Week of 11/3 Power Rankings

[Bricklayer]

Once upon a time many a year ago we would post the weekly power rankings by the various news services. Some enjoyed them, some notoriously used them when they began to run low on Charmin. At one point we even had a designated Power Rankings guru who's job it was to put up the threads every week and find the links. The tradition died largely because...well, we are all cowards and who wants to see their team ranked between #24 and #27 every single week for half a decade.

Well, the worm has briefly turned, and as you can see below, national scribes have taken notice. So I am going to put the rankings up this week and I might even do it next week. But at some point here I would hope, if the team keeps on making them interesting, to find a new power rankings guru to start the weekly threads:

ESPN
#16 (+7) -- Who had a better weekend than Boogie Cousins, Rudy Gay and the Sacramento Kings? It's too soon to outright recant some of the pessimism found in this comment cyberspace last week, but the wins and stat lines they uncorked against the Blazers (home) and Clips (road) add up to a loud response. http://espn.go.com/nba/powerrankings

NBA
#11 (+12) -- Sacramento (2-1)
Pace: 97.3 (9), OffRtg: 95.4 (26), DefRtg: 96.0 (7), NetRtg: -0.6 (18)
The Kings looked awful in the second half of their opener against Golden State, but they're the only team with two wins over top 10 teams from the preseason rankings, beating both the Blazers and Clippers (in L.A.) over the weekend with big fourth quarters. Hold off on the "Boogie 4 MVP" campaign until they get through this stretch of 10 of 14 on the road.
This week: @ DEN, vs. DEN, @ PHX, @ OKC http://www.nba.com/2014/news/powerrankings/11/03/week1/index.html?ls=iref:nbahpt6e

CBSSports
#8 (+17) -- Wins over the Blazers and Clippers, with defense and a lot of DeMarcus Cousins. The Kings won't be in this spot by the end of the week (or Monday, considering they have the dreaded Denver back-to-back). But boy has it been fun to watch this Kings team... where are we? http://www.cbssports.com/nba/story/24781971/nba-power-rankings-no-2-spurs-get-benefit-of-the-doubt

Yahoo
#17 (+6) -- (Record: 2-1; last week’s rank: 23): It’s early, but keep an eye on the Kings, who have wins over Portland and on the road against the Clippers. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba-power-rankings--it-s-golden-at-the-top-172345583.html


Thursday add:
Washington Post
#7 (--) -- Sacramento Kings (4-1)
After winning gold in the FIBA World Cup, Rudy Gay and DeMarcus Cousins are the only teammates averaging at least 20 points on 50 percent shooting and have Kings off to the best start since Chris Webber led franchise to Western Conference finals.http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...s-warriors-start-strong-as-cavaliers-stuggle/

 

[Chubbs]

Press like this takes Boogie from hoping he gets into the all star game by being voted in by the coaches to possibly just getting voted in by the fans.

Who doesn't love boogie?

Yes, lets get ahead and get ahead of ourselves.

 

[randymoss1881]

@denver Denver @Phx @OKC

I'm expecting us to go 3-1 in that stretch.

 

[macadocious]

8? LOL CBS

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Is it that time again, already? Cool, I was getting low:

:: wipes his @$$ with ESPN, NBA, CBSSports and Yahoo Power Rankings ::

 

[whozit]

CBS and the #8 ranking: If you don't think they'll be there at the end of the week, why put them there now?

 

[Chupacabra]

The pessimism is easy to understand but unless the team suddenly forgets how to play defense this team is going to hang around. The most telling sign for me that indicates that we'll be a good team this year is that we played the Clippers on the road, beat them, and then went back into the locker room to discuss defensive mistakes. This coming off of being 2-1 against 3 western conference playoff teams and playing overall good defense against each of them. Things are changing indeed

 

[Larry89]

Looks like im out of toilet paper....

 

[hrdboild]

Well @OKC is no longer an intimidating matchup anyway. Perry Jones left the game early with a knee injury yesterday. They might only have 6 healthy players left. Then again, we play New Orleans twice in November and they look much improved so maybe it evens out. Tyreke and The Brow are both playing out of their minds right now and they're going to be a real test of our team defense. Ben and Jason have been holding their own so far, but I don't think anybody on our team can check those two guys individually.

 

[funkykingston]

The preseason forecast from ESPN had the West shaking out like this:

1. Thunder
2. Spurs
3. Clippers
4. Trailblazers
5. Mavericks
6. Grizzlies
7. Warriors
8. Rockets
9. Suns
10. Pelicans
11. Nuggets
12. Lakers
13. Kings
14. Jazz
15. Timberwolves

Personally I think the Rockets and Warriors will finish above the Mavs & Grizz if not higher but either way I think most people would agree that the top 8 teams listed were pretty much everyone's consensus teams to make the playoffs.

Do Durant and Westbrook's injuries put the Thunder in a deep enough hole to jeopardize a playoff berth? Does another team have injury issues or just a surprisingly bad season that puts them out of the postseason? If so, The Kings would be in essentially a four way race with the Pelicans, Suns and Nuggets for the last one or two playoff seeds. Is it likely that the Kings make the postseason this year? No. Is it out of the realm of possibility? Not at all.

Oh, and even before Randle went down for the season who exactly did ESPN think the Lakers were going to beat this year?

 

[kingsboi]

10 out of 14 coming up on the road?? what...

 

[hrdboild]

Rockets and Warriors both look strong. Well built teams. The Spurs are in there barring injury. Memphis might actually get the #1 seed this year. They're consistently underrated. The Clippers and Blazers feel vulnerable right now. Those are the teams with the biggest targets on their back. I can see the Pelicans making some noise, but they probably don't have quite enough firepower to sneak in there unless they can get Eric Gordon going. I don't really believe in Phoenix's high-wire act to be honest. It just seems like a gimmick that isn't going to work now that teams know what to expect from them. The Nuggets can beat up on cupcake teams, but they didn't look the part of a playoff team in the west these last two games. Minnesota has some sleeper potential. They're 2-2 but those two losses were Memphis and Chicago and the combined margin of defeat was only 5 points.

 

[KingMilz]

Rockets and Warriors both look strong. Well built teams. The Spurs are in there barring injury. Memphis might actually get the #1 seed this year. They're consistently underrated. The Clippers and Blazers feel vulnerable right now. Those are the teams with the biggest targets on their back. I can see the Pelicans making some noise, but they probably don't have quite enough firepower to sneak in there unless they can get Eric Gordon going. I don't really believe in Phoenix's high-wire act to be honest. It just seems like a gimmick that isn't going to work now that teams know what to expect from them. The Nuggets can beat up on cupcake teams, but they didn't look the part of a playoff team in the west these last two games. Minnesota has some sleeper potential. They're 2-2 but those two losses were Memphis and Chicago and the combined margin of defeat was only 5 points.

As good as there defense is I don't believe they have enough offense against the elite teams not saying they can't beat them but they need 1 more guy that can fill it up for them to be a #1 seed imo. I love watching the Grizz but they are savages.

 

[Chubbs]

As good as there defense is I don't believe they have enough offense against the elite teams not saying they can't beat them but they need 1 more guy that can fill it up for them to be a #1 seed imo. I love watching the Grizz but they are savages.

They had that guy. He starts for the kings now.