NBA Power Rankings

Good lord, the NBA playoff picture is a mess. Last week’s power rankings aren’t irrelevant, but they kind of are. The top- and bottom-most teams tend to stay put, but it’s the other 20 or so teams sandwiched in-between them that keep moving up and down, then up, then down, the ladder. In the Western Conference, [...]

Fuhgettabout March Madness. The NBA playoffs are almost here. Sure, you could watch college kids, some of them highly touted Association prospects, soak up late-winter, early spring spotlight as they sap 30 seconds off the 35-second shot clock trying to score, only to usually not score, en route to securing or losing a national championship [...]

Looking to identity and subsequently acquire what’s missing in your life? You’ve come to the right place. NBA power rankings are here. Before we begin, there is one housekeeping note: What follows is not the direct result of records alone. There will be lottery teams ranked higher than playoff teams and everything in between. Power [...]

Thou shall fear no evil, because the NBA power rankings are here to save the day. It’s been forever since we last saw each other. Like, a whole week or something. A lot has happened since then. The Warriors are clearly tanking, trying to avoid a first-round dance with the Thunder; the Nuggets fired Brian [...]

Goodbye, All-Star discussion and NBA trade deadline. Hello, playoff race. It’s that time of year again. The focus is on the playoffs and various position-jockeying that’s going on. This week we have a lot of movement to cover, from the Blazers’ slump, to the Spurs’ mounting cankers, to the Thunder’s improbable surge, to the Sixers [...]

Stand up, folks. Stretch. Bend. Flex. Make old-folk noises. The NBA trade deadline is finally upon us. This implies two things: First, real, live basketball is about to begin again. Fist-pump it up. Second, the rumors are flowing like vodka and tequila and gin and rum and whiskey during J.R. Smith’s weekend-long vacation from the city of Cleveland. Navigating those [...]

Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it’s off to the 2015 NBA All-Star Game we go. Okay, so, I’m pretty sure “heigh-ho” refers to yawning or disappointment, but screw it. I wanted to both rhyme and write “heigh-ho,” so let’s just pretend. Anyway, the NBA is speeding toward its All-Star break, leaving a trail of injuries, playoff-seeding battles and [...]

Avoiding NBA power rankings is for chumps, so come on in. There’s plenty to talk about this week. The Warriors and Hawks are still playing in a league of their own; the Grizzlies look like fortuitous demigods; the Hornets and Pistons are making a mockery of the Eastern Conference’s race for the final two playoff spots; [...]

Question of the week: Do any of the NBA’s Eastern Conference fringe playoff teams actually want to make the postseason? Asking for a friend or 50 here. Seriously, once you leave the East’s top-six teams—Hawks(!), Raptors, Wizards, Bulls, Cavaliers and Bucks—it feels like you’ve entered the “Let’s try and suck as much as possible in order to [...]

There’s something truly zany about the 2014-15 NBA season. It’s been weird. It’s still weird. It’s truly, utterly, completely, wholly, wonderfully, purely, perfectly zany. Allow me to offer up Exhibit A: These here power rankings. Collective movement is neither enormous nor insubstantial. There is virtually no change at the top. But then we get into the [...]