'Round the NBA we go: Power Rankings!

Welcome to the season's final installment of monthly rankings from The Committee (of One) ... with Phoenix maintaining its stranglehold on No. 1 in 2022

For the seventh and last time this season: Happy Power Rankings Tuesday!

In its Substack era, The Committee (of One) has opted for monthly publishing as opposed to dispensing the rankings weekly. I think that cadence works well; you can certainly weigh in with your thoughts in the comment section below on the format we’ve adopted here or anything else you agree or disagree with from our latest 1-to-30 ladder.

There is only one 60-win team in the NBA this season and so it should come as no surprise that the Phoenix Suns, for the third successive edition of these rankings, occupy the No. 1 slot — no matter what happened Sunday night in Oklahoma City. The Suns went a tidy 11-4 while Chris Paul was recovering from a serious thumb injury and continue to rank in the top three in both offensive and defensive efficiency.

Be advised that only two other teams in the NBA can claim to be top 10 in both categories. Boston is No. 1 in defensive efficiency and No. 8 offensively; Memphis is No. 4 in offensive efficiency and No. 6 defensively.

This latest rankings batch, as always, factors in a team's big-picture outlook strongly in addition to weighing short-term results … along with a sprinkling of subjective whim from a singular voice. Whether or not you agree or disagree with the analysis, you will always know who is responsible for the order and comments. 

I hope to see lots of you commenting below and I will certainly be responding there. Thanks again for following me to Substack, reading this newsletter and sharing in my journalistic endeavors like you do!

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1️⃣ Phoenix Suns

Still can't get over this one: Phoenix is 31-8 on the road ... which is better than every single other team's home record. The Suns had every reason to prioritize the playoffs, much like Milwaukee has, after a run to last season's NBA Finals and given Chris Paul's fast-approaching 37th birthday. By taking the regular season so seriously, and now needing only a 1-3 finish for the highest win total in franchise history, they won The Committee's eternal admiration instead.

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 1

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2️⃣ Memphis Grizzlies

The skeptical whispers in circulation are probably not fair to the team that has posted the league's second-best record this season and, in the strongest support of Taylor Jenkins' Coach of the Year candidacy, boasts a gleaming 20-2 record when Ja Morant has been unable to play. The problem that the Grizzlies know all too well: Life isn't fair. So they surely know that outsiders will suggest Morant and Co. are merely a regular-season commodity with suspect perimeter shooting until they do it in the playoffs ... especially since Morant will likely enter his second NBA postseason having missed 11 consecutive games thanks to a knee ailment. FWIW: I’m leaning Jenkins over the Suns’ Monty Williams in yet another unenviable COY duel.

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 3

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3️⃣ Milwaukee Bucks

I keep pointing to this stat and refuse to apologize for it: Milwaukee is 34-10 when it has Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday in uniform together. That equates to a 63-win pace over 82 games for the Bucks' star trio, which figures to laser in now that the postseason is almost here. They earned the right to hold a little back in the regular season as reigning champs and, with Brook Lopez finally back from a longstanding back injury, keep popping up at the front of the line when The Committee starts to handicap the forthcoming playoffs. History lesson: Milwaukee won it all as a No. 3 seed last season.

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 9

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4️⃣ Miami Heat

The sight of Erik Spoelstra chasing after Jimmy Butler multiple times during one sideline dispute shall remain one of the season’s hardest-to-believe scenes … now to see if the Heat give us something else to focus on with a deep playoff run. They just might be good enough to pull it off, too, given Miami’s status as the East’s only 50-win team so far despite the various absences endured by Butler, Bam Adebayo and Kyle Lowry. The Heat have been thriving thanks to their depth all season and appear to have gotten even deeper at the 11th hour judging by Victor Oladipo’s 21-point performance Sunday in a victory at tough Toronto. As if the Heat’s season hasn’t been sufficiently dramatic: Imagine a first-round series against Brooklyn.

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 2

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5️⃣ Boston Celtics

Coach-turned-TV analyst Stan Van Gundy recently emerged as one of the Celtics' loudest advocates, pointing out that they have "the best record in the East since January 1, the best point differential in the East on the season and the best defense in the NBA." Van Gundy's advice: "Believe the numbers." So do you? I must confess that I've questioned whether the Celts really should be seen as title contenders — even before Robert Williams was lost for the first round of the playoffs through injury — but the numbers do say they've been elite for months. Boston, remember, won 24 of 28 games before losing Williams.

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 11

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6️⃣ Dallas Mavericks

For all the focus in Dallas on the home team's unexpected bid to snag the West's No. 3 seed, what really matters most for the Mavericks is their first-round opponent. Finishing third in the conference, for example, won’t sound nearly as good if the Mavs have to open with Denver and Nikola Jokić in Round 1 rather than the unraveling Jazz. This franchise hasn't won a playoff series since its championship run in 2011 and, as well as Jason Kidd's team has played (especially defensively) since the calendar flipped to 2022, knows that the season will thus be judged based on what happens in the postseason.

