http://www.insidehoops.com/power-rankings.shtml NBA POWER RANKINGS, UPDATED SEPT. 12, 2005 Records are of 2004-05 regular season. 1) San Antonio (59-23) - The NBA champions had an incredible summer, keeping all their key parts and adding Nick Van Exel and Michael Finley. They're the clear favorites to win the 2005-06 championship. 2) Detroit (54-28) - The Pistons were almost good enough to win the championship last season. They also kept all key players, and added Maurice Evans, Dale Davis and additional bench help. Although coach Larry Brown has been replaced by Flip Saunders, the Pistons are a solid favorite to lead the East when it matters most, the playoffs. 3) Miami (59-23) - They flipped the team around. But on offense it's still the Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade show, with Jason Williams, Antoine Walker and Udonis Haslem getting open shots all day long. The question is on defense. Eddie Jones was good at locking people down. It may be a bit easier to score on the Heat this season. Though, Shaq will still be around the paint. 4) Indiana (44-38) - Remember how good the Pacers were two seasons ago? That's how good they should be this season. Reggie Miller is gone, but Ron Artest will be back to team with Jermaine O'Neal and scare the heck out of everyone. Dale Davis is also gone, but the team can survive without him. Point guard Jamaal Tinsley now has Sarunas Jasikevicius as a backup. 5) Phoenix (62-20) - The Suns lost starters Joe Johnson and Quentin Richardson, who will be replaced by either Raja Bell or James Jones in the lineup. Also, Shawn Marion will likely slide to small forward, with the other key Sun, Kurt Thomas, moving next to Amare Stoudemire, who should be totally unstoppable this season. The Suns won't be as fast as last season, but they'll be a bit physically stronger thanks to Thomas. Johnson and Richardson shot open threes all game long. Jones and Bell will have to do the same. Whichever player is better at it will get more minutes. Also, Bell's defense helps make up for the loss of Johnson, the team's best lockdown defender at the swingman spot. 6) Houston (51-31) - The Rockets won 51 games last season, and now they've added Stromile Swift and Derek Anderson. The key is Swift, who should step in as the team's new starting power forward. It'll help that Juwan Howard can now come off the bench, where he should be very effective scoring points while some starters rest. The backcourt rotation still isn't clear, as lots of players are in competition for minutes. 7) Dallas (58-24) - Michael Finley is gone, Doug Christie and filler join the team. It's still the Dirk Nowitzki show, with Jason Terry, Josh Howard, Jerry Stackhouse, Keith Van Horn and the supporting cast. The Mavs aren't as deep as they used to be, but the depth is still there. 8) Denver (49-33) - The Nuggets kept their core, and added Earl Watson. Ever since George Karl took over last season, they've been terrific. There's no reason why they can't continue the fine play. 9) Sacramento (50-32) - An excellent summer for the Kings, who add Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Bonzi Wells, losing Cuttino Mobley and Bobby Jackson. Jackson was popular but always injured. Abdur-Rahim gives them a quality power forward to play next to Brad Miller and Peja Stojakovic. And Wells can take some scoring pressure off of Mike Bibby. The thing is, team chemistry takes a while. Will Wells fit in? Even if he doesn't, the Kings look terrific. Also, Bibby has a new backup point guard in Jason Hart. We may have ranked the Kings a bit low here. 10) Cleveland (42-40) - They almost made the playoffs last year. Now they add Damon Jones, Larry Hughes and Donyell Marshall, losing Jeff McInnis. With LeBron James a year older, Zydrunas Ilgaukas locked up with a new contract, and all the new help. The Cavs could fly high in the East. 11) New Jersey (42-40) - A healthy Jason Kidd, Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson should go far in the East. Nenad Krstic is the only big guy on the team with room for improvement, however. Jeff McInnis and Antoine Wright help the bench. 