The NBA is almost two weeks into the 2022-23 season, and it has been nothing if not surprising. The standings look like someone took an expected ranking, put it in a ziploc bag and shook it up like Shake and Bake. The Utah Jazz and San Antonio Spurs are near the top, while the LA Clippers and Miami Heat are near the bottom.
This might be a Cleveland Cavaliers website, but it’s helpful to keep the entire league in view and see how the Cavs stack up against their competitors. Therefore we will take regular looks at the NBA by rolling out Power Rankings.
The first edition of the NBA Power Rankings are here! From the moribund Lakers to the surging Cavs, where do the league’s 30 teams fall in 2022-23?
Which teams have been truly good or bad to start the year, and which have just been the victims of bad luck or tough schedules? We’ll try to parse that out here. We will primarily lean into each team’s performance this season alone, with preseason expectations serving as anchors to help us, not command us.
Let’s start at the bottom, where one of the greatest of all time has been let down by his organization and could log the worst season of his career. At the top, we’ll find the Cavs and other teams off to strong starts. Here we go!
It’s been a public disaster for one of the league’s most storied franchises. LeBron James may have clever commercials about beating Father Time but he’s at least losing some sets to him, and that means he can’t carry a team built this poorly by himself. Russell Westbrook has been a dramatic $47 million problem, Anthony Davis keeps accruing nagging injuries, and the complete lack of shooting on this roster is appalling. They deserve the bottom spot.
The optimism around this team from national media this offseason stemmed from (1) belief in Cade Cunningham and (2) excitement about their rookie class. Cunningham hasn’t made a huge leap in his second season, and the rookies look like — wait for it — rookies. This core has a bright future, but it will take a while for them to get there. Expect Detroit to stick around the bottom this season.
The Houston Rockets have shown a few flashes. Jalen Green looks electric, Alperen Sengun has been wild and crafty when he has been available, and the rookie pairing of Tari Eason and Jabari Smith Jr. look like the real deal. Package it together and you have an exceptionally young team without a veteran tentpole and with too many defensive holes. Head coach Stephen Silas needs to find something to hang his hat on here, even as the organization has their eyes on Victor Wembanyama.
The Sacramento Kings were busy this offseason, adding a new defensive-minded head coach and plenty of rotation pieces around De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis. The result has been a team that is hanging in every game and while the record hasn’t come around yet, there is something here. Fox has been dialed in on defense, rookie Keegan Murray has been balling and the morose Lakers may leave room for the Kings to get into the Play-In Tournament.
On paper, the Brooklyn Nets… How many times this offseason did you hear Nets analysis begin that way? Hypothetically this team has a phenomenal amount of talent, but anyone who has paid attention to the chemistry and defensive issues knew to sound the alarm on the Nets being a championship contender. The defense has been unwatchable, Ben Simmons is completely inside of his own head, and the off-court issues with Kyrie Irving are already popping up. This is a glass house and everyone is throwing stones; it’s only a matter of time before it shatters.
The Orlando Magic just notched their first win of the season, a complete drubbing of the Charlotte Hornets, but they have looked good in every game they have played this season. Despite wave after wave of injuries their big frontcourt rotation has enough skill and versatility to keep them in any game. Franz Wagner is playing well, Paolo Banchero looks like an All-Star, let alone Rookie of the Year, and Bol Bol has finally grasped onto the tantalizing potential draft analysts saw in him. The Magic’s bench is so bad they will lose a lot of games, but if and when they get healthy they will give a lot of good teams fits this year.
The LA Clippers aren’t concerned about the regular season. Their eyes are focused on getting to April fully healthy so that their stars can take over and they can ride their insane depth to a title. The problem? That depth doesn’t look so great right about now, and their stars aren’t healthy. Last year they missed the playoffs altogether, and while that feels unlikely this year they haven’t instilled a lot of confidence. Two losses to the Oklahoma City Thunder look bad enough, but this team’s only two wins are by a combined eight points to the Kings and Lakers…who already appeared on this list. Not great, Bob.
The Indiana Pacers look poised to be the young, fast team that everyone wants to watch and ultimately end up about where everyone expected before the season. These “League Pass” darlings have Tyrese Haliburton wheeling and dealing, Bennedict Mathurin bombing away as a rookie challenger to Banchero for top honors, and enough two-way verve to scare some teams.
