30. Washington Wizards (2-10)
Previous Week Ranking: 29th
The Wizards came out hot, for them at least, starting 2-2 (.500 winning percentage). They now hold the NBA’s longest losing streak of 8 straight games. They also hold the worst point differential per game at a whopping -13.6. The 15+ turnovers a game is a good place to start for Washington to change their fortune.

29. Utah Jazz (3-10)
Previous Week Ranking: 30th
Thanks to the Wiz, the Jazz have finally moved off of the worst team in the league spot. The most glaring issue when watching Utah is their offense. Now their defense is fairly porous, but the offense is very stagnant. There is minimal off-ball motion and they are struggling to find the bottom of the net.

28. Philadelphia 76ers (2-10)
Previous Week Ranking: 28th
The return of Joel Embiid was going to solve all the Sixers’ ills, right? Wrong! It almost seems possible that the Sixers looked worse with Embiid on the floor. The big fella was gassed after 5 minutes of gameplay in his first game back and shot 2-11 from the field and 1-5 from three-point range. At least he grabbed a measly three rebounds in 26 minutes. Trust the Process?

27. Toronto Raptors (2-12)
Previous Week Ranking: 26th
Toronto is in the midst of a 7-game losing streak and there is not a true end in sight with their upcoming schedule. The Raptors will face the Pacers, Timberwolves, and undefeated Cavaliers this week. Say some prayers to the 6 God.

26. New Orleans Pelicans (4-10)
Previous Week Ranking: 27th
The summary of the season in The Big Easy is injuries. And honestly, with Zion as the face of your franchise, it is fair to say that has been the summary for the last few years. New Orleans is averaging the second-lowest points per game at 104.6, which is an embarrassment in today’s high-scoring NBA. That will likely change when the roster is complete, but that may be more of an If than a When.

25. Chicago Bulls (5-9)
Previous Week Ranking: 21st
Zach LaVine continues to show out and is increasing his trade value by the day. He needs to remain healthy for that to become a reality. Chicago is playing absolutely zero defense, which is not really a surprise looking at the players on that team. Thibs is no longer the coach, and some of the defensive stalwarts have moved on from The Windy City.

24. Brooklyn Nets (5-9)
Previous Week Ranking: 20th
The Nets are coming off of a 1-3 week, but it is never good when your 1 win is a 3-point victory over the Pelicans. For an already thin roster, Nic Claxton and Bojan Bogdanovic sat out this past week with hopefully mild injuries. That just means more shots for Cam Thomas.

23. Milwaukee Bucks (4-9)
Previous Week Ranking: 24th
Reports came out that the Bucks’ organization is not expected to fire Doc Rivers, which seems extremely premature. Why saying anything at all? Milwaukee now boxed themselves into a corner they did not want to be in. Although, the alternative would be Darvin Ham as the head coach. Good luck, Milwaukee.

22. Charlotte Hornets (5-8)
Previous Week Ranking: 18th
Last week, The Rankings wrote about LaMelo having outrageous postgame interviews with clearly no PR involvement. What a foreshadowing as he went too far this week with some inappropriate comments that cost him $100k. If Charlotte read The Rankings last week, maybe they could have avoided this situation.

21. Miami Heat (5-7)
Previous Week Ranking: 16th
Thoughts and prayers go out to Erik Spoelstra pulling a Chris Webber this week. The best part of it all was Jalen Rose’s reaction to it. He clearly has lasting PTSD from C-Webb’s blunder at Michigan with the Fab 5. Coach Spo is a professional, and his error represents how the Miami Heat’s season has gone thus far.

20. Atlanta Hawks (6-8)
Previous Week Ranking: 23rd
Atlanta took out the Celtics this past week in a nail-biter where Dyson Daniels and Jalen Johnson made their names known. The Hawks have some very exciting young talent making them a worthy watch on League Pass. Also, is Clint Capela one of the most underrated players in the league? That man has been consistent for years.

19. Portland Trailblazers (6-8)
Previous Week Ranking: 25th
Portland, let’s ride! The Trailblazers took out the Minnesota Timberwolves in back-to-back games by a combined 22 points and followed that up with a win over Atlanta. Donovan Clingan is making a case for Rookie of the Year and Chauncey has to have some stress lifted off of him this week.

18. San Antonio Spurs (6-8)
Previous Week Ranking: 19th
Last week, we were in awe of Victor Wembanyama’s fantastic stat lines. Then he decided to one-up himself this week. The second-year superstar dropped a career-high 50 points that included 8 three-pointers. It is important to remember he is 7 feet 4 inches tall. The “unicorn” nickname was very much prematurely applied to Kristaps Porzingis when Wemby is clearly that guy.

17. Detroit Pistons (7-8)
Previous Week Ranking: 22nd
I want to believe in the Detroit Pistons. Cade Cunningham is fun to watch and the roster around him seems to be a good fit. They are close to .500, but their relatively weak schedule to this point in the season is likely the biggest factor in the team’s record.

16. Indiana Pacers (6-7)
Previous Week Ranking: 15th
My favorite player on the Pacers is Bennedict Mathurin, He is the second-leading scorer on the team and the leading rebounder. Rick Carlisle seemed crazy for not starting him the entire season, but the way Mathurin has played as of late in the wake of injuries has guaranteed his starting spot going forward. He is a player to keep on the Most Improved watch this year.

15. New York Knicks (7-6)
Previous Week Ranking: 14th
A one-spot drop is in store this week for the Knicks. They won their last two games against in-state rivals, Brooklyn Nets, which is unimpressive. Jalen Brunson and Karl Anthony-Towns are both great individual players, however, they may not be great players together. The chemistry is still missing in New York.

