[NBA.com] Power Rankings, Week 11: Spurs power past Thunder for No. 1
Source: https://www.nba.com/news/power-rankings-2025-26-week-11
Cavs fall off gotta be studied
No study needed, Jordan Ott effect
It’s gotta be. Those 2 teams are doing the opposite of what you’d expect
Like when the Kings lost Jordi Fernandez after the beam team year and everybody wondered what happened
I still think everything for us going downhill after Willie Green left wasn’t a coincidence either
was Ott snatched from the cavs coaching staff?
Yes sir, he was one of their key assistants. He was credited for Mobley offensive leap
How Dan Gilbert has gotten absolutely no flak for letting arguably the best bench player in the regular season last year go for nothing when
A. They were already over the second apron for the first time anyways
B. It would have impacted them in no way to re-sign Jerome penalty-wise aside from to Gilbert’s wallet
And
C. Gilbert is worth $30 billion
Is beyond me
Probably because Ty Jerome has played 0 games this season
Dan Gilberts spending has never been an issue since the day he became owner. I’d imagine if our president and GM wanted him, Gilbert would not hesitate to sign the check.
We’ve consistently had one of the highest payrolls the last 10-20 years and have always been willing to go into the luxury tax or aprons.
Jerome was a great regular season player but had too many clunkers in the playoffs. He didn’t contribute enough anywhere else to make up for going 0-9 and would keep chucking when he clearly didn’t have it going. Felt like it had single handedly lost us games.
If the Cavs’ GM would rather just let Jerome go for nothing when it wouldn’t impact being over the tax then he made an error of judgement that’s hard to understand.
More likely he wasn’t seen as one of the most essential players, and Gilbert didn’t want to pay more in tax for a bench player even if it did help the team. I don’t think he thought their backup PG situation would be this bad, though
people constantly want to talk about ty jerome leaving like it is the sole cause of a 64 win team suddenly being a .500 team. can we all be serious for a second cmon. since when does a 6th man mean the swing of 20 games for a team? the cavs fall off isn’t bc they didn’t sign ty jerome. sam merrill got the contract that would’ve been for ty jerome and merrill despite missing like a dozen games is shooting over 40% from 3 averaging almost 14 a game. losing ty jerome doesn’t turn the cavs into a losing team on his own
Absolutely, this isn’t the Spurs losing prime Manu…and even that would not cause this severe a drop off
I didn’t say it was on its own, but they could have kept Jerome without impacting whether they were over the tax or not
it isn’t about whether it put them over the tax or not it’s how much it would cost total to have retained jerome in addition to merrill. for every dollar spent over the second apron there’s compounding tax. a contract jerome’s size would’ve cost the cavs 3-4x total value. so ya sure the cavs could’ve brought jerome back but it would’ve cost the organization \(120 million on top of his contract. is ty jerome worth the cavs spending \)150 million just to retain him? paying players over the second apron has a massive penalty. you should learn this before you go and make big statements
It wouldn’t have been that much money or close to retain him for two years, but regardless it only would have hurt Dan Gilbert’s wallet. He has a net worth of 30 billion
it actually would have been that much money. the cavs are so far over the second apron that every dollar spent is literally 3-4x the cost on tax bill. as is w the current salaries on the roster the cavs have a tax penalty bill of about $160 million a season due to being around 40 million over. if you add jerome to that it would’ve gone up another 20-30 for this year or roughly 80-120 million on a 4 year contract. so in short yes it would’ve cost that much to retain jerome
Likely closer to 80, which is nowhere near 150. But either way, he’s worth 30 billion. As a fan I see building sports teams as more than a way for owners to make money. Obviously billionaire owners are going to make cost-cutting moves like that, but I don’t think they’re above criticism
All these comments graciously offering another angle, all of which are reasonable, and you’re just constantly arguing 🤦♂️
Am I allowed to disagree? I don’t have that much sympathy for owners worth 30 billion making cost-cutting moves (with no other downside) that were very likely to hurt the team
100% allowed to disagree and have your own opinion. Would also recommend 100% listening and hearing other perspectives and seeing how they could be right as well
All the 2015 Hawks memes were correct.
