The Golden State Warriors just became the first team to clinch an NBA playoff berth as early as Feb. 25 since the 1985-86 Boston Celtics.
The Cleveland Cavaliers,
meanwhile, just watched their closest pursuer in the Eastern Conference
standings stand pat at the NBA trade deadline while they strengthened
their own roster.
It's the Warriors and Cavs, then, sitting in the
top two spots in ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings. With each
passing day, it looks more and more like they're headed for a third
straight showdown in the NBA Finals.
The San Antonio Spurs
looked quite good on their annual Rodeo Road Trip, as we've grown
accustomed to seeing February after February, but the Committee (of One)
felt compelled to bump the Cavs back up into the top two alongside the
Warriors to reflect how good Cleveland's month has been after what LeBron James memorably described last month as a "s---ty 2017 so far."
Deadline-day
trades influenced many of this week's other notable moves, with Toronto
(No. 8 to No. 5), Oklahoma City (No. 12 to No. 10) and Dallas (No. 19
to No. 15) benefiting the most because of the deals they swung. Read on
for the rest of 1-to-30 order ... and stay tuned for a special new Power
Rankings feature on the overnight SportsCenter that airs Tuesday at 1
a.m. ET.
Profuse thanks, as always, go to ESPN Stats &
Information and the Elias Sports Bureau -- with ESPN research ace Micah
Adams running the point -- for all the background data they supply to
assist the Committee's efforts to arrange things here properly.
Prev.: 18 | 17 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Camp
1. Golden State Warriors
2016-17 record: 49-9
Previous ranking: 1
Although
it's no Rodeo Road Trip, our runaway No. 1 is on tour Monday night in
Philadelphia to launch a challenging stretch in which the Warriors must
play eight games in eight cities over 13 days while traveling nearly
11,000 miles along the way. The only home game wedged in there is a
March 8 date with the Celtics, who will drop in on Golden State just one
Warriors off day removed from their lone stop in Atlanta this season
some 2,000 miles away. The Dubs will have to turn right around and head
to Minnesota in the final game of this stretch, then reacquaint
themselves with the Spurs (in San Antonio) for the first time since
opening night. Yet you can rest assured that precisely no one out of Bay
Area borders will feel sorry for Steve Kerr's crew, given that it just
squashed the Clippers yet again coming out of the All-Star break and
clinched a playoff berth before it got to game No. 60 for the second
straight season. (Stephen Curry update: With seven more 3-pointers, he'll crack the league's all-time top 10 in made baskets from deep.)
2. Cleveland Cavaliers
2016-17 record: 40-17
Previous ranking: 3
Deron Williams is due to sign with the Cavaliers on Monday. Andrew Bogut will likely be next.
The Cavs are thus poised to land the two players they wanted most in
the buyout market, which is why they're being hailed as one of this
season's big trade deadline winners. Toronto made some effective moves
this month, sure, but Cleveland happily watched Jimmy Butler
stay right where he is in Chicago, meaning Boston stood pat. The swoops
to add D-Will and Bogut, meanwhile, would mean that Cavs GM David
Griffin will have expertly added two more proven commodities to Tyronn
Lue's bench on top of the early-January acquisition of Kyle Korver from Atlanta that truly set a wild trade season in motion. One would think even the ever-demanding LeBron James has to be pleased by all of these developments.
3. San Antonio Spurs
2016-17 record: 45-13
Previous ranking: 2
It
wasn't the greatest Rodeo Road Trip in franchise history, but a 6-2
effort lives up to Spurs standards pretty well. They're making Golden
State work for that No. 1 overall seed in the West even though Pau Gasol missed a month with a broken hand and LaMarcus Aldridge is carrying his lowest scoring average (17.4 PPG) since his rookie season. (The dirty secret there, of course, is that Dewayne Dedmon
makes San Antonio so much better defensively when he's playing in
Gasol's spot.) Since the Rodeo Road Trip concept was introduced during
the 2002-03 season, San Antonio has a better winning percentage (.704)
in those games (88-37) than it does in all other games under Gregg
Popovich (.694).
