Post by Boston Celtics on Jun 2, 2007 15:54:08 GMT
November 26th: Power Rankings.
1.
PHOENIX SUNS
Regardless of some of the talent from the West heading to the East, Phoenix still dominates what is ultimately a stronger conference via ratings, four wins above their nearest Western rival at such an early stage in the season sees them atop this week's Power Rankings.
2.
DETROIT PISTONS
It's hard to argue against the best record in the league, but it should be noted that the Pistons have only played 1 game against a team within it's own stacked Central Division. If they can prove themselves in the Central then they'll be ahead of Phoenix for sure.
3.
CLEVELAND CAVALIERS
The Central Division is a black cloud hanging over the heads of the League at the moment, we're just waiting for it to all rain down upon us and the promising Cavs are second in the division, and in the conference in the East, and they've done it all without Larry Hughes who returns this week from injury.
4.
ORLANDO MAGIC
The Magic have swapped their future for their present and it seems to be working! Bringing in Steve Francis to fill their woefully undermanned Shooting Guard spot and Channing Frye has been putting up 20/10 performances since his arrival!
5.
NEW JERSEY NETS
Despite still not having a bench, New Jersey's acquisition of Udonis Haslem seems to have been the turnaround factor for a team in desperate need of a Power Forward. It seems untimely then that the Nets would choose this week to part-ways with Vince Carter. Expect this team to fall a few spots in the future!
6.
CHICAGO BULLS
Who could bet against a team whose lineup includes Ben Wallace, Kevin Garnett, Luol Deng and Kirk Hinrich? The battle for the Central Division will begin soon and the Bulls are tipped to come out on top.
7.
HOUSTON ROCKETS
What's happened to the West? you may ask. The West is struggling, and so are the Rockets who started off 6 and 1 but are now 8 and 5. Something more than Yao in the middle may be required if the Rockets are going to stop the slide.
8.
SAN ANTONIO SPURS
With Dallas out of the picture for the time being the South West just became an easier place to live, but a resurgent Hornets team has replaced them and there's little between the Spurs, Rockets and Hornets. Will the Spurs GM settle for the winning formula his team already has? or decide to make a change?
9.
INDIANA PACERS
Last night's comfortable win over the Raptors solified Indiana as a force in the East, but rumors of a trade involving Jermaine O'Neal might point toward the Pacers possibly starting to rebuild.
10.
LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS
Quietly sitting behind the Suns in the noisy place that is the Pacific Division, whilst the Lakers, Kings and Warriors are continuously shaking things up the Clippers have succeeded through continuity.
11.
TORONTO RAPTORS
Chris Bosh currently leads the league in scoring and the Raptors are posting unpredictable results, losing to Indiana but being one of only three teams to beat the Cavs. With Battier replacing Bargnani, Raptor fans were expecting their team to focus on the present but without further significant change they may start to be like the Raptors of the past.
12.
NEW ORLEANS HORNETS
Biting at the heels of San Antonio and Houston, New Orleans has siezed the opportunity to replace Dallas as one of the South West's three big teams despite losing to the Mavericks two days ago.
13.
UTAH JAZZ
The Jazz have dealt with player changes well and the new look lineup just needs to settle so that Utah can excel in the weak North West.
14.
MIAMI HEAT
If Miami had beaten the Magic a few days ago the Power Rankings would look a lot different, but Shaq & Wade aren't mixing it up like they should be in the East... yet.
15.
MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES
The startlingly good performances of Pau Gasol were not enough to make the Grizzlies want to keep him and Baron Davis has some big shoes to fill now that the Spaniard is in San Francisco. If Memphis's win against Houston two days ago is any indicator though, they should start to improve again.
16.
SEATTLE SUPERSONICS
You cannot ignore a 30 point win over the Spurs. If the Sonics can find some consistency of form like that they'll have no trouble reaching the playoffs.
17.
GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS
Despite the fact the Warriors have their GMs on rotation (if they manage to find a new GM, it will be their fourth!), they've managed to assemble a convincingly good team. Once the storm ends for the Warriors and waters settle, a confident team might push ahead.
18.
SACRAMENTO KINGS
After some dubious changes were made and the old Sac-town GM was run out of town, the new Kings team has settled into it's own and seems to be trying to catch it's breath after a wave of mutilation threatened to kill the club before new staff took over.
19.
CHARLOTTE BOBCATS
The arrival of stellar guard Vince Carter to the mix, just as the Nets were on the rise, has heated the temperature down in Charlotte. The Bobcats will still have cap room for the summer and who knows where that will them?
20.
