Power Rankings, Week of 11/24

[Spike]

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Well, beating the Bulls helped, but letting the Timberwolves hang around probably didn't...unless they just checked the final score. Either way, the comments tend to show that more and more are paying attention.

Sports Illustrated
#8 (+1)
Only one of Sacramento's eight wins have come against an Eastern Conference team. The schedule doesn't get any easier this week, with clashes against thePelicans, Rockets, Spurs and Grizzlies. The good news? Only four of the Kings' 15 December opponents currently own winning records.

USA Today
#13 (NC)
DeMarcus Cousins leads the league in personal fouls and personal fouls drawn, as you'd expect.

NBA.COM
#11 (NC)
The Kings are the only team that hasn't had an above-average defense in the last eight seasons. They're average now, and their starting lineup has been the best defensive unit that has played at least 75 minutes, having held opponents under 40 percent shooting in eight of its 12 games. All other Kings lineups have allowed 110 points per 100 possessions.

CBSSports.com
#9 (+3)
They keep racking up what feel like "important" wins, like the one over Chicago, but they also are losing steam a bit when they play the heavy hitters. They'd be in seventh if they hadn't lost that game to the Pelicans, which was the most enjoyable thing I have seen since "Guardians of the Galaxy."

Yahoo! Sports
#8 (+1)
The last time the Kings were 8-5 was eight years ago. Sacramento, which plays at New Orleans on Tuesday, was last 9-5 a decade ago.

ESPN
#13 (-1)
DeMarcus Cousins has only two technical fouls, and he's leading the league in rebounding and has fared fairly well against Marc Gasol, Joakim Noah and, yes, Anthony Davis. Someone please tell me again how you're supposed to choose between Boogie, Davis and Gasol for Player of the Month out West?

Hollinger Daily Rankings
#7
Rating 105.971

Mean Ranking: 9.85
Top ten, baby!

 

[Tetsujin]

Gee, USA Today. Great analysis.

 

[andjel]

ok, does Cousins have 2 or 1 Technical Foul?
Thought he has 1 since one was nullified, but every site I check states 2.

 

[Bricklayer]

View attachment 5034​

ESPN
#13 (-1)
DeMarcus Cousins has only two technical fouls, and he's leading the league in rebounding and has fared fairly well against Marc Gasol, Joakim Noah and, yes, Anthony Davis. Someone please tell me again how you're supposed to choose between Boogie, Davis and Gasol for Player of the Month out West?

Here's what "fared fairly well" means in Mark Stein world:

MEM 31min 22pts (8-17, 6-7) 12reb 1ast 22stl 3blk 6TO
NOP 34min 24pts (10-17, 4-7) 17reb 3ast 0stl 2blk 3TO
CHI 34min 22pts (9-19, 4-5) 14reb 4ast 1stl 1blk 5TO



maybe Marky is referring to our 1-1-1 record over that span

 

[Bricklayer]

Gee, USA Today. Great analysis.

If you click on the link to the USA Today rankings you'll find something interesting. Down at the bottom are listed a group of voters:

USA TODAY Sports' Sam Amick, Adi Joseph, Kevin Spain and Jeff Zillgitt; HoopsHype.com's Jorge Sierra and Raul Barrigon; The Indianapolis Star's Candace Buckner; The (Phoenix) Arizona Republic's Paul Coro; The Detroit Free Press' Vince Ellis; USA TODAY Sports Weekly's Howard Megdal.

So apparently the rankings (although obviously not the write-ups) are some group thing.


And if Power Rankings were significant one of the "interesting" things is the column they have there called "Best/Worst", which I would imagine is clearly the highest and lowest rankings submitted. Well, somebody in their own little voting consortium either a) is an ass; or b) more likely has dropped out or just submitted default pre-season rankings or something, because our best/worst stretched all the way from #7 to #25 and gets pulled down by that idiot. And elsewhere likely the same idiot has created such splits as #3-#16 for the Cavs and #2-#26 for the Thunder, of course rendering the averaged out rankings worthless even by Slim standards.

 

[gunks]

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NBA.COM
#11 (NC)
The Kings are the only team that hasn't had an above-average defense in the last eight seasons. They're average now, and their starting lineup has been the best defensive unit that has played at least 75 minutes, having held opponents under 40 percent shooting in eight of its 12 games. All other Kings lineups have allowed 110 points per 100 possessions.

Wow our bench sucks. If PDA can get us some more well rounded guys in the 2nd unit, we're talking. Its getting old seeing the likes of Landry and Sessions let other team's 2nd units destroy us and nullify all the work our starters put in.

 

[HereWeBoogie]

Our bench sucking is one thing, Malone throwing out a ridiculous bench lineup with Carl Landry at the freakin Center position isn't helping them

 

[IfAt1st]

Yahoo! Sports
#8 (+1)
The last time the Kings were 8-5 was eight years ago. Sacramento, which plays at New Orleans on Tuesday, was last 9-5 a decade ago.

This is just lazy.
Who cares about win/loss trivia, and what does the past 10 years have to do with this year?
Just make a comment about the Kings THIS YEAR, idiots! Think of something - ANYthing to say. Do your job - sheesh.