4. Houston Rockets
2016-17 record: 42-18
Previous ranking: 5
Respect
to the Rockets. Mike D'Antoni, who happens to be just three wins shy of
becoming the fifth active coach with 500, is going to win or lose this
season playing his way. The deadline-week acquisition of Lou
Williams not only gave Houston two of the league's most feared sixth men
by teaming Lou Will with Eric Gordon
but also furnished the Rockets with five of the league's top 20 players
in terms of 3-point makes this season. According to the Elias Sports
Bureau, no team has ever previously fielded five of the 20 most prolific
long-range shooters since the 3-point line was installed in the NBA
starting with the 1979-80 campaign. Williams' seven 3s in his Rockets
debut also established a league record, topping the six J.R. Bremer
sank in his Cavs debut on Oct. 29, 2003. If there's a problem in
Houston at the moment, it's the fact that GM Daryl Morey's prime buyout
targets (Andrew Bogut and Jose Calderon) like other destinations better.
5. Toronto Raptors
2016-17 record: 35-24
Previous ranking: 8
"All-in." In his visit with us on the NBA Insiders show Sunday night on ESPN Radio, DeMar DeRozan used those words to describe the Raps after their acquisitions of Serge Ibaka and P.J. Tucker
this month. When Toronto beat Boston in its first game coming out of
the All-Star break, Raps coach Dwane Casey had both of his new defensive
specialists on the floor along with Cory Joseph in place of the ailing
Kyle Lowry for the final 7:30 of the stirring win over the Celts. The
small-ball alignment closed the game with a 25-12 run to show what the
new Raps are capable of. As long as Toronto recovers sufficiently from
its recent 5-11 stretch to finish third in the East and assure that it
won't see Cleveland until the conference finals at the earliest,
consider this second half a rousing success.
6. Boston Celtics
2016-17 record: 38-21
Previous ranking: 6
We
could try to address the pros and cons of Boston's standing pat at the
trade deadline within the confines of this cyberspace, but there's
really no need. Just click here to read Zach Lowe's thorough masterclass
on the subject. The schedule is such that we'll get an immediate look
at how the Celts, with what they have right now, measure up to the Cavs,
as Boston hosts the reigning champs Wednesday night. Mr. Fourth Quarter
Isaiah Thomas has led the Celtics outright in scoring in 23 consecutive games -- something no player in this league has done since Kevin Durant
did it with the Thunder way back in the 2009-10 season -- but Boston
trailed by 17 and 18 points, respectively, entering the final period in
its first two meetings of the season with the Cavs. What can Thomas do
about that?
7. Utah Jazz
2016-17 record: 37-22
Previous ranking: 7
Why don't we talk more about Gordon Hayward's athleticism? Since returning from his maiden All-Star appearance, Hayward has thrown down dunks over Giannis Antetokounmpo (two, actually) and John Wall. George Hill and Dante Exum, meanwhile, have both shown some promising flashes in recent days after Utah flirted with trying to reacquire
Jazz alumnus Deron Williams, then decided against it and to ride with
the point guards already on the roster. As for the Utah big men: Derrick Favors has played better since surviving the trade deadline, and Rudy Gobert just joined Anthony Davis
on the season's short list of players to assemble a 15-point,
20-rebound, 4-block outing with Sunday's efforts in the nation's
capital.
8. Washington Wizards
2016-17 record: 34-23
Previous ranking: 4
Week
after week we get asked: Why do you have the Wizards ahead of the
Celtics? Answer: On top of that recent monster 17-game home streak,
Washington entered the All-Star break on an 18-3 wave, which made it the
league's hottest team since Jan. 6. But Friday night's loss in
Philadelphia to the Joel Embiid-less
Sixers, followed by a home loss to Utah, undeniably burst a few D.C.
bubbles and inevitably raised a more uncomfortable question: Is
Washington as good as its record suggests? If you subscribe to the
notion that success in close games is more of a random event than an
indicator of team competency, you'll find it worrisome that Washington
entered Sunday's play sporting the league's best record (15-6) in games
decided by six points or fewer. Another fair question: Was the
acquisition of Bojan Bogdanovic enough to bolster Scotty Brooks' iffy bench?
9. LA Clippers
2016-17 record: 36-23
Previous ranking: 11
Chris Paul
is back after missing more than a month and just announced his return
with a vintage CP3-esque performance, racking up 15 assists against zero
turnovers in Sunday night's overtime escape against Charlotte. Maybe
we've been too tough on the Clips lately, keeping them out of the top 10
while Paul was healing, but we've decided to move them back into the
upper third even though Golden State suddenly seems to own this team as
much as Steve Ballmer does. Golden State's recent 50-point third quarter
against the Clips fell just eight points shy of matching the NBA's
record for a quarter and (gulp) topped each of the four quarters that
the West posted in the All-Star Game. (Some good trivia as a bonus if
you're in the mood: Blake Griffin
is up to eight 40-point games for his career after the havoc he wreaked
on the Hornets -- but strangely all eight have been at home.)