I’m so fucking sad.
No it doesn’t, they’ve been a paper tiger since they got hyped
still technically moved up 1 ranking though sooo I guess that’s something
I think realistically the Spurs are around 5th best. They just seem to have a really good matchup against the Thunder. Still not enough shooting to really contend for a championship at this point.
Spurs being at 5th is pretty realistic. January is going to be a tough stretch and we might lose more games than we will win so I want to relax my expectations. The fact that they are one of the best teams in the league in Wemby’s 3rd year is a godsend.
Yeah 5th sounds appropriate, but honestly after spanking us so much in quick succession, yall deserve to hold it for a bit lol
We just lost to Utah so it will only be a bit.
Fuck it, let Utah have the #1 spot this week
Beat two top 5 teams in the same week, crown em
yeah you could tell from the jump that utah wanted all that smoke frontrunning must be exhausting.
Wemby is really benefiting in ways Luka and LeBron, for example, did not by getting all these other top picks. Like imagine if the Cavs had a top 5 pick in 2005, two years after drafting Bron, and were able to get Chris Paul. That team would’ve for sure won championships. The Spurs are gonna be disgusting for a long time.
I agree 100%, and that’s what calms me despite Wemby’s health concerns. Wemby might not be injury-free all of the time but the fact that the Spurs are already adapting around this with success makes me happy. I just hope they take everything step by step like they did with the Big 3 post-Admiral.
January isn’t really supposed to be any harder than the schedule we’ve had hitherto.
I’m behind giving the Spurs their moment in the sun, they’ve looked fantastic. I think the Spurs, Wolves, Rockets, Knicks, and Pistons are probably all interchangeable at 3-7 at the end of the day though, at least for Power Rankings purposes.
Wolves and Knicks are probably the only teams in that group that could theoretically win it all, but it’s not like the Spurs, Rockets, or Pistons winning it would be that much more surprising.
What’s the argument for Wolves having better odds than the Spurs/Rockets/Pistons? Is it because of experience? Y’all are a really solid team and have the experience but I wouldn’t put you ahead the other non-OKC/Denver teams in terms of odds of winning it all.
Yeah, it’s experience for the Wolves and Knicks. I think the talent level is comparable across all five teams, but you really do need to have a certain amount of playoff experience on your roster to win a championship.
To the extent there’s a basketball argument for putting the Wolves, specifically, in a contending tier above the other three, we have played the Nuggets really well over several seasons. I genuinely think that matchup would be a coin flip; 60⁄40 odds at worst.
In the Knicks’ case, they’ll just probably get to the Finals without much friction. They’ll probably be fresher than whomever comes out of the West.
Again though, it’s probably all pointless hairsplitting because none of the West teams outside of Denver have a realistic chance at the title. It would take a miracle for NYK/MIN, so I guess why not the Spurs or the Rockets or the Pistons if we’re already talking miracles.
As a Knicks fan I feel like the fact that a team from the east only has to see one of the teams listed in the ecf and one in the finals to win a championship, while a team from the west will see at least 2 before the finals, is a big deal.
I think we’d be slightly favored over Detroit, Denver, and SAS just based on experience (Detroit) and matchups (other two). OKC would be significant favorites over us, and the other teams are a toss-up.
So that gives me hope. But for power-rankings I don’t think the Knicks are playing exceptional well and are resting guys.
Great summarization. I agree completely.
Knicks/ Spurs finals would make me nervous still though - that Spurs team is getting better and better really rapidly. Curious to see how the matchup coming up plays out
I am really interested to see how Wemby handles the playoffs. He has only ever played 72 games in a season and the physicality of a series takes a massive toll especially in the big fellas.