14. Sacramento Kings (8-6)
Previous Week Ranking: 12th
If you missed the back-to-back performances De’Aaron Fox put on this week, you need to check the highlights. Fox recorded a franchise-high 60 points in a loss to the Timberwolves and the following night dropped 49 on the Jazz. The most impressive development in his game has been his shooting percentages. Coming out of Kentucky, there were questions about his shooting consistency, which the Kings will need him to keep up for a playoff run.

13. Los Angeles Clippers (7-7)
Previous Week Ranking: 11th
The Clippers had a player play his first game of the season this week. Unfortunately, that player was Mo Bamba and not Kawhi Leonard. Kawhi’s uncertain injury timeline has to be frustrating for Clippers’ fans, as well as players to be honest. This raises the question, would you rather have Kawhi or Joel Embiid as your franchise centerpiece?

12. Memphis Grizzlies (8-6)
Previous Week Ranking: 10th
Memphis and Ja Morant sure want to fuel a rivalry with the Los Angeles Lakers. The problem is they have to become more consistent for these talks to begin in earnest. Memphis is still a very young team and has athletes up and down the roster. Speaking of athletes, check out Ja’s new best friend, Yuki Kawamura, a 5’8″ guard on the Grizzlies’ roster this season.

11. Dallas Mavericks (7-7)
Previous Week Ranking: 8th
The NBA Finals hangover is definitely a real thing, but it is not the only explanation for the Mavericks’ 7-7 record. They have arguably had the hardest schedule of any team to start the season. Dallas is competitive in every game, shown clearly in the fact that their last four losses have come by a cumulative 8 points.

10. Minnesota Timberwolves (8-6)
Previous Week Ranking: 7th
Jekyll and Hyde is the best way to describe the Timberwolves. They had two mind-numbing losses to the Trail Blazers this week where they did not really look competitive at all. Then, a flip appeared to switch as they had impressive wins over the Kings and Suns. Minnesota appears early on to be playing down or up to their level of competition.

9. Orlando Magic (8-6)
Previous Week Ranking: 17th
The largest jump in this week’s Rankings came from the Orlando Magic. The team has won five straight games all without their leader, Paolo Banchero. Orlando is one of three teams undefeated at home this year (Cavaliers, Lakers). The home-court advantage in the Magic Kingdom is real.

8. Phoenix Suns (9-5)
Previous Week Ranking: 5th
Phoenix is reeling in the absence of Kevin Durant. He is expected to be re-evaluated this week for his calf injury, though the Suns should take their time reactivating Durant. The last time he suffered a calf injury, he tore his achilles on his return. This team is obviously different when a top-5 league player is in the lineup and the focus should be his availability in May and June.

7. Denver Nuggets (7-5)
Previous Week Ranking: 6th
You can disagree with The Rankings, but here we are already writing Nikola Jokic’s name on the MVP trophy. Denver would much prefer to raise a different trophy at the end of the season (Larry O’Brien), however, that seems less likely. Jokic’s averages right now are 29.7 points per game (4th in the NBA), 13.7 rebounds per game (1st in the NBA), and 11.7 assists per game (1st in the NBA). He plays chess while everyone else plays checkers.

6. Houston Rockets (6-4)
Previous Week Ranking: 13th
The Rockets surged up The Rankings this week as they are on an impressive 5-game winning streak. Defense continues to be their calling card and they have only allowed an average of 101 points per game during this winning streak. Houston is hoping they are competitive this season.

5. Los Angeles Lakers (9-4)
Previous Week Ranking: 9th
Los Angeles sees Houston’s winning streak and matches it with 5-straight of their own. LeBron has continued to make his case for the best player on planet Earth on the verge of turning 40 years old. The “old man” as Memphis referred to him, registered four straight triple-doubles for the Lakers and has this team looking like true title contenders.

4. Oklahoma City Thunder (11-3)
Previous Week Ranking: 4th
Oklahoma City should still be the favorite to win the Western Conference. Being without two key starting frontcourt pieces, they are still finding ways to win. The Thunder’s only loss this week came to the Mavericks 121-119. With SGA on the court, OKC can win any game they play.

3. Boston Celtics (11-3)
Previous Week Ranking: 3rd
Boston remains the betting title favorite and there is no reason to dispute that just yet. If we want to dive into the numbers though, there might be mild concern that the Celtics are not putting the bad teams away. The Brooklyn Nets, Milwaukee Bucks, and Toronto Raptors all lost by 6 or less to the Celtics this week. They also suffered a surprising loss to the Hawks. Again, just something to keep an eye on.

2. Golden State Warriors (10-2)
Previous Week Ranking: 2nd
In a scheduling gift, the Warriors only played 2 games over the last week and both were at home. The Warriors versus Mavericks game was arguably the best game of the NBA season to date. Klay returned to The Bay and played great. He just did not play as well as Steph Curry who gave his former backcourt mate the “Night, Night” celebration when icing the game. This is why we watch regular-season games!

1. Cleveland Cavaliers (15-0)
Previous Week Ranking: 1st
If you don’t lose a game, you must remain Number 1 in The Rankings. Cleveland went 4-0 this week to extend its win streak to start the season to 15 games. They are tied with the 1948-49 Washington Capitols and 1993-94 Houston Rockets for the second-best start ever, trailing only the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors who began the season 24-0. All three teams to start with this record made it to the NBA Finals. Can the Cavaliers continue that streak? They will get a great test for win number 16 as they face off with the Celtics in a must-watch game!