10. Oklahoma City Thunder
2016-17 record: 34-25
Previous ranking: 12
Make that 29 triple-doubles this season for Russell Westbrook,
who just triple-doubled in three consecutive games for the fourth time
in this 2016-17 campaign. Yet we'd argue here that Thunder GM Sam Presti
actually upstaged his superstar point guard last week (for once) by
completing the sort of underrated deadline-day upgrade he's known for.
Presti acquired two players in Taj Gibson and Doug McDermott who would appear to have the legit capacity to help the thin post-Durant Thunder. Back to Angry Russ:
He can't possibly manufacture 12 more triple-doubles in OKC's remaining
23 games to break Oscar Robertson's single-season record of 41. Could
he? (According to Micah Adams' math, Westbrook very well can, since he's
on pace for 40 for the season as it is.)
11. Memphis Grizzlies
2016-17 record: 35-25
Previous ranking: 9
The
Grizzlies have drained 551 3-pointers already this season after sinking
just 504 for the entire 2015-16 campaign. A lot of that obviously stems
from Marc Gasol's
increasing reliance on the long ball, as Team Grit 'n' Grind continues
to evolve under new coach David Fizdale, but suspicion persists that
Memphis' record looks more impressive than it really is. Some support
for that case: Our man Micah Adams reports that entering Sunday's play,
Big Spain and Friends had held a lead for only 44 percent of their court
time this season, which ranked as the league's second-lowest figure for
a team with a winning record, behind Atlanta's 42 percent. The Grizz,
mind you, promptly went out and showed us what they think of our math by
posting a quality win in Denver on Sunday night behind 30 points from Mike Conley. It was Conley's sixth 30-point outing of the season, which already tops last season's total of five.
12. Miami Heat
2016-17 record: 27-32
Previous ranking: 13
Goran Dragic, Hassan Whiteside, Dion Waiters, Rodney McGruder, Luke Babbitt, Willie Reed and Wayne Ellington.
For posterity's sake: That is the complete list of players to start at
least one game for Miami during its recent 13-game winning streak. So
much else is happening in this crazy league that it's easy to forget
that the Heat are 16-2 in their past 18 games entering Monday's visit to
their old friends from Dallas, accounting for a run so unexpectedly
dominant that it snuffed out virtually any suggestion of Pat Riley
making a move of significance at the trade deadline. The update from
Waiters Island: At nearly $20 million less than Dwyane Wade is earning this season, Waiters is averaging 20.6 points and 5.3 assists over those 18 games.
13. Atlanta Hawks
2016-17 record: 32-26
Previous ranking: 10
The
Hawks have been in a stupor since returning from the All-Star break,
suffering heavy defeats at home (Miami) and away (Orlando) in games that
Dennis Schroder
either missed entirely (suspended for the Heat visit after returning to
the team late from Europe) or was forced to come off the bench (losing
his starting spot to Malcolm Delaney
after showing up late for the team bus). Yet we can understand if you
missed any of those developments while you continued to process the wild rumbles that Atlanta offered at least four future first-round picks
to both Indiana and Chicago in an attempt to join the trade bidding for
Paul George and Jimmy Butler. It sounds like we should expect
#eventhehawks to be aggressive in the late-June trade market, too.
Friday, meanwhile, serves up Kyle Korver's return to Atlanta for the
first time since the early-January trade that sent him to Cleveland.
Korver is shooting 52.5 percent on 3-pointers for the Cavs after
shooting just 40.9 percent from deep this season as a Hawk. #betterlooks
14. Chicago Bulls
2016-17 record: 30-29
Previous ranking: 21
Easily
lost amid the never-ending curiosity about Jimmy Butler's future as
well as the trade Chicago did make to ship out Taj Gibson and Doug
McDermott: The Bulls have quietly won a season-high-tying four games in a
row. It's a run that has convinced ESPN's trusty Basketball Power Index
that the Bulls have gone from having a 52 percent shot at making the
playoffs to being a team one game over .500 that's also suddenly
boasting an 85 percent shot to reach the postseason in the forgiving
East. The next human capable of figuring these guys out, in other words,
will be the first. (Rookie guard Denzel Valentine,
meanwhile, has scored double figures in both of Chicago's games since
the All-Star break after doing so just once in his first 32 games.)