They’ve locked in rather impressively for the last two playoffs now, they lose dumb games occasionally but the Wolves are talented and have the requisite experience for sure
Back to back conference finals feels nice, but that OKC series doesn’t instill confidence.
I’m giving a little edge to the Spurs in that group because of all those teams SA has the best chance to make a jump over the course of the season.
not sure about that. the nuggets and rockets are shooting 40 pct from 3. the knicks are shooting 38 pct, and the rest of the contenders (spurs included) are @ 36 pct. Would love better shooting, but they’re fine and improving.
I mostly agree. This is one of those situations where the best team just happens to have a team they struggle with but that team (the Spurs) does not do as well against the other 29 teams as them.
My disagreement is I do think you guys could win but I don’t think you are the favorites or even runner-ups. 5th is the right range. Maybe higher.
I just wish that on nights when we cant hit from 3, we just stop taking those shots, and try and force more drives
Edit: Like tonight… 22% smh.
I would have agreed a month ago, but all the top teams pretty much have some similar gap to our shooting. Knicks defense, Rockets shooting, etc. I wouldn’t say the spurs are the definitive #1 team but I think they’re at least as good as anyone else in a power rankings situation. The only team I could maybe see being clearly ahead of them is Denver.
They can go up to 2 tbh but yeah putting them over OKC is a bit mental. Sure, it’s possible they can beat OKC in a series but they’re also much more likely to lose to any of the other 28 teams in the league. While OKC has basically a 0% chance of losing in a series to any team outside the top 5
There’s a long way to go.
Got to admit, I’ve been waiting for the Spurs to be shown some respect, but with losing to the Jazz even i’m like, “Ok lets calm down everyone.”
How are spurs only around the 5th? They beat OKC 3x, have the best center in the league as well as the defensive effort, with speed to be contenders.
I think they belong on the top, with Thunder and then Nuggets, so the ranking is pretty accurate
They do not have the best center in the league. You conveniently forgot Jokic, who is putting up some video game numbers right now.
You’re right, Jokic is the better center right now for sure. I think I’m biased often by how tall Wemby is and his potential as he gets older
The consensus seems to be that they’re a bogey team for OKC but are not the best team. They just lost against Utah.
they lost to the jazz 2 days ago bruh
Jazz number 1 team confirmed
keyonte george for mvp
Keyonte for ROTY
So did Detroit the night before, Jazz just got hot for a stretch.
If we can score 127+ we have a good chance of winning.
If the Jazz defense was as good as the offense they would be undefeated
not wrong, their record isn’t indicative of how good they actually are imo. we had very close games with them as well
Probably going to be the case all season long. They don’t want to give us their pick, so they’re going to likely stay pretty tank-y most of the season while being better than their record.
Nuggets and Knicks disagree.
Knicks Fans Try to Not Make Something About Themselves Challenge (IMPOSSIBLE).
So this comment can’t be made about the Lakers fan above?
They actually added something of substance to the conversation and gave the Jazz their flowers which I think they deserve. Your comment is just tooting your own horn for no reason when no one even mentioned the Knicks.
Oh how dare I give credit to 2 teams who didn’t struggle with this particular Jazz squad! Notice I mentioned Denver as well.
And OKC lost to them 3x in a row.
Jazz > Thunder confirmed
but we beat them by 30
Doesn’t matter you’re on r/nba
I’m kidding
I’m not
I don’t make the rules
circle of parity then
I’m the Spurs ranker for the sub rankings coming out later today and basically every team in contention for #1 has compelling reasons not to rank them #1 right now lol. I wish I could just rank like 5 teams #2 and move on with my life
bro thinks teams arent allowed to lose games. win hard match ups and lose one and that negates it all, might as well put them at 30 since they lost to the jazz by your metrics
The Thunder lost 3 times to the team that lost to the Jazz
Thunder are the best team in the league at beating bad teams
Fox didn’t play
Classic trap game
Power rankinga fluctuate.