The Washington Wizards are right about where we expected. They lost to the one good team on their schedule, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and otherwise went 3-1 against a soft schedule. Kristaps Porzingis looks healthy, Bradley Beal is competing on both ends, and Monte Morris is a steady hand at the wheel. This group has capped upside but if Deni Avdija can be a true defensive difference-maker perhaps they can battle their way to the Play-In Tournament.
The San Antonio Spurs had the league’s lowest win total heading into the season, a surefire bet to plunge to the bottom of the standings without any backcourt players of note. Instead, Tre Jones has been the definition of solid, Josh Richardson is having a bounceback year, and the starting frontcourt has been awesome: Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson and Jakob Poetl look like the real deal. They will falter as the season goes on, but their start has been electric.
It’s hard to evaluate the Oklahoma City Thunder’s wins because two of them came over the LA Clippers. Those seem impressive, but as we already covered, the Clippers have had a really bad start to the season. Regardless, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is making a strong case to make the All-Star team, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl has been a savvy option as a small center, and their defensive effort under head coach Mark Daigneault has been great.
Well, this is not where we expected the Miami Heat to be. The loss of P.J. Tucker was expected to hurt them a bit in the playoffs, but they were supposed to continue rolling as a deep regular season team always capable of plugging in the next graduate of Heat University. Instead, they have racked up a ton of loss already with some major defensive wobbling from a usually stout group. The silver lining is they have played a tough schedule to begin – six of seven opponents are ranked in the top-15 of our list – but they need to figure some things out to be a contender in the East this year.
They need to figure some things out to be a contender in the East this year – that’s a phrase that applies to a few different teams. The Philadelphia 76ers have had a rough start of their own, with Joel Embiid looking out of shape and James Harden and Tyrese Maxey forming perhaps the worst defensive starting backcourt of the season thus far. They should right the ship and the path forward is clearer than other teams, but the transition and perimeter defense need to be addressed for the Sixers to have any shot when it matters.
The good for the New York Knicks is that they have already banked three wins in their first five, the right kind of start for a team trying to make the postseason. The better? They have been dominant in those wins, with an overall scoring margin of +5.2, fifth-best in the league. The best? Their only two losses are to the Milwaukee Bucks and Memphis Grizzlies. The bad? Their wins are against bad teams and the schedule is incredibly tough for the next two weeks. Still, it’s been as good of a start as Knicks fans could have expected thus far.
The Denver Nuggets are 4-2, but with a negative point differential. That’s because their two losses have been blowouts, and their wins have been of a more pedestrian variety. Still, they have played one of the league’s more difficult opening schedules thus far, and most likely they will jump up quite a few spots in these rankings over the next couple of weeks. Nikola Jokic is his usual dominant self and Bones Hyland has been energetic off the bench. Jamal Murray is still shaking off the rust of a long layoff.
The Chicago Bulls have played a tough schedule to open the year and they have acquitted themselves fairly well against it. They beat the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat, but got drubbed by the Cleveland Cavaliers. DeMar DeRozan has picked up where he left off and Nikola Vucevic is playing like a guy who doesn’t want to get traded, but Zach LaVine has not been himself, nor fully available, due to a lingering knee issue. His health might be the swing factor for whether or not the Bulls make it back to the playoffs.
Three major questions faced the Atlanta Hawks coming into the season. First, would Trae Young and Dejoute Murray fit well together? The early returns are very positive, with Young working in some off-ball actions. Would the defense improve with a healthy De’Andre Hunter and Murray mixed in? They are sitting at 17th, a totally fine landing spot for a team that was 26th a year ago. Finally, would the bench come together? That’s a mixed bag, with the absence of Bogdan Bogdanovic balanced by the hot shooting of rookie AJ Griffin.
No one expected even this level of start from the Charlotte Hornets, not after a truly deplorable preseason showing and with LeMelo Ball, Terry Rozier and Miles Bridges all missing from last season’s league-average team. Yet Dennis Smith Jr. has resurrected his career, Nick Richards came out of nowhere, and unsurprisingly Steve Clifford has them defending. It feels like a mirage, but it’s a fun one right now.
The Minnesota Timberwolves made a huge bet on tower-ball this offseason, trading the farm for Rudy Gobert to pair with Karl-Anthony Towns inside. Such a big shift in team structure has resulted in a few growing pains, but even so the Wolves are 4-2 to start the year. Anthony Edwards has been scoring at a high level, but Towns has had a slow beginning, likely due to a serious illness he had in the preseason. This group probably continues to improve as the season goes on.