15. Dallas Mavericks
2016-17 record: 23-35
Previous ranking: 19
Seven
more losses will clinch Dallas' first sub-.500 season since it went
40-42 in 1999-2000, the season in which Mark Cuban bought the franchise.
Yet one could argue that Cuban & Co. have carved out as many silver
linings as possible since their 4-17 start, whether it's Harrison Barnes' development, Seth Curry's blossoming or the trade they just swung for Nerlens Noel.
Dallas' new center had only two double-digit-rebound games for the
Sixers this season, but Noel is already 1-for-1 as a Mav after a
successful debut Saturday night against the more ballyhooed Kentucky
alumni duo of Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins. Next up: While waiting
for Dirk Nowitzki
to score 67 points to become the sixth player in league history to
crack the 30,000-point plateau, take a listen to our Sunday night visit
with Cuban on the NBA Insiders show on ESPN Radio.
16. Indiana Pacers
2016-17 record: 30-29
Previous ranking: 15
For the Pacers, the rest of this season is about one thing and one thing only: putting Paul George
in position to find a groove that lands him on one of the league's
three All-NBA teams. If that doesn't happen, no matter what Indiana
achieves in the playoffs, Pacers president Larry Bird won't be able to
offer George that $200-plus-million designated player extension come
July that represents Indy's best hope of getting George to commit to
stay with the team that drafted him. Of course, even if George does find
a way (against what looks like tough odds) to earn an All-NBA slot at
season's end, you can safely expect rival teams to continue to test
Bird's resolve when it comes to keeping George with more trade offers in
June at draft time. It's obviously not the way that Pacer People would
have wanted, but Indy just became one of the most interesting teams in
the league.
17. Denver Nuggets
2016-17 record: 26-33
Previous ranking: 14
We're
not going to lie. Denver's Sunday night's loss to visiting Memphis was a
crusher for the Committee as much as anyone: Had Denver pulled out the
W, Nuggets rising star Nikola Jokic
was all lined up to join us on our annual Better Than The Oscars
edition of the NBA Insiders on ESPN Radio. But the stubborn Grizz
wouldn't let it happen, taking advantage of Denver's 30th-ranked defense
to drop the hosts to an unsightly 8-20 against teams with
.500-or-better records. Jokic's development has certainly been one of
the stories of the season, but it's impossible to miss the fall of Emmanuel Mudiay that's also underway. Jameer Nelson and Jamal Murray are getting all the point guard minutes in Denver's playoff push.
18. Portland Trail Blazers
2016-17 record: 24-34
Previous ranking: 18
The
Blazers remain in the bottom five in defensive efficiency, but their
path to getting back to the playoffs might not be as complicated as it
looks on paper. Of the six teams in "contention" for the West's No. 8
spot, No. 9 Sacramento and No. 11 Dallas both prefer to finish in the
lottery at this point, even if they're not able to admit that publicly.
And No. 12 Minnesota, as you'll read in the Wolves' comment section, has
to deal with a rough remaining schedule on top of Zach LaVine's season-ending injury. Factor in the Pelicans' struggles even after acquiring DeMarcus Cousins,
and you can make the case that Portland, despite its season-long
defensive woes, ranks as the foremost threat to the eighth-seeded
Nuggets. It sure wouldn't have hurt, though, if the Blazers could have
pulled out a road win Sunday night in Toronto with the Raptors missing
Kyle Lowry (wrist) for the second consecutive game. The Raps were 1-5 on
Sundays at home before pulling out a 112-106 triumph.
19. Detroit Pistons
2016-17 record: 28-31
Previous ranking: 17
Andre Drummond's botched breakaway dunk
in Sunday night's home loss to Boston was so badly clanked that you've
probably heard and seen much more about it than Drummond's 1-for-11
showing at the free throw line against the Celts. The Rip Hamilton jersey-retirement ceremony provided the Pistons with a momentary respite from their recent turmoil, but loud questions linger about the future of Reggie Jackson
-- and perhaps even Drummond -- after Detroit fielded offers for pretty
much everyone on the roster leading up to Thursday's trade deadline.
That includes prized young swingman Kentavious Caldwell-Pope,
whose 33 points without a turnover in an OT win over Charlotte in
Detroit's first game out of the All-Star break marked the most points
scored by a Piston without committing a turnover since Rip's 39 against
Toronto on Jan. 15, 2008.
