Power Rankings: What's cooking?
Week: Team:
The NBA's 70th season starts Tuesday night, and your trusty NBA Power Rankings Committee of One is ready for season No. 14 in charge of ESPN's weekly sorting of the Association.
And this, of course, is the first of 25 consecutive Mondays that we'll serve up a 1-to-30 ladder pinpointing where teams stand, weighing what's happening in the short term against each team's big-picture outlook ... with the usual dash of unpredictable whim tossed in.
The Golden State Warriors remain in their rightful place as the top team overall, as defending champs always do here, with the Cleveland Cavaliers still ahead of the West's very deep chasing pack at No. 2 despite their painful preseason, which only feels right given the sort of lock LeBron's Cavs are to win the East.
There isn't a huge amount of change yet between what we saw in the Training Camp edition of the rankings on Sept. 25 and where we stand now. But the blender is about to start spinning if history is any guide, since the first few weeks of the schedule are famed for spitting out some crazy outcomes.
You can comment on this week's rankings below and, as always, read more about our process on Stein Line Live. (Hat tip to ESPN Stats & Information and the Elias Sports Bureau for their usual helping dishing of data.)
| 2015-16 Power Rankings: Preseason | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 |  | -- Last Week: 1 | Folks will inevitably point to Steve Kerr's health as a clear indication that there's no way the champs can dodge long-term setbacks like last season. The committee, though, isn't interested in hypocritically criticizing the Dubs for taking the noise personally when they're giving us honesty. | |
| 2 |  | -- Last Week: 2 | As LeBron James prepares for his first campaign in his 30s, the Cavaliers enter the 2015-16 season almost as banged up as they were when we last saw them in the Finals. But Cleveland's imperfect health just underlines the sort of overwhelming favorites the Cavs are in the East, as Vegas still likes them to win it all despite an opening month full of nicks and knacks. | |
| 3 |  | -- Last Week: 3 | Fears that blending LaMarcus Aldridge in won't be seamless have been quickly supplanted by fresh fears that Gregg Popovich took on too much work by accepting his new Team USA gig. Let's not get carried away, though. These are still the stacked Spurs. Worrying about them continues to be the far natural instinct than worrying for them. | |
| 4 |  | 1 Last Week: 5 | No team has more riding on the outcome of this season than the Thunder. And no fan base is sicker of that snap take than this one. The good news: Kevin Durant shot nearly 60 percent from the floor in his preseason comeback and couldn't have looked much better. As stressful as the next nine months will be for everyone in OKC ... inspiring start. | |
| 5 |  | 1 Last Week: 6 | The Rockets are the pick here to win the Southwest, thanks largely to their enviable depth and how much easier that makes coping with the 82-game schedule. But they'll face as many fit questions as the Spurs with Aldridge after James Harden and Ty Lawson were sixth and seventh last season in total touches. | |
| 6 |  | 2 Last Week: 4 | The line shocks you every time it circulates around the office: Chris Paul has yet to taste the conference finals. We shouldn't forget he's spent all 10 of his seasons so far in the unforgiving West, but CP3 will join Dominique Wilkins as the only nine-time All-Stars with that unwanted distinction if it happens again this season. | |
| 7 |  | -- Last Week: 7 | The Grizz put themselves in line for bonus points never before accrued in the history of these rankings by staying at the same Santa Barbara hotel where the committee (of one) married Mrs. Line ... followed by a 6-1 preseason. The bonus won't mean much, though, if Memphis' familiar perimeter problems crop up. | |
| 8 |  | 1 Last Week: 9 | Apologies to Chicago, Miami, Milwaukee or any other nominee you wish to submit. The Hawks -- yes, #eventhehawks! -- are still the second-best team in the East until someone proves otherwise. A dip in the win column is forthcoming, we agree, but let's not automatically assume they're going from 60-22 into the 40s. | |
| 9 |  | 1 Last Week: 10 | Interesting little trivia item about this Heat team that just keeps racking up admirers: D-Wade. Bosh, Deng and Stoudemire have combined for 29 All-Star selections. That ties Miami with San Antonio for the most All-Star appearances on any current roster ... and it's worth asking if this is the season Goran Dragic barges into the club. | |
| 10 |  | 1 Last Week: 11 | The Bulls' D during exhibition play was noticeably subpar, which isn't exactly something we heard often during the Thibs Years, but this is a deep squad that should be able to cope with the inevitable injuries that tend to come Chicago's way. And the early reviews on Fred Hoiberg's approach, to be fair, are pretty promising. | |
| 11 |  | 3 Last Week: 8 | The Pels have too many injuries already to list 'em all in this small space, but the West is so ridiculously stacked that no one seems to believe they can finish higher than No. 7 -- or maybe No. 6 if Memphis tumbles -- even at full strength. Goal No. 1, of course, is getting the first 70-game season out of Anthony Davis. | |
| 12 |  | 1 Last Week: 13 | The Raps didn't wait long to give us something far more pressing as a discussion topic than February's All-Star Weekend: The new Kyle Lowry! To say the committee is jealous is the understatement of the preseason. Tracking this Lowry and DeMar DeRozan in a contract year will be fascinating in a city where the Blue Jays just raised the bar. | |
| 13 |  | 1 Last Week: 14 | For all the things that the East can't give you, here's one small consolation: We'll almost certainly have a race for the Atlantic title. The Celts, with Amir Johnson and David Lee sprucing up a front line that badly needed it, will be a (regular season) team to reckon with and perhaps even topple Toronto. Don't say we didn't warn you. | |
