Week seven NBA power rankings lists find the OKC Thunder ranked as high as 10th and as low as 19th.
In the week seven power rankings the pundits seem a little antsy to reward the OKC Thunder for their efforts. Each of the lists moved the team up, but cautiously so. In all fairness with OKC failing to be consistent at least on the offensive end, it’s understandable why the pundits need more proof.
CBS – Chris Barnewell and The Crossover’s Kenny Ducey haven’t bought into the hype all season. The rest seemingly are afraid to drop the Thunder too far down the list, but also hesitant to raise them too high. In fairness until the Thunder showcase consistency over a long period of time it’s unlikely the scribes will reward them with a top 10 rank (except Grant Hughes).
In week seven the OKC Thunder featured games against the Orlando Magic, Minnesota Timberwolves and San Antonio Spurs.
OKC Thunder power rank by scribe:
NBA.com – John Schuhmann
The NBA stats master John Schuhmann held the OKC Thunder steady at number 14 this week. This after the team . Schuhmann has been among the more anxious to appreciate the team’s progress, but given the up and down season this week he’s holding them steady awaiting the upcoming week to see how they fare versus the Jazz, Nets and Grizz this week.
"The first step is surviving, which the Thunder have done with home wins over the Wolves and (very) shorthanded Spurs over the weekend. The question remains if they can take the next step with some consistency maybe their first post-Halloween road win. While Carmelo Anthony (18 points in 60 minutes over the last two games) and Paul George (another brutal shooting performance on Sunday) still can’t find their way in Russell Westbrook’s offense, Steven Adams scored 46 points on 19-for-24 shooting in the two wins, with George assisting on 10 of his 19 buckets. Tuesday’s game seems like an important one, and the Jazz will be playing the second game of a back-to-back."
ESPN – Panel
The ESPN panel also moved the Thunder up — but just a single spot to 14th. Like NBA’s Schuhmann the pundits are all a little antsy to buy into the hype just yet.
ESPN’s panel:
ESPN: Kevin Arnovitz | Amin Elhassan |Ramona Shelburne
The Undefeated: Marc J. Spears | FiveThirtyEight: Chris Herring
"OKC finally won some close games, squeaking by Minnesota and San Antonio after beginning the season 0-9 in games decided by eight points or fewer. Both wins were far from convincing in terms of Russell Westbrook’s new sidekicks, however. Carmelo Anthony was held to single-digit scoring in back-to-back games for the first time in his career, while Paul George went 2-for-17 in Sunday night’s win over San Antonio (which was playing without both Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge). — Micah Adams"
Sports Illustrated – The Crossover:
Kenny Ducey provided the entertaining take of the OKC Thunder this week including a tweet with a little Simon and Garfunkel thrown in. Though it sure feels like Ducey was prepared to offer reasons why the team has consistently been in the bottom third of his weekly rankings. But, two weekend wins resulted in Ducey moving the team up two spots to 16. Odds are Ducey won’t move OKC up to top ten unless they go on a serious win streak.
"Before the weekend:"
"After the weekend:"
CBS Sports:
Chris Barnewell follows suit cautiously giving the OKC Thunder a little increase moving them up one spot to 19th.
"Against the Mavericks, Paul George scored two points for the entire game. Against the Spurs, without most of their best players, he scored eight. As Oklahoma City continues to try and find themselves, they have to get that part figured out."
Bleacher Report:
Missed last weeks (week 6) ranking but in week 5 Grant Hughes ranked the team sixth, but Hughes still has faith (as per below) ranking the squad 10th.
"Want to feel way, way better about that same start?Here’s Ben Falk of Cleaning the Glass: “Roughly, this history tells us that to predict a team’s winning percentage over the remaining 62 games, we should weight their point differential three times as much as their actual won-loss record.”So while it’s reasonable to worry about OKC’s issues in the clutch, crummy shot selection, aesthetic ugliness, shocking capacity for blowing leads and Russell Westbrook‘s career-long ruination of conventional motion offense…maybe keep that point differential in mind."
Each week this season TI will share where the pundits rank the OKC Thunder and offer our insight on the trends from the previous week. In week eight the team will play the Utah Jazz, Brooklyn Nets and Memphis Grizzlies.