Official /r/nba Power Rankings (11.20.2023)

23/30 rankers reporting this week. /r/NBA’s Power Rankings are published every two weeks which is a bit different from most rankings. Other than that we rank the teams the same way as our competition. If write ups are left blank the team rep decided not to submit. We encourage any user to fill in the blanks in the comment section.

#	Team	Δ	Record	Comment
1	Celtics	0	11-2	The Celtics continue to roll to start the season. 13 games in, and the Celtics are tied with the Orlando Magic for the best defense in the league, while also boasting the 4th best offense. So far, they’re the only team with both a top 5 defense and top 5 offensive rating. Not surprisingly, the Celtics have the best net rating in the league at 11.9. The Celtics are in the top 5 or top 10 for practically every advanced stat so far this season. It cannot be understated just how hot the Celtics have started. Looking past the starters, Sam Hauser deserves the spotlight for how insanely hot he’s started the season. On 78 attempts from beyond the arc, Sam Hauser has hit 40 times (per BBRef + the Memphis box score, but NBA.com has it as 38/80 so idk which is legit). That’s 51.3% from deep to start the year. His last 5 games? A blistering 54.5% from deep on 33 attempts. The dude is becoming one of the most lethal shooters in the league before our very eyes, and the Celtics have him under contract for another year at only a 2 million dollar cap hit. Between now and the next rankings the Celtics will play six times, with matchups against the Hornets, Bucks, Magic, Hawks, Bulls, and somehow already their 3rd game against the 76ers.
2	76ers	+1	10-3	It wouldn’t be the Sixers without some insane controversy related to a player and their injury status. Regardless, Maxey is showing that he has absolutely taken that step towards All-Star this season and he might even be sniffing All-NBA in the near future (if not this season). Embiid is doing the usual Embiid things and looks absolutely rejuvenated on defense. While they’ve had a few losses now, it’s hard to argue that this team does not look like a contender currently, especially in an East that doesn’t look as cut and dry as it might have when the season began.
3	Nuggets	-1	9-4
4	TWolves	+6	9-3	Wolves are 6-1 since the last time we did rankings and just went on a 4-1 west coast road trip. Wolves defense has slipped but they’ve come through in the clutch between the offensive play of KAT, Ant, and Bite Bite. The defense of Jaden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert are choking out opponents late. Wolves as of now are tops in the west heading more than 10 games in for the first time since 03-04.
5	Bucks	+1	9-4	The new-look Bucks are starting to gel. One key early takeaway is that coach Griffin has already shown more willingness to change and adapt than Bud ever did – I also like how much zone we run now (2nd most behind the Heat IIRC). There is still a lot of “figuring out” to do, especially when it comes to how to optimize Giannis and Dame together on offense, but if I were a fan of another team I’d be worried that the Bucks are 9-4 despite one of the worst starts they could have had. Giannis took a couple of weeks to get into game shape, but that knee surgery seems to have been a huge success… Malik Beasley looks like an upgrade from Grayson, Andre Jackson Jr and MarJon might both be the wing defender we needed, Cam Payne is an awesome backup PG.
6	Thunder	+8	10-4	Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is one of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA. He will get All-Defensive team considerations. You heard it here first. It turns out when your two best players buy into playing defense, you win a ton of games. This is gonna be one of the high points of this rollercoaster of a season, but good lord - when we’re playing at our best - we are unstoppable
7	Mavericks	-2	9-5	Dallas has done what it has been expected to do against a weak schedule, beating the teams near the bottom at the start of the schedule. However, this weekend the Mavs struggled holding a lead against Milwaukee, then coming out of the second half against Sacramento with tired legs and low effort. The Mavs play the Lakers Wednesday next, which will be another test for the Mavs. One area that hasn’t been detrimental to the Mavs this year, however, is Luka Doncic’s effort. It has been commendable, with only two games showing his old habits. As long as the defensive effort is strong from Dallas, they can hang with any team in the association.
