Harden's spectacular efforts as a scorer and a distributor—as demonstrated by his 44-point, eight-assist explosion in Sacramento—that have allowed the Rockets to claim eight of their last 11 games despite not having Dwight Howard on the floor for a single one of them.
Thanks to Harden, Houston is still hanging on to a slice of home-court advantage in the West, albeit by a half-game thread.
6. Dallas Mavericks
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It'd be easy and somewhat reasonable to look at what Monta Ellis has been doing for the Dallas Mavericks of late and conclude that he—not Dirk Nowitzki—is their MVP.
Grantland's Jason Gallagher did as much: "The fact that Dirk is not really the leader in Dallas anymore is difficult to swallow. He's still the face of the organization and crazy effective, and I'm sure every Mavericks player would insist this really is Dirk's team, but the truth is that this Dallas team is living and dying by Monta Ellis—for better or worse."
That makes sense after watching Ellis string together 13 straight points in the final five minutes against the Pelicans just a week after piling up 38 points in double overtime against the Bulls and hitting a buzzer-beater in Milwaukee on back-to-back nights.
But while Ellis may be Dallas' best player now, that doesn't mean he's also the team's most important. It's no coincidence that the Mavs' last two losses have seen Nowitzki score a total of 21 points between them.
This squad is good enough to win with Ellis leading the way but would be hard-pressed to hang with the West's best if Dirk's not out there doing what he does best.
5. Portland Trail Blazers
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Even the best teams in the NBA are bound to slip up against far inferior opponents from time to time. That's what happens when you play an 82-game schedule, with back-to-backs, four-in-fives and the wear and tear all that travel entails bound to exact a toll on a team.
As such, it's tough to fault the Portland Trail Blazers too much for their 90-82 loss in Minnesota. Seemingly everyone in a Blazers jersey had an off night, from LaMarcus Aldridge (3-of-14 shooting, five turnovers) and Damian Lillard (9-of-24 from the floor) to Nicolas Batum (1-of-6 shooting) and Wesley Matthews (six fouls).
Still, it's never a good look for a potential Western Conference contender with no major injuries to its core to rack up more turnovers than and get outshot and out-rebounded (badly) by a depleted T-Wolves team.
4. Los Angeles Clippers
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Nothing disperses clouds of concern and brings good feelings back to a locker room quite like a long winning streak. Just ask the Los Angeles Clippers, victors in each of their last nine outings.
Keep in mind that only two of those results came at the expense of teams with winning records, and one of those teams (the Rockets) was missing three of its starters at the time.
Still, wins are wins. There's no use faulting the Clippers for beating the teams on their schedule, not when every team out West is scratching and clawing for every victory it can get.
3. San Antonio Spurs
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You know the NBA season is in full swing when Gregg Popovich is carefully managing the nicks, cuts and bruises notched by the San Antonio Spurs' principal players.
Tony Parker has missed the last three games with a right hamstring strain. Kawhi Leonard's due back soon after bruising his right hand. Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili both got to rest while watching San Antonio beat down the Knicks.
The Spurs' loss in Utah—their first to the Jazz in 10 meetings—showed that this team, indeed, isn't impervious to the ill effects of its absentees. With a treacherous stretch of games following Friday's meeting with the lowly Lakers, the Spurs will need as many healthy bodies as they can muster, lest they lose significant ground to the fierce field of competitors out West.
2. Memphis Grizzlies
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The Memphis Grizzlies were a fairly mild topic of basketball conversation this week, even though—at 17-4, with an offense and a defense that both rate among the NBA's six best—they continue to stand out as legitimate title contenders.
On the court, the Grizzlies took care of the Heat and the Mavericks at home, albeit after once again succumbing to the San Antonio Spurs. Off of it, Memphis caught waves made by other teams, specifically the Cavs, with ESPN.com reporting that Cleveland has been poking around about Kosta Koufos and Tayshaun Prince.
The Grizzlies would do well to get anything of value for Koufos, an unrestricted free agent come July, and Prince, whose all-around impact has waned at the age of 34. But Dion Waiters, for all of his talent and potential, could be a dangerous fit for Memphis in the short term, if only because he could prove disruptive to the chemistry that the Grizzlies have carefully concocted over the years.
1. Golden State Warriors
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It's been the best of times for the Golden State Warriors, but in some ways, the worst of times just won't go away.
A franchise-record 14-game winning streak has vaulted the Warriors to the top of the pops in the wild Western Conference. Their offense has crept into the NBA's top six, while their defense remains the stingiest in basketball.
But there could be trouble afoot. Andrew Bogut is battling a bit of a knee injury, and David Lee remains on the shelf with a bad hamstring. All the while, the Dubs are gearing up for a treacherous trip that will take them to Dallas, New Orleans and Memphis before heading back home to host OKC and Sacramento.
If that weren't enough, the Warriors' coaching situation, past and present, grabbed headlines again this week.
First, team owner Joe Lacob took potshots at former head coach Mark Jackson for not being able to "get along with anybody else in the organization," per Bay Area News Group's Diamond Leung.
Then, current head coach Steve Kerr came under fire from Dennis Rodman, his ex-teammate with the Bulls, for not actually doing anything.
Kerr's response to the criticism that he "just sits there and watches his guys make jumpers," as Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle phrased Rodman's rant? "That's actually pretty accurate."
Should Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Co. continue to do just that, they should find themselves back on top of these power rankings next week.
Josh Martin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter.
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