And it wasn’t super close. They played lights out against us the last two games and we shot terribly. Eh, it’s just for reaction anyways.
I’m still questioning whether or not Lakers should be above the Suns when the Suns boast a better net rating & have beaten 2-1 in their matchups + have a tougher SOS
Sun is always above the lake. Unless of course it is night time
night time is when wolves are active.
grrrrr bark bark
Bark? Did someone say Tyler Kolek?
and spurs are…. fuck there’s no way to incorporate spurs into this parable lol
I think the actual reason to shove them down the list is that they can only sneak out wins with 4th quarter heroics/ref help and every single loss have been blow outs. Until they actually start racking up quality wins, they are nothing more then a paper tiger
Nobody talks about this but the Lakers can only win if the team they’re playing is bad and/or they get a heavily reffed game.
They rely on the stoppage created by penalties because they can’t move fast enough in transition. They have no athletic defenders so their best chance is forcing the opposition into playing a half court offense, they can’t do that by actually playing defense so their only recourse is playing after free throws which gives them the time to get set.
This is why every loss is a blowout. If the refs don’t slow the game down for them it just snowballs on them because they’re gassed by the second half. Their only athlete is Deandre Ayton and that athleticism is heavily tied to a defeatist attitude it’s a match made in heaven.
It’s pretty obvious y’all don’t watch the games. Lakers just play harder in the second half, and play their hardest in the 4th. Watch a game and look at their 1st quarter defense vs their 4th quarter defense, it is completely different. Maintaining effort is the Laker’s problem, that’s why JJ was so pissed about it the other day. The reason they get blown out is they play that lazy ass 1st quarter defense, and if the game runs away from them too much, they pretty much just give up.
Also, we’ve had a lot of stretches where either Luka, AR, or LeBron have been out, who we rely on for offensive creation, as well as Smart, who is our best defender. I mean, the game we lost against the Suns the other day was pretty much just LeBron and Ayton from our starting lineup, plus Austin coming off the bench from an injury. Or that Clippers game the other day was literally LeBron and friends once Luka went out with a calf contusion.
The reason they get blown out is they play that lazy ass 1st quarter defense, and if the game runs away from them too much, they pretty much just give up.
Yeah they need to fix this up because sometimes it’s just painful when they give up perfectly winnable games. A 15 point deficit at the half is nothing these days but the team has a visible deflation when they’re down big.
Spurs did beat Thunder 3 times in a span of 2 weeks so not surprised
Then promptly lost to the Jazz somehow
Jazz beat the Pistons and Spurs back to back lol.
How very not tank of them
Keyonte George and Markkanen have quietly been balling out lately
Jazz caught fire from deep. Not much you can do other than try to match them
Silly overreaction
The Spurs beat OKC multiple times. I don’t think it’s an overreaction at all.
Spurs are a bad matchup for OKC but I don’t remotely think they’re a better overall team
Out of the 28 other teams I think all 28 of them would rather play the Spurs in a series
That’s why it’s a power ranking and not the standings
he didn’t even mention team record though?
If you want to know who the better team is, look at their record, aka standings. If you want to know who is playing better right now, look at power rankings.
There’s bad matchups then there’s losing 3 times in a row including 2 blowouts. You can’t have that happen and still say Thunder are the better team right now.
I mean, when the Thunder are the most statistically dominant teams of the season despite those losses, I actually think those three losses scream bad matchup lmao
2 blowouts?
No one one genuinely thinks the Spurs are a better team than the thunder. Power rankings are about who’s playing the best basketball right now in combination with overall body of work. And right now considering we’re San Antonio is in relation to the thunder, not that far behind them, and who they beat and how they’ve been playing lately. Having them number one in the power rankings is totally justifiable
No one one genuinely thinks the Spurs are a better team than the thunder
Yah, usually the worse team wins 3 in a row in a series.
