Road trip affects OKC Thunder in week 5 national power rankings

Thanksgiving occurs in the States this week as the OKC Thunder no doubt are thankful to return home following an unproductive three-game road trip.

The club lost all three matches in Milwaukee, Boston, and Atlanta and their cornerstone Shai Gilgeous-Alexander suffered a sprained ankle versus the Celtics.

That meant Luguentz Dort got more defensive attention which also didn’t make things very easy for this young club who is trying to compete with deep rosters.

OKC Thunder dips in week 5 national power rankings

Four games were played in week five with the Thunder losing to Heat, Bucks and Celtics and gaining one victory versus the Rockets.

Rookie Josh Giddey continues to impress and is often the focus of the National media excerpts. Week six will feature three matches with the road game in Atlanta and two contests at the Paycom Center versus the Jazz and Wizards.

Week five finds the Thunder dropping in every one of the national writers lists although not by as much as some would expect. The common placement is 23rd or 24th.

OKC Thunder power ranking – John Schuhmann of NBA.com:

The OKC Thunder drop a spot in NBA writer John Schuhmann’s power rankings for week five from 23rd down to 24th.

Schuhmann highlights the anemic offense of the Thunder noting issues with their field goal and perimeter efficiency.

Portions of his except on the Thunder are below – the full except and week five rankings are available via this link.

"The Rockets’ only win of the season was by 33 points against the Thunder in Week 1, but OKC evened the season series with a wire-to-wire victory on Wednesday. The Lu Dort offensive renaissance (24.6 points per game on 59% shooting over a five-game stretch) continued and OKC held Houston under 90 points per 100 possessions.But the Thunder have followed their four-game winning streak with a 1-4 stretch in which their own offense has been pretty anemic, scoring less than a point per possession in four of the five games… The Thunder are the only team that ranks in the bottom five in both field goal percentage in the paint (49.7%, 30th) and 3-point percentage (30.9%, 29th). They have four of the 38 players who’ve shot worse than 32% on at least 50 3-point attempts."

ESPN Poll:

In an identical move, the ESPN panel drop the OKC Thunder one spot from last weeks 23rd placement down to the 24th rung in week five.

In this week’s excerpt, Tim MacMahon goes in hard on Darius Bazley. To see the full power rankings of the panel for week five click here.

"Forward Darius Bazley has started every game this season, but the 21-year-old former first-round pick isn’t making much of a case that he should be considered part of the Thunder’s long-term core. Bazley is shooting only 37.1% from the floor and 28.1% from 3-point range, slight dips from last season’s poor percentages. But 19-year-old former first-rounder Aleksej Pokusevski (34.9% from the floor, 20.5% on 3s) isn’t exactly pushing for more playing time. — MacMahon"

CBS Sports:

Collin Ward-Henniger rates teams based on the week (not the season) and also is working on a different schedule. Hence his ratings reflect the two wins versus the Kings and Rockets.

With that in mind, he ranks OKC 23rd which is still impressive although it’s a three-spot drop from his 20th placement in week four.

Ward-Henniger’s full week five power rankings can be viewed here.

"So OKC is really doing this again, huh? A 2-2 week keeps the Thunder hovering around .500, and that’s with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander averaging 17.5 points on 37 percent shooting this week. Lu Dort had a monster performance in Wednesday’s win over the Rockets, scoring 34 points on 14-for-22 shooting, and he averaged 24 points for the week. OKC is proving it can beat the lower-tier teams in the league, which is impressive considering its roster is specifically engineered for tanking."

Sporting News:

Similar to the ESPN group the Sporting News utilizes a panel of writers for their weekly power rankings. Scott Rafferty takes the lead in week five focusing on what each team should be most thankful for.

The Sporting News is the lone site to raise the OKC Thunder up a spot in week five from 27th to 26th this week. The full Sporting News week five power rankings can be viewed here.

"Most thankful for: Lu Dort’s contract. In the third year of a four-year, $5.4 million contract, Dort continues to be a revelation for the Thunder, who show immense promise even through the drudges of a long rebuild. – Adams"

Hoops Habit:

Like CBS, Hoops Habit uses a different schedule than the NBA or ESPN. Jack Simone serves up his week five power rankings dropping the OKC Thunder one spot from 22nd to 23rd.

A portion of Simone’s excerpt on the Thunder is below and his full week five power rankings is linked here.

"The Oklahoma City Thunder continue to be an enigma. Despite being pegged as the worst team in the league going into the season, they are far from it right now.Shai Gilegous-Alexander and Lu Dort are leading this team to a decent record, in comparison to how well the team was supposed to do. They probably won’t end up in the play-in, but they’re not a bottom-five team in the league, either.The one thing separating OKC from the rest of the bottom-feeders is the fact that they continuously triumph over worse teams. Whenever they go up against a team with a worse record than them it seems like they always win."

With that, the OKC Thunder found themselves still overperforming in the power rankings and national scribes giving them kudos for their defensive effort.

With Gilgeous-Alexander out at least for two games this week the Thunder could take a dip next week. Tune in next week to see where the pundits place the OKC in week six power rankings.