| 14 |  | 2 Last Week: 12 | Consider us puzzled by the increasingly popular notion that the Bucks, after beating out the Knicks for Greg Monroe and getting Jabari Parker back, are somehow primed to underdeliver. Everyone knows they lack outside shooting. Fine. They've also made some upgrades, too. Jason Kidd, it says here, will be in the heart of the COY race. | |
| 15 |  | -- Last Week: 15 | We can talk all you want about next summer's pursuit of Kevin Durant, but taking the next step this season certainly couldn't hurt. Let's see if the team that transformed itself into a small-balling menace in the playoffs can break into the 50-win club by improving on last season's 14-22 mark against .500-or-better teams. | |
| 16 |  | 3 Last Week: 19 | After all the initial (and vocal) resistance from Paul George about his move to the 4 spot, PG-13 ended up assembling a pretty convincing preseason. If he's as back as he's looked lately -- and if Monta Ellis can find a niche as quickly as he did in Dallas -- Indy should prove to be a pesky out despite its newfound smallness. | |
| 17 |  | -- Last Week: 17 | No one is quite sure if the Pistons are or aren't playoff material, even in a conference that certainly gives 'em a chance, but the season starts in a great team-first spirit after Andre Drummond told Stan Van Gundy he'd delay signing his five-year, $120 million extension until next summer to create more cap space come July. | |
| 18 |  | 2 Last Week: 16 | The building most of us old folks still refer to as the Delta Center has been christened with another new (and unwieldy) name. House of High Expectations certainly would have been appropriate, too, given how fashionable it's become to A) pick the Jazz to crack the West playoffs and B) anoint Rudy Gobert as the DPOY favorite. | |
| 19 |  | 2 Last Week: 21 | One scout I trust implicitly is imploring me to be bold and pick the Kings to snag the eighth spot. He likes 'em that much. Not sure I have the gumption to go that far, but maybe they really have added enough veteran firepower to join Utah at the head of the list of West teams primed to leapfrog Dallas and Phoenix. | |
| 20 |  | 2 Last Week: 22 | Have to admit it caught us off guard when our pal Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic pointed out that the Suns are in the midst of the league's fourth-longest playoff drought at five seasons and counting. A ray of sunshine: Markieff Morris, by all accounts, looked engaged and effective in the preseason after all the fretting about his mindset. | |
| 21 |  | 3 Last Week: 18 | The Mark Cuban Mavs have never endured a losing season unless you count a 40-42 mark in 1999-2000 when he bought the team halfway through. Fears are rampant that the streak is in jeopardy after an 0-7 exhibition record, but there's at least one ray of hope: Wes Matthews is back faster than anyone imagined. | |
| 22 |  | 2 Last Week: 20 | You tell us, Charlotteans: How much comfort do you draw from a 7-1 preseason that sounds so good on paper? Because we're frankly struggling to give it much weight after Michael Kidd-Gilchrist suffered a suspected season-ending shoulder injury, since we all know MKG is such a barometer for this team's success. | |
| 23 |  | -- Last Week: 23 | So where are we, one month since we last convened, on Orlando's chances to nab a playoff spot? Still say that's asking too much of Scott Skiles, even in the East, when T. Harris, V. Oladipo, E. Payton and N. Vucevic are all still under 25. That said ... Skiles teams average a 12-spot improvement in defensive efficiency in his Year 1s. | |
| 24 |  | 1 Last Week: 25 | Carmelo Anthony's fine preseason has somehow flown under the radar for the most part because of the media focus on Derek Fisher and the starting role apparently snared by one Kristaps Porzingis. This much seems certain: Opening the season with six straight games against 2014-15 playoff teams will test them all. | |
| 25 |  | 1 Last Week: 24 | There is so much to talk about when it comes to the young Wolves, but not today. Not now. Nothing else matters beyond the thoughts and prayers we all want to transmit to the family and friends of Flip Saunders, who tragically lost his battle with cancer at the mere age of 60. A good man gone way, way too soon. | |
| 26 |  | 1 Last Week: 27 | The committee kept running into the Nuggets during exhibition play. Not by design, but the happenstance encounters provided multiple early glimpses of Emmanuel Mudiay, who'll naturally be up and down and turnover prone ... but who repeatedly left the impression that he's not intimidated by the size of the leap he's making. | |
| 27 |  | 1 Last Week: 28 | The committee, for the record, does not believe that the 2015-16 season -- which, of course, is a record 20th in a row as Laker for No. 24 -- will be Kobe Bryant's last season. The committee, just the same, will be grateful to be in attendance at Staples Center on Opening Night against Minnesota ⬦ just in case it is. | |
| 28 |  | 1 Last Week: 29 | The gaudy production we saw from C.J. McCollum during exhibition play means Portland actually has two players to tempt any fantasy owner. Don't want to trivialize the jobs Damian Lillard and McCollum have these days but the West, strange as it sounds, can be a cold, cold place for basketball franchises trying to reboot. | |
| 29 |  | 3 Last Week: 26 | Instead of the title he vowed to win within five years and clinch eternal bachelorhood, Mikhail Prokhorov enters Season 6 as Nets owner as a single man -- because he never went through with that self-threat to find a wife -- facing a l-o-n-g wait 'til next summer's chance to get back into the open market as a big spender. | |
| 30 |  | -- Last Week: 30 | According to ESPN's merciless Basketball Power Index, this collection of Sixers steps up to Year 3 of the Sam Hinkie Era with a 50 percent (or better) chance of victory in just four of 82 games this season. Worse yet: Denver's visit to Philly on Dec. 5 is the first of those four opportunities ... in game No. 20 of 82. | |
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