We’ll give out power rankings on a monthly basis. Records will reflect games played yesterday, which was November 1st. Sorry.
1. Boston Celtics – 4-0 – Love all of their wins. Beat the Cavs in Cleveland, held a sneaky Charlotte team to 59 points (truly one of the great defensive performances you will see in this day and age), lambasted the Bulls (a good team that will probably make the playoffs as a high seed), and defeated Chris Paul and his Hornets (who normally play tough). More than anything, this team knows how to play defense and they are pretty dang good at it. Kevin Garnett seems to be getting his legs back every second he gets back into shape, which gives them one of the best defenders of all-time at the power forward spot. Kendrick Perkins is a fit to deal with at center and Paul Pierce, who has been excellent on the offensive end thus far (22 points a game), has always been good at poking the ball away. I also can’t stress how important Rasheed Wallace is going to be to this team down the stretch. Unless opponents take advantage of Sheed by forcing him to defend the low post, his lethal three-point shooting is going to provide a big help to this offense. Equally as important to this team as everything mentioned above so far: Rajon Rondo. Rondo (who signed a five year, $55 million extension today right before the deadline) has had assist totals of 10, 11, 16 and 10 in his first four games.
2. Orlando Magic – 3-0 – Orlando has been pretty impressive too throughout their first three games. Playing without Rashard Lewis (suspended 10 games for testing positive for performance enhancing drugs) and Vince Carter (missed the Toronto game with a bum ankle), the Magic have shown their supreme depth taking hits in the injury department and still coming through with big wins. Just to show how talented this team is: without Vince Carter, J.J. Reddict (27 points), Jameer Nelson (30 points) and Ryan Anderson (20 points) all stepped up and outperformed what is normally expected of them against the Raptors. Dwight Howard has gotten better since the Finals, adding several new moves to his repertoire and fairing a little better at the line to this point.
3. Denver Nuggets – 3-0 – I pegged this team for a downfall before the season. That was a bad move. Carmelo Anthony is driven and he is running away with things in Denver with a lot of impressive performances thus far. 30 against Utah, 41 against Portland and 42 last night against the Grizzlies. Love the addition of Ty Lawson. He brings a lot of energy to this team and makes the second unit a dynamic offense, which is a good thing to have when your best player is off the floor.
4. Los Angeles Lakers – 2-1 – Didn’t dominate the Clippers in the opener. Lost to the Mavericks on an absolutely horrible shooting night. Those first two games caused some to bring up the “are the Lakers overrated?” posts. Thankfully, Kobe came out and dominated the Atlanta Hawks (a pretty good team in the East) last night with a 41-point performance. Andrew Bynum is averaging 20 and eight in Pau Gasol’s absence. When Pau gets back and is 100%, the Lakers should rattle off a pretty good win streak. My only complaint: get Shannon Brown some more playing time. I’m fine with Derek Fisher starting and knocking in a couple of jumpers if the offense is stagnant, but other than that, let him rest for the post-season and give Shannon an opportunity to prove himself. I think he has all the skills to be a major point guard in this league and I don’t know why Jordan Farmar is always the first one off the bench.
5. San Antonio Spurs – 2-1 – Unimpressive wins over the Hornets (who had a dreadful night from the field in that game) and the Kings (the worst team basketball possibly) and they lost to Chicago. Still, I haven’t seen Richard Jefferson in a full game with a full understanding of the offensive and defensive schemes. I’ll wait for that.
6. Miami Heat – 3-0 – Like how this team has developed so far this season. Dwyane Wade has not showed any sign of fatigue, Jermaine O’Neal is playing like a man possessed, Michael Beasley and Udonis Haslem are capable of averaging double-doubles apiece, and this is without any major contribution from second year point guard Mario Chalmers (who can actually shoot from outside pretty well and is one of the better defensive point guards in the NBA) or Quentin Richardson (who can also lite it up offensively but hasn’t gotten anything going yet. Wade is going to make this team a contender no matter what so look for them to be hanging around the top 11 all year.
7. Phoenix Suns – 3-0 – Man does that high octane offense look good when Steve Nash is at the helm. Nash leads the league in assists right now, Jason Richardson has put in a solid 23 points per game, and Channing Frye is raining in from three (he turned out to be a perfect fit for this offense like I said he would). The only problem? Grant Hill is their leading rebounder right now. I don’t know when that is ever a good thing. Amare is getting his 18-20 a game, but we have still have yet to see that jump we expected from him in the rebounding department. That needs to happen in order for Phoenix to go further in the playoffs.
9. Oklahoma City Thunder – 2-1 – This is probably a little high for a team that looked horrible against Portland (which didn’t make this group because of their losses to Denver and Houston) but I still love this young nucleus and I will not be able to rank this team that high again for the rest of the year. So here’s cheers to Kevin Durant’s 22 and nine!
10. Atlanta Hawks – 2-1 -Yeah, the Hawks deserve to be ahead of Oklahoma City. At least I think they do. They beat Washington and Indiana and at least they didn’t give up in last night’s game against the Lakers. Joe Johnson is off to a good start and Josh Smith looked awesome until last night’s game when Ron Artest shut him down. Al Horford have Andrew Bynum a lot of trouble last night and it looks like he is going to average a double-double this year.
