NBA Power Rankings

https://marcstein.substack.com/p/nba-power-rankings

A Marc Stein production. Has the Celtics ranked at #14.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/boston-celtics-see-jayson-tatum-013633998.html



Boston Celtics see Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown in league’s top-30 in new ranking


Justin Quinn
Thu, September 9, 2021, 6:36 PM



The Boston Celtics have two of the NBA’s top 30 players in the eyes of the NBA writer Gilbert McGregor, who places the Celtics twin All-Star forwards Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum among the stars of the league in a recent article published on the league’s website.

In the article, which is both titled and asks “Who are the best players in the NBA entering the 2021-22 season?,” Tatum and Brown are ranked 12th and 24th respectively. Tatum finds himself just behind wing Jimmy Butler of the Miami Heat and just ahead of Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker, while Brown trails Utah Jazz big man Rudy Gobert while sitting one ahead of Milwaukee Bucks guard Jrue Holiday.

This puts the Celtics in rarified NBA air, with only the Brooklyn Nets, Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, and Phoenix Suns as having better-ranked duos (or trios, in the Nets, Bucks, and Lakers rate).


Bob



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Hi,
How come they put Simmons into the list and they missed Leonard (WTF)?

AK

Jayson and Jaylen will move into the top 15.  You can sleep on this if you want to.  

I am not sure that fans comprehend just how talented they are.

The pudits can rank us wherever they want to.  

Let's embrace the underdog status.

Chris Grenham @chrisgrenham
about 10 minutes ago
For those curious, here are the Celtics ratings in NBA 2k22: Tatum: 90 Brown: 86 Schroder: 79 Smart: 79 Horford: 79 R Williams: 79 Kanter: 79 Richardson: 76 Pritchard: 76 Parker: 73 Nesmith: 72 Fernando: 71 G Williams: 70 Langford: 69


Bob
MY NOTE:  Romeo's NBA2K rating is below undrafted Bruno Fernando's and marginal NBA player Grant Williams'.  Ouch!



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79 is pretty high for Al.

Hopefully he's got enough left in his real world tank to make the NBA2K ratings look accurate.

14 seems about right for the Celtics in the preseason power rankings. Hopefully the roster stays healthy, shows a little improvement in depth, and can force that rank higher.

The Bucks are #1 preseason rank. They won the title so I guess they earned that distinction. Last year in the regular season they finished 3rd behind the Nets at #2 and the Sixers at #1

The difference in how their season turned out can be measured by the length of a big toe.

With LAL riding with James and Davis they continue with their off season activity of remaking the team, again. One can only wonder where their 3 point shooting will come from.

The Suns were coming on strong last year and this year they established themselves as one of the top young up and coming teams with a surprising trip to the finals. The Bucks beat them down decisively. They are well coached and they play really fast. They could still use more quality depth at 4 and 5. They need more physicality.

I do not see how the Heat are ranked #5. Maybe the addition of Kyle Lowry pushes them into a top tier status. Like Chris Paul, Kyle looks like an ageless wonder at PG. We know they will be a well coached team. Victor Olidipo remains a big question mark in terms of availability. I do not particularly like their PF situation with Markieff Morris and PJ Tucker. They need scoring there.

I like the not my hometown Hawks at #6. They have a really good coach and a ton of young talent. What they do not have are enough quality defenders. They lack solid defense at PG and SG that are starting quality players.

No time today to fill in 7 through 13.

I am puttig the Celtics at #10 based on their defense.  They have more quality defenders than any team in the East and West. 

We do not have big holes in our defense.  

On offense, while a lot of attention has been paid to establishing that 3rd scorer after the Jays, the improvement on offense may come from other areas.

Can I put a little meat on the bones of my comment above.

The improvement that we want to see can best be measured by going back to the fundamentals.  

We really did not hear a lot from Ime except an acknowledgement that we do not get enough scores off of assists.

As a matter of fact the Celtics were 24TH in the entire NBA in assists per game.

They were also 15th in Fast break points.

I recently mentioned that I watched the documentary, Mr. Russell's House again.

They asked him about that 1969 7th game against the Lakers in LA.  108-106.  Did you know that Sam Jones also retired after that game.

Russell said something to the effect that "we are going to turn it into a track and field event"

The Celtics also turned the ball over too much.   They were 16th in the league.

The Celtics were 17th in FTA.

It will take a collective effort to change these numbers. No one 3rd guy will change these numbers.

It's a team game, usually 9-10 players deep.

