People LOVE Power Rankings in their sports. Of course, we have one of our own but it’s not your usual rankings where we put them from best to worst team during the week. Every Monday, we look at 10 things in the NBA (well, not just the NBA) and rank them in order how much we liked each thing. Don’t agree with them? You can always make your OWN Power Rankings.
This is Week 1 of 25 in the regular season. Let’s do this!
(PHOTO CREDIT: John Bazemore/AP.)
1) Trae Young is the Current Scoring Leader!
Well, okay. It’s only been six days since the NBA regular season started. But Trae Young looks waaaaaaaaaay more comfortable in these first two games than he did all of last season. He’s making his three-pointers and he’s letting the flow of the game come to him.
The result?
AT Detroit: 38 points, 7 rebounds, 9 assists.
VS Orlando: 39 points, 7 rebounds, 9 assists.
Obviously, it’s only been two games but he may be already making THE leap this season.
(PHOTO CREDIT: Fox Sports North screencap.)
2) The KAT’s Meow
I’m allergic to cats but I am not allergic to some good basketball being played by KAT. Karl-Anthony Towns has pretty much become the initiator of offense for the Wolves and it has paid handsomely. He’s waxing the competition with 32.0 points, 13.3 rebounds, and 5.0 assists per game. The defense is not there yet but if he’s producing these numbers, it’s hard to complain about anything.
Also, the Wolves are 3-0. Meow.
(PHOTO CREDIT: AP.)
3) Redemption Stories
Everyone loves a good comeback story. So far, we’re getting two notable ones in Markelle Fultz and Dwight Howard. Fultz was the college star that had his NBA career derailed because of his severe shoulder injury while Howard is trying to win back a city he once left under bad circumstances.
They’re off to good starts this season. Let’s hope they continue to do well.
(VIDEO CREDIT: House of Highlights.)
4) Derrick Jones Jr. Punks Jonas Valanciunas
Nothing like a good posterization to start the season. Woooo!
(VIDEO CREDIT: Paramount Pictures.)
5) Terminators and Clippers
This spot is incredibly awkward. I love it for probably all the wrong reasons. I don’t care.
WHOA. AM I SEEING DOUBLE? SOMEBODY CALL SARAH CONNOR.
Here’s the final play of Wolves/Nets. Kyrie Irving went NBA Street and nearly made the game-winning J. pic.twitter.com/70OudjkqRw
— 𝐑𝐞𝐲-𝐑𝐞𝐲 🤞🏾✌🏾 (@TheNoLookPass) October 24, 2019
6) Slip N’ Slide Almost Won
Kyrie Irving scored 50 points in the Nets’ home opener against the Wolves. He would’ve liked to have 52, though, because his game-winner did NOT go in. After he did an NBA Street Slip N’ Slide that got Josh Okogie out of his defensive position. Whether Kyrie did it on purpose or not isn’t the question here; it’s the fact that he was able to recover after that to get a clean look at the basket.
If he made that, it would’ve been a Top 5 NBA game-winner of all-time.
7) The Physical Pain
Yeah, that can’t feel good for Donovan Mitchell.
Bonus Round! James Harden bouncing the ball hard in frustration and then getting hit in the chin.
Not sure what was funnier here, James Harden spiking the ball into his own face or Josh Hart’s reaction pic.twitter.com/LskuMzmK6U
— Jacob Rude (@JacobRude) October 27, 2019
We are all Josh Hart.
8) The Not-So-Golden State Warriors
For all intents and purposes, the Golden State Warriors will be just fine. They may not make the postseason this year. Or they may. Either way, they have been to five straight NBA Finals. They got three championship rings in those trips. They’re okay.
With that said, they done soil their britches the first two games. The Clippers dropped 141 points on them in the first game of their new home. And then Game #2 featured a matinee beatdown by the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Thunder won by 28 points and led as many as 42. The Warriors looked like the Chris Cohan Warriors. Yeah. They looked AWFUL.
The good news is that they only played two games so they’re not really deep in a hole right now. Plus they’re missing a lot of NBA veterans in Willie Cauley-Stein (yeah, I know), Alec Burks, and the recently-hurt Kevon Looney. Klay Thompson probably won’t be back so they’ll have to get used to D’Angelo Russell‘s flow.
But as I said, the rest of that roster does not look great outside of Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Russell.
(PHOTO CREDIT: Duane Rankin/Arizona Republic.)
9) DeAndre Ayton’s 25-Game Suspension
It sucks. That’s how you really sum it up.
The Suns have been doing okay without him the last two games. It’s just too bad that he’s missing out on a lot of games. At the very least, he’s not getting the experience to play with this teammates for a few weeks. There’s a chance his suspension can get reduced so let’s hope for that.
(PHOTO CREDIT: Joe Murphy/Getty Images.)
10) Zion Williamson Will Be Out For a While
He’s out for probably around two months. We all looked forward to seeing the hype that has surrounded Zion; he’s the most anticipated rookie to watch since LeBron James. We wanted to see if he could destroy the league.
We’ll have to wait until December for this. Injuries suck.
Rey-Rey is on Twitter at @TheNoLookPass.
TNLP on FaceBook.