Power rankings Week 20: OKC Thunder losing believers among scribes

NBA power rankings week 20 lists examines stretch run action with pundits ranking the OKC Thunder as high as 9th and as low as 15th.

The OKC Thunder experienced an odd week in terms of how the NBA National Media scribes approached the power rankings. While they pulled up in some pundits lists it wasn’t without comments of concern almost universally.

The greatest oddity came from the ESPN panel who has seldom sung the OKC Thunder’s praises. Ironically however, the panel delivers the only top 10 ranking (9th) of the scribes.

Teams included in for the OKC Thunder that week 20 are the Magic and three road games versus the Mavericks, Suns and Blazers.

With that here are the National scribes rankings for week 20.

NBA.com – John Schuhmann

The fact the stats master is offering up tidbits which speak to his worries regarding the OKC Thunder has far more relevance than most scribes.

As I pointed out in the postgame grades following the victory vs San Antonio, the Paul George slump is real and it’s a real concern. Schuhmann is far more eloquent and dialed in statistically as to why Thunder Nation should be concerned. Those three point stats are jarring!

I still find it interesting Westbrook takes all the heat. Is it because the team wants to retain George next season? Is he beyond reproach simply because of that fact? Yes, he’s doing other things, but let’s not forget George is earning $20.7 million this season. That’s not chump change and it should warrant certain expectations.

Anyway, I digress, Schuhmann drops the Thunder two spots in week 20 from 11th to 13th.

Schuhmann’s comments:

"The Thunder have been able to take care of business against the seven worst teams in the league, going 6-0 against that group since the Andre Roberson injury, though the last five of those wins were each within five points in the last five minutes and they needed more late-game heroics from Russell Westbrook to win in Dallas and Phoenix last week. His and-one in overtime in Dallas on Wednesday put him in a tie for the league lead with eight baskets to tie or take the lead in the final minute of the fourth quarter or OT. He outplayed the guy he’s tied with (Damian Lillard) on Saturday, but Paul George shot 8-for-19 (and is 11-for-46 from 3-point range since the break) and the loss in Portland dropped OKC to 2-8 since the Roberson injury against teams that aren’t at least 20 games under .500. They get to play the Suns, Kings and Hawks in the next nine days, but after that, they’ll have just one more game (the last one of the season) against teams with losing records."

ESPN – Panel

I’ll admit when Schuhmann dropped the Thunder, the expectation was the panel who have repeatedly judged OKC harder would follow suit. Imagine my surprise to find OKC not only climbing, but by four positions from 13th to 9th.

Begs the question if the panel are judging solely on wins and losses rather than actual game footage, stats and performance.

ESPN’s panel:

ESPN: Kevin Arnovitz | Amin Elhassan |Ramona Shelburne

The Undefeated: Marc J. Spears | FiveThirtyEight: Chris Herring

"If Russell Westbrook posts a triple-double in each of the Thunder’s three games this week, he would become the fourth player in NBA history with 100 career triple-doubles, joining Oscar Robertson (181), Magic Johnson (138) and Jason Kidd (107). — Matt Williams"

Bleacher Report:

Grant Hughes is one of the bigger OKC fans among the scribes, but it appears his enchantment is wearing off. For the second consecutive week he holds the team steady in 12th.

"The Oklahoma City Thunder are settling in, and that’s a little troubling.Since drubbing the Warriors on Feb. 6, the Thunder haven’t beaten a playoff team (or the Lakers, who have basically played like one for the season’s second half). OKC is still treading water by knocking off tankers and generally inferior competition, but with the West race so tight, it’s starting to feel like it’ll take more than that for these guys to survive.The Houston Rockets are in a different class altogether, but it was still illuminating to watch their offensive execution deconstruct the Thunder on Tuesday—particularly as OKC tried to fight back with shoddy structure and porous defense."

Sports Illustrated – The Crossover

Rohan Nadkarni continues as the replacement for Kenny Ducey. Since taking over he hasn’t shone much glitter on the OKC Thunder. Citing the team’s regression he maintains their rank at 15th.

"The Thunder’s last win over a playoff team came nearly a month ago on Feb. 6, when they defeated the Warriors. Since then, OKC has lost to all winning teams its played and eked out wins over lottery opponents. The Andre Roberson injury is a serious problem here, and it’s one Corey Brewer may not be able to fix."

CBS Sports:

More from Thunderous Intentions

Chris Barnewell took a novel approach to the power rankings this week. Along with the normal list Barnewell examined each team from the perspective of what awards they might be in line to capture. I found this the most interesting particularly after Mark Jackson said Paul George should win Defensive Player of the Year.

I noted in the postgame grades how much George’s defense fell off without Roberson (not just the team). So Barnewell’s comments that Dre had the award in the bag a tad surprising. Still, I hope Barnewell is right because it offers great healing motivation for ARob.

For week 20 Barnewell moves the Thunder from 17th to 14th.

"Andre Roberson was going to win Defensive Player of The Year before the injury. He was the reason the Thunder had an elite defense and his ability to guard the NBA’s most elite made him so valuable to the Thunder. Sadly, his injury takes him out of the running. Russell Westbrook should still get an All-NBA spot."

That wraps up week 20 power rankings.

In next weeks power rankings scribes will review games played in the ever tightening race to capture playoff berths in the stretch run.

For the OKC Thunder that will encompass hosting three teams. Phoenix will get sandwiched by two crucial games versus current playoff seeds the Rockets and Spurs.

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