Two 1/2 months ago I had the Celtics at #10

As of today

ESPN #11
BR #10
NBCSports #9

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/popular-nba-analytical-model-rates-204147665.html



Popular NBA analytical model rates Celtics as most likely team in league to win 2022 NBA Finals


Justin Quinn
Wed, February 16, 2022, 12:41 PM



The Boston Celtics are currently seen as the most likely team in the entire NBA to win it all according to a new assessment by FiveThirtyEight’s 2021-22 NBA Predictions Raptor analytics model. If that seems optimistic to you, recall the model had the Celtics third in such an assessment just ahead of the team’s 135 – 87 obliteration of the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday.


The rating, which leans heavily on the point differential of which the Celtics are the leading team in the league’s Eastern Conference and currently second in the NBA overall, also uses simulation models and individual NBA player projections to arrive at such conclusions.

At present, FiveThirtyEight puts Boston at having a 99% chance at making the postseason, a 37% chance of making the NBA Finals, and a 23% chance at winning them.


Their nearest competitor is the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns, both tied with a 17% chance at winning it all.

These assessments should of course always be taken with a grain of salt, but when contrasted with the eye test and recent play, certainly doesn’t seem to be beyond the pale.


Bob
MY NOTE:  Nothing like a little green catnip on a Friday, huh?  9 game winning streaks will do this for you. MOV, or Margin of Victory, is a pretty decent metric towards the end of the season and teams have played a wide range of opponents (in fact, almost all stats and projections are more reliable as they fill out and age).

Here's the link to the rankings:

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2022-nba-predictions/



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dboss wrote:The Bucks are #1 preseason rank.  They won the title so I guess they earned that distinction.   Last year in the regular season they finished 3rd behind the Nets at #2 and the Sixers at #1

The difference in how their season turned out can be measured by the length of a big toe.  

With LAL riding with James and Davis they continue with their off season activity of remaking the team, again.  One can only wonder where their 3 point shooting will come from.  

The Suns were coming on strong last year and this year they established themselves as one of the top young up and coming teams with a surprising trip to the finals.  The Bucks beat them down decisively.  They are well coached and they play really fast.  They could still use more quality depth at 4 and 5.  They need more physicality.

I do not see how the Heat are ranked #5.  Maybe the addition of Kyle Lowry pushes them into a top tier status.  Like Chris Paul, Kyle looks like an ageless wonder at PG.  We know they will be a well coached team.  Victor Olidipo remains a big question mark in terms of availability.  I do not particularly like their PF situation with Markieff Morris and PJ Tucker.  They need scoring there.

I like the not my hometown Hawks at #6.  They have a really good coach and a ton of young talent.  What they do not have are enough quality defenders.  They lack solid defense at PG and SG that are starting quality players.  

No time today to fill in 7 through 13.

Dboss, BREAKING NEWS! The Suns are not one of the up and coming teams, They have arrived!
The Nets and the one big toe? That toe jam theory is just another “if” and every team has several. The Nets didnt lose because of Durant’s big feet. They lost because they got out scored. If people are so intent to point out the big toe situation than they need to go through and watch the game and decipher every play, missed shot, missed free throw, reckless turnover and bad time outs that occurred in that an every game that ends on last second makes or misses.
I agree with you regarding Your step-home team, Da Hawks have a very good coach and tons of talent but my feeling is that some of that talent are more concerned with their bag and the stat sheet. I also think for many of them, there is a lack of love for the game they play. We are witnessing the results of that in my opinion.
I don’t really put much weight into these silly rankings. Frigging Grammy’s of the basketball world i.e. BS!

OH, NEVER MIND. Dat was back in September. My Bad :>)

worcester wrote:It's a team game, usually 9-10 players deep.

Hey Worcester! And yes, I think you’re right.

Our best basketball is ahead of us, we have found our identity, we are the best defensive team in the league, the stats back up the pack of wolves swarming that we have been seeing and Theis and White will add further effective depth. Amazing turnaround in the last month and I can see us playing much better on both ends in the last 2 months as we are really getting Udoka’s new system down….we be jelling.

Kudos to Brad Stevens who decided to go after it all this year, going after some key pieces to add to the young core, we are going to be big factors in the East going forward.

SF Tatum
PF-C Horford
C RWill
SF Brown
PG Smart
G DWhite
PF GWill
PF-C Theis
G Pritch
SG Nesmith

We got an 8-9 man rotation

Ktron wrote:

worcester wrote:It's a team game, usually 9-10 players deep.

Hey Worcester! And yes, I think you’re right.

Ktron,

Worcester usually makes some good points.


Bob


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