OKC Thunder tank reflected in penultimate week of power rankings

As the NBA begins the final week of the season the OKC Thunder will seek to finish with four losses and hope their efforts pay dividends. Most fans will be scoreboard watching to see which teams will make the playoffs and play-in tournament. While Thunder Nation and teams nestled at the bottom of the ladder will be far more interested in the tank wars.

For the second year in a row, the NBA has been navigating in foreign territory dealing with the pandemic and limited fans in arenas. Although Chesapeake was among the few who didn’t have fan attendance.

Not to downplay the seriousness of why there aren’t fans at Thunder games, but if there was going to be a season to miss live action — this was it.

Hopefully, by the time the ball tips off to start the 2021-22 campaign those factors will have changed and along with it, Sam Presti will have worked his magic to add a few exciting new talents to the club.

OKC Thunder tank reflected in week 20 National power rankings

Most teams will play four games in week 21, but the OKC Thunder have just three matches on tap to close out their campaign. First up they’ll play the Sacramento Kings for the third time in a week.

The final two games of the season take place back at home featuring the Clippers and Jazz. Since both those clubs are invested in winning for seeding purposes it’s likely they’ll have the ‘A team’ on the hardwood.

While the Thunder won’t be headed to the postseason they may be witnessing this year’s champion as both Utah and the Clippers have a shot at the Larry O’B especially with the ongoing injury woes of the Lakers.

As for week 20, the Thunder delivered a winless 0-4 performance which of course prompted the national sites to hold their placement of the Thunder for the most part. OKC’s highest rank is 28th while most sites rank them 30th.

Here’s what the national sites had to say about OKC noted in excerpts below along with links to their sites to view the power rankings in their entirety.

NBA.com – John Schuhmann:

I’m already feeling a bit of angst over the fact there are only two weeks left of John Schuhmann’s weekly power rankings. No doubt, they’ll be other gems but there’s just something about his column that allows makes each Monday complete.

Schuhmann offers the status quo for OKC keeping them 30th. Like many of the writers this week Schuhmann spends time discussing the tanking effort of the OKC Thunder. There are some statistical gems offered up in his full excerpt which can be viewed here.

"Last season, the Thunder were better than expected and embraced it, keeping their veterans (including those on expiring contracts) at the trade deadline and finishing fifth in the West. This season, the Thunder were better than expected again and, um, did not embrace it. Al Horford was given eight weeks of PTO, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was given days off before being shut down with a foot injury, and a pair of 19 year olds were given the keys. The Thunder have gone 2-24 since the last time Gilgeous-Alexander played, sliding from 11th to 14th in the West."

ESPN Poll:

While Thunder Nation tries to find stay positive focusing on the future it sure seems like Royce Young isn’t having it. It’s understandable that the ESPN panel scribe is fed up with the losing. Hey — losing isn’t fun. Young offers up solid stats to go along with his angst.

In week 20 the panel doesn’t punish OKC as the worst though – they hold them in 29th. To see who got the bottom rung and the rest of the power rankings click here.

"With another blowout loss Sunday, the Thunder’s league-worst net rating sunk even lower, to minus-10.4. But that doesn’t tell the story of how truly dreadful the Thunder have been following the All-Star break. Since then, the Thunder’s net rating is — brace yourselves — minus-16.1. The team they’ve fielded since the break has a legitimate case as the worst in NBA history. Put another way: Per ESPN Stats & Information research, the Thunder have been outscored by 490 points in their past 25 games, the worst margin of defeat by any team in any 25-game span in NBA history. — Young"

Bleacher Report:

No need to reinvent the wheel – check out my cohort Mark Nilon’s article on Bleacher Report power rankings for week 20.

Of note, Mo Dakhil held the OKC Thunder replicated his prior week placement ranking them 30th.  To view his full power rankings click here.

CBS Sports:

While CBS writer Colin Ward-Henniger offers his hat tip for how the OKC Thunder have embraced the tank his disdain isn’t far beneath the surface. To wit, CWH notes the point differential of the losses referring to the tanking effort as ‘a tank job of epic proportions.

That sentiment is reflected in CWH dropping the Thunder to the bottom of this power rankings a step down from his 29th ranking last week. To view Ward-Henniger’s week 20 power rankings click this link.

"Welp. Four more games, four more losses for the Thunder, who dropped their last three games by an average of nearly 30 points. That’s now 24 losses in their last 26 games, a tank-job of epic proportions after an unexpectedly solid start to the year. This is valuable time for the development of players like Darius Bazley and Theo Maledon, but it would help to be in more than one close game per week. Oh well, the lottery balls will be plentiful."

Hoops Habit:

More from Thunderous Intentions

• Stealing one player from every Southwest Division team for the OKC Thunder
• Should the OKC Thunder chase after a disgruntled hometown hero?
• 3 OKC Thunder players who can step up in Aleksej Pokusevski’s absence
• Aleksej Pokusevski sidelined approximately 6 weeks with ankle injury
• Damian Lillard does not fit with the OKC Thunder

Corey Rausch of the Hoops Habit offers praise to the OKC Thunder for the manner in which they’ve embraced the tank this season. Rausch holds the Thunder steady in 28th. The Hoops Habit writer’s full power rankings can be viewed via this link. 

"Since the trade deadline, the OKC Thunder have been the worst team in the league. Having won just two out of their last 24 games, the Thunder have committed to the tank like few have ever seen. While other teams are doing so with random players who may not be a part of the future, the Thunder have a collection of young talent worth watching from night to night to see who may be a part of the future."

Well, there you have the penultimate week of power rankings from the experts and analysts. With games finishing this week the final power rankings will be up next week and then Thunder Nation we’ll get to be spectators to the playoffs and dive into the exciting upcoming NBA draft.