The Thunder might be the greatest team in NBA history, and the Wizards might be the worst. They currently sit at opposite ends of our NBA Power Rankings, and it would be fitting if they ended up book-ending every other team ever.
In between, we have a pair of Eastern Conference dark horses surging up the standings — with hot-shooting powering the Miami Heat and the Orlando Magic finding an offensive formula that doesn't include hot shooting. Find out who they've leapt over and where every other team lands in our latest NBA Power Rankings.
NBA Power Rankings, Week 5
TEAM | RECORD | LAST WEEK |
|---|---|---|
1. Oklahoma City Thunder | 17-1 | 1 |
2. Houston Rockets | 10-4 | 4 |
3. Denver Nuggets | 12-4 | 2 |
4. Detroit Pistons | 14-2 | 3 |
5. Miami Heat | 11-6 | 12 |
6. Cleveland Cavaliers | 12-6 | 5 |
7. San Antonio Spurs | 11-5 | 6 |
8. Minnesota Timberwolves | 10-6 | 8 |
9. Los Angeles Lakers | 12-4 | 7 |
10. New York Knicks | 9-6 | 11 |
11. Orlando Magic | 10-8 | 17 |
12. Toronto Raptors | 12-5 | 9 |
13. Atlanta Hawks | 11-7 | 10 |
14. Phoenix Suns | 11-6 | 15 |
15. Golden State Warriors | 9-9 | 13 |
16. Philadelphia 76ers | 9-7 | 14 |
17. Chicago Bulls | 9-7 | 19 |
18. Boston Celtics | 9-8 | 16 |
19. Portland Trail Blazers | 7-10 | 18 |
20. Milwaukee Bucks | 8-9 | 20 |
21. Los Angeles Clippers | 5-12 | 24 |
22. Utah Jazz | 5-11 | 21 |
23. Charlotte Hornets | 4-13 | 22 |
24. Memphis Grizzlies | 6-11 | 23 |
25. Dallas Mavericks | 5-13 | 26 |
26. Brooklyn Nets | 3-13 | 27 |
27. Sacramento Kings | 4-13 | 25 |
28. Indiana Pacers | 2-15 | 29 |
29. New Orleans Pelicans | 2-14 | 28 |
30. Washington Wizards | 1-15 | 30 |
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How in the heck have the Miami Heat snuck into the top-5?
Yes, we have the Heat ranked above every Eastern Conference team except the Pistons. They lost to the Cavs and the Knicks within the past two weeks, but they also beat both of those teams in the same stretch. They're 7-2 over the last nine games, with road wins over the Bulls and 76ers.
So far, everything has broken their way. The defense has been elite whenever Bam Adebayo has been on the court, and he's, miraculously, become a strong 3-point shooter — hitting 36.7 on 5.5 attempts per game. Norman Powell has been scorching hot, Davion Mitchell is absolutely working at both ends as a starting point guard, Andrew Wiggins is back, Jaime Jaquez is taking a leap, Kel'el Ware has been fantastic, Simone Fontecchio has been a seamless replacement for Duncan Robinson. Take your pick, and every player development or fit question has worked out as well as it could have.
They get Tyler Herro back on Monday night, which could shake things up in a negative way. But it could also just add even more offensive firepower, to a team that is already extremely hard to guard. The Heat may not be in the same tier as the Pistons or any of the top teams in the West, but they're much better than I expected. (This is a recurring theme — when am I going to learn).
The Magic are climbing, but not in the way we expected
Over the past few weeks, the Magic have started to turn things around and their offense seems to be clicking. They were one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the league last season and made a big trade for Desmond Bane this offseason hoping to address that specific issue. He got off to a slow start but has been playing better of late — but that's not what has made the biggest difference.
Over the past nine games, the Magic have played like a top-10 offense, scoring 119.6 points per 100 possessions. But they're still only shooting 35.7 percent from beyond the arc over the same stretch, below league average. What they've done to boost offensive efficiency is to tighten up everything else besides their shot-making. Over the same time span, they rank second in free-throw rate, sixth in turnover percentage and ninth in offensive rebound percentage.
Before the season started, I wrote about how playing with more physical force and getting to the free-throw line more could really elevate Paolo Banchero's game. He's averaging a career-high 9.3 free-throws per game and about 3.5 drives for every long, pull-up 2-pointer. Last season, that ratio was about 2.2. Franz Wagner has also been much more aggressive in getting himself to the line, averaging a career-high 7.6 free throws per game. He and Banchero rank fourth and sixth, respectively, in the percent of their drives that draw a shooting foul, among the 51 players who average at least 10 drives per game.
At some point, the Magic will still need to become a better 3-point shooting team if they're really going to power a deep playoff run. But they're leaning into their strengths right now and finding other ways to make things easier for themselves on offense.
The Washington Wizards are historically bad
We've had a few different teams move in and out of the bottom spot in the past few weeks, but it might be time to park the Wizards there permanently. They've lost 14 in a row and currently have the worst net rating in NBA history, getting outscored by an average of 15.6 points per 100 possessions. Here's another way of looking at it — even if every opponent spotted them 10 points at the beginning of every game, they'd still only be 5-11.
They haven't been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs yet, but Basketball-Reference's projection model gives them a zero percent chance of making the playoffs and predicts they'll finish with just 17 wins. That would actually be a dramatic improvement, as their current pace would have them winning just five games all season and earning the ignominious honor of worst record of all time.