The Sports Inquirer

Music to listen to: Flesh for Fantasy by Billy Idol

Welcome to the first NBA Power Rankings of the new year. This is the time of year when trades become more prevelent and the realities of your squad become clearer. Despite being a few weeks away from the All-Star break and the unofficial midway point of the season, many teams have already made concessions to what the future reality will be. We’ll delve into that further with each ranking.

1) Indiana Pacers: Owner of the best winning percentage in the NBA, best center (Roy Hibbert), top two-way player not named LeBron James (Paul George), an improved bench and a team that complements each other well, especially on the defensive end.

2) Golden State Warriors: I was thisclose to putting them in the NBA Finals in my preseason picks (you’ll see my pick later). I actually had them finishing around fifth or sixth in the West standings because of the injury probability of top rotation players, particularly Steph Curry and Andrew Bogut. While both of those guys have missed a game or two, outside of Andre Iguodala missing double digit contests this season, the Warriors have kept it together and currently own a nine-game winning streak. The odd loss to San Antonio at home to to the Spurs’ second squad is a blemish but if Golden State can keep playing top-five caliber defense to go along with elite scoring from the perimeter, a Finals’ appearance may not be out of the question.

3) Miami Heat: James continues to perform at an MVP level but the regression of Wade (at least for the regular season) has increased the Heat’s reliance on Chris Bosh who is clearly having his best year since joining Miami four years ago. This development will help the champs in the postseason.

4) Portland Trailblazers: Most of us knew that the Blazers weren’t going to keep up this pace so losses, even at home to Philadelphia, aren’t discouraging. The bigger worry will be injuries with Nicolas Batum suffering a broken finger on his left hand. He’ll play through it for now but the team can’t afford a major injury to a roster that’s not the deepest in comparison to other atop the conference.

5) Oklahoma City Thunder: Kevin Durant is doing all he can without Russell Westbrook in the lineup, which means offensive explosions (see the 48 points against Minnesota) and more losses. Reggie Jackson must increase his offensive production at the guard spot if the Thunder have any aspirations of being a top-three seed in the West.

6) San Antonio Spurs: Odd loss last week to the Knicks who played their best game of the season in that contest.

7) Phoenix Suns: I picked the Suns to have the worst record in the West but with Eric Bledsoe playing at an All-Star level, Goran Dragic finally reaching his potential and borderline above-average defense, they’re going to make the playoffs in one of the most unlikely stories in the NBA in the past five years.

8) Houston Rockets: I picked the Rockets to emerge from the West to face Indiana in the Finals and while my Pacers’ prediction looks probable, Houston’s inconsistency concerns me. After a rough start on the offensive end for Dwight Howard and defensively for James Harden, both players have made improvements on that side of the ball even though losing at home to lowly Sacramento shows the ebb and flow of this squad.

9) Los Angeles Clippers: Six weeks without Chris Paul for a team that already struggles at time offensively hurts greatly. Paul controls the pace of his team on both ends of the floor more than anybody in the NBA and while Jamal Crawford offers some scoring in the backcourt, its not the same. Luckily Blake Griffin is playing the best basketball of his career.

10) Dallas Mavs: Why does this team struggle so much at home? The Mavs have lost four consecutive home contests.

Other thoughts:

-A prime example of addition by subtraction have been the Toronto Raptors, who’ve been strong defensively since trading away Rudy Gay and now sport a .500 record which is good enough for fourth in the Eastern Conference.

-Atlanta’s loss to Brooklyn last night may be a bad precurser for a Hawks squad that has a legitimate claim to being the third-best team in the East. Losing Al Horford hurts greatly but being on a three-game losing streak with Indiana and Houston coming to town over the next two contests may drop Atlanta further down the standings.

-One positive for the Hawks has been the development of Jeff Teague into an All-Star and dark horse MVP candidate (meaning in the top-ten) if the Hawks can somehow keep above .500 throughout the rest of the year.

-I get the Luol Deng/Andrew Bynum trade from the Cleveland side. The Cavs are DESPERATE to make the playoffs and getting a solid two-way player helps that cause. For Chicago, it clears up space to avoid the luxury tax and begins a rebuilding process that needed to be done. The Bulls weren’t going to be a title contender with the current roster, even with a healthy Derrick Rose. The draft picks can turn into rotation players on cheap salaries in the future. The scary part is that if the Bulls intentions are to not make the playoffs, that may be bad because they’re still a postseason team in the East.

-Mo Cheeks, Greg Monroe or Josh Smith need to be gone by the All-Star break for any hopes of this season being salvaged. Didn’t like putting three power forwards/centers in the front court at the start of the season from the beginning. Andre Drummond isn’t going anywhere rightfully so, Mo Cheeks just got hired as the head coach and Josh Smith, along with Brandon Jennings, are on new free agent deals. That leaves only one person left…

Those are my thoughts, what are yours?