NBA Power Rankings: All-Star shots, passes, dunks, and games
By Daniel Lewis
The All-Star Weekend didn’t disappoint, with a strong performance from the rookie class and a thrilling finish to the All-Star Game. Will Donovan Mitchell be able to lead the Jazz to the playoffs? Will the new-look Cavs help get LeBron James back to the Finals?
The (unofficial) first half of the NBA season is complete as the league rolls into their All-Star break. With the festivities in Los Angeles complete, the players will take a few days off to recover from the grind of the regular season to prepare for a second half run at the playoffs … or a top-5 lottery pick.
The playoff race in the Western Conference is fierce, with the Jazz pushing their way into the conversation thanks to an eleven-game winning streak that has them just 4.5 games back of the 3-SEED San Antonio Spurs. That’s right, just 4.5 games separate the 3-seed from the 10-seed in the Western Conference.
In the hunt for the top pick in the draft, there are six teams that have just 18 wins so far: Atlanta, Orlando, Memphis, Dallas, Phoenix and Sacramento. Which of these terrible teams will come out … on bottom? There’s a chance for a franchise player in the final year before lottery reform strikes, so losing to win has never been so important for some of these franchises. Pathetic.
Time to start with these tanking teams in the power rankings.
. Previous: 30th. Phoenix Suns. 30. team. 66.
The Suns were embarrassed with another 40 point loss this season, falling 129-83 to the Warriors on Monday in a game where Steve Kerr had his players handle coaching responsibilities. Elfrid Payton had 29 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists, but the only other player to finish with double digit points was TJ Warren with 14. Josh Jackson had an incredible -43 in 32 minutes. The Suns had a remarkable true shooting percentage of 39.6 percent, their third game this season where they weren’t able to clear the 40 percent benchmark, according to Basketball Reference.
Elfrid Payton had a triple-double in their game against the Jazz, but they lost 107-97, unable to execute down the stretch. This is a bad basketball team, and there’s not much more they can do to strip away the good players that contribute to winning. Will Barton was right – this is basically a G-League team at this point outside of Warren, Booker, Chandler and Payton.