11. Dallas Mavericks – 2-1 – Again, maybe this is low. They beat the Lakers, but I think that was a once in a year pitiful performance and they were without their second best player. Plus, they lost their home opener to Washington and their only other win came against the Clippers. Dirk is averaging a beastly 29 and nine in his first three games while Shawn Marion has averaged 17.
12. Philadelphia 76ers – 2-1 – I like this team. After a few games, I am more convinced that this club will make the playoffs than ever. Lou Williams is actually an adequate point guard that can get to the cup and pass the ball fairly well, Andre Iguodala is filing up the statsheet with 18/6/6 type nights, and maybe Elton Brand can make a full comeback and average a double-double again. Thaddues Young is getting better to. Will get to see how well they can hang with Boston tomorrow.
13. Washington Wizards – 2-1 – Gilbert Arenas is back. Antawn Jamison isn’t (yet). Washington can lite it up offensively and they have that trio of centers that I have talked about so often. Get Randy Foye to maintain a double-digit average off the bench and you have yourself a playoff team.
14. Portland Trail Blazers – 2-2 – Two tough loses to an underrated Houston team and one of the best teams in basketball (Denver). They were, however, able to beat Houston at home and pull out a win over Oklahoma City. Brandon Roy can score at will but he’s been the only consistent part of the team. Hopefully Greg Oden and LaMarcus Aldridge can get on track and Andre Miller can figure out his role before Portland falls too far behind Denver.
15. New Orleans Hornets – 1-2 – A loss to San Antonio, a close win over Sacramento and a loss to Boston isn’t much of a resume, but I still don’t think this team is clicking on all cylinders yet. Chris Paul is getting going and now they need Julian Wright and Peja Stojacovic to do the same.
16. Chicago Bulls – 1-2 – Derrick Rose will get his ankle healthy soon, Tyrus Thomas (should) have an offensive game down and Luo Deng (might) emerge as the scorer this team needs to replace Ben Gordon. If Deng doesn’t show up, Vinny Del Negro might be forced to got with a starting backcourt of Rose and Kirk Hinrich just to see if he can get the offense going.
17. Utah Jazz - 1-1 – That loss to Denver was a heart breaker. Deron Williams is averaging a double-double (25 and 12) and Ronnie Brewer and Paul Millsap are putting in 17 apiece. Denver is clearly better, but it will be interesting to see who emerges between Utah and Portland as the second fiddle in the Northwest.
18. Toronto Raptors – 1-2 – To repeat from yesterday: “This Toronto team is better than I anticipated. They are resilient, they have very good shooters and they have a go to guy that works his tail off. At least for the first three games that is.” Chris Bosh will make the All-Star team this year.
19. Cleveland Cavaliers – 2-2 – How can a team with LeBron James be ranked 19? It’s improbable, but hey, they lost their first two games to Boston and Toronto and beat two other sub par six teams in Minnesota and Charlotte (they didn’t dominate these games either). Undoubtedly they will be in the top 10 after this month, at least I think they will.
20. Detroit Pistons – 1-2 – Does anybody else think that Detroit will magically steal the eighth seed this season? After studying them for a bit, it seems possible. Terrific young point guard (Rodney Stuckey), big-time scorers (Ben Gordon and Richard Hamilton) and even a post player that can shoot the outside shot (Charlie Villanueava). As long as they beat the bottom feeders and take a few big games they could do it.
21. Memphis Grizzlies – 1-2 – Not a lot to dislike on this team … for fantasy leagues that is. Rudy Gay (who was not extended) and O.J. Mayo are studs. They should both average at least 18 a game this year. Still no defense, though, which means they will lose more games.
22. Minnesota Timberwolves – 1-2 – Jonny Flynn is exciting (and good might I add), Al Jefferson is getting his game back, and Corey Brewer might have developed into a competent wing player. Get Kevin Love back and this is a solid team. If only they had drafted Stephen Curry.
23. Milwaukee Bucks – 1-1 – I may have but them higher, but learning that Michael Redd will miss two weeks or more with a knee problem killed this team’s chances of doing the impossible. Brandon Jennings is still a stud, though.
24. Charlotte Bobcats – 1-2 – This team has no inside presence and their two best (team) players play the same position (D.J. Augustin and Raymond Felton). Maybe Gerald Wallace will get an assist this decade, but that’s unlikely.
25. Los Angeles Clippers – 0-3 – The Clippers are the best of the winless teams because are missing their top round pick and have been in every game they have played. Eric Gordon is a beast.
26. Indiana Pacers – 0-2 -Danny Granger is good. Good enough to win a few games for them … when they play the teams listed below.
27. Golden State Warriors – 0-2 – Is it insane to think that this team has the most talent in the NBA? If only Don Nelson knew how to use them (Monta Ellis-Stephen Curry, Anthony Randolph, etc.).
28. Sacramento Kings – 0-3 – They almost beat New Orleans. Would like to see Tyreke Evans get more shots because Kevin Martin is getting way too many.
29. New York Knicks - 0-3 – New York didn’t expect to win this year did they? David Lee is a good guy, though, and some of their no names can lite it up.
30. New Jersey Nets – 0-3 – I am sure New Jersey is better than this (lost on a buzzer beater, Devin Harris got hurt), so they will only be in the cellar until Mr. Harris returns.
Most Valuable Player: Carmelo Anthony
Defensive Player of the Year: Kobe Bryant
Rookie of the Year: Brandon Jennings
Coach of the Year: Doc Rivers
Most Improved Player of the Year: O.J. Mayo
