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Nothing gets people going more than power rankings, right? And this is going to be your weekly safe space to discuss them!
In an effort to keep you, our fantastic readers, fully informed, we are going to start collecting the power rankings every week. This may evolve a little bit over the season, but the basic concept remains the same. All 30 teams, the rankings from six of the bigger sites averaged out and a little bit about how the Mavs are doing. Next week, there will be an added column comparing Week 1 to Week 2. Got it? Good!
Without further ado...
The Rankings
Some observations
- The Mavericks are probably about where they should be. The various sites have them anywhere between 10 and 15, and if you look at the teams above them when you average it out, the only team I really see being consensus "worse" (3-0 start notwithstanding) is the 76ers, maybe the Trail Blazers.
- Keeping that in mind, the next couple games this week should be an interesting test for where the Mavs are ranked next week. The Lakers seem to be a little better than people thought they would be, and the Thunder are one of the more inconsistently ranked teams above.
- The Grizzlies also seem pretty inconsistently ranked. I think everyone was a little surprised with their defensive effort (or lack thereof) against the Mavs, possibly causing some commotion about whether they are who we thought they would be.
- The only team ranked the same across the board was the Celtics. In last place. Ouch.
Quotables
SB Nation:
Monta Ball has been prevalent this first week, and it has actually been quite successful.
CBS Sports:
Monta Ellis is passing, Dirk is Dirking and this team looks like the good version they hoped for, early.
ESPN:
Three games into the new season, Dirk Nowitzki has already matched his longest streak of 20-point games from last season.