NBA Power Rankings: Analyzing the League Landscape in Early Stages of the Season
Although the 2013-14 NBA season has a long way to go, plenty of teams have given fans an idea of how they'll perform this season.
For instance, the San Antonio Spurs? Really good. The Utah Jazz? Really bad.
OK, so you knew that was going to be the case before the season. At least now you know for sure.
Of course, there are some surprises already—the Phoenix Suns on the positive end of the spectrum, the Brooklyn Nets on the negative end.
Here's how the entire league looks at this stage of the season. Teams that have fallen short of expectations and may start improving are underlined.
1. San Antonio Spurs (12-1)
This is a boring pick for sure. Would you bet against San Antonio, though? In typical Spurs fashion, there isn't one player who's dominated the stat sheet, with the exception of Tony Parker, but even his numbers aren't gaudy.
It's just one team playing as a unit.
Until the window for success actually shuts on the Spurs, you'll never believe it will happen.
2. Indiana Pacers (13-1)
It's amazing that as good as Indiana was defensively last year, the Pacers have found a way to get that much better this season. Roy Hibbert, especially, has been great so far. He's not kidding about wanting to win Defensive Player of the Year.
3. Portland Trail Blazers (12-2)
You win 10 games, you're going to get some respect. It helps when you're shooting 42.2 percent from three-point range as a team. The Portland Trail Blazers can't keep this pace up for much longer, but they've put the rest of the Western Conference on notice.
4. Miami Heat (10-3)
You can't truly judge the Miami Heat on the regular season alone. Of course, they're still looking great up to this point in the season and could easily be 11-2, were it not for Jeff Green's winner. As long as the Heat get the No. 1 seed in the East, it's mission accomplished.
5. Oklahoma City Thunder (9-3)
As good as the Thunder have been, it's the performances of Steven Adams, Jeremy Lamb and Reggie Jackson that should get fans in Oklahoma City excited. They've all been playing well and supplement Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. Having Adams also means the Thunder can start phasing out Kendrick Perkins, which would be a great thing.
6. Los Angeles Clippers (10-5)
Until that defense improves, the Los Angeles Clippers will remain a great regular season team that comes undone in the playoffs against tough competition. It's as simple as that.
7. Houston Rockets (9-5)
Who needs Omer Asik when you have Terrence Jones? Since taking over for Asik, Jones has been a great complement to Dwight Howard and allowed the offense to do get back to its best. Although it's come at the expense of the defense, it was always assumed that this team was going to remain marginal defensively, but great offensively.
8. Golden State Warriors (8-6)
That concussion for Stephen Curry was an all too real reminder of how close the Golden State Warriors' season is from taking a turn for the worse. It's the risk you take when you hand the reins over to a player who's prone to pick up the odd knock here and there.
9. Dallas Mavericks (9-5)
I might normally say that Monta Ellis is getting too much credit for the Dallas Mavericks' performance this season, but he's playing so much more efficiently than anybody could've expected. His PER and true-shooting percentage are the highest of his career, while his effective field-goal percentage is the highest it's been since 2007-08.
10. Minnesota Timberwolves (8-8)
It's going to get worse for the Minnesota Timberwolves before it gets better. Following that loss to the Pacers on Monday night, they get the Denver Nuggets, Dallas Mavericks, Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat over the next five games.
11. Phoenix Suns (7-6)
Jeff Hornacek has done a great job with this team. It helps when you have Eric Bledsoe. The Phoenix Suns are good on both ends of the court and have played well even when Bledsoe isn't on the court.
12. New Orleans Pelicans (6-6)
How did the New Orleans Pelicans lose to the Utah Jazz, and then almost lose to the Cleveland Cavaliers? There's too much talent on this team to have it continue hovering around .500.
13. Atlanta Hawks (8-6)
Everybody could see that the Atlanta Hawks needed to start over after being perpetually good enough to make the playoffs, and get bounced in the first two rounds. However, their success this season was less of a sure thing. Paul Millsap in particular has been a beast this season. Although the Hawks still have a ceiling for what they can do this season, fans can at least see the franchise moving forward.
14. Denver Nuggets (6-6)
The Denver Nuggets seem to have put that slow start behind them, winning five of their last seven games. As long as that defense can hover around the middle of the league and the offense puts up 100-plus points a night, Denver will be a playoff team.
15. Los Angeles Lakers (7-7)
Kobe Bryant is going to return sometime soon, which will be a big boost to an offense that has struggled this year. With enough teams in the West having their own problems, the Los Angeles Lakers could end up sneaking into the playoffs with a late push.
16. Memphis Grizzlies (7-6)
Marc Gasol's ACL sprain is a big blow for the Memphis Grizzlies. It's not going to keep him out for the season, but it will be long enough that Memphis loses quite a bit of ground in the competitive Western Conference.
