https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/30606510/nba-power-rankings-risers-fallers-wild-opening-week Almost hesitant to do it because I don't want to give ESPN any more clicks than they would get normally but here we go. Spoiler: For those who don't want to give ESPN any clicks here what they said. 19. Houston Rockets 2020-21 record: 0-1 Previous ranking: 18 The 2020-21 NBA season may have already started, but you can create or join an ESPN Fantasy Basketball league at any time and start your season from when you draft your team. James Harden and Christian Wood might not end up being teammates for long, but the Rockets' prized free-agent acquisition appears to be a phenomenal offensive complement to the perennial MVP candidate. Seven of Harden's 17 assists in the Rockets' opener went to Wood, who had 31 points on 14-of-22 shooting, including six dunks. "[Wood] does a lot of things well," said Harden, who had 44 points. "He made me look good tonight." -- MacMahon
They refuse to grade the current team on roster. They are wrongfully assuming Harden will be gone and it’s useless to grade them with full roster consideration. Why does ESPN want Harden traded so badly?
I think that 19 is fair given the team is 0-2 and dealing with Harden uncertainty. This is a weekly power ranking thread cant expect 3rd party to give your team a high mark when half the team got quarantined, your superstar wants out and you lost both your games for the week. If Harden signs that extension or the Rox win their next game then obv that ranking will go up.
it all comes back to steph curry. Harden is also from that 2009 draft class like curry, the media has to keep up the myth that curry changed the game. But in reality if you watch most nba games on league pass like i do. You will quickly see that NOBODY IS EMULATING STEPH CURRYS STYLE OF PLAY. The young players are copying Hardens style of play, and that annoys the media. So the media wants james harden traded because in their minds they feel harden will not be the same scorer on another team. Remember max kellerman said it was dantoni who made harden look good. Now we have a new coach and harden is off to the best start in his career. The media is shocked. They think harden is some kind of system player( but its actually steph who is more or less a system player). The media also dont like Hardens style of play being learned and emulated by other younger stars of the game. Look at Tatum, Luka, Trae Young and even Anthony Edwards, the stepback is what these are doing now. Each player i just named all are on record stating that they take bits and pieces from HARDEN, not curry. The media doesnt like to hear that, because in their minds Hardens playstyle is a cancer. Even though the rockets in 2020 are ranked at 9th in isolation frequency. By far the lowest since hardens first two years with the rockets
It's weird that people get so worked up over this. Add a new hobby to your repertoire or something. Fill that void with something productive instead of being upset over stuff you don't care about. Also, we don't need the word "thread" in the thread title. We know it's a thread.
How long will it take yall to realize this team sucks and the only foundational player on it doesn't want to be here? Yall think John Wall will suddenly make a team good for the first time in his miserable career? Lulz!
Better to be underrated than overrated, right? No awards given and no prestige earned for sitting atop an ESPN power ranking. The Rockets would need to actually accomplish something before something like this would bother me.
Haha. Unbelievable thread. Like come on dude, I hate ESPN and almost everything they do is bullsht but unless you want to further make Rockets fans look like crybabies you gotta learn to pick your battles. 19th. With our best player miserable, a new team and 0 wins. And from the players we’re getting back, two of them haven’t played a real game in two years. What were you expecting to be ranked? You’re just bored. Of all the wrong ESPN does to our team this ain’t it.
Technically, this isn't underrating the Rockets. It's rating them poorly. But, like @roslolian said, I think #19 is accurate, given our record. However, it IS weird that, at the time of the article, the 0-2 Nuggets and 0-2 Raptors were both ranked above the 2-0 Hawks and 3-0 Magic. Just food for thought.
I don't see whats unfair. They have players that haven't even played yet, how can you judge them to be good? And they have no wins. 19th is more than fair if not generous
I dunno, the crazy non-conspiracy theorist in me thinks that maybe the "Harden won't be with the team long" narrative has come about because he has said he wants to be traded? Houston happy to take their time to get the best deal. *I hope that, during this process, the roster clicks, guys play really well, we win a lot of games, and he stays. But it isn't unfair for sports media outlets to say "Harden is gone" given that is what he has asked to happen...
Our fan base b****es and moans more than anybody. I used to think it was the Lakers but no. just chill out and keep watching, we haven’t won a game
Sitting at 0-2 with a massive cloud hanging over the franchise and a couple of repaired achilles, and people are b****ing about power rankings??? You have to win before an overhauled roster gets taken seriously.