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 10

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7️⃣ Golden State Warriors

The Warriors, for a team that started 18-2, are really hard to read. Although they appear to have wrested control of the West's No. 3 seed back from Dallas, we've still seen fewer than 15 game-time minutes this season with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green on the floor together. For as much championship chemistry as those three share, it's been a L-O-N-G time since Golden State enjoyed some extended health, resulting in a pedestrian mark of 23-23 since a Christmas Day victory over the Suns in the desert. And that’s without even factoring in James Wiseman, whose return from injury has been delayed until next season.

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 5

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8️⃣ Denver Nuggets

The standings say that Denver is the only team in the West’s top six that holds a losing record against .500-or-better teams (16-25). Yet it's likewise true that Nikola Jokić has warmed up for the postseason by averaging 33.1 points over the Nuggets' past seven games while shooting (no misprint) 70.6% from the field over that stretch, according to our research maven pal Justin Kubatko. Jokić's offensive precision should make it pretty clear why no one in the West is particularly eager to draw Denver in a series ... whether or not Jamal Murray (knee) and Michael Porter Jr. (back) are coming back before the season ends.

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 8

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9️⃣ Philadelphia 76ers

James Harden is shooting 40.7% from the field and 33.9% from 3-point range as a Sixer. Philadelphia is a mere 13-7 since it surrendered a good amount of depth to team up Harden with Joel Embiid, who continues to produce at an MVP level despite the lukewarm start to his partnership with The Beard. The question isn't going away unless Harden shuts our traps by playing much better: Daryl Morey might have hushed countless skeptics by shipping out a still-inactive Ben Simmons for the precise star he wanted to acquire from the moment he got to Philly ... but did he want the right guy?

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 4

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🔟 Toronto Raptors

Scottie Barnes for Rookie of the Year? Pascal Siakam for All-NBA third team? Nick Nurse for Coach of the Year? The safe bet is that those key Raptors will fall short in their respective pursuits of individual glory after Fred VanVleet made his All-Star breakthrough ... while the foursome quietly continues to collectively inspire as much concern among the East's top seeds as Brooklyn. Boston would certainly win the East’s mythical Most Improved Team trophy, but Toronto ain’t far off given how far this group has come since a 9-13 start.

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 16

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1️⃣1️⃣ Minnesota Timberwolves

If any team out there has a right to moan about how unfair the playoff play-in tournament can be, it's the Wolves. They are only 1½ games out of the sixth spot in the West and hold a six-game cushion over the No. 8 Clippers. Karl-Anthony Towns and Co. will nonetheless be forced to win a play-in game at home, albeit with two chances, to ensure a trip to the playoffs, barring a late surge back up to No. 6. ‘Sota doesn’t deserve that kind of angst when we’re talking about a franchise that has tasted the modest peak of a first-round series just once since 2004.

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 13

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1️⃣2️⃣ Chicago Bulls

Much of this season's fun Bulls are back talk has been spoiled by a humbling second half, with Lonzo Ball (knee) sidelined since Jan. 14, Alex Caruso (back) reduced to trying to play hurt and DeMar DeRozan (MVP) and Billy Donovan (Coach of the Year) no longer featuring prominently in the award conversations they regularly graced during Chicago's first-half ascent to the East's No. 1 seed. A 1-12 record against the top four teams in the conference hasn’t helped, either, but we have the Bulls this high in a nod to how good the first-half highs were.

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 7

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1️⃣3️⃣ Atlanta Hawks

While true that the Hawks were never supposed to finish in the playoff play-in zone after last season's Cinderella ride to the Eastern Conference Finals, credit them for a notable surge up to No. 8 in the East despite playing without the injured John Collins for the last 12 games (9-3). On current form and factoring in Trae Young's singular takeover ability on the postseason stage, it's difficult to imagine Atlanta missing out on the full-fledged playoffs.

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 17

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1️⃣4️⃣ LA Clippers

I, for one, did not expect Paul George to return this season from longstanding elbow issues ... and I certainly did not expect the Clippers to hover around .500 with George missing 50 games and Kawhi Leonard missing all 82. Of the many what-ifs that the Lakers surely find themselves asking now after the last two seasons, one of the most prominent has to be: Why didn't we just give Ty Lue the five-year deal he wanted when we had the chance? Lue has undoubtedly delivered one of this season’s better coaching jobs.

