NBA power rankings roundup: The tank is approaching
With the Oklahoma City Thunder officially shutting down Al Horford for the remainder of the season, power ranking analysts were not shy to use that word:
Tanking.
The Thunder, who will not play Horford for the rest of the season, who just traded away George Hill, who just saw Shai Gilgeous-Alexander land on the injured list for an extended period due to a foot injury and Lu Dort hurt with a concussion, may struggle to win upcoming games.
With that said, we’ve been thinking that all year, yet they’ve still managed to play competitive and win a reasonable number of contests.
Here are the outlets’ power rankings. As a note, they were published prior to the Thunder’s loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Monday, so any new opinions that arose from that game are not included.
ESPN: 23rd (no change)
Oklahoma City is ranked No. 23 on ESPN for the third week in a row. They might not be this high next week. Royce Young wrote:
With Al Horford shelved for the rest of the season, the Thunder aren't being shy about their intentions the rest of the way."
The veteran center and Gilgeous-Alexander will be out, and if the Thunder start to lose, they could drop behind teams under them such as the Toronto Raptors and Washington Wizards, listed 24th and 25th, respectively.
The Athletic: 24th (down 1)
Oklahoma City moved down a spot on The Athletic's rankings after going 1-2, with their only win against the lowly Minnesota Timberwolves. Zach Harper thinks that the decisions to trade George Hill and shut down Al Horford point to an important step:
"The team that has been so bad at tanking this season might be getting serious about losing some basketball games during their player development."
It's been no secret that the Thunder have consistently played competitive basketball this season. Harper thinks those wins might start to get fewer and farther between.
NBA.com: 23rd (down 1)
NBA.com analyst John Schuhmann pointed out the crazy difference between the Thunder's first and second halves in both their losses this past week.
"They had second-half leads against both the Grizzlies and Celtics, having held the two opponents to a combined 96 points on 103 possessions before halftime. "They lost both games, because the Thunder themselves scored just 96 points on 106 possessions after halftime."
Not great! Without Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City will need to find players who can create their own shots when the defense intensifies in the second half. Dort's absence will likewise hurt the team in the shot creation department until he returns from his concussion.
Bleacher Report: 23rd (down 2)
Bleacher Report's Mo Dakhil ran through Oklahoma City's trade deadline moves: The team moved Hill, shut down Horford, and put Gilgeous-Alexander on the injured list. It points in a direction that more games will be lost.
"Going 1-2 last week should help the Thunder's tanking efforts."
It's a start, to be sure.
CBS Sports: 25th (down 2)
CBS Sports' Colin Ward-Henninger chose a nicer way to describe the Thunder's situation:
"In an effort to make this year's picks more valuable, the Thunder announced that Al Horford will not play for the rest of the season, on top of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander being out indefinitely with a foot injury."
Much kinder than using the "T" word that Bleacher Report and The Athletic pulled out. He also mentioned Moses Browns' insane week.
"They inked Moses Brown to a long-term deal after he put up 14.7 points and a monster 17.7 rebounds per game this week, and he should get plenty of burn for the remainder of the season."
That's at least one piece of good news from the Thunder over the past seven days.
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