8	Kings	+9	8-4	Who would have thought having Fox back would lead this offense to such great heights? Going from 2-3 without fox, to 6-1 with him in the lineup! The duo of Domas looked impressive to say the least with both players making a huge jump. Kings will be looking forward to their rematch with the Warriors that could possibly lead to a bid for the play in tourney! Either way, THE BEAM CONTINUES TO SHINE BRIGHT!
9	Knicks	+10	8-5	Since his slow start the first couple weeks Randle is back in form. Brunson is an ace. RJ on a great run but his recent injury/illness may have taken some wind out of his sails. IQ is 6MOY and Big Ragu is gelling with the team. We’re a team replete with high-effort guards who punch above their weight class and with everyone buying into the hustle it’s been a joy to watch. All that said, the heart and soul of this team has been Mitchell Robinson, the UNDISPUTED best Offensive Rebounder in the league. This guy is second chance factory, and a third-chance specialist. So much fun watching him be at the right place at the right time to restart the offense off of a miss.
10	Heat	+11	8-5	The Heat went on a 7 game winning streak since the last time you’ve seen a power rankings post. Bam Adebayo is going on a tear as well, and this is without Tyler Herro who’s missing due to an ankle injury. Jimmy Butler has also been dominant in the past few games and the Heat are seeming to figure out who’s getting minutes this season. Jaime Jaquez Jr is getting good bench minutes and producing with those minutes. Unfortunately, the Bulls were the ones that ended our winstreak and it was a close game most ofT the way until the end. The Heat are looking good but we still need to see how they compare against the East’s best, and that’s a few games away when we go up against Milwaukee. However, we don’t meet the Celtics or 76ers for quite a while so the game against the Knicks and Pacers will also have to be a barometer.
11	Magic	0	8-5	Best start to a season since 2017 but this team is literally a tale of two halves after 13 games. One of the best first half teams, but also one of the worst second half teams. Three straight games having a double digit lead at half time just to make the fourth quarter way more stressful than it needs to be. But game winners by Paolo and Franz against the Bulls in back to back games definitely gave Magic fans something to celebrate. If this was anything like last season, those games would most likely have been losses. Kinda like that Hawks game in Mexico. Lets also ignore the Mavs and Nets games. But hey, to go back to the positives, we held the #1 offense to 78 points through 3 quarters before 3rd stringers were coming in, while also holding Haliburton to 12 points on 29% shooting.
12	Suns	-1	7-6	Bradley Beal has officially been ruled out for at least 3 weeks due to back spasms, and the Big 3 has still yet to debut. Before the return of Devin Booker, the Suns were the worst 4th quarter team in the league, as seen in their losses to the Lakers and Thunder. Even after his return, both of their wins against Utah this weekend went down to the wire.
13	Pacers	+5	7-5	A home shellacking at the hands of the Magic notwithstanding, Indiana’s last two weeks have produced some entertaining and positive results. The Pacers still have the highest net offensive rating in the leauge, spurred by Tyrese Haliburton’s All-NBA-level play. The point guard has a chance to join Magic Johnson, Kevin Johnson, and Isiah Thomas as the only players to average 20ppg and 12apg in a single season. Up next? A date with the Atlanta Hawks, where a Pacers win would lock up Group A for the In-Season Tournament.