Nah. OKC is still number 1 mainly because of consistency (they beat teams that they should). Spurs still has the tendency to relax against lower seed teams. That’s about it.
Saying Spurs is just a bad matchup is utterly wrong. It’s not like they only beat OKC, they also beat the nuggets, rockets, lakers, basically all the top dogs of the western conference. Spurs are legit. Once they become more consistent against lower seeded teams, they can be the no-doubt #1 team.
I don’t even think that’s true, the Spurs just got in their heads, Chet turned into a scared little bih and the rest of the team, aside from SGA, shot bricks for two weeks straight.
There is basically no world in which the Thunder aren’t favorites in every game against the Spurs in the playoffs.
If the Spurs hypothetically won the last two meetings and swept you, they’d 100% be favored at home in the playoffs.
If we lost the first games the would be favored.
I mean you can’t lost to a team 3 times in 10 days and still stay ahead of them in the power rankings
These things are skewed more towards recency anyway so Thunder will probably go on a win streak and be number 1 soon
this is a meaningless metric anyway but how is the #1 team on the power rankings losing to the jazz by 20? I mean what even is the point
Spurs fan here, and I think OKC are still number 1 due to consistency. I need to see my team not only beat okc, but also the teams they should beat. Even though I hate the thunder, I can’t deny their consistency.
Although I must say they are getting REAL CLOSE now…
Jazz had twice our shooting percentage and we were resting Fox
by beating the previous #1 by 20 multiple times in a week? lol
13=20 now. Oklahoma math sure is fun!
I mean, isn’t that the entire point of Power Rankings? We’ve been one of, if not the best, team in December; doesn’t mean I think we’re the #1 option to make it out of the west come playoff time. That’s still quite a ways off.
They’re called power rankings for a reason, it’s literally a reaction to recent games.
In December SA is 10-2, OKC is 7-4.
Given how close their overall team records are and the fact that 3 of OKC’s losses were to SA it’s neither silly nor an overreaction.
Ok, this is fair. Good points.
Cool you just realized what power rankings are!
3-0 against the thunder is crazy tho in such quick succession. they deserve it on a power rankings to be #1, doesnt mean they’re the title favorites. even thunder fans would agree
Agreed - squad is heading in the right direction, but they’re still in need of a few more months playing together before the team chemistry is ready to compete with the consistency and adaptability needed to contend. They’ve got the matchup with OKC, but still allow other teams to get hot from 3 too easily, rather than chasing them off the line. A lot of that is youth.
April will tell us a lot about this team’s potential.
Yea, thunder are definitely number 1. Spurs just have the matchup
[deleted]
naggers
🤨
Oh well.
It’s nice to see the Suns going strong! I really like their roster. It’s full of gritty players who hustle and can play multiple roles to fit what the team needs at that moment.
As a Spurs fan, uh, no. #2 would be fine if you wanted to hold it against Denver that they’re without AG right now.
Nuggets are pretty banged up, 3 starters out. 2 of them will hopefully be back soon though.
well…
Yeah nah we are cursed. Thank goodness for our one healthy season that was capitalised on.
Man when’s the last time we weren’t #1 on this list? Guessing it would likely be the Cavs last season around mid season
Edit: nvm, just 9 months ago on 3⁄17. I forgot Cavs had the best record until the last few weeks.
Conversely, when’s the last time the Spurs were #1 in these lol—I’m guessing something like 2017
Probably 2017. I feel like there was a period in 2018 Where We were really cooking with the best defense in the league too, but our overall record probably kept us from ever being number one
Thats such a fast turn around, ya’ll are so well run.
Am I crazy thinking the Knicks should be #2?