12) Chicago (47-35) - We want to rank the Bulls higher. But without Eddy Curry, they drop off a bit from last year. The improvement of all the young players that should occur, however, puts them back to where they were. 13) Seattle (52-30) - The Sonics were terrific last season. This season they stil have Luke Ridnour, Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis, but much of the remaining supporting cast is still in free agency at this time, or gone. The team can't be judged right now until their roster is more solidified. As they sign more players will adjust their NBA power ranking. 14) Memphis (45-37) - The Grizzlies flipped their team around, and now have Damon Stoudamire, Bobby Jackson and Eddie Jones in the backcourt to team with Pau Gasol and friends. They should continue to be solid but unspectacular. 15) Philadelphia (43-39) - The 76ers re-signed their key free agents (not including Willie Green, who got injured before he could sign) and added Steven Hunter. Allen Iverson of course is the leader. It's up to Andre Iguodala and Samuel Dalembert to keep raising their games. And Chris Webber, who definitely helped the team last season even with his limited mobility, must somehow find his young knees again. The Sixers could be better than this, but it'll take improvement across the board. 16) Minnesota (44-38) - The Timberwolves had a quiet off-season, though they did add Marko Jaric. Sam Cassell is gone, and Latrell Sprewell isn't expected back. It's the Kevin Garnett show, with Wally Szczerbiak and Jaric supporting him. Nikoloz Tskitishvili is on board. Minnesota needs to find KG more help. 17) Golden State (34-48) - As Baron Davis got healthy and hot, so did the entire team. The Warriors are a squad to watch in 2005-06. Also, Ike Diogu is an InsideHoops.com favorite. 18) Washington (45-37) - Larry Hughes, the best defender of the Wizards stars, is gone. Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison are the team's heart and soul. Caron Butler and Antonio Daniels join the party. It's up those new guys plus Jared Jeffries and Jarvis Hayes to push the team above the competition. 19) Boston (45-37) - Antoine Walker is gone, so it's back to being the Paul Pierce show. It's up to Ricky Davis, Tony Allen, rookie Gerald Green and big Al Jefferson to rise to the occasion. Pierce can't do it alone. There's no clear starting point guard right now, though Delonte West may get the job. Gerald Green will have to claw hard to get minutes, considering who is in front of him. New Celtic Brian Scalabrine helps the bench a little bit. 20) Milwaukee (30-52) - The Bucks kept their core, and added Andrew Bogut and Mr. Improvement, Bobby Simmons. TJ Ford also should be back, and his passing makes everyone better. We've probably underrated them. But we don't know how good Ford will be after all he's been through. The good players on the team are all shooting guards and small forwards. And then there's Bogut. So if Bogut is great, the team will leapfrog above most East squads above. 21) LA Lakers (34-48) - It feels wrong to put the Lakers down here, especially with Phil Jackson on board. But it doesn't feel as wrong as it did last season as Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom were unable to make magic happen together. Caron Butler is gone. Kwame Brown joins the crew of big guys. The Lakers did little to improve themselves this summer. There's still no point guard. On second thought, maybe it doesn't feel wrong to rank the team this low. Work your magic, Phil. 22) Utah (26-56) - Last season was ruined by injury. The Jazz now have a great rookie point guard in Deron Williams, plus a healthy Andrei Kirilenko, Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur and Matt Harpring hope to do this season what they were expected to do in 2004-05. It's been a quiet summer, though. Some spare parts are gone. It's an uphill battle for Utah in the West. 23) Orlando (36-46) - The improvement of Dwight Howard alone should help the team's win totals. Steve Francis and Grant Hill also should play better together with last season's experience under their belts. 