The NBA season began 26 days ago, and over that time there has been plenty of off-court drama. The Brooklyn Nets, San Antonio Spurs, Brooklyn Nets, Charlotte Hornets and Brooklyn Nets (not to mention the Nets) have all had stuff going on that has drawn attention off of the court. That is a shame, because the on-court product has been simply fantastic.
Seven players are averaging at least 30 points per game this season. The Utah Jazz are leading the Western Conference, just ahead of the Portland Trail Blazers, both teams projected into the lottery. In the East the expected contenders are at the top, but they are joined by the Cleveland Cavaliers and MVP-candidate Donovan Mitchell.
The NBA season is a month old, and teams are starting to make their mark. Who joins the Cavs and Jazz on top of the Week 4 Power Rankings?
Sorting through the results thus far is a difficult task. How do you balance good teams off to poor starts with teams having unexpectedly great starts? At this point we begin to shift significantly off of preseason expectations and give teams credit for what they have accomplished thus far.
Then we mix in injuries, strength of schedule, shooting luck and a dash of gut feeling to put together a final ranking. Here we are, from the worst teams in the league all the way to the top. That means a trip to Motor City to kick things off.
Cade Cunningham is off to a good start, but a very inefficient one, hitting just 41.5 percent of his shots and 27.9 from 3-point range. Surround him with a host of players on their rookie contracts and it’s no wonder the Pistons can’t stop anyone. This is a team that is still a ways away from achieving its final product.
Both of the Lakers’ wins are fairly respectable, over the Denver Nuggets and New Orleans Pelicans, but the bottom line is that they have been terrible this season no matter how you slice it. Their offense is grappling with the Clippers and Hornets for worst in the league and now LeBron James will miss time with an injury. Whether it’s a big trade or the stars suddenly playing better, whatever hope the Lakers have had better kick in soon.
This is the team we all expected to be at the bottom of the league, an extremely young roster flush with offense-first pieces. Role players such as Kenyon Martin Jr. and Tari Eason have had their moments, while Alperen Sengun and Jalen Green make last year’s rookie class look quite exciting. Houston is gunning for Victor or Scoot this season, but they have a lot to be excited about down the road.
The Charlotte Hornets are the biggest fallers in their week’s power rankings, coming all of the way down from 13th two weeks ago. They have lost eight-straight games since their 3-3 start, most of them absolute beatdowns. LaMelo Ball is back, and perhaps he can right the ship, but it looks like this team should be sending scouts to France in droves right about now.
In the midst of the troubling scandal involving Josh Primo and at least one Spurs employee, the team has fallen apart after its clearly fool’s gold hot start. They lost five-straight games before beating the Milwaukee Bucks’ B-Team the other night. Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson look great, and Tre Jones is a steady hand at the point, but there is no star to put at the middle of this roster and not enough defensive connectivity among all of the young players.
Just narrowly losing to Charlotte Hornets for “biggest fallers” in this week’s power rankings, the Minnesota Timberwolves went from a wobbly start to a worrying trend. The fit between Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns is slow-developing, but even worse is that the personalities on this team seem to be clashing in major ways and the dysfunction is spilling onto the court. Head coach Chris Finch has to find a way to reach his players and get them bought in, because they clearly are not right now.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are stocked with young players throughout their rotation, are without the No. 2 pick in Chet Holmgren, and are still fielding an average defense this season. That has allowed them to hang in a number of games, especially as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander punches his ticket for the All-Star Game this year. They will likely fade a bit later in the season, but right now they are hanging tough with nearly everyone they play.
Trying to get a read on the Washington Wizards is a bit of a tricky proposition, as just when you think they are showing their true colors as a lottery team (1-5 stretch) they follow it up by winning three straight, two against strong competition. Kristaps Porzingis looks fully healthy and Kyle Kuzma is balling out. Can they push for a playoff spot?
It’s been a bit of a topsy-turvy season for the LA Clippers. They have played one of the league’s easiest schedules and came out just 7-6 with a -3.3 net rating. Of those seven wins, five came against teams we’ve already listed in these rankings. If Kawhi Leonard is simply done, this supposedly deep team may struggle just to make the play-in tournament. Paul George has been excellent; his supporting cast has not.
The New York Knicks have been fine. They are .500 through 12 games, with a decently difficult schedule and a slightly negative point differential. Their main guys have alternated big games but no one has been consistent enough to lead this team to anything more. Head coach Tom Thibodeau will need to continue playing with his rotations to find lineups that work. Cam Reddish looks on track to be an NBA player again, which is fun.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
There is no need to get into any of the Brooklyn Nets’ drama here, but they are 4-1 since Kyrie Irving was suspended and haven’t allowed 100 points in six straight games. Some of that is opponent shooting luck, some of that is a soft schedule, but this team does appear to have regained something that they had previously lost. Kevin Durant is putting together another MVP-worthy campaign and appears locked-in on defense, something that is necessary for this team to rebuild its contender status.
The record looks really good, but looking under the hood the Denver Nuggets are a bit less impressive. Nikola Jokic is playing great, not transcendent, and Jamal Murray is clearly knocking off some rust. Still, their offense is humming along at a top-10 level; it’s the defense, where they invested their resources this summer, that is still a bottom-tier group. That’s the problem they have to solve to make noise in the postseason.
