Power rankings system devised and compiled weekly by Stemshul. “Expert” analysis by paradroid.
It’s already week 15 and we’re past half-way through the season. And somehow the Cleveland Cavaliers are up to fourth in our rankings. The top three have a little gap on everyone else, but few would have expected Cleveland to be leading the chase this late in the year. The Cavs have been flailing a little since LeBron James left for the second time, this time after delivering a championship and on better terms with the team and fan-base than the infamous “Decision” acrimony that marked his move to Miami. But after Kyrie Irving went east to seek his fortune in the wake of that aforementioned championship and James went west a year or two later, the Cave were left with just Kevin Love and a cast of supporting players designed for the team they were hoping to surround LeBron with if they could convince him to re-sign. After four trips to the Finals in four years (and just that one win), the Cavs (sans LBJ) went 19-63, 19-46, and 22-50 in the three that followed.
They drafted Collin Sexton and Darius Garland in the two years following their successful run, and those two look like future stars. Isaac Okoro, their next top ten draft pick, has yet to pop in that same way, although he still looks like a useful player. But it appears Cleveland has struck gold again with this year’s pick, Evan Mobley. That’s a pretty good success rate on draft picks, and it’s starting to pay dividends. Kevin Love, signed to an albatross of a contract when the team was all in during the James years, was not enjoying his basketball life on a bad team, often visibly annoyed and petulant while on the court. And while he’s not quite the same rebounding and scoring machine he was back in his Minnesota heyday, he seems to be enjoying playing again (winning is fun!) and is a good veteran presence who offers inside-outside offense and some play-making when needed. So if you add three young stars to veterans like Love, Lauri Markkanen, Jarrett Allen and Ricky Rubio, you can see where success might follow, despite the poor returns the last three years have offered.
But the most impressive thing about this team might be how they’ve managed to thrive while playing without many of their players dues to injuries. Rubio is out for the year with a torn ACL, Sexton is out for the year with a meniscus tear, and there have been many more shorter term injuries throughout the roster on top of losing their best young player and key veteran point guard who orchestrated much of the offense. It looks like they are ahead of schedule and are making a huge leap from last year. If they can play this well with all the games missed by important contributors, imagine what they could look like next year near full strength.
Detroit suffered through a win-less week, losing to #7 Utah and then a home-and-home to #12 Denver. The good news is that the games were competitive and the Pistons could have potentially won each of them. No blowouts is good, but no wins is bad, so I’m not sure how much better the current trend is than the feast or famine earlier in January, but competitive games can only help the young roster develop. Still no news on the Jerami Grant trade front, but there’s still time. I’m starting to think he may not move, probably because G.M. Troy Weaver is rumored to want to do right by Grant and only deal him into a situation Jerami wants to be in, i.e. on a decent team where he’s not a third or fourth option. Grant was great at this in his Denver years, but he chose Detroit in large part for the opportunity to be the Guy on a team and I doubt he wants to go back to a supporting role, especially in the prime of his career after proving he can be more. Under two weeks until the deadline, so talks will be heating up. Hopefully Weaver can find something that works for both the Pistons and Grant in time while his value is at it’s peak.
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