January has swirled through the Association’s balance of power. The Thunder and Sixers are the big winners, while the Spurs or Cavs are losing ground. At the top, the two top teams are untouchable, while the Mavs and Hawks once again trample around in the basement. The Power Ranking!
From 30 to 30: Orlando Magic (14-34,2-9 in January). The two victories in January were against Wolves and Celtics – not bad. And they almost made a huge comeback with the Cavs as well, but that’s nothing special these days. Apart from that, the season is dripping with the expected many defeats, Elfrid Payton is in a good mood, Jonathan Isaac is injured.
From 26 to 29: Sacramento Kings (15-34,3-10). Coach Joerger (he’s fine again!) regularly takes veterans out of rotation to give the youngsters time to play. Another word for that is Tanking. After all: Boys like Fox, Bogdanovic or Cauley-Stone let their potential flash up again and again. With Hill, it would be surprising if he played in Sac-Town after the deadline.
From 25 to 28: Phoenix Suns (17-33,3-9). The Suns – in the person of Bender, Canaan or Daniels – have stabilized their threesome. This is important for Booker to have enough room for his creations, but you shouldn’t have to say a word about the defense, as it’s still the shabbiest of the league. Less shabby: Wins against OKC and in Denver.
From 22 to 27: Dallas Mavericks (16-34,3-9). After a promising December, the Mavs have returned to the basement. Dirk appears only sporadically fresh, adhesive performances are stable. His place in the Starting Five seems certain. Another good thing: Dennis Smith Jr. played his best month (16.9 points, 5.7 assists). Less good: The first five are overrun far too often in the early stages.
From 28 to 26: Atlanta Hawks (14-35,4-9). Schröder is experiencing a difficult phase. In the last 5 games he was only 15.6 points at 37 percent of the field – and the opponents were not always top-notch. But that’s probably part of the learning process. And in view of the fact that he rarely has support (second best scorer: Kent Bazemore), dropouts are allowed. After all: In the middle of the month there were 4 wins from 6 games.
From 16 to 25: Detroit Pistons (22-26,2-11). Motor City is in danger of catapulting itself out of the play-off race. No team lost more games in January, despite several top performances by Andre Drummond. Against the Cavs there was the eighth bankruptcy in a row. What is missing is a high quality point guard representing the injured Reggie Jackson – Ish Smith in all honours. Is the trade coming for Kemba Walker? Hope for the rest of the season makes a simpler schedule than last time.
From 23 to 24: Brooklyn Nets (18-32,5-9). Stauskas and Okafor have recently delivered productive games, the trade seems to be paying off for them. Russell is back, too, and will initially be brought back to the team as a banker. You should always keep an eye on the Nets before the trade deadline – because if someone offers talent and/or picks, almost no one is untouchable.
From 15 to 23: New York Knicks (22-28,4-10). Somehow that was to be feared. The times when the Knicks seemed to be in playoff races were marked by many simple home games. Meanwhile, the striking outward weakness (7-19) is increasingly taking effect. The clarity of many defeats makes the alarm bells ring. Porzingis (20.1 points in January) is tired, the defensive holey. Hardaway Jr. Career Highs.
From 29 to 22: Memphis Grizzlies (17-31,5-6). You won 5 out of 7 games in the meantime – but should you really be happy about that? After all, the season is over, and this has not only been confirmed since Mike Conley’s confirmed season end. A rebuild has to be made and a bunch of upcoming away games could favour a high pick for this purpose.
From 18 to 21: Chicago Bulls (18-32,5-9). The Mirotic hype has disappeared a bit, but the around Markkanen is unbroken. No player reached 100 threes more quickly than he did, and the Finn – which is quite important – also sprinkles his drives. Zach LaVine made a promising comeback, Zipser is back from the G-League. Is the core of the team not as bad for the future as it was once accused of?
Page 1: Seats 30-21
Page 2: Seats 20-11
Page 3: Places 10-1