14	Cavaliers	+1	7-6	A 4-2 stretch for the Cavs, and the winners of 3 straight despite absences from Mitchell, LeVert and Okoro. Max Strus has been worth every penny for the Cavs, he’s leading the team by a decent margin with a +20 on-off per 100 possessions, and when considering he’s doing that on a .500 team, his impact has been invaluable to keep us afloat despite the injuries. His spacing is his biggest intangible, as he’s just 30 3pm away from passing how many threes Okoro made for us last season. While Okoro shot them efficiently, he was never a threat to defenses, allowing them to sag off him. Strus’s flamethrower doesn’t allow that, and the entire team is more efficient at the rim this year as a result. We should finally have our full rotation ready this week without any setbacks, and the possible emergence of Craig Porter Jr. as a backup to Darius Garland is what Cavs fans will be watching for until we’re healthy
15	Lakers	-2	8-6	Has LeBron found the fountain of youth or is he the fountain itself? The soon to be 39-year-old has put up 29.6/8.2/8.2/0.4/2.2 in his last 5 games on 63/52/72 splits! A silent MVP campaign has been brewing for him having led the Lakers to the top spot in their In-Season tournament group while also sitting 2 games behind the top seed in the West. His jumpshot falling and seemingly injury-free ankle seems to be the catalyst to this fanastic start, it’s now upto the rest of the guys to rally with him because as usual the rest of the cast including AD has been hot and cold. Anthony Davis to his credit has been a menace on defense, he leads the league in blocks and stocks per game. But for the Lakers to actually accomplish their goals he needs to be consistent on the offensive end as well, he has been dealing with hip issues the past few games which hopefully he overcomes into form.Shoutout to Cam Reddish who has been shooting 46% from three on 5 attempts per game since becoming a starter, and has 3+ steals in 6 of his last 7 games. With Vando and Gabe yet to return, the Lakers should keep developing good habits and chemistry rather than trying to unneccessarily shake up the roster, and when I say good habits, I mean to not go down double-digits every 1st quarter.
16	Rockets	+8	6-5	After a rocky few games to start the season, the Rockets have rebounded in a big way. A large part of the credit goes to Ime Udoka’s defensive schemes. Sengun has also taken a big leap this year and is looking like the franchise cornerstone, whereas FVV is doing his best to calm down the naysayers. The main challenges going forward will be to improve Jalen Green’s efficiency and incorporating Amen into the roster as he returns from injury.
17	Hawks	-9	6-6	Dread it, run from it, 0.500 arrives all the same. Atlanta has returned to it’s middle-of-the-pack ways from last season by going 2-4 in the past 2 weeks. In case you haven’t heard about it from every single Knicks fan, Trae has started the season not shooting well. He’s been his usual top-tier self when it comes to distributing the ball and running the offense (currently top 5 in offensive rating), but the shot just hasn’t been falling. That, along with some amount of regression in the past two weeks from every player not named Jalen Johnson explains why we’ve slowed down these past two weeks. It was wild that we went 4-2 with Trae shooting the way he has been; it makes sense that we’d go 2-4 with him continuing that. Some cracks have formed in Hawks fans’ optimism for this roster, but I’m not going to hit the panic button just yet. If Trae’s shooting woes continue for much longer, however, things might start to get a little dicey.
18	Pelicans	-9	6-7	After starting 4-1, the Pelicans lost five straight as CJ McCollum will miss one month due to a collapsed lung. They have had their Big Three for just 3 of 13 games so far, but have bounced back to go 2-1 against the top three teams in the Western Conference last week. Herb Jones is showing he is one of the top perimeter defenders in the league. Jordan Hawkins is an early lock for the All-Rookie Team, behind just Wemby, Chet and Brandon Miller in scoring amongst rookies. Perhaps Willie Green’s seat grows hotter as the team’s best performance and energy in two weeks came during his absence for illness. In addition to McCollum, they hope to get Trey Murphy and Jose Alvarado in the short term. They maintain the potential to be one of the deepest teams in the association if they could just stop being one of the most injury prone.
19	Warriors	-15	6-8	Draymond my have a high bbiq but his non-basketball on floor iq is close to 0. Warriors are straight booty without Steph and have been struggling to win anything with him. Warriors ownership hold out on Klays contract is looking like one of the few smart moves lately. Somehow Wiggins is shooting even worse than Klay albeit he does rebound and play defense, just hasn’t been on a string like we saw him 21-22.
20	Nets	-4	6-7
21	Raptors	-1	6-7	The Raptors faced a challenging opening schedule this season, resulting in a 6-7 record. While this record is somewhat expected given the high-caliber opponents they’ve encountered, it’s important to note that a couple of their victories defied the odds. However, a few concerns have emerged, particularly in their game starts. Since the November 1st match against Milwaukee, they have trailed after the first quarter for six consecutive games. Despite notable wins against Dallas and Milwaukee, the team’s tendency for improbable comebacks and struggles against division rivals, including falling behind by significant margins, leaves a lot to be desired.