24) New York (33-49) - Every Larry Brown team does better than expected. But in New York, things are complicated. In the backcourt, point guard Stephon Marbury and shooting guard Jamal Crawford may switch roles. Tim Thomas may take a seat on the bench so new shooting guard Quentin Richardson can pretend to be a small forward. In which case, the Knicks may run-and-gun, for the first time in forever. But Brown is a defensive coach. So it'll be interesting to see how he handles this. The frontcourt isn't scary, as Michael Sweetney, James Jones and rookie Channing Frye must carry the load. 25) LA Clippers (37-45) - The Clippers added Cuttino Mobley at shooting guard and Sam Cassell at point guard. Sounds pretty good. Gone are Marko Jaric and Bobby Simmons. So, point guard duties will be split between Cassell and Shaun Livingston. Mobley's at the two. Corey Maggette and Elton Brand play forward, with young Chris Kaman trying to make a name for himself at center. We'll wait until they win games before moving them up this list. 26) Toronto (33-49) - No one has any idea what the Raptors are doing. But Raptors fans are awesome, and Chris Bosh seems good, so that's a start, I think. 27) Portland (27-55) - The Blazers keep disappointing us and playing worse than we expect, so for now we put them all the way down here. Blazers fans should thank us, because if we rank them this low it means they'll probably play well. It's the Sebastian Telfair, Martell Webster, Darius Miles and Zach Randolph show. 28) Atlanta (13-69) - Joe Johnson will help make things happen. So, they'll be better than this. Josh Smith should improve, too. Rookie Marvin Williams didn't look great in summer league. We'll see what happens. Unfortunately, giving the Hawks the benefit of the doubt hasn't worked well in the past. But we want them to succeed. Honestly. So we'll keep them down here and hope for a pleasant surprise. 29) Charlotte (18-64) - Emeka Okafor is the foundation, and Raymond Felton and Sean May are the next set of building blocks. 29) New Orleans (18-64) - JR Smith, Jamaal Magloire, PJ Brown and rookie Chris Paul should win a few games. New Hornet Rasual Butler should help. But this is a rebuilding team that needs more lottery picks to build around. It's good to see the Rockets so high. Can't wait for the season to start.
after looking over some other power rankings... these are the best I've seen by far. Everything is very accurate. You could switch houston and dallas though.
I see as the third best team behing San Antnio and Miami. Detroit will lose their mojo without Larry. Phoenix will be last year's Washington Wizards I don't have to explain Indiana Dallas-Please Houston-58 win pace beforeacquiring Swift and Anderson. Sura, Wesley and Howard should be back healthier. If Yao steps up his game to superstar level we WILL win the championship.
How about Houston and Phoenix, while Pheonix did get better on the defensive to me they regressed in offense more than they progressed on defense therefore they regressed. I think Houston took two steps forward without taking any steps backward, they will be better than Phoenix next season.
I think we're better than Suns. We lost to Pistons every time we played them last season. I think we can beat them this season.
Not a bad list except for one glaring mistake: Phoenix. After their disastrous offseason, how can you put them ahead of us, Dallas, Sactown and even Denver? The same way nobody saw them coming out of nowhere last season because of what they did the year before, predictions for the upcoming year place them far higher than they should be based on last season's magic carpet ride. For at least the first 1/3 of next season I will closely follow the Suns to see how they do. When the Rockets start gelling as a team we will mash Phoenix. I can go along with the top 4, but the Suns should be down to about #10. After the top 10, it gets hard to rank teams. Unless team chemistry problems destroy them, Sacramento will win the Pacific division over Phoenix.
I don't know much but, I think we will be better than Indiana. They will be a good team but c'mon. Two years ago they were in a MUCH weaker eastarn conf. and they have only taken steps backwards IMHO. These rankings mean nothing though.. Can we just get on the court already?
