NBA Week 4 Power Rankings: Cavs stumble, Jazz soar
20. team. 84. . 5-6. Previous: 27th. Sacramento Kings
The 0-4 start to the season can’t be erased, but since the Kings are 5-2 with wins over the Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers. The defense is still bad — not even Mike Brown could fix that — but the offense is hovering around the top-5. De’Aaron Fox is having his best season, full stop, and the additions of Kevin Huerter and Malik Monk are starting to catch fire.
Previous: 25th. Orlando Magic. 19. team. 38. . 4-9
The Orlando Magic never looked as bad as their record, and back-to-back wins over the Dallas Mavericks and Phoenix Suns finally give some credibility to their campaign. Paolo Banchero looks awesome, not just the Rookie of the Year but an All-Star candidate. The big lineups they are deploying actually fit together extremely well, and even Jalen Suggs has shown signs of offensive life. Wherever they end up in the standings, this team has a lot of juice to be great in the future, and they are far from an easy out even now.
100. . 6-6. Previous: 23rd. Indiana Pacers. 18. team
The Kings probably don’t hate the Domantas Sabonis trade, but the Pacers looked like winners at the time and that has only been cemented with the start of Tyrese Haliburton to the season. He is dropping 20.5 points and a league-leading 10.3 assists per game, shooting 42.9 percent from 3-point range. Sprinkle in a great start for Myles Turner and the scoring bursts from rookie Bennedict Mathurin and the Pacers are in great shape.
41. . 5-7. Previous: 9th. Golden State Warriors. 17. team
This was not where the defending champions expected to be after 12 games, clawing their way up from 3-7 against a fairly pedestrian early schedule. They are giving up the most points per game in the league, are fouling like crazy, and head coach Steve Kerr appears to have lost all trust in their three lottery picks. It’s a shame that has obscured the season Stephen Curry is having: 33.3 points, 6.8 rebounds, 6.7 assists and 5.4 3-pointers per game on 53/44/91 percent shooting splits.
16. team. 110. . 6-7. Previous: 19th. Miami Heat
The Miami Heat make two of last year’s Final Four to be struggling to start the season, although playing the Charlotte Hornets twice in the last three days has been a balm. Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo have been great, but Kyle Lowry is struggling and the bench has been bad to start the year. Duncan Robinson had the most prolific 3-point shooting start to a career in league history, but he is hitting just 30.6 percent of his 3-pointers this year.