After a period of time since the draft and free agent market opened, how has the NBA landscape changed?
Not long ago, ESPN updated the latest NBA power rankings, Denver Nuggets, Milwaukee Bucks, Boston Celtics ranked in the top three, Phoenix Suns ranked fourth, Miami Heat ranked fifth.
For the Suns ranked fifth, well-known sports reporter Mike Menamin said the Suns have the best trio of lineups in the league like Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal and Devin Booker. But their roster depth is still up for debate? Despite some shrewd moves by the likes of James Jones, who signed Eric Gordon for the minimum and acquired prospects such as Pau Pau, Yuta Watanabe and Chimezie Metu, the addition of new players such as Yu Vogel to the roster grinds on as well as being a big question mark.
The Los Angeles Lakers are ranked seventh in the new power rankings, which ESPN’s experts explain by saying that “Lakers VP of Basketball Operations and General Manager Rob Pelinka has managed to retain Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and D’Angelo Russell. After they were swept in this year’s Western Conference Finals, the Lakers are betting on the core of last year’s roster while taking their team to the next level with the addition of solid new additions such as Gabe Vincent, Taurean Prince, Jaxon Hayes, and Cam Reddish”.
The Golden State Warriors fell to eighth place in the power rankings, and the reason given by expert Andrews is that “Chris Paul is officially a member of the Golden State Warriors. However, it’s still hard to imagine exactly how he’ll fit in. He’s likely to be the sixth man, whether he wants to admit it or not, but it’s not clear how his performance will still affect the Warriors.
Other fan-focused teams are the Grizzlies at No. 10, the Clippers at No. 11, the Mavericks at No. 14, the Rockets at No. 24 and the Spurs at No. 26.