Its hard to see how well teams are going to be at the start of the season. Hell its hard to tell how well teams are going to be even after the first third of a season. Only by midseason do you have a taste of how good or how bad a team will be. But in any case I really like this years Rockets chances. I agree here that San Antonio is the clear shot favorite to win it all right now. I dont mind Detroit being number two because they went toe to toe with San Antonio in the Finals. But they lost what in my opinion is the best coach in the NBA Larry Brown so I feel they just wont be as good. (Though Flip is an excellent underrated coach). As for Miami, I can understand why they are number three. They are what I read in an article, the best video game team in the NBA. But I personally think that the pieces they have aren't going to mix well. Jason Williams needs to ball hog to be effective and as i recall earl watson was playing point guard during crunch time in the game. Walker needs the ball as well to be effective and ideally would be suited for a sixth man role but will his ego allow it, and Posey is a giant question mark. Is the guy healthy? Indiana is ok i guess at four, they have had a team that has been at the brink of being successful for a while but they just keep having one disaster after another. They also lost Miller who was one of the greatest clutch players in our modern era of sports. Pho. at fifth doesnt make sense to me. That team last year struggled when they played ppl in there natural position. I remember the Rockets last year destroying them when they played with there big line up. Watch and see, Nash's numbers will go down with him having less three point shooters to pass to, Marion shooting percentage will go down with him having ppl guard him that like to play perimeter defense, and Stoudemire wont be able to blow past laterally challenged centers. Oh yea and Nash and Stoudemire will have to play defense now, they dont like that. I think Houston and Dallas should be bumped up to around five or six at the start of the season. The Mavs lost Finley but I think they are a much better defensive team now. Christie may be old but the guy is legit defensively, as is Howard. Daniels may have enough game to compensate for the loss of Finley and in any case they have enough offense with Dirk, Stackhouse, Terry, and Van Horn, to deal with the loss of Finley. As mentioned earlier, I think Houston is good and has potential to be great but this team is much like the other Van Gundy team, Miami, they have a lot of question marks. Sura starts this season like last season, injured. The big question with him, will he ever be healthy? I love Sura's game and I love the heart he brings to the Rockets but you gotta be healthy to play and is the guy ever going to be healthy? Derek Anderson is a similar player, will he be healthy? Remember, he hasn't played a game that counts in quite some time (A year i think). Oh yea and the guy Swift, he doesn't come over with a great background (The word "potential" is always next to his name). Howard had a serious injury last year and health is a concern with him as well. Can he come back from that injury? Will there be a relapse? Oh yea and the majority of the roster was old and is going to be a year older now. Age can do a number on a team (ala Minnesota). I know this is a pessimistic outlook on our team and I honestly think we will make it to the second round, third round, or even to the Finals. But health is a BIG factor on our team, and the BIG question mark.
Writers this offseason are really starting to overhype the eastern conference. 2-4 teams all from the East? I know Indiana, Detroit, and Miami are certainly very good teams. But to place ALL three of these teams above Houston, Dallas, Denver, and Phoenix is just ludicrous.
if houston can make another trade for a good passer PG, it would be top 3, i always think T-mac is only good passer in this team, if someone could share the burden, he can score more, and yao can score much more.....
i think we are better than the suns. the loss of JJ and Q do not make amare unstoppable this year as stated in the article. If anything it lets the defense collapse on him more. the will still be a verry good team but we will be better.
Indiana is right where they belong. That team was legit two years ago winning 60 years. The team that doesn't deserve to be so high is Phoenix. I honestly don't think they will even win 50 games this year. Losing Quentin Richardson and Joe Johnson was more than just losing two of your best players - it was losing the entire style which made them so unbeatable last year. Ranking Phoenix so highly and expecting them to come close to repeating last year's success is on the strength of assigning greatness to Amare Stoudemire and Steve Nash. That is completely ridiculous. Those two are both very good players, All-Stars, but their record last year was not due to the greatness of those two. It was due to the fact that they had 5 guys on the floor at all times who were skilled, could run and shoot, and they were able to mercilessly assault you offensively. Nash and Amare became a product of this system. Now without these two, they become like any other duo of All-Stars. Pretty good, nothing special. You're telling me those two are that much better a duo than Garnett and Cassell of last year? Or McGrady-Yao last year who only finished 5th? Please. That is a direct insult to the rest of the league. Don't even bring up Shawn Marion. We saw what Bruce Bowen did to him. He's basically just an opportunist or the greatest garbageman in league history. If the Suns are playing conventional ball, they won't be anything special next year.
These are pretty decent rankings. Even though Dallas has had a terrible offseason (in my opinion), they'll still be very competitive and will get a mid spot for the playloffs. I think the Lakers and the Clippers are kinda low. Phil will turn the Lakers around and the Clipps could make a run, I think they'll be better than Minni and Seattle.