WASHINGTON WIZARDS
Confidence must be lacking in Washington. Noone's been injured, noone's been traded, and the Wizards are going nowhere.
21.
BOSTON CELTICS
Josh Smith was a nice acqusition for the Celtics, but without a true Power Forward it has to be questioned where Boston will end up this season.
22.
MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES
We all knew that any attempt by the TWolves to instantly return to contention wouldn't happen overnight and it hasn't, will the fans in Minneapolis be content with the current team assembled? They'd better be! Because the TWolves don't have a first round draft pick until 2009!
23.
DENVER NUGGETS
Maybe trading away the defensive presence of Marcus Camby has hurt the Nuggets too much, because their offense sure can't win them games when it should!
24.
ATLANTA HAWKS
Who could say they knew the Hawks lineup would look this formidable this early in the season? Without trading away too much of their future the Hawks look good, defesively and offensively. Why then are they on a three game slide at the bottom of the South East?
25.
PORTLAND TRAILBLAZERS
The Blazers GM must be wondering why Ben Gordon is rated so highly after five losses in a row with the new shooting guard. But the Blazers are looking to the future, and that's not such a bad thing.
26.
NEW YORK KNICKS
New York is another team preparing itself for the future and learning the method of damage limitation left by previous GMs. Noone can say they're doing a bad job, but the Knicks wont be in contention for a while yet.
27.
DALLAS MAVERICKS
The league is wondering when one of the three Power Forwards will leave, and for who, and until it happens it seems Dallas isn't going to trouble it's division, it's conference, or anybody with an overweight, untalented Small Forward at starting Shooting Guard.
28.
PHILADELPHIA 76ERS
With Dalembert out injured recently the Sixers felt the full force of their team post-Iverson. But another AI, Andre Iguodala is proving he's not going to be forgotten in Philadelphia.
29.
MILWAUKEE BUCKS
Trading offense for defense was ok, but you need more than Kirilenko to stop being bombarded by the rest of the Central Division. The Bucks have made honest, prudent, wise decisions but nothing will be able to move them out of such a strong division.
30.
LOS ANGELES LAKERS
Yes, Vlade Divac was who had to leave to get Kobe Bryant, once upon a time. But filling your team with bearded Euro stars is not always the road to success. Thankfully, the new Lakers management knows this and the Lakers can only improve from here, even if that's only because they're rock bottom.
1.
PHOENIX SUNS
Regardless of some of the talent from the West heading to the East, Phoenix still dominates what is ultimately a stronger conference via ratings, four wins above their nearest Western rival at such an early stage in the season sees them atop this week's Power Rankings.
2.
DETROIT PISTONS
It's hard to argue against the best record in the league, but it should be noted that the Pistons have only played 1 game against a team within it's own stacked Central Division. If they can prove themselves in the Central then they'll be ahead of Phoenix for sure.
3.
CLEVELAND CAVALIERS
The Central Division is a black cloud hanging over the heads of the League at the moment, we're just waiting for it to all rain down upon us and the promising Cavs are second in the division, and in the conference in the East, and they've done it all without Larry Hughes who returns this week from injury.
4.
ORLANDO MAGIC
The Magic have swapped their future for their present and it seems to be working! Bringing in Steve Francis to fill their woefully undermanned Shooting Guard spot and Channing Frye has been putting up 20/10 performances since his arrival!
5.
NEW JERSEY NETS
Despite still not having a bench, New Jersey's acquisition of Udonis Haslem seems to have been the turnaround factor for a team in desperate need of a Power Forward. It seems untimely then that the Nets would choose this week to part-ways with Vince Carter. Expect this team to fall a few spots in the future!
6.
CHICAGO BULLS
Who could bet against a team whose lineup includes Ben Wallace, Kevin Garnett, Luol Deng and Kirk Hinrich? The battle for the Central Division will begin soon and the Bulls are tipped to come out on top.
7.
HOUSTON ROCKETS
What's happened to the West? you may ask. The West is struggling, and so are the Rockets who started off 6 and 1 but are now 8 and 5. Something more than Yao in the middle may be required if the Rockets are going to stop the slide.
8.
SAN ANTONIO SPURS
With Dallas out of the picture for the time being the South West just became an easier place to live, but a resurgent Hornets team has replaced them and there's little between the Spurs, Rockets and Hornets. Will the Spurs GM settle for the winning formula his team already has? or decide to make a change?
9.
INDIANA PACERS
Last night's comfortable win over the Raptors solified Indiana as a force in the East, but rumors of a trade involving Jermaine O'Neal might point toward the Pacers possibly starting to rebuild.
