NBA Power Rankings Update: Are the Denver Nuggets Legitimate Contenders?
Teams Ranked 10th to 1st
The Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder continue to prove their awesomeness, the Utah Jazz have a slight hiccup, while the Indiana Pacers fall completely apart.
| Ranking | Team | Record | nERD | Last Ranking | Plus/Minus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Utah Jazz | 29-23 | 58.5 | 9 | -1 |
| 9 | San Antonio Spurs | 31-22 | 58.6 | 10 | 1 |
| 8 | Indiana Pacers | 32-19 | 61.1 | 4 | -4 |
| 7 | Philadelphia 76ers | 34-18 | 62.0 | 7 | 0 |
| 6 | Denver Nuggets | 35-15 | 62.7 | 8 | 2 |
| 5 | Toronto Raptors | 37-16 | 63.7 | 5 | 0 |
| 4 | Oklahoma City Thunder | 32-18 | 66.0 | 6 | 2 |
| 3 | Boston Celtics | 32-19 | 68.7 | 3 | 0 |
| 2 | Golden State Warriors | 36-15 | 69.8 | 2 | 0 |
| 1 | Milwaukee Bucks | 37-13 | 74.6 | 1 | 0 |
Risers
The Denver Nuggets have been consistently excellent all season, so perhaps it's time to believe that they're for real, now that they're 50 games in with a record of 35-15 (the third-best record in the entire Association by win-loss percentage). They've won six of their last seven contests with a league-best 15.6 net rating over that span. They've been beating up on bad teams lately, but if you're still finding ways to explain away the Nuggets' success, I don't know what to tell you.
The Oklahoma City Thunder have won six in a row and continue to hold down the third spot in a very competitive Western Conference. They are second in the league in defensive rating (104.7), fifth in net rating (4.8), and we give them the second-best title odds in the Western Conference at 9.6% (which is fourth in the whole NBA). Simply put, they're good.
Fallers
The Utah Jazz have won nine of their last 11, but they drop a spot this week after getting blown out by the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday. They're still very much on the rise, this week is just a slight hiccup.
The Indiana Pacers are feeling the loss of Victor Oladipo. Big time. They've gone 0-4 since his injury with a league-worst net rating of -15.2 over that span. And they're not losing to great teams either. One loss was to the Golden State Warriors, granted, but the other three were at the hands of the Memphis Grizzlies, Washington Wizards, and Orlando Magic -- all teams that appear in our bottom-10 on the regular. The Pacers aren't likely to fall out of the playoffs at this point, but their hopes of competing with the elite teams in the Eastern Conference are all but dashed.
