At the end of the pre-season the first power rankings were released of this 10-11 season and based on those rankings the future looked dim to say the least. The Hornets went 1-7 in a pre-season with no significance and we payed in the rankings. We, however, knew that are Hornets were not the 21st best team in the league (or should i say 9th worst?). Unlike the “specialists” who made the rankings we did not look at the wins but instead the effort and skills displayed. We realized that Williams (the genius he is) played his starters minimal minutes to allow the role players to blend together and get a feel for each other. This not only allowed Monty to pick out the best possible bench rotation, but it is probably responsible for how well our bench is playing together. The pre-season rankings were simply guesses for how good teams were, and oh were they wrong about the Hornets.
Without a doubt the Hornets were the biggest surprise in the first week of season going on to win against 3 playoff teams with a good bit of ease. Our bench was solid and our starters fantastic earning us a place at number 10 in the rankings, 11 up form last week. So far this year it has been a mesh of solid offense and defense that has allowed us to win against such strong teams. We are ranked 10th in defense at 97.7 points per 100 possessions and 12th in offense at 103.6 points per 100 possessions. This bodes well for the Hornets because when our offense is failing we can rely on our defense and vise-versa, while other teams ahead of us simply have either good defense or offense. According to these stats we are playing better offense than Dallas and better defense than the Lakers, both prime contenders in the Western Conference. Because the Hornets are such a newly formed team with only a few core players with large minutes in the rotation, these ratings will only increase. I can see the hornets surprising everybody with a showing in second place in the West and pushing the Lakers to the brink in the conference championship.
The only thing left to do now is predict where we will be on the rankings as of next Monday. We only have three games between now and then against three more potential playoff teams. The first is at Houston on Wednesday which I am predicting as a win, seeing as how Houston is slipping. Fridays game will be much tougher, but winnable none the less. We play the LeBron and company at the Hive which could be an exhilarating game. unfortunately for this game I see a lose. The third game of the week will take place in Milwaukee against the young bucks who we beat in our opener. They will be after redemption so it could be a tough game. If everyone is still healthy on our team and we play as we have been, I predict a win. If my predictions are correct that would put us at 5-1 by next weekends rankings. With this ranking i think we could easily push into the 7th or 8th spot. Worst case scenario would be a 4-2 record which would keep us at around 10 and best case scenario is a sweet sweet win against the Heat giving us a 6-0 record and probably a spot in the top 5. The latter of the two seems unlikely however. Either way I believe the Hornets will surprise this year just as they have in the early power rankings.
Also to predict better how the Hornets match up to other teams I will list the top 15 teams and whether or not I believe we will beat them in the season series. This will help in predicting where we will be near the end of the season.
1) LA Lakers – lose series, 1-3
2) Boston – lose series, win none
3) Miami – Lose series, win 1
4) Portland – split series, 2-2
5) Dallas – win series, 3-1
6) Orlando – lose series, win none
7) Atlanta – split series
8 ) Nuggets – split series, 2-2
9) OKC – split series, probably lose
10) Hornets
11) Spurs – win series, 3-1
12) Memphis – win series, 3-1
13) Jazz – split series
14) Bulls – lose series
15) Suns – wins series, sweep
^^^ not sure how many times we play each team, based on it we were to play each team 4 times. If theres a split against a team matched only 3 times then it could go either way.
7 responses to “Power Rankings: where do/will we stand?”
I think we’re going to take both from Atlanta and go 2-2 against the Lakers. They do tend to struggle against guys like Paul.
If we can take a season from the Jazz I would be thrilled.
yea i think we could split the lakers but i hate the matchup against the hawks. maybe this year we can match them better
yep.
to be onest i really think we could go 6-0. correct me if i am wrong but i think since Ariza has defence i think he can minimize LeBron’s scoring like he did with Carmelo. Same thing for West and Okafor with Bosh. Now one thing is puzzling me who will check Dwyane.
Chris can cover Wade. I think he did that before.
Carmelo had 24 pts in 40 minutes, but Ariza seemed a little hurt. He dinged his arm a little before missing those 3 free throws in a row. He had about 30 mins in that game and against the Spurs, but over 40 against the Bucks. I hope it’s just a Coach’s Decision thing and not an injury that will linger. Also, some of Carmelo’s points were against the bench.
yea but Ariza had key steals against Melo
Agreed, but the overall performance wasn’t really to put a stopper in Mr. Anthony’s game, but I don’t think that’s a reasonable expectation. He needs to keep Mr. James to under 20 unless we hold Wade down to a greater degree.
On another front, I’m not buying the Miami defense. The played a poorly shooting Orlando, the defensive Celtics (20th in ppg last year), the 76’ers, and the Nets. I don’t see a reason to fear the defense. I may be wrong, but I don’t see the reason. It’s the same logic people are applying to us, I’m sure, since I’m not watching the games. They are wrong, just like I may be, but they have no reason to think otherwise until I see it.
as i read somewhere else on the website we match up pretty well against miami.
CP3 and Dwayne wade will essentially cancel.
Ariza can hopefully hold LeBron to 25 or below.
West and Okafor should be able to keep Bosh shooting a long contested jumper and hopefully hes missing.
this is also going to be an emotional home game which could allow our bench to beat out a not so great heat bench.
essentially heres how it breaks down for me, if our starts are equal to or better than the heats starters, we will win the game.