Week One NBA Power Rankings

Rank

Last Week

Team

W-L

1

2

3-0

It's only three games, but Indiana is only giving up 83.7 points per game to start the season.  Yes, the teams they played were 4-6 combined, but there were a few professional players on said teams.

2

8

3-0

James Harden is actually playing defense, Dwight Howard and Omer Asik refuse to let anyone else get a rebound and Jeremy Lin is once again causing a point guard controversy.

3

14

3-0

The Timberwolves are healthy so far, Ricky Rubio is dishing out 10.5 assists and pulling in 4 steals a game, while Kevin Love is doing a ho-hum 27.5-14.5 per game.  They also decimated OKC without Westbrook.  Even with him they still trounce the Durants.  Find a way to watch their game Wednesday against GSW.

4

1

2-2

The Heat got their rings and put a beat down on the Bulls opening night and then some how lost to the Sixers and then dropped a close one to their good friends in Brooklyn.  No reason to panic.

5

3

2-1

The Clippers did not show up to play on opening night and got introduced to Xavier Henry.  Chris Paul is looking like an MVP, Blake Griffin is looking like he did not spend enough time working on his game in the offseason.

6

10

2-1

Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson have proven to be exactly as advertised: hot shooters worth missing the birth of your first child to not miss what they do next. Watch the Warriors nightly if you can.

7

4

1-2

It wasn't supposed to be like this for the Bulls.  With the return of Derrick Rose this was supposed to be an unstoppable machine, but they clunk rather than hum. You think their bench misses Nate Robinson?

8

7

2-1

Oklahoma City is very lucky to be 2-1 right now.  Easily could be 0-3, but their experience gets them their two wins.  Their bench is just as bad as everyone thought.  Did Westbrook come back too soon?  Was that a panic rush back?  Can you panic two games in?

9

5

2-1

Manu Ginobili might not be done after all on the Spurs or in the NBA.  14.3 ppg on 51-33-100 tri-shooting percentage and all the while leading the team in steals.  Is it at all worrisome that Boris Diaw has a higher PER than Tim Duncan?

10

16

2-1

Not having Brandon Jennings is a good thing, right?  He was solid (for him) off the bench against the Celtics.  Will Bynum has been a pretty pleasant surprise for the Pistons.

11

18

2-1

Damian Lillard is off to a very hot start for the Blazers.  25-5-5 on 47-50-90 shooting. LaMarcus Aldridge has been his normal self and Nicolas Batum has been good.  Hey, the bench hasn't been a total disaster either.  Tuesday's game against Houston should be fun.

12

6

1-2

This was not the Memphis Grizzlies team that I was expecting or any of us were expecting.  They are giving up nearly 107 points a night, that's just not Grindhouse basketball!  Not sure their rotations are completely set yet either.

13

9

1-2

They beat Miami and I think that is a better representation of the Nets we'll see more often than not, but losses to Cleveland and Orlando... that should concern Jason Kidd a little bit.

14

17

2-1

The Mavericks hung with the Rockets.  Dirk Nowitzki is playing solid ball as always and Monta Ellis has melded quicker into the team concept than I thought possible.  Shawn Marion might be ageless.

15

30

3-0

I stated last spring that Michael Carter-Williams wouldn't make it in the NBA.  He wouldn't be able to adapt and that size wasn't everything.  He almost put up a quadruple-double against the Heat (22-7-12-9) on 60-67-75 shooting.  Spencer Hawes has also been an absolute beast!

16

21

2-1

Jonas Valanciunas was supposed to be the answer at center for the Raptors, but he might be worse than the man we shall not mention.  DeMar DeRozan has been awesome though!

17

11

1-2

James Dolan said the Knicks were supposed to be competing for a championship this season.  We all had a good laugh about that.  Carmelo Anthony said he wanted to be a free agent this summer, but he was going to resign.  We all had a good laugh about that too.  Speaking of Carmelo, he's shooting 38-22-82 so far to start the year.  Not the start you'd want.

18

25

2-2

I was expecting the Lakers to be either 0-4 or 1-3 to start the week and they'd slip down a bit, not jump up seven spots.  Xavier Henry appears he can play in the league, Nick Young almost shoots as many shots as points as he scores and Wesley Johnson leads the team in blocks.  .500 is not sustainable with this team.

19

29

2-1

The Suns were a Russell Westbrook away from being 3-0 and much higher up in these rankings.  Miles Plumlee has been a revelation to start the season and he's taking all of Alex Len's minutes.  That Eric Bledsoe guy is also pretty darn good.

20

12

1-2

Everything looked great when the Cavaliers beat the Nets to start the year.  Then there was the whole debacle against Michael Jordan's team and getting shutdown by the Pacers.  Anthony Bennett is averaging almost a point a game too!

21

15

0-3

John Wall is fun to watch, 23 points, 8.5 assists and three steals a games to start the season.  Trevor Ariza is averaging 20-12, Martell Webster is also shooting 50-50-100 and after that... yeah, not much else.  Bright spot, they're only two games behind the Heat for first place in the Southeast.

22

12

0-2

The Nuggets only have three guys averaging double figures in scoring and average a very unNugget like 93 points an outing.  They give up 101.5, Kenneth Faried has fallen out of favor to J.J. Hickson and JaVale McGee is a prime candidate to be moved before December 1.

23

19

1-2

Anthony Davis is proving to be a star, all he has to do is remain healthy throughout the season, while staying on this pace and he'll be an All-Star, Defensive Player of the Year and probably first team All NBA.  He's the anchor of the Pelicans and the 9^th best defense in the league.

24

24

2-2

This Magic team does not know the word quit.  They just go, go, go.  Arron Afflalo is having a very solid start, Nikola Vucevic is the double-double machine we knew he would be and Victor Oladipo is extremely exciting to watch.  They hung tough against Indiana and Minnesota, see how they do against the Clippers on Wednesday.

25

20

1-2

The Hawks have lost two very close games to the Mavs and Lakers.  They have an easy stretch over the next week.

26

23

1-2

DeMarcus Cousins so far has had his act together, going for 21-10 a night with almost three steals and two blocks.  He seems extremely excited to be playing NBA basketball for the first time in his career.  I'm a little sad for how Greivis Vasquez has been playing so far.  He'll pick it up and when he does the Kings will win more games.

27

22

1-2

You remember that spunky kid from South Dakota State, Nate Wolters?  Yeah, he started a game at point guard for the Bucks.  He scored seven points and had 10 assists.  Zaza Pachulia leads the team in scoring and rebounding, he only plays 26 minutes a night off the bench.

28

28

1-2

If Josh McRoberts is starting for you and playing over 30 minutes a game you have some serious issues.  This is the Charlotte Bobcats we're talking about so we know that the serious issues run much, much deeper than Josh McRoberts.

29

26

0-3

Even though the Celtics have yet to win a game, they have been close in every single contest thus far.  Jeff Green has shot pretty consistently in the first three games of the season.  Vitor Faverani did grab 18 rebounds in a game.  Could not be the only time that happens for him this year.

30

27

0-3

The Jazz have the 12^th best defense in the league, barely lost to OKC, should have beat Phoenix and held a 16 point halftime lead over the Rockets.  The talent is there, the experience to close teams out isn't.  It'll get there and so will Trey Burke.  Team will be so much better when Burke returns.