22	Clippers	-15	4-7
23	Bulls	+5	5-9	Zach Lavine has requested a trade, and even though we have been starting to win a few more games, blowing it up is best for the team at this point. This team still has no clear direction, as there is not enough talent to compete for the playoffs, but also our young players are still not showing any signs of improvement. We play the Heat tonight, so hopefully Zach can raise his trade value and lead this team to a win.
24	Jazz	+1	4-9	Utah’s early season point guard troubles with THT and Sexton co-piloting the offence saw the team averaging more turnovers per game than any team had in a season since 2003! Enter Keyonte George. The rookie first started vs Indiana, keeping that position for 5 games now. In that span he’s recorded 42 assists with just 12 turnovers. Utah’s PPG is 2nd in the league in this span. The Jazz seem to have found their PG of the future.
25	Grizzlies	+4	3-10
26	Hornets	+1	3-9
27	Trail Blazers	-4	3-10
28	Spurs	-6	3-10	Whelp, uhhh…that kinda sucked. After a promising first two weeks of the season (with a few bruises here and there), the Spurs of last season reared their heads in an ugly way over the last two weeks. Failing to tally a win since Wemby’s 38-point explosion vs Phoenix, the team has looked every bit like the youngest roster in the league. The silver lining (of sorts?) is that the Spurs have secured a double-digit lead in most of the games that they lost, but the double-edged sword there is that they subsequently blew those double-digit leads. Wemby has continued to show flashes, but his offensive consistency has been a bit, well, inconsistent, though his defensive presence continues to be stellar. The Spurs play LAC, LAC, @GSW, @DEN, ATL, @NOP, and then some yet-to-be-announced non-IST games once the knockout round begins over the next two weeks. Here’s to better days ahead Spurs fans!
29	Wizards	+1	2-10	If you want to know how depressing life is as a Wizards fan, I went to the 11/8 Wizards-Hornets game in person. I walked in a clandestine manner, only sporting a Washington Bullets’ hat. The usher at the top of the section looked over my ticket on my phone, looked at my hat and chuckled. Before I could even ask, he told me, “You’re a sick man to want to watch the Wizards in person.” The Wizards would proceed to dominate for most of the night, with a 41-point second quarter, and it seemed like things were finally turning around for the season. Since then, the Wizards have not won a game, have blown several leads and may have already funded college funds of local liquor store owners’ grandchildren. Deni Avdija stans will clamor that this has been a career year for Deni Avidja – which it is true – and Bilal Coulibaly is already performing way above expectations from an offensive perspective. But there is nothing nice to say about this team. The Hennessey Lofts at Capital One arena now feel like a sick joke. We knew at the start of the season that this team would be tanking. Yet what feels lost is that we’re trusting a first year front office to be able to turn the tank into something successful – which now feels like a stretch given just how incomplete the Wizards’ roster is. You want to trust your Uber driver to get you from point A to point B but probably isn’t the best look when he nearly causes an accident pulling away from the curb.This has been the most attention the Wizards have received in years, which speaks to NBA fans loving the extremes of the spectrum – the very good and the very bad. But it also doesn’t mean that people are watching Wizards’ basketball – rather rubbernecking the car crash on the side of the road and creating assumptions about what happened. Tyus Jones is having a statistical down year but it is more of a commentary on how a point guard doesn’t look as good in a line-up where four players can be a primary ball-hander. Kyle Kuzma has been great for stretches of the years, only to regress as defenses adjust in the second half of games. Poole has been bad, everyone got that part right. But Daniel Gafford has looked great – even if he dies every single game.There is no argument that the Wizards are bad. But there is the argument of why the Wizards are so terrible. Putting it onto one single person is egregious.
30	Pistons	-3	2-12	We’ve won 4 games since February 9th. Yeah, it’s that bad.