 

[KingMilz]

Here's what "fared fairly well" means in Mark Stein world:

MEM 31min 22pts (8-17, 6-7) 12reb 1ast 22stl 3blk 6TO
NOP 34min 24pts (10-17, 4-7) 17reb 3ast 0stl 2blk 3TO
CHI 34min 22pts (9-19, 4-5) 14reb 4ast 1stl 1blk 5TO



maybe Marky is referring to our 1-1-1 record over that span

I thought he outplayed Noah and Gasol and was even against AD.

 

[kingsboi]

laugh out loud at the USA Today...why even bother posting anything if that's what your going to write?

 

[HereWeBoogie]

I thought he outplayed Noah and Gasol and was even against AD.

i think he outplayed Davis, unfortunately the rest of our team let their guards run wild on us, breaking down the D and allowing lob and lob to Davis

 

[HndsmCelt]

I placed us 6-10 just because of WHO we beat. But then again I don't have much use for power rankings anyway.

 

[king07]

I say the same thing on the NFL forums i post on, why do people care so much about these so called "power rankings"?

 

[KingMilz]

I say the same thing on the NFL forums i post on, why do people care so much about these so called "power rankings"?

We don't we need something to discuss on off days when there's no games.

 

[randymoss1881]

"They're average now, and their starting lineup has been the best defensive unit that has played at least 75 minutes, having held opponents under 40 percent shooting in eight of its 12 games. All other Kings lineups have allowed 110 points per 100 possessions."

This is absurd an average bench and we are 10-3. So if our bench was average on defense we would have a top 5 defense.

 

[Iced Espresso]

We'll find out how good we are in the next 5 games. Top tier in all honesty if we go 4-1 or better.

 

[Bricklayer]

We'll find out how good we are in the next 5 games. Top tier in all honesty if we go 4-1 or better.

If we go 4-1 against that murderer's row they might as well just rank us #1.

The amazing thing is I can tell you exactly how we could win every one of those games except perhaps for San Antonio, although there I would again urge Pop to rest his old guys. Big young kid like Boogie might break brittle old bones. Better not to risk it.

 

[Chupacabra]

I put us at 6-10 because our whole entire whopping 1 game that we've played out of conference thus far was against Chicago. The Kings are about to bulldoze through December.

 

[The Hammer]

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NBA.COM
#11 (NC)
The Kings are the only team that hasn't had an above-average defense in the last eight seasons. They're average now, and their starting lineup has been the best defensive unit that has played at least 75 minutes, having held opponents under 40 percent shooting in eight of its 12 games. All other Kings lineups have allowed 110 points per 100 possessions.


Mean Ranking:

This is a phenomenal stat. And extremely impressive for the coaching staff. Just need to get the rest of the team to start playing decent team defense, or just get a couple better bench players.

I still maintain that it is primarily the result of Sessions inability to stay in front of his man that primarily leads to the severe defensive breakdowns in the second unit.

 

[The_Jamal]

The starting unit is impressive, but I wouldn't put too much into the bench lineups being utter crap as there really isn't all that much time played with the bench lineups. What's most important is our starting unit gelling and it seems to be doing so.

Bench unit will come around. Casspi and Landry have been 2 of the top subs this season on any team, which is an excellent start to the bench. Nik is doing his rookie thing right now, but it's not hurting us all that much with Ben playing well. And Sessions should revert back to his career numbers at some point; he's just not this bad. Even D-will is starting to come around and contribute some good bench minutes the last few games.

 

[The Hammer]

I wonder what our ranking would be if we would have been credited with our Memphis win. Probably bump it up 3-4 spots all around.

 

[Prog]

Here's what "fared fairly well" means in Mark Stein world:

MEM 31min 22pts (8-17, 6-7) 12reb 1ast 22stl 3blk 6TO
NOP 34min 24pts (10-17, 4-7) 17reb 3ast 0stl 2blk 3TO
CHI 34min 22pts (9-19, 4-5) 14reb 4ast 1stl 1blk 5TO



maybe Marky is referring to our 1-1-1 record over that span

You're counting the Memphis game as a draw?

 

[Bricklayer]

You're counting the Memphis game as a draw?

Exactly.

 

[Bricklayer]

This is a phenomenal stat. And extremely impressive for the coaching staff. Just need to get the rest of the team to start playing decent team defense, or just get a couple better bench players.

I still maintain that it is primarily the result of Sessions inability to stay in front of his man that primarily leads to the severe defensive breakdowns in the second unit.

Guards can't stay in front. And "bigs" can't stop anybody who gets past the guards, which is everybody.

 

[kingsfan1984]

JT needs to sub out early for evans....then when cousins needs a blow, sub JT and Landry in for evans and cousins.

 

[IfAt1st]

This is a phenomenal stat. And extremely impressive for the coaching staff. Just need to get the rest of the team to start playing decent team defense, or just get a couple better bench players.

I still maintain that it is primarily the result of Sessions inability to stay in front of his man that primarily leads to the severe defensive breakdowns in the second unit.

If this were true (and I believe it may well be the root of the bad team defense with the backups, similar to IT's effect on team defense last year) then the front office's priority should be to get a defensive-minded backup PG.
They have to decide what they want from their backup PG - defense, or scoring - you can't have both (or else they wouldn;t be backup PG in the NBA).
Can RayMac become a defensive PG, and then just run a basic offense? I don't think he's able to do that yet.
Who would fit the bill of a defensive backup PG who doesn't kill you on offense?