Reverse Jam's NBA Power Rankings: Week 4

REVERSE JAM NBA WEEK 4 RANKINGS

#	John	Daniel	Matt
1	△2	△2	(-)
2	(-)	(-)	(-)
3	▽2	▽2	△1
4	(-)	(-)	▽1
5	△2	△1	△5
6	△2	▽1	△1
7	▽2	△4	▽2
8	▽2	▽1	△6
9	△7	△5	△6
10	△4	△5	▽2
11	▽1	▽1	▽5
12	▽1	(-)	(-)
13	▽1	▽4	▽4
14	▽5	▽6	△2
15	△3	△1	▽4
16	▽2	△2	▽3
17	▽4	△11	△2
18	▽1	▽5	(-)
19	(-)	(-)	▽2
20	(-)	(-)	△3
21	△1	△8	△1
22	△6	▽1	▽1
23	▽2	▽6	△5
24	△2	△2	(-)
25	▽2	▽2	△1
26	△2	△1	▽1
27	△3	▽5	▽7
28	▽4	▽4	△2
29	▽4	△1	▽2
30	▽3	▽4	▽1

Matt:

Buy Low: Utah Jazz

While Hayward has been officially back for the last 9 games, the Jazz have still underperformed, losing their last four games.  My “Buy Low” on the Jazz is rooted in my belief of not what their team has done, but what I know they can do.  They’ve showed glimpses of great cohesive basketball in short stretches and their almost-traditional starting lineup is a refreshing sight placed amongst an oversaturated league of small ball and threes.  Hill has been exceptional but is currently injured, Hood was playing extremely well in the few early games in absence of Hayward and once they begin to share the wing together, I know we will see improvement out of them. Their upcoming two games should be very good indicators of their current form.  Make sure to watch 1) Nuggets @ Jazz, Wednesday Nov 23rd to see a very competitive matchup against a team that has thus far fared similar woes, and 2) Hawks @ Jazz, Friday Nov 25th to see the Jazz face a team playing in early-season contender form.  

Buy Low: Chicago Bulls

The Bulls have shown great signs thus far, playing far above 

anyone’s expectations while also being entertaining, but I believe they will only keep improving and paired with an extremely opportune upcoming schedule, I could easily see them finishing 4-1 over the course of the next few games tying them for 2nd in the East, a current upgrade to their 3rd best at (9-5).  A curious thought is the philosophy on the composition of the Bulls’ team.  The Bulls backcourt consists of Rondo, Wade and Butler who are by no means new to the game.  There is so much experience and leadership in these veterans that the Bulls possess an extremely stable nucleus while still retaining their youthful energy that a normal, veteran-heavy team would experience.  The veteranship typically is what will get younger teams through the long NBA season and is what will keep the Bulls’ in the position they are at.

Daniel:

Buy low: Boston Celtics

With the recovery of Al Horford and Jae Crowder’s imminent return, the Celtics look poised to make a return to a spot closer to their preseason ranking. Although their rebounding problem does not look to be going away anytime soon (cue video of 5 Celtics outrebounded by a player literally lying on the floor), these two players are pivotal for the Celtics to maintain any semblance of a defensive presence. As expected, the offense will also feel a boost and should keep their offensive rating firmly within the top 10. Perhaps too much credit has been given to head coach (and future United States president) Brad Stevens, but he has given no reason to doubt his ability to make the pieces fit in a coherent manner. Look for the Celtics to have home court advantage in the first round, barring disaster.

Sell high: Los Angeles Lakers

Call me a skeptic, but I remain unconvinced that this scrappy band of lovable underdogs has what it takes to crack the playoffs, or even just the upper half of these rankings. (Also, it makes me slightly nauseous to refer to the Los Angeles Lakers as lovable up and comers.) Although Timofey Mozgov has managed to not too bad in comparison to some other overpaid centers around the league (shoutout Phil Jax), Luol Deng has prematurely begun his transition into veteran that provides “leadership and locker room presence”. Keep in mind that this man is actually younger than his teammate Nick “Swaggy P” Young! Contracts aside, Russell and Randle appear to be taking another step towards becoming potential all star caliber players. At the end of the day, this still appears to be a young team that will provide 48 minutes of entertaining gameplay, as long as you don’t expect the.500 basketball they’ve eked out so far.

John:

Buy Low: Utah Jazz

A few weeks ago, the Utah Jazz got Gordon Hayward back, and 

looked to be absolutely set to jettison themselves into the top of the standings… then George Hill jammed his finger, and Derrick Favors sustained a bone bruise on his knee.  Hill was among the biggest surprises in the league before going down, averaging over 20 points and 5 assists a game on some crazy shooting numbers. He proceeded to miss the next 8 games due to the injury, and the Jazz have gone 3-5 in that span, the 3 wins coming against a handful of bottom-dwelling Eastern Conference teams.  Favors has missed the past 3 games -- all losses -- and is out for the “foreseeable future”.  However, Hill is expected back soon, and if Trey Lyles can step up, (which he is very capable of,) expect a hearty serving of W’s on the Jazz’s plate.  There are a lot of borderline teams in the 5-8 seeds, so the spot is theirs, if they can play up to it.

Sell High: Houston Rockets

I had a lot of trouble figuring out a good sell high candidate this week, as most of the teams that are hot look like they’re going to be able to sustain it for the foreseeable future.  So this sell-high is more like a challenge to the Rockets, I want to see them succeed and prove that they’re a real contender.  Harden has been playing out of his mind all year, taking full control of the offense as the team’s primary guard and dropping dimes like it’s going out of style (12.5 per game, best in the league.)  I’ve never been a huge fan of teams who live and die by the 3-ball, but this squad (aka Harden and chuckers) has too much firepower to sleep on.  With big games against the Raptors and Trail Blazers coming up on the schedule, they have a chance to carve out a spot near the top of the standings.