With the new season set to begin tomorrow, we don’t yet know how the standings will look. With revamped teams, new challenges, and rising threats, things are always changing in the NBA landscape and it can sometimes be hard to tell which teams will succeed right away.
This season, however, experts seem to have a pretty good idea of who will be competing for a title this time.
And in the NBA’s first official power rankings, which were released today, it dropped yet another hint at which teams to watch out for this campaign. Unsurprisingly, it was the Warriors who were put first, behind the Bucks, Celtics, Suns, and Clippers (who rounded out the top five).
From the outside, it’s difficult to know if or when the Warriors will be past the fallout from Draymond Green’s punch to Jordan Poole’s face. But when Green was back on the floor for the preseason finale on Friday, the Warriors pretty much looked like themselves. Poole shot just 1-for-10 and they lost the game, but they did have a second-quarter stretch of small ball (with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Jonathan Kuminga and Green on the floor with either Poole or Andrew Wiggins) where they scored 19 points on just eight possessions.
The NBA has released its Power Rankings ahead of tomorrow’s opening night:
1) Warriors
2) Bucks
3) Celtics
4) Suns
5) Clippers
6) 76ers
7) Nuggets
8) Grizzlies
9) Heat
10) Nets
Thoughts? 👀
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) October 17, 2022
As the defending champs, it’s a tradition that the Warriors go first. Still, even in a vacuum, the Dubs would be ranked pretty high just based on the strength, depth, and experience of their roster.
Lakers Fans Are Disappointed After Being Placed 19th In Latest Power Rankings
But after seeing the top of the list, I couldn’t help but wonder which teams were near the bottom half — and that’s where the Lakers come in.
Despite making some changes, NBA.com had them at just 19th in their power rankings, which is quite a brutal blow to James and his quad ahead of opening night.
The Lakers’ preseason wasn’t as bad as last year (0-6 and outscored by almost 18 points per 100 possessions with Anthony Davis on the floor), but it wasn’t much better. Their first defensive possession of their first game had Davis losing his man and LeBron James standing still when there was a very obvious rotation to be made. They didn’t rank as low on defense (24th, counting only games involving NBA teams) as they did on offense (30th — 93.9 points scored per 100 possessions), though the Laker who took the most preseason shots was somebody named Cole Swider, who was 14-for-54 (26%). Maybe that would have been Davis, but he missed three games with back tightness.
A positive was Kendrick Nunn playing five games, registering an effective field goal percentage of 59.0%, and looking both shifty and smooth off the dribble. Plus, the Lakers were outscored by only two points in James’ 76 minutes, with most of the plus-minus damage coming against guys who shouldn’t be in the rotation.
Of course, one must not make too much of what they see in the pre-season. Since none of the games matter, it’s considered more of a warm-up and trial period before the actual action begins tomorrow.
Still, it is interesting that there remains so little faith in the Lakers. Despite having LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Russell Westbrook, nobody is really giving them a shot to hang with the elites.
It’ll be up to the Lakers to prove them wrong.