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 14

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1️⃣5️⃣ Brooklyn Nets

The Committee’s respect for Kevin Durant is such that we can’t bear to bump the Nets out of the top 15 — not even when their persistent defensive frailties and injury woes say we should. Kyrie Irving is shooting a worrisome 36.2% from the floor through five games since he gained clearance to appear in all of Brooklyn’s games, while Ben Simmons continues to look nowhere close to getting on the floor for his new team this season. Durant remains the most feared scorer on the planet and might still make the All-NBA first team despite a knee injury that cost him 21 games because, yes, he’s that good. KD’s problem: This East is too strong for him to survive without more help.

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 15

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1️⃣6️⃣ Utah Jazz

Back in September, this was the NBA's ultimate Nothing Matters Until The Playoffs team. Regular-season success was assumed; binding grades would be withheld until we saw how one more playoff run turned out after a string of postseason disappointments. Only now, after a 1-6 slide that featured blown leads of 25 and 21 points just in the last week, Utah looks almost as unhappy as a group as the Lakers, with seemingly every quote from Donovan Mitchell or Rudy Gobert dissected for potential deeper meanings. In truth Utah is staring at a 40-game funk (18-22) at this point. Roster implosion forthcoming (we think).

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 6

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1️⃣7️⃣ Cleveland Cavaliers

I wrote it when the trade was made in January 2021, so I feel emboldened to repeat the assertion now: I liked the four-team James Harden blockbuster best for Cleveland from the jump — largely because of Jarrett Allen. In his first full season as a Cavalier, Allen became an All-Star whose injury absence has been acutely felt by Cleveland throughout its reality check of a second half. For all the justifiable shine Rookie of the Year favorite Evan Mobley, Allen's fellow breakthrough All-Star Darius Garland and Coach of the Year contender J.B. Bickerstaff have earned, Cleveland is 7-16 in games Allen has missed and, truth be told, is unlikely to be favored to come out of the play-in tournament given the Cavs’ lack of big-game experience beyond Kevin Love. 

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 12

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1️⃣8️⃣ Charlotte Hornets

LaMelo Ball reached All-Star status and the Hornets survived a six-game slide in February, their curious 0-7 record in overtime games this season and another lengthy injury absence for Gordon Hayward by assembling an 8-3 surge to emerge as one of the 10 teams in the East holding a winning record. The major question now: How will Charlotte fare on the play-in stage with memories still fresh of the 27-point drubbing it absorbed last season at Indiana when presented with the same opportunity?

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 19

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1️⃣9️⃣ New Orleans Pelicans

The Coach of the Year race, as usual, is way too stacked for anyone to get anywhere near the top three with a sub-.500 record. Yet there's no diminishing the Year 1 impact made by Willie Green, who impressively ushered the Zion Williamson-less Pelicans to the heady heights of a playoff play-in berth clinched on the strength of home and away victories over the Lakers in two recent must-win games. Don’t forget that these same Pelicans started 1-12. Also (duh): The CJ McCollum trade didn't hurt, either.

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 18

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2️⃣0️⃣ San Antonio Spurs

This much we can tell you about Gregg Popovich's coaching future: San Antonio's April 10 regular-season finale in Dallas will not be Pop's swansong. The Spurs are destined to play at least one more game in the playoff play-in round, whether or not Popovich decides to spend another season on the bench, unless you think that the Lakers in their current state can make up three games in the standings with four to play. Fun debate to have with your friends: Do you buy the statisticians’ argument that the 33-45 Spurs, because of their narrowly positive per-game point differential (+0.2), should actually be looked at like a 39-39 team?

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 20

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2️⃣1️⃣ New York Knicks

Trae Young ended the Knicks' season for the second successive campaign when a Hawks win Thursday over Cleveland officially knocked New York out of the running for the East playoff play-in round. Even if Tom Thibodeau's job is indeed safe, as it appears, no shortage of question marks regarding what happens with the roster looms, starting with the futures of Julius Randle and Kemba Walker. The Knicks really should have landed lower with The Committee on the basis of Randle’s steep drop in form alone, but there is too much losing going on these days in the league’s lower third to do so.

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 23

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2️⃣2️⃣ Washington Wizards

Kristaps Porziņģis got a Revenge Game win Friday night over his old friends from Dallas and has averaged a promising 21.7 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game as a Wizard. Porziņģis, mind you, was actually producing no shortage of box-score gold for the Mavericks before they traded him. The issue, as always, was the misses piling up in the Games Played column: Porziņģis missed 22 of 56 games in Dallas before the trade and has missed nine of the Wizards' 24 games since.