17. Charlotte Bobcats (7-8)
Steve Clifford for Coach of the Year. Just give it to him already. Defense was never something you associated with the Charlotte Bobcats. Now they're one of the best defensive teams in the league. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist is a huge asset as he can get out on the perimeter and try to lock down the opposing team's athletic scorer.
18. Chicago Bulls (6-6)
How far will the Chicago Bulls fall? That's the biggest question after it was revealed Derrick Rose is out for the season after having knee surgery on Monday, per ESPN.com. While they're still a playoff team, those title hopes will definitely have to go on hold for at least another season.
19. Toronto Raptors (6-7)
It must be infuriating to be a Raptors fans sometimes. Toronto will have those games where it can't buy a bucket, with DeMar DeRozan and Rudy Gay taking a combined 156 shots, 34 of which go down. At least in the black hole that is the Atlantic Division, the Raptors stand out as the best team.
20. Detroit Pistons (5-8)
Who could've predicted that giving a big contract to Josh Smith might be a bad idea? There's no reason he should be shooting five three-pointers a game, especially when he's only making 29.2 percent of his shots from behind the arc. The Detroit Pistons knew what they were getting, though.
There's something about this team that still makes me get behind them. Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe inside is a nice combination, and they've played well enough. Brandon Jennings has to start improving sometime. He's hot and cold for sure, but he's usually not this bad. The emergence of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is also something you can get behind.
21. Washington Wizards (5-8)
The Washington Wizards are stuck with a glass ceiling, for me. They play well but can't seem to get above a certain performance level over a stretch of games. It's one step forward and one step back. The Wizards are a fringe playoff team, and nothing else for the moment.
22. Philadelphia 76ers (6-9)
It's possible the Philadelphia 76ers aren't getting enough credit. On the other hand, there's a larger body of work that says Spencer Hawes and Evan Turner aren't this good. Despite the best efforts of Michael Carter-Williams, the Sixers should have a reality check coming up soon. December features a lot of tough games against Western Conference foes.
23. Orlando Magic (4-9)
Losing four in a row hurts. Nobody expected much from the Orlando Magic anyway, so having a 4-9 record isn't all that bad. It also looks like they got one of, if not the best player in the draft in Victor Oladipo. The rookie's going to have growing pains, so forget about him averaging 5.3 turnovers per 36 minutes.
24. Sacramento Kings (4-9)
The biggest lesson from the week? Don't ever try to shake Chris Paul's hand in the presence of DeMarcus Cousins. It was yet another moment that adds fuel to the critics who argue Cousins' immaturity will hinder his career.
25. Boston Celtics (6-10)
Although you know this season has already been written off the Boston Celtics, the performance of Jeff Green should still be a bit frustrating. He's yet to overcome that inconsistency that's plagued his career and prevented him from fulfilling his massive potential.
26. Brooklyn Nets (3-10)
A lot of people have the New York Knicks ranked ahead of the Brooklyn Nets, and I can't blame them for doing so. The Nets have been their own kind of awful this season, and there's a certain amount of schadenfreude that comes along with seeing a team on which so much money has been spent failing so spectacularly.
Brooklyn is going to wake up sooner or later, right? It has way too much talent to be one of the worst teams in the league. You knew there was going to be a big transition for Jason Kidd. The longer the season goes, the more he should settle in as head coach.
Plus, don't forget about how bad the Eastern Conference is. The Nets could easily sneak into the playoffs and possibly even grab a top-four spot in the weak Atlantic Division.
27. New York Knicks (3-9)
Does Mike Woodson have that much longer left? He doesn't deserve to get the axe, but the head coach is always the first to go when a team plays badly. Unfortunately, there isn't a coach alive who can help the Knicks from getting killed on the inside.
28. Cleveland Cavaliers (4-10)
Maybe we're looking at the Cleveland Cavaliers all wrong. Perhaps the Cavs were destined to tank under the guise of possibly making the playoffs. That way the fans wouldn't completely revolt before the year started. This was Chris Grant's plan all along. How else do you explain the team being this putrid?
Where do you even start when trying to fix the roster? There's talent, without a doubt. Except nothing is coming together on the court, and the Cavs are one of the worst offensive teams in the league, despite having Kyrie Irving and scorers like Dion Waiters and Jarrett Jack.
And at this rate, I wouldn't be shocked to see Cleveland get the first pick in the draft and select somebody like Aaron Craft. That's how little faith Grant has given fans recently.
29. Milwaukee Bucks (2-10)
You knew the Bucks would be bad after jettisoning Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis, but this is actually a surprise. Milwaukee will improve when Larry Sanders returns. It will go from being one of the worst teams in the league to still being a really bad team.
30. Utah Jazz (1-14)
No surprises here. The Utah Jazz are creating the blueprint for tanking. Rarely do you see a team everybody hypes up to be by far the worst in the league actually become the worst team in the league by a wide margin. You'd think the Jazz would've accidentally won another game by now.
