Power rankings system devised and compiled weekly by Stemshul. “Expert” analysis by paradroid.
Let’s look at another team who made a big trade at the deadline: the 76ers. Since adding James Harden, Philadelphia is 7-3, with one of those losses not including Harden in the lineup. The Beard’s stats are very similar in most respects to his before the trade. The largest disparities are in a slight uptick in his shooting percentages and a large decrease in his turnovers. You can chalk up the shooting to small sample size, but the drop in turnovers (from 4.8 to 3.2) is impressive considering he has all new teammates; you’d expect more turnovers if anything. Maybe the fit is better than anticipated, or maybe he wasn’t fully engaged in Brooklyn (it wouldn’t be the first time he’s been accused of that).
The other star in Philly, Joel Embiid, has seen his numbers jump up a little for the most part. His assists are down (4.6 to 3.8), as are his shooting percentages (again, small sample size), but the big jump has been in his free throw attempts. He’s averaging 14.8 attempts per game since the trade, up from 11.3, so it seems like Harden is helping him get into more dangerous positions, forcing the opponents to foul him even more than usual. Overall, the 76ers are averaging 119.0 PPG with Harden (compared to about 107 PPG without) and are allowing 112.8 (about 106 without). This makes Harden’s strengths and weaknesses pretty clear. Your offense will increase plenty, but your defense definitely takes a hit. But, at least so far, the benefits are outweighing the drawbacks for Philadelphia. Or to steal from that Timothy Olyphant classic The Girl Next Door, the juice is worth the squeeze (yes, I know the movie’s stars are Speed Racer and Kim Bauer, but as far as I’m concerned, any movie with Seth Bullock in it is an Olyphant vehicle. Also, Paul/Eli Sunday is in the movie! I drink your milkshake!).
Detroit continues to play relatively well despite losing 4 of 5. Those losses were against Chicago (#11), Boston (#10), the Clippers (#16), and Miami (#4). The Pistons finally got an easy opponent last night in the Magic (#30) and they handled them easily 134-120. The last two games against Miami and Orlando were played without Cade Cunningham, who was out with an illness, and they nearly beat the #4 team in our rankings, followed up by easily defeating a poor team. Not so impressive to beat #30, but doing it without your best players (Cade and Jerami Grant), missing Hamidou Diallo, and with your backup point guard Killian Hayes going out with an injury in the first quarter is good to see from the Pistons (although all the injuries isn’t great). All except Diallo are day-to-day, so we should see them back soon. Oh yeah, and Saddiq Bey dropped 51, finally breaking out of a 9 game shooting slump by going 17-27 from the field and 10-14 from three. He’s looking like a starter on a good team and someone who can play beside Cunningham for years to come.
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