By the end of the 2016-17 NBA season, the Cleveland Cavaliers will reassert themselves as bona fide contenders. But January continues to be a rough month for the defending champions, as they’re falling outsid the top 10 in the NBA Math Power Rankings for the
When Andre Drummond fights for a board with three members of the opposition and successfully corrals it, he gets credit for a single rebound. The same is true when he hauls in the ball with no one in the immediate vicinity. But should those plays really
With Rudy Gobert protecting the rim and Gordon Hayward playing like an unabashed superstar, the Utah Jazz are on fire. Sure, they dropped games to the Memphis Grizzlies, Toronto Raptors and Boston Celtics within their last 10 outings, but a victory over the defending champions
It’s one of the NBA’s most exciting plays. A deadly ball-handler directs everyone out of the painted area, clearing the court so he can take his defender in a one-on-one battle. With some flashy handles, a few eye-fakes and terrifyingly quick changes of direction, he
Not every assist is equal, and the same is true for seemingly equivalent per-game lines. Two NBA players averaging five assists aren’t identically adept passers. Right off the bat, we’ll admit we’re overlooking plenty of factors here. Passes squeezed into tight spaces count the same as easy feeds
The Golden State Warriors weren’t going to reign forever. Not in the NBA Math Power Rankings, which are intentionally reactionary and weigh recent events just as heavily as what’s come to pass throughout the entire season. But it’s not the Cleveland Cavaliers ascending to the top.
The Toronto Raptors have a center ranked in the top 30 of our total points added (TPA) hierarchy, but it’s not Jonas Valanciunas. While the starting 5 sits at No. 269, sandwiched directly between Joffrey Lauvergne and James Michael McAdoo, Lucas Nogueira has risen sharply.
Welcome to NBA Math’s inaugural power rankings. We’re determining how all 30 teams stack up in wholly objective fashion, using our Team Rating metric to evaluate both season-long performances and the levels the squads have played at in the last few weeks. Power rankings do have to weigh