Six weeks into the NBA season we have a tale of two Conferences. In the Eastern Conference, things are taking shape as the best teams float to the top of the standings and the worst fall to the bottom. There is plenty of basketball still to be played, but there is an understandable order to the current standings.
The Western Conference, however, is pure insanity. 3.5 games separate the 11th-place Dallas Mavericks from the first-place Phoenix Suns. The Mavs in 11th also have the third-best point differential in the West. The Sacramento Kings just won seven straight, while the Warriors have evened things out after losing five straight and starting 0-8 on the road. The Los Angeles Lakers are 5-1 in their last six games. Things are very topsy-turvy out West.
The Week 6 NBA Power Rankings are out! The Cavs have righted the ship, the Lakers show life and the Pelicans are surging.
Our goal here is to try and sort through the chaos and determine a power ranking for all 30 teams. To do so we weigh most heavily how a team has performed this year (not their record) with a dash of injury adjustment and a pinch of preseason expectations. The goal is to identify where each team truly is now, not where they will be at the end of the year. There has been a lot of change since the last edition of the rankings, but as the season goes on those changes will be less drastic.
We start at the bottom, which has shifted slightly as the Lakers have climbed out and the San Antonio Spurs have fallen back. Then we climb to the top tier, where the Cleveland Cavaliers and Phoenix Suns have stabilized and the first-place team stays the same.
Without further ago, here are our biweekly NBA Power Rankings, Week 6 Edition.
Team records through games played 11/25