All Power Rankings are compiled from games between Jan. 20-27.
1. Golden State Warriors (3-0)
“At this point, they are better than us. I’m not embarrassed to say it.”
And if San Antonio Spurs veteran Manu Ginobili is comfortable saying that about the defending champions, just imagine how the rest of the league feels. Golden State has never had a tighter grasp on the basketball world. Nothing seems beyond the realm of possibility for the Warriors these days – including 73 wins.
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Despite the increasingly vocal and depressing cries of some league followers that only a serious injury could prevent 2015-16 from being a formality, we’re seeing light through that potential for darkness. And unsurprisingly, Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and the delightfully dominant Warriors are the source of it.
2. Toronto Raptors (4-0)
It’s become impossible to ignore the wholly unique quality of Dwane Casey’s squad.
The Raptors are sixth in offensive rating and 10th in defensive rating, one of five teams possessing top-10 marks on each end of the floor. They boast basketball’s sixth-best net rating, rank seventh in rebounding percentage, and get to the free throw line more than all but three teams in the league.
That last factor suggests our problem with Toronto, though: It just doesn’t employ modern offensive principles that create beautiful basketball. But that’s okay! Overall effectiveness looms much, much larger in sports than any aesthetic, obviously, and the Raptors have won nine in a row dating back to just past the New Year.
Who cares if watching Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan crease the paint with reckless abandon on every possession doesn’t yield the joy of a motion-heavy, free-flowing offense like Golden State’s? Only the wild Philadelphia 76ers penetrate more often than Toronto, and it passes out of those drives more frequently than the outdated reputations of its stars suggest.
Then there’s this: The Raptors have been this good despite their preferred starting five playing in just 15 games this season. If DeMarre Carroll returns from injury and regains the form that makes him an immensely valuable two-way wing, it would no longer be crazy to submit that Toronto could crash the league’s well-established hierarchy.
For now, however, only time will tell. Who can forget how impressive Toronto looked in the season’s first two months last year, before a broken down Kyle Lowry and crew got swept in the first round.
3. Oklahoma City Thunder (3-1)
The Thunder lost to the lowly Brooklyn Nets on Sunday, allowing interim coach Tony Brown’s team a staggering 119.5 offensive rating in the process. That simply can’t happen for a team possessing defenders and athletes the likes of Serge Ibaka, Steven Adams, Andre Roberson, Russell Westbrook, and Kevin Durant.
Take it away, Billy Donovan.
“Offense has not been the issue,” the rookie coach told ESPN’s Royce Young after his team’s overtime victory against the New York Knicks. “These guys have scored points. It’s been the defensive consistency of being able to get stops on a regular basis. And some of the stuff, to be honest with you, I really thought were almost self-inflicted wounds.”
Whether its issues are self-inflicted or otherwise, Oklahoma City needs to get far more consistent defensively – and fast. Matchups with the Warriors and surging Houston Rockets loom before the All-Star break.
4. Houston Rockets (3-1)
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All Houston needed to save its once-doomed season? The immediate reintegration of Josh Smith, naturally! Since the Rockets acquired the lefty big man from the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday, they’re a perfect 3-0 with consecutive wins over the Milwaukee Bucks, Dallas Mavericks, and New Orleans Pelicans.
Cool the breaks on J-Smoove proving the cure-all for Houston, though. In the 72 minutes he’s played since returning to Clutch City, the Rockets have been outscored 165-148. Related: Smith is shooting 25.7 percent from the field over that brief timeframe.
5. Boston Celtics (3-1)
Isaiah Thomas is receiving All-Star consideration, and Jae Crowder has emerged as a fan favorite – both in Boston and around the league at large. More credit for the Celtics’ continued success in 2015-16, though, should be directed the way of Kelly Olynyk.
The seven-foot Canadian has quietly grown into the long-range marksman a majority incorrectly thought he was over his first two years in the league. Olynyk is shooting 43.9 percent from beyond the arc on 3.1 tries per game this season, affording Brad Stevens the supreme floor-spacer Boston lacks when two of Amir Johnson, Jared Sullinger, and even Jonas Jerebko man the frontcourt.
He’s not Dirk Nowitzki, and it remains to be seen if the 24-year-old can expand his game past pick-and-pop expert to a more varied means of ancillary scorer. But Olynyk has carved himself a niche for the Celtics in 2015-16 nonetheless, and it’s one of extreme importance to a team short on star power but long on talent.
6. Charlotte Hornets (3-1)
The Hornets’ season isn’t saved. In fact, it seems like their season and weeks to follow will play out exactly the way so many realists anticipated: With an unmemorable first-round loss at the hands of a member of the Eastern Conference upper class or longing for the incredibly long-shot hopes of lottery balls.
Essentially, Charlotte isn’t good enough to be actually good or bad enough to be actually bad. Steve Clifford’s team is stuck in the morass of basketball mediocrity. But they might not be going forward, mostly thanks to the sweeping and surprising development of Kemba Walker.
The reigning Eastern Conference Player of the Week has been playing career-best basketball long before the league recognized his performance. Walker is averaging 25.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 5.5 assists per game since December 26. Maybe most encouraging? On the strength of a reworked shooting stroke and new ability to create and finish shots at the rim, the fifth-year guard has notched a true shooting percentage of 54.5 over that stretch – a mark well above his substandard career average.