Zach LaVine is on a maintenance plan for a knee injury he can’t shake, Lonzo Ball is nowhere near returning, and yet…the Chicago Bulls are hanging around. They are absolutely throttling opponents on defense with a combination of ball-hawk guards and pogo-stick athletes coming in off the bench. DeMar DeRozan heroics can only carry them so far, but it’s been enough to keep that at .500 against a very tough schedule.
Trae Young and DeJounte Murray have weathered the growing pains of fitting together thus far, but it’s certainly not a seamless fit. Their center rotation looks great, with Onyeka Okongwu flashing on both ends but Clint Capela holding onto his spot with excellent play. Rookie AJ Griffin has had a couple of big games already. Unfortunately, Bogdan Bogdanovic is still nowhere to be seen, and De’Andre Hunter has been really bad to start the year. The Hawks aren’t quite as good as this record, but their problems are probably fixable.
Joel Embiid was clearly not fully healthy nor in shape to start the season, but he is starting to put things together for the 76ers. Add in Tyrese Maxey putting together some blistering performances and this looks like a team that can survive with James Harden out for an extended period. The defense is great once again and they have a lot of bench pieces to mix-and-match on different nights. This team looks recovered from the slow start and should push for a top-4 seed in the East by the time it’s all said and done.
The Toronto Raptors are 7-7, are without their best player in Pascal Siakam for an extended stretch, and just lost two straight games to supposed tanking squads in the Pacers and Thunder. So why are they this high? They have the league’s ninth-best net rating and are sixth in SRS, which takes into account strength of schedule. They have wins over the Cavaliers, Heat, 76ers, Hawks and Bulls already. This group might fade slightly in the next two weeks, but their combination of long athletes is continuing to flummox opponents.
At this point, you could probably rank the next seven teams in nearly any order. This is the second-best tier, the group of teams that look solidly on track for a playoff berth and have well-performing teams surrounding at least one big-time star. For the Grizzlies that is Ja Morant, making his case to be on the MVP ballot, with Desmond Bane pushing for an All-Star berth of his own. When Jaren Jackson Jr. returns this group could be lethal.
There have been some growing pains as the Pelicans find a balance with their four offensive pillars, and nearly everyone has missed some time with injuries. Yet the result has been the league’s sixth-best net rating and an offense right around top-5 in the league. Zion Williamson looks healthy, Brandon Ingram looks sharp, and Herb Jones is one of the league’s few perimeter difference-makers.
Luka Doncic. Doncic, Luka. Mr. Luka Doncic the First. How many different ways can you say Luka Doncic, because he has been the everything for this Dallas Mavericks team thus far. He is leading a competitive field with 34.4 points per game, chipping in 8.7 rebounds, 8.1 assists and two steals per game. The Mavs have faced a tough schedule and come out looking quite good. Is it sustainable? That’s a fair question to ask, and we’ll probably get our answer.
The first team to race out in front this season, the Portland Trail Blazers faced two weeks without Damian Lillard and managed to weather the storm, going 2-2 and pulling out a two-point road win against the Phoenix Suns. They followed that with a Josh Hart buzzer-beater in Miami, and against a top-5 schedule they are a robust 9-4. Jerami Grant is killing it as the co-star, the defensive pieces are coming together, and so far their top-10 defense is holding up.
The Phoenix Suns got off to a really strong start, 6-1 with some marquee wins. Then adversity began to strike, with Chris Paul’s age really starting to show and Cam Johnson undergoing meniscus surgery that will keep him out for a couple of months. Devin Booker has been sublime, and Mikal Bridges is expanding his offensive bag, but it’s possible the Suns fall to earth over the coming weeks.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have lost three-straight games after their 8-1 start, but it’s not as bad as it sounds. The Cavs were in each game until the final minute, all three came on the road, and their opponents all benefited from positive shooting luck. The Cavs lead the league in point differential, in adjusted net rating and in SRS. The reason they aren’t first is that the three losses have uncovered a few weak spots to be addressed, but there is no reason to view them as anything more than a quirk of the schedule. This team is really good.
The Utah Jazz had their Vegas win total set to 24.5 wins. They are currently on track for 59. There isn’t much fluky about their start, either; while opponents have shot poorly against them, the Jazz have the league’s fifth-best net rating against an average schedule. Lauri Markkanen is making a serious All-Star case and new head coach Will Hardy is pushing all of the right rotational buttons. The Jazz probably won’t lead the Western Conference when all is said and done, but this is certainly not a lottery team.
The Milwaukee Bucks have one “real” loss and one loss to the Spurs when they sat their main guys. Giannis Antetokounmpo has been simply incredible, and Brook Lopez is a front-runner for Defensive Player of the year. The Bucks not only have the league’s best defense, it’s been the best by far. They aren’t first because they’ve played an extremely easy schedule thus far and Khris Middleton is still out for a time, but they look like a top-tier title favorite right now, neck-and-neck with the Celtics.
Speaking of Boston, what a start to the year for this group. The Brooklyn Nets let offseason drama spill into the year (and created new drama along the way); the Boston Celtics have not, absolutely cruising with an interim coach and without their All-Defense center. Jayson Tatum is leading the league’s best offense, Malcolm Brogdon has been an excellent addition, and the defense is forcing the right kinds of shots even if opponents have hit them at an above-average rate. This is a group not only playing well now, but set up to dominate in the postseason.
The next two weeks will likely shake up these standings even more, but the further we get into the season the more they will begin to stabilize. The West has a lot of work to do to sort itself out, but the top three teams in the East look here to stay.