The NBA schedule-makers didn’t cut the Toronto Raptors any breaks to start the year, with a tour around Eastern Conference playoff teams at every turn. Toronto has been just fine against such a tough slate, going 3-3 and dealing the Cleveland Cavaliers their lone loss. Pascal Siakam has looked like an MVP candidate, and he is leading a deep and tough roster back towards a playoff berth. The question is who steps up next to him and if they can be a true contender in the conference.
The Memphis Grizzlies are down multiple players to start the year, but they have still navigated those absences to land at 4-2, with a bad loss to the Dallas Mavericks the only true blemish. Ja Morant has been the most fun player in the league as he has absolutely detonated on opposing defenses. Santi Aldama has been their latest find, stepping up to start in Jaren Jackson Jr.’s absence, while Desmond Bane looks like an All-Star candidate alongside Morant.
The defending champions look really good…except when they don’t. Their transition defense has been painfully bad, and they are clearly still figuring out the best rotation options to meld the young with the new. Stephen Curry has been magnificent, Andrew Wiggins could be in the mix for an All-Star repeat, and Draymond Green has been locked in. They should shake off the early stumbles and creep back to the top, but for now they land here.
The Dallas Mavericks have the league’s third-best net rating, in large part due to demolishing the Memphis Grizzlies and each of their losses being close affairs. Still, losing to the Thunder is a bad look for a supposed contender, and while Luka Doncic has been excellent the depth around him has been shaky. Jason Kidd looks like he is struggling to keep this group pointed in the same direction.
The Utah Jazz aren’t supposed to be here. They traded their two big stars and multiple veterans and were expected to tank for Victor Wembanyama. They still might, but the players they have left have been playing hard and inside of a cohesive system instilled by new head coach Will Hardy. Lauri Markkanen is having a career year, Jordan Clarkson has blossomed as a starter and Kelly Olynyk is likely going to be flipped for real value at the deadline.
The Boston Celtics are just 3-2 but look like a team poised to contend again in the East once Robert Williams III is healthy. Jayson Tatum has been incredible to start the year, while Jaylen Brown and Malcolm Brogdon look like perfect running mates. The problem is depth beyond their top 6, and it cost them in the loss to the Cavaliers on Friday night.
The New Orleans Pelicans looked like a team ready to leap up the Western Conference ladder before injuries knocked out three of their starters, but Zion Williamson and Herb Jones could be back as soon as today. This group looks both deep and elite at the top, and rookie Dyson Daniels is already contributing. Brandon Ingram will be out a few more games with a concussion but is scoring at a high level, and sorting out who will deserve an All-Star selection from this group will be a difficult task.
The Portland Trail Blazers have been one of the league’s best teams this season, with Damian Lillard balling out before a calf injury that will cause him to miss a few weeks. Their defensive additions have absolutely paid off, and their scheme versatility with players like Jerami Grant and Justice Winslow have let this group adapt to their opponent and keep rolling. Josh Hart has been a wrecking ball as a tiny forward leading the team in rebounding, and Otto Porter Jr. hasn’t even played yet.
The Cleveland Cavaliers would be easily the top team in the Eastern Conference this season if the Milwaukee Bucks weren’t destroying worlds, with their lone loss by three points in Toronto when Darius Garland went out mid-game. They destroyed the Chicago Bulls and beat the Boston Celtics in Boston after Donovan Mitchell and Caris LeVert each exploded for 41 points. When Garland returns this team looks like it will truly contend in the East this year.
The Phoenix Suns were going to fall apart this year, right? Between the drama with their owner, Jae Crowder’s trade demand and DeAndre Ayton being slighted this summer, not to mention Chris Paul entering a nursing home, this team couldn’t sustain their winning, right? Well so far, so wrong as the Suns have cruised to start the year. Devin Booker looks great, Mikal Bridges is everywhere and Ayton has been solid. The one loss was by two points against the Blazers, and they’ve already beaten the Mavericks, Warriors and Pelicans.
No Khris Middleton? No problem for the league’s lone undefeated team, mostly because they have the best player in the universe unleashing destruction on everyone he faces. Giannis Antetokounmpo is averaging 34.4 points, 14 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 1.6 blocks per game and the Bucks are smoothing teams defensively. Right now they have to be the championship favorites and Giannis is in line for his third MVP.