20. Milwaukee Bucks
2016-17 record: 26-31
Previous ranking: 22
With
28 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists in Sunday's home win over Phoenix,
Giannis Antetokounmpo moved to 18 games this season with 25-plus points,
5-plus rebounds and 5-plus assists. Only one other player in the
Eastern Conference -- guess who -- has more: LeBron James has done it 29
times. The narrow win against the Suns was also notable for A) Khris Middleton's return to Milwaukee's starting lineup in place of Michael Beasley
and B) Middleton's crunch-time stint in place of Antetokounmpo when The
Greek Freak was banished to the bench after some inattention on D. The
standings say that the Bucks remain alive in the chase for the East's
No. 8 slot, but you wonder how much they really believe it in the wake
of Jabari Parker's season-ending knee tear.
21. New Orleans Pelicans
2016-17 record: 23-37
Previous ranking: 16
I'm
as guilty as anyone of simply adding DeMarcus Cousins to Anthony Davis
and handing the No. 8 spot in the West to the Pels. (Maybe it's wishful
thinking for a Committee dreaming of the sort of meals that would
produce for the Warriors' road games in the first games in the first
round of the playoffs). In real life, New Orleans was outscored by 21
points and outrebounded by 10 in the first 44 minutes with Boogie and
The Brow on the floor together in heavy defeats to Houston and Dallas.
Things looked a lot better Sunday night in Oklahoma City -- except that
Cousins picked up suspension-inducing technical No. 18 in that defeat thanks to the fastest T of his career (32 seconds into the game). Throw in the horrendously unfortunate Omri Casspi injury, as well as Jrue Holiday's struggles adapting to his new role as third wheel,
and the Pels surely have to be wondering why they're being excluded
from Mardi Gras after swinging what so many of us thought was the trade
of the season.
22. Minnesota Timberwolves
2016-17 record: 23-36
Previous ranking: 20
Minnesota
awoke Monday only three games out of the West's No. 8 spot, but it's
realistically not a threat to challenge for a playoff berth, even if the
Kings and Mavericks start fading out of contention as both of those
teams not-so-secretly hope. Minnesota is a minus-10 in the old-school
plus/minus ratings, which are calculated by subtracting home losses from
road wins. The Wolves also face 15 of their 23 remaining games on the
road -- with no Zach LaVine to help Karl-Anthony Towns and the scorching-hot Andrew Wiggins. Bonus editorial comment: As hard as Minnesota has shopped Ricky Rubio
all season, it was indeed a big surprise to see the Wolves keep Rubio
at the trade buzzer when the Knicks offered Derrick Rose for Rubio
straight up without seeking any additional compensation. Not because
D-Rose is the guy who can end the Wolves' 12-season playoff drought but
simply because of his history with Tom Thibodeau and the longstanding
efforts to move the Spaniard.
23. Charlotte Hornets
2016-17 record: 25-34
Previous ranking: 25
The
Hornets were one of six teams as of Sunday morning to have held a lead
this season for a higher percentage of their court time than Memphis
despite sporting a losing record. (See the Grizzlies comment for more
context.) The others, for the record, are Milwaukee, Portland, Detroit,
Denver and Minnesota -- but that knowledge doesn't do Charlotte much
good, as it continues to try to shake out of its 6-19 struggles since
the calendar flipped to 2017. Let's see if Steve Clifford's crew can
follow up a much-needed win in Sacramento and Sunday night's OT near
miss in Clipperland by taking advantage of two more stops on this West
Coast trip in which the hosts (Lakers and Suns) have the capacity to be
quite hospitable.
24. Sacramento Kings
2016-17 record: 25-34
Previous ranking: 24
Mere
days after Jim Buss was ousted from Lakerland, Vlade Divac has imposed
his own Buss-style deadline on himself to get the Kings turned around.
In a lengthy interview published in Sunday's edition of the Sacramento Bee
in which he explained his rationale for trading away DeMarcus Cousins
-- after publicly and privately assuring Cousins that he was going
nowhere -- Divac insisted that the decision was his and that he'll
ultimately resign if the trade doesn't pan out. The full quote: "That's
my job, and I take responsibility. And I totally understand why some
fans would be upset. They supported DeMarcus, and I like DeMarcus a lot.
But I believe we will be in a better position in two years. I want to
hear again from these same people in two years. If I'm right, great. If
I'm wrong, I'll step down. But if I go down, I'm going down my way."
25. Philadelphia 76ers
2016-17 record: 22-36
Previous ranking: 23
Remember the Sixers' storybook 10-5 January? It feels like ages ago given what's happened this month, with Joel Embiid missing all 11 of Philly's February games to date and Sixers president Bryan Colangelo announcing the other day that Aussie sensation Ben Simmons will up end being forced to sit out his entire rookie season.
