The first month of the season is through and the first blockbuster trade took place on the weekend – so it’s high time for a power ranking! SPOX editor Ole Frerks takes the (early) pulse of all NBA teams and classifies them using Strength of Schedule, Net-Rating and Co.
All statistics used in this article come from basketball-reference.com, Second Spectrum and nba.com/stats.
The coach (Ty Lue) is gone, the new coach (Larry Drew) had only a limited appetite for the position as interim coach. A former assistant coach (Jim Boylan) sued the Cavs. Kevin Love and George Hill are injured. Cedi Osman is injured. Several veterans want to leave, among them J.R. Smith, and in the meantime they more or less openly doubt Collin Sexton. Otherwise, everything’s going well in Cleveland. To emphasize that again: With almost exactly this squad LeBron reached the finals last year. It gets a little more incredible every day …
Devin Booker is still a great scorer and is making progress as a playmaker, although he still has a long way to go (6.4 assists, 4.6 turnovers). Deandre Ayton is the expected double-double machine and T.J. Warren knows where the basket hangs (his sidekicks turn …). Otherwise, not much works in Phoenix. Only three teams defend worse, which doesn’t shock – but Phoenix also has the worst offense. Who would have thought that point guards have a certain usefulness? And what actually happened to Josh Jackson?
There are games where you can see exactly where Atlanta wants to play. With a crazy pace the Hawks play anyway, on good days the threes fall and Trae Young orchestrates a fast offense, in which the almost 42-year-old Vince Carter is still effective for some reason and sinks 360-dunks. These days are rare so far and normally the Hawks get on their hats because there is simply a lack of talent in the front (the defensive rating of 23rd place is even better than expected). But: The idea is there and Young seems to be just the right player for it.
Without Kristaps Porzingis, the Knicks are inferior in terms of talent on most days, but coach David Fizdale has already managed to teach them a certain basic competence, even though there is still a lot missing on the offensive. At times, one would almost wish for a little more confidence for the young players, as there is not much at stake. Now that the Kyrie and Butler dreams are probably both over, New York has to concentrate all the more on Kevin Knox, Frank Ntilikina and Co. A ray of hope: Mitchell Robinson!
The Wizards are much better than this placement in terms of talent and it is quite possible that they will be much higher next time. But this latent listlessness, this blatant lack of team chemistry and this appearance bordering on refusal to work, especially on the defensive, should be punished. Yes, Dwight Howard was injured for a while, but it’s not an excuse for the league’s worst defensive rating for this squad. With this occurrence a departure of the Beal Wall Porter core forces itself week for week more upon itself.
Zach LaVine is a veritable scoring machine – the Shooting Guard is fit again and performs career highs at points (27.1), assists and rebounds, also in the Crunchtime there were some heroic deeds by him. As expected, the defense of the Bulls was catastrophic at first, but after the slaughter by the Warriors it got better in the end. The Bulls are still far away from a good team and Jabari Parker only fits in a limited way, but there are rays of hope. In the absence of Bobby Portis and the Finnisher, Wendell Carter looks like a future star.
Jonathan Isaac’s new injury was annoying as one of the main tasks of coach Steve Clifford is to find the right role for the young Big Man. Among other things regarding his fit next to Rookie Mo Bamba, who so far doesn’t get along well with the NBA. In the meantime, Evan Fournier, Aaron Gordon and Nikola Vucevic are throwing the show at the Magic as usual – and Orlando is once again one of the three worst offensive teams of the NBA. Even if D.J. Augustin plays well, there must be a solution on One sometime.
Actually, in Dallas the joy about Luka Doncic’s strong start to the season and, admittedly in a slightly lower dose, Maxi Kleber’s should outweigh the joy. Instead, one reads of veterans’ envy of Doncic and irritation at DeAndre Jordan’s poor performance. By the way, the Mavs are more than 15 points better (!) according to Net-Rating, if Dennis Smith Jr. is not on the court. When will Dirk Nowitzki finally make his debut? Maybe his presence will create a more positive mood in Big D.
The Heat have the best city jerseys, but no fit point guards. Goran Dragic struggles with minor injuries, his de-facto backup Dwyane Wade stays with the newborn child. Wade’s experience would be very useful for the Heat: Miami had already lost four games in which they had led by two figures. James Johnson is missing above all defensively: 19th place in the defensive rating is not good enough for the normally very defensive heat. After all, the development of Josh Richardson is fun (20.5 points per game).
Caris LeVert’s injury is of course a damper, even though fortunately it wasn’t as bad as initially feared. The Swingman has so far been a hot candidate for the MIP Award and Brooklyn’s best player, who, together with Big Man Jarrett Allen, will have the future. Now D’Angelo Russell is moving into the spotlight again. Remarkable: Despite the rather low talent level, Brooklyn had one of the best offensive ratings in the league thanks to coach Kenny Atkinson’s system. But LeVert was the most important part of it …
Page 1: Place 30 to 21
Page 2: Place 20 to 11
Page 3: Place 10 to 1