10.
LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS
Quietly sitting behind the Suns in the noisy place that is the Pacific Division, whilst the Lakers, Kings and Warriors are continuously shaking things up the Clippers have succeeded through continuity.
11.
TORONTO RAPTORS
Chris Bosh currently leads the league in scoring and the Raptors are posting unpredictable results, losing to Indiana but being one of only three teams to beat the Cavs. With Battier replacing Bargnani, Raptor fans were expecting their team to focus on the present but without further significant change they may start to be like the Raptors of the past.
12.
NEW ORLEANS HORNETS
Biting at the heels of San Antonio and Houston, New Orleans has siezed the opportunity to replace Dallas as one of the South West's three big teams despite losing to the Mavericks two days ago.
13.
UTAH JAZZ
The Jazz have dealt with player changes well and the new look lineup just needs to settle so that Utah can excel in the weak North West.
14.
MIAMI HEAT
If Miami had beaten the Magic a few days ago the Power Rankings would look a lot different, but Shaq & Wade aren't mixing it up like they should be in the East... yet.
15.
MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES
The startlingly good performances of Pau Gasol were not enough to make the Grizzlies want to keep him and Baron Davis has some big shoes to fill now that the Spaniard is in San Francisco. If Memphis's win against Houston two days ago is any indicator though, they should start to improve again.
16.
SEATTLE SUPERSONICS
You cannot ignore a 30 point win over the Spurs. If the Sonics can find some consistency of form like that they'll have no trouble reaching the playoffs.
17.
GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS
Despite the fact the Warriors have their GMs on rotation (if they manage to find a new GM, it will be their fourth!), they've managed to assemble a convincingly good team. Once the storm ends for the Warriors and waters settle, a confident team might push ahead.
18.
SACRAMENTO KINGS
After some dubious changes were made and the old Sac-town GM was run out of town, the new Kings team has settled into it's own and seems to be trying to catch it's breath after a wave of mutilation threatened to kill the club before new staff took over.
19.
CHARLOTTE BOBCATS
The arrival of stellar guard Vince Carter to the mix, just as the Nets were on the rise, has heated the temperature down in Charlotte. The Bobcats will still have cap room for the summer and who knows where that will them?
20.
WASHINGTON WIZARDS
Confidence must be lacking in Washington. Noone's been injured, noone's been traded, and the Wizards are going nowhere.
21.
BOSTON CELTICS
Josh Smith was a nice acqusition for the Celtics, but without a true Power Forward it has to be questioned where Boston will end up this season.
22.
MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES
We all knew that any attempt by the TWolves to instantly return to contention wouldn't happen overnight and it hasn't, will the fans in Minneapolis be content with the current team assembled? They'd better be! Because the TWolves don't have a first round draft pick until 2009!
23.
DENVER NUGGETS
Maybe trading away the defensive presence of Marcus Camby has hurt the Nuggets too much, because their offense sure can't win them games when it should!
24.
ATLANTA HAWKS
Who could say they knew the Hawks lineup would look this formidable this early in the season? Without trading away too much of their future the Hawks look good, defesively and offensively. Why then are they on a three game slide at the bottom of the South East?
25.
PORTLAND TRAILBLAZERS
The Blazers GM must be wondering why Ben Gordon is rated so highly after five losses in a row with the new shooting guard. But the Blazers are looking to the future, and that's not such a bad thing.
26.
NEW YORK KNICKS
New York is another team preparing itself for the future and learning the method of damage limitation left by previous GMs. Noone can say they're doing a bad job, but the Knicks wont be in contention for a while yet.
27.
DALLAS MAVERICKS
The league is wondering when one of the three Power Forwards will leave, and for who, and until it happens it seems Dallas isn't going to trouble it's division, it's conference, or anybody with an overweight, untalented Small Forward at starting Shooting Guard.
28.
PHILADELPHIA 76ERS
With Dalembert out injured recently the Sixers felt the full force of their team post-Iverson. But another AI, Andre Iguodala is proving he's not going to be forgotten in Philadelphia.
29.
MILWAUKEE BUCKS
Trading offense for defense was ok, but you need more than Kirilenko to stop being bombarded by the rest of the Central Division. The Bucks have made honest, prudent, wise decisions but nothing will be able to move them out of such a strong division.
30.
LOS ANGELES LAKERS
Yes, Vlade Divac was who had to leave to get Kobe Bryant, once upon a time. But filling your team with bearded Euro stars is not always the road to success. Thankfully, the new Lakers management knows this and the Lakers can only improve from here, even if that's only because they're rock bottom.