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 24

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2️⃣3️⃣ Detroit Pistons

It remains to be seen how much good karma the Pistons have generated by playing to win more than most of the teams they are clumped with in the standings. (We rewarded them as much as possible with the bump to No. 23.) Some more interesting uncertainty to ponder: Is the Rookie of the Year race closer than it appears with Cade Cunningham (averaging 21.3 points, 6.3 assists and 5.6 rebounds per game since the All-Star break) producing at an increasingly high level for a Pistons team playing passable basketball post-break (10-11)?

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 27

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2️⃣4️⃣ Los Angeles Lakers

Sorry, Lakers. Sorry, Anthony Davis. We can’t buy the notion that injuries are the sole factor that derailed this team and its ill-conceived roster when the Lakers’ record with LeBron James, Davis and Russell Westbrook all in uniform is a wholly mid 11-10. The one thing that the Westbrook trade was supposed to deliver was insulation against James’ and Davis’ regular-season injuries, but that didn't happen, either. While Westbrook, at 33, has stayed healthy enough to play in 77 games, he hasn’t prevented the Lakers from sinking perilously close to a 50-loss season. They'll need a 2-2 finish to avoid it … with road games to come at (gulp) Phoenix, Golden State and Denver.

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 22

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2️⃣5️⃣ Indiana Pacers

Only once in Rick Carlisle's first 14 seasons as an NBA head coach did he absorb a losing record. Indiana’s rocky 25-54 campaign will suddenly mark the fourth time in the last six seasons that a Carlisle team mustered 33 wins or fewer. Some consolation, though: While the exiled-via-trade Domantas Sabonis and Caris LeVert have made minimal impact with their new clubs, Indiana’s incoming Tyrese Haliburton has sparkled in his new surroundings, posting two games already with at least 15 assists and zero turnovers.

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 25

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2️⃣6️⃣ Sacramento Kings

The Kings stunned the league by trading Sacramento-loving Tyrese Haliburton for Domantas Sabonis in February ... but also by refusing to part with Harrison Barnes before the Feb. 10 trade deadline because they felt keeping Barnes would be a boost in their bid to try to make the playoffs. Narrator: They did not. The Kings are a mere 9-14 since the Haliburton-for-Sabonis deal to clinch a league-record 16th successive season out of the playoffs. Put them right behind the Lakers, Nets and Knicks in this season's Most Disappointing Team conversation. The only reason we can’t put them higher than No. 4 in that dreaded race is because, cold as this surely sounds for long-suffering Kings fans, who really expected this team to do anything but get closer than they did to making the playoffs?

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 26

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2️⃣7️⃣ Oklahoma City Thunder

In Friday's loss to Detroit, with the promising likes of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lu Dort and rookie guard Josh Giddey all out for the season nursing various injuries, Oklahoma City gave 35 to 41 minutes of playing time to the following four starters: Isaiah Roby (35), Théo Maledon (37), Jaylen Hoard (40) and Vit Krejčí (41). You can certainly argue, though, that the wilder Thunder-related stat can be found in the standings: OKC (12-26) has a better road record than (wow) the Lakers (11-27).

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 28

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2️⃣8️⃣ Houston Rockets

Jalen Green has scored at least 30 points in four consecutive games — something only two rookies since 1984-85 can also claim: Michael Jordan (1985) and Allen Iverson (1997). While you can certainly quibble about the value of such an achievement when the Rockets are 20-59, after trading James Harden away early last season and finishing 17-55, it's a glimmer that has to hearten NBA die-hards in Houston given how much more attention Green's fellow rookies Cade Cunningham, Evan Mobley and Scottie Barnes have received throughout the season.

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 30

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2️⃣9️⃣ Orlando Magic

Someone scored at least 50 points in a single game 19 times this season. The Magic have surrendered four of those outbursts, including a 60-point game by Kyrie Irving and Saddiq Bey's 51-pointer. But Orlando can presumably dismiss all of that as an anomaly. Of greater concern is the reality that Jalen Suggs was outperformed by several rookies, including teammate Franz Wagner, after it made him the No. 5 overall pick last July. The Magic are still trying to figure out what they have at multiple positions with a roster full of prospects in various stages of development.

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 29

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3️⃣0️⃣ Portland Trail Blazers

The Blazers packed a lot into a season with such an atypical outcome for a club that had made eight consecutive trips to the playoffs. In full tank mode since the midseason trades of CJ McCollum and Norman Powell and Anfernee Simons' emergence, Portland is 2-16 since the All-Star break and landed at the bottom of our ladder because its lineups lately have barely been NBA-level. The Blazers also have racked up 11 losses by 30 points or more — eight since the All-Star break — to break a league record set by Denver in 1990-91. Leave it to my pal @jkubatko to spot that these Blazers, after Damian Lillard was lost to season-ending abdominal surgery, offered less resistance than that Nuggets team coached by Paul Westhead which allowed a worst-of-all-time 130.8 PPG.

Last ranking (Mar. 1): 21