No surprises for OKC Thunder in week 1 of power rankings

The first week of power rankings is in with the OKC Thunder in a position they’ll typically land all year. Although sitting on the bottom rung isn’t generally something any team covets, for this iteration of the Thunder it’s precisely what they want.

That’s because OKC unlike most of their opponents has a different goal. Most clubs will be seeking playoff berths and prime positioning. Some teams will covet a seed that gets them a shot at the play-in tournament. But for OKC it’s all about that draft lottery positioning.

Last year a win on the final game of the season shifted the Thunder up a spot and changed their draft lottery odds. This year Mark Daigneault has the objective of growing and developing his young charges while also carefully navigating games to ensure those “L’s” add up to a bottom three seed.

No surprises for OKC Thunder in week 1 of national power rankings

Each week the national media will rank the teams with insight into where teams are succeeding and/or failing. While the Thunder won’t be vying for the top placement these power rankings provide comparisons and are a great way to measure the team’s growth.

With that, let’s look at where the analysts ranked the Thunder after week one of gameplay. Overall the Thunder ranked at a high of 28th and a low of 30th.

The following offers up the National sites power rankings for week one and an excerpt on the Thunder plus where they ranked for each writer.

NBA.com – John Schuhmann:

The start of each week is always exciting as the master of stats John Schuhmann serves up his brilliance. While every analyst has opinions Schuhmann dives into the nuts and bolts finding the little intricacies in the analytics that separates each squad.

For example, in his rankings for the first week of the 2021-22 season, he highlights how seldom the Thunder have held a lead going back to last year. The NBA writer also notes his intrigue in rookie Josh Giddey calling his “funky cadence mesmerizing.”

A portion of his except is below while his full rankings can be viewed here.  Oh, and not surprisingly he ranks the Thunder 30th.

"The Thunder aren’t just 0-3. One of the three losses came by 33 points to the similarly substandard Rockets, they’ve lost 11 of the 12 quarters they’ve played (winning the other by two points), and they’ve held a lead (2-0 after the first possession of the first game) for a grand total of 10 seconds. Going back to the start of April, they’ve lost 26 of their last 28 games, with an average point differential of -19.8 per game. That mark could hit -20 soon given that their next five games are against the Warriors (x2), Lakers (x2) and Clippers. Trust the prOKCess."

ESPN Poll:

Each season ESPN uses a panel of writers to determine their rankings. The panel for 2021-22 is comprised of Tim Bontemps, Jamal Collier, Nick Friedell, Andrew Lopez, Tim MacMahon, Dave McMenamin and Ohm Youngmisuk.

Like Schuhmann, the panel ranked the Thunder 30th with Tim MacMahon offering up the OKC excerpt. The full rankings for week one can be viewed here.

"The rebuilding Thunder have lost 29 of their past 32 games dating back to late March. Twenty-two of those losses came by double-digit margins, including all three games this season. Oklahoma City is starting four players who are 23 or younger. — MacMahon"

Bleacher Report:

This season Andy Bailey takes over the power rankings on Bleacher Report. Unlike the other main sites, BR offers up their lists on the weekend instead of Monday or early in the week. That means the BR list will always be a half week behind the other lists.

To wit, this first list is from October 19th while next week the list will cover games between October 20th and 28th. A portion of Bailey’s OKC Thunder excerpt is below. Unlike his peers, Bailey ranks the two teams below the Thunder citing the presence of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and rookie Josh Giddey as the reason.

The full power rankings list can be viewed here.

"The presence of at least one known star, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, is what sets them apart. Market and lack of team success keep SGA from the same level of attention received by other young guards, but his production suggests he’s a top-30-to-40 player.— As long as he’s healthy, OKC has a go-to scorer and playmaker who can at least make the team pesky. Being much better than the bottom tier will require someone to help SGA, though. Among all of the candidates, rookie Josh Giddey might be the best option."

CBS Sports:

Writer Colin Ward-Henniger is back serving up the power rankings for CBS Sports. While some of his peers rank teams based on both their current results and their potential finishing spots CWH is one of the writers who typically rank the teams based on the specific week he’s reviewing.

Like Bleacher Report CBS offers up their power rankings heading into the weekend instead of at the start of the week. Therefore his first ranking is also from just prior to the season start. Next week CWH’s ranking will include games played between October 19th and 27th.

For this initial list, he places the Thunder 28th noting how they overachieved last year. CWH says the quiet part out loud — will the OKC Thunder be forced into sitting SGA and Luguentz Dort this season as they seek to land that bottom three seed?  His full ranking can be viewed here.

"Let’s not forget that the Thunder were 16-19 with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander before the tankathon began in earnest. The top of the lottery is likely the goal again this season with one of the youngest rosters in the league, and we’ll see if they need to end up benching SGA and Lu Dort to make that happen. No. 6 overall pick Josh Giddey looked good to end the preseason, so he’ll be a fun player to track as the season goes on."

Hoops Habit:

This season writer Josh Cornelissen is serving up the power rankings for Hoops Habit. Cornelissen notes the anemic offense of OKC but cites the presence of SGA being a potential issue to the tank objective. In week one he ranks the OKC Thunder 29th

To view the full excerpt Hoops Habit power ranking seeding click here.

"The Oklahoma City Thunder are doing everything short of branding this season “Thank the Tank” to communicate they are trying to lose games.The reason they weren’t lower in the preseason rankings, and why they aren’t 30th now, is that they still have a star guard in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He has been fine thus far, not getting in the way of this team losing. Do the Thunder keep him in-house for however long the rest of their rebuild takes? For now he’s locked up long-term to be the linchpin of their next good team."

That wraps up week one of the national site power rankings.

Are you surprised the OKC Thunder didn’t land on the bottom rung of every pundit? Share your thoughts in the comment section.