We'll get into this in greater detail later in the week when we come
out with the season's second batch of trimester awards, but the feeling
here remains that Embiid -- as long as he nudges past the halfway point
in games played (42) for the season -- still has to be the Rookie of the
Year. New York's Willy Hernangomez, don't forget, is the league's only other rookie besides Embiid with a player efficiency rating over the league average of 15.
26. New York Knicks
2016-17 record: 24-35
Previous ranking: 26
It was always unlikely to happen because of the no-trade clause Carmelo Anthony
possesses, but the fact that just one first-round pick changed hands in
the seven deals witnessed Thursday on trade deadline day only made it
tougher for the Knicks to get anything done involving Melo. (And that
first-rounder -- sent from Dallas to Philadelphia in the Nerlens Noel
deal -- is likely to turn into two second-rounders by the time it's
actually conveyed because of the 1-to-18 protection that the Mavericks
secured on the pick.) How hard will it be now for Melo, Derrick Rose
and the rest of the Knicks to play out the season's remaining 23 games
in some semblance of peace and mount one last playoff push? Right. These
are Phil Jackson's Knicks, so there's realistically no chance. New
York's increasing reacquaintance with Jackson's Triangle offense and the sudden exit of Brandon Jennings figure to keep the Gotham media corps occupied.
27. Orlando Magic
2016-17 record: 22-38
Previous ranking: 28
The
Magic traded Serge Ibaka to cut their losses, knowing they had little
to no shot of retaining him in free agency this summer. But they also
did it now -- despite the grief they're inevitably getting because of
what they gave up to acquire Ibaka in the first place -- to bring order
to a lineup (and a locker room) that was clearly out of sorts with so
many big men vying for minutes. Frank Vogel's dreams of transforming Aaron Gordon
into a Paul George-esque 3-man have been abandoned, allowing Gordon to
return to his more comfortable position (power forward) and increasing
Orlando's collective foot speed as a result. "For the first time in a
while," Evan Fournier told reporters after Orlando's unexpected home shredding of Atlanta, "I feel like we had fun."
28. Los Angeles Lakers
2016-17 record: 19-41
Previous ranking: 29
The
Lakers -- Magic Johnson's Lakers once again -- are just one loss shy of
clinching their fourth successive losing season. The fact that the
Lakers endured only seven losing seasons in their first 53 years in Los
Angeles is obviously a big reason Magic is now running basketball
operations. But the reality is that the new boss really does have to
bring himself to rooting for lots more losing over these final 22 games
to increase the odds that L.A. doesn't forfeit its top-three-protected
first-round pick to Philadelphia. This little tidbit, meanwhile, should
help illustrate why Joel Embiid is poised to get our Rookie of the Year
vote if he simply manages to appear in 42 of Philly's games: No. 2
overall pick Brandon Ingram's 22 points in Sunday's home loss to the Spurs marked the first 20-point game of his career.
29. Phoenix Suns
2016-17 record: 18-41
Previous ranking: 27
Few
teams were more intent on making trades than the Suns. In the end,
though, not even the widely coveted P.J. Tucker could bring back a
first-round pick for the Suns, who are heading for their seventh
successive trip to the lottery and must win six games from here to avoid
recording the second-worst season in franchise history. Last season's
23-59 mark was the worst witnessed in Phoenix since the Suns went 16-66
as an expansion team in 1968-69. The fact that Earl Watson is expected
to focus almost exclusively on the Suns' various youngsters from here to
the regular-season finish line likely means that scratching out six
more wins is no gimme. Our selfish hope, of course, is that Dragan Bender's recent ankle surgery doesn't rule him out for the rest of the season as initially feared.
30. Brooklyn Nets
2016-17 record: 9-49
Previous ranking: 30
Kevin
Pelton? Zach Lowe? Micah Adams? Tom Haberstroh? Which one of the ESPN
smart guys can tell us when Brooklyn will score that ever-elusive 10th
win? The Nets are 1-24 in 2017 -- you can look it up if you, like us,
struggle to believe that's a real stat -- and have six games left on a
merciless eight-game road trip before hosting their neighboring pals
from Madison Square Garden on March 12. The six road stops, if you dare
to be curious: Sacramento, Utah, Portland, Memphis, Atlanta and Dallas.
If Kenny Atkinson can't find a way to win one of those first four games,
Brooklyn will tie the longest losing streak (19) in franchise history.
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