NBA Power Rankings Update: Is the Implosion of the Boston Celtics Being Overblown?
Teams Ranked 30th to 21st
The Phoenix Suns and Memphis Grizzlies are winning for some reason, the Dallas Mavericks are ready to call it a season, and the Los Angeles Lakers continue their complete implosion.
| Ranking | Team | Record | nERD | Last Ranking | Plus/Minus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 | Cleveland Cavaliers | 16-49 | 21.5 | 29 | -1 |
| 29 | Phoenix Suns | 15-51 | 21.9 | 30 | 1 |
| 28 | Chicago Bulls | 19-47 | 27.2 | 28 | 0 |
| 27 | New York Knicks | 13-52 | 27.8 | 26 | -1 |
| 26 | Atlanta Hawks | 22-44 | 28.1 | 27 | 1 |
| 24 | Memphis Grizzlies | 26-40 | 43.1 | 25 | 1 |
| 24 | Washington Wizards | 27-37 | 43.1 | 24 | 0 |
| 23 | Dallas Mavericks | 27-37 | 45.0 | 20 | -3 |
| 22 | Orlando Magic | 30-36 | 46.5 | 22 | 0 |
| 21 | Los Angeles Lakers | 30-35 | 46.6 | 17 | -4 |
Risers
The Phoenix Suns are doing this tanking thing all wrong all of a sudden. They've won four of their last five, including a convincing victory over our long-running number one team, the Milwaukee Bucks. Thankfully for Suns fans hoping for a shot at Zion Williamson, they have maintained the worst record in the Western Conference through all this, and are still firmly in the running for the top odds in this year's draft lottery.
The Memphis Grizzlies are another team out there racking up wins for absolutely no reason. They've come out on top in three of their last five, just further cementing their place in the uninteresting limbo between potentially making the playoffs and actually having a realistic shot at a top draft pick.
Fallers
The Dallas Mavericks have clearly packed it in for this year, having lost eight of their last nine. This is where we'd typically mention their place in the tankathon.com rankings, but if their pick falls outside the top five, it conveys to the Atlanta Hawks as part of the Luka Doncic and Trae Young swap anyway.
The Los Angeles Lakers are having a collapse for the ages. They have one of the best players to ever play basketball on their squad in LeBron James and looked ready for a storybook playoff push back when he returned from a groin injury about a month ago. They were only a couple games out of eighth in the Western Conference at the time; fast forward a few weeks and they've lost 10 of their last 13, now sit 6.5 games out of a playoff spot, and have a negligible 0.4% chance of making it, according to our algorithm.