Before the season tipped off, there was serious doubt about Walker’s status as the Hornets’ lead guard going forward. No longer. He’s played at a borderline All-Star level in 2015-16, though, keeping his perpetually short-handed team afloat in a loaded conference playoff race and helping position Charlotte for the future much better than even optimists hoped.
7. San Antonio Spurs (2-1)
“We almost got them.”
San Antonio, of course, didn’t come close to beating Golden State in the game of the season. Despite what he told Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News, Gregg Popovich knows that. Surface-level takeaways be damned, though, the Spurs’ award-winning coach shouldn’t feel much worse about his team’s chances against Steph Curry and company today than he did before Monday night’s laugher.
The Black and Silver weren’t themselves in Oakland, and the Warriors played with the delirious joy, maniacal intensity, and peerless playmaking that’s come to mark what could be the makings of a dynasty.
Curry won’t always drain a pair of 30-footers in as many possessions or drop Kawhi Leonard to the floor with a fake cut. Draymond Green won’t always make the biggest no-stats difference, and Shaun Livingston and Brandon Rush won’t always combine for 26 points on 11-of-12 shooting. Oh, and Tim Duncan won’t always be watching the action from home, either.
Pump the brakes. San Antonio isn’t Golden State, but its basketball’s next thing by a long shot. And considering they still have room to grow, it’s still delusional to suggest the Spurs don’t stand a chance against the reigning champions.
8. New Orleans Pelicans (2-1)
The Pelicans are starting to find their groove. They have won five their past seven games, and those two losses came by a combined total of three points. Against all odds and expectations gleaned from the season’s first few weeks, Alvin Gentry’s team is just three and-a-half games back of the Portland Trail Blazers for eighth in the Western Conference.
New Orleans won’t make good on its recent surge with a playoff berth, though, if its franchise player isn’t on the floor for each game of the season – and every indication is that Anthony Davis won’t be. The 22-year-old suffered a concussion during the second quarter of Monday’s loss to the Rockets, a game that his short-handed squad would go on to lose by one point.
The hole the Pelicans dug themselves is deep, and getting out of it is a step-by-step process. They simply don’t have much room for slippage at the season’s midway point. If Davis’ penchant for minor maladies afflicts him again, basically, it’s safe to say New Orleans’ season will officially be over in mid-April – just like everyone already thought it was in the first place.
Here’s hoping neither scenario proves the case. The league is a better place when its stars perform on the biggest stage, and Davis showed last spring that he has what it takes to make a moment or two in the postseason despite the Pelicans’ short chances of advancing.
9. Sacramento Kings (3-2)
DeMarcus Cousins is an All-Star. After the Kings’ big man followed up winning Player of the Week honors with a career-high 56 points, that much should be abundantly clear. What’s much less obvious is the type of lineup best-suited to utilize the sweeping skills of Sacramento’s superstar.
Well, that’s not actually the case anymore. It certainly was, however, before Willie Cauley-Stein established himself as an all-court defensive force and viable partner for Cousins on the other end.
The Kings are 12-4 when Cousins and Cauley-Stein start up front. That tandem’s +9.0 net rating is tied for first among Sacramento duos who have played at least 150 minutes, and its 96.2 defensive rating tops all regular pairs. For all the concerns of league analysts who believed playing another traditional big alongside Boogie would hamper the Kings offensively, too, lineups featuring he and Cauley-Stein actually score at a better rate than the team’s season-long mark – and by an easy margin.
It’s not all roses for Sacramento’s super-sized young frontcourt, though. Cousins is less efficient when playing with Cauley-Stein, and his share of shot attempts at the rim drops significantly when running the floor with the rookie. There are still kinks to work out here. But with every game, it becomes more and more apparent that the Kings have found a very workable frontcourt for the present, and perhaps a dominant one for the future.
10. Cleveland Cavaliers (3-1)
Cleveland hasn’t played well since its shocking midseason change on the sidelines.
Tyronn Lue was forced to change his planned rotation on the fly after his players grew tired against the Chicago Bulls, an adjustment that contributed to a humbling home defeat in his coaching debut. And the Cavaliers barely squeaked by a young Minnesota Timberwolves squad two days later, sacrificing the defensive performance LeBron James was proud of during the setback to Chicago by letting Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins, and company to shoot 49 percent from the field and rack up 28 assists.
An adjustment period was inevitable for Cleveland in the days, weeks, and perhaps months to follow the transition from David Blatt to Lue. The former’s ouster might have indeed erased this team’s longstanding on- and off-court chemistry issues. James is the Cavaliers’ biggest voice, but his influence has limits on both ends of the floor. Coaching is crucial in the NBA even for franchises possessing that rare type of all-encompassing superstar.
Don’t be alarmed, basically, if the Wine and Gold stumble a bit as Lue finds his footing in the big chair. He’s already talked of stylistic changes to the Cavaliers’ offense, and some natural overall differences are to be expected as the rookie coach tweaks his rotation and acclimates to making decisions by his lonesome in crunch time.
But here’s the problem for Cleveland: The Raptors are rising in the East, and the Warriors and Spurs are still the teams to whom it must be measured. The Cavaliers need to find their peak soon; doing so will just be extra difficult before early spring is here.