Spurs , Knicks , okc , nuggets
yay
i do fr fr believe this is the year. we have made strides and strides and it all seems to be clicking with the depth and opportunism. Gonna be an exciting playoffs as all Knicks playoff runs have been, lowkey knicks have the most entertaining post season series in the last 2-3 years all around.
honestly can’t wait to see their run in the eastern conference playoffs this year, their games are always fun
My favorite series is still Sixers 2024 round 1. So intense and had a net +/- of 0 for the whole series even though we won 2-0. Crazy moments all around… the Donte three was the most insane thing I’ve ever watched in my life. And Maxey’s flamethrower performance to bring them back (I think game 4?) with the half court three was insane.
I don’t wanna talk about the pacers game 1 last year… but it was objectively INSANE
Love what you guys have going on this year too. Feels like the Suns have a real player culture and vibe. Hope you make noise
been saying since the trade got announced, rockets lost that trade
Didn’t realize y’all got so many players. How have Malauch Fleming Brea and Plowden been doing?
Now that the Haliban is not around it’s time for someone to take his place. The Knicks are good but they just don’t have it. They’re victims of having to play someone who was writing their story. They didn’t lose last season to a better team, they lost because they’re background characters.
I’m saying this as a stubborn Knicks fan: when you lose to a team in a series, you secede all right to say you’re the better team. The pacers were the better team, that is why they won.
This ranking reeeeally hates the Bulls. Not that anyone should care.
Bulls fans hate the bulls because owner.
Spurs are the team to beat this year tbh.
suns did, twice
Man i hope for some cray cray first round matchups in the west playoffs…even more hope for all healthy teams…! There’s gonna be crazy amount of gm 7’s if the teams are full force
7 of the top 10 being in the west. Yikes these playoffs will be rough.
Nuggets have been slaughtered by injuries so far. They have lost like 3⁄4 games they should’ve won if they just had CB or AG
everyone has injuries
CB is crazy, we can’t be giving everyone an acronym now
I like these rankings
This is just recency bias NGL. I get they beat them 3 times, but that just might be a bad match up. I think OKC is still the best team overall.
Lol, their absurd cake schedule so far is why they have the best record.
Gotta see what happens with their whistle after all the noise around their physical defense and all the Lu Dort talks though.
We’re doing this again this year too?
‘Let’s see how they do in the playoffs’
They won a ring lmao
Going 16-7 with 2 game 7s vs injured opponents. They got lucky.
Damn that’s crazy…
That banner real as fuck though. lmaoooo
Our 2nd best player had a broken hand as well and we were the 2nd youngest team in the nba. But yeah let’s not bring those up.
We have a ring. We could’ve gone 16-12 and still have that ring. Doesn’t matter
I already said I think you guys are the best team, I just don’t think you would be able to put 2017 Warriors win percentage numbers if players like Caruso and Lu Dort had their fouls called. And Lu Dort specifically, with his numerous shenanigans straight up trying to injure rival superstars for no reason.
E T H I C A L
jazz should be number 1
Finally the Wolves getting some respect. In our current state it’s hard for me to justify putting us any higher than 7th - realistically for that to happen most likely either Detroit would have to slide quite a bit, or we’d have to make some trades (PG, backup Center). But having us behind the Celtics and Lakers was ridiculous.
Was this before jazz strangled them 😂
The analysis of my team(The Magic) is “yada yada’d” usually, but whoever wrote this is so spot on. I’m damn impressed!
Love it
Jazz beat the Spurs and they still went to No. 1. Idk what the means
This makes sense.
Where the Jazz at? Cause the last game I saw they were incapable of missing a shot.
Lakers still at 9 is questionable lol. Saying as a Laker fan
Call me whatever you want but by the end of the season this ranking is gonna look straight up silly lol
fuck the spurs bro LUKA OWNS WEMBY
Why would the Spurs catapult to first? If we’re overreacting, they literally just lost to the Jazz
wowzers thunder dethroned alr i mean idk if we can say yet
The Spurs are not the most powerful team in the league. What a joke
It’s a power ranking bro… I don’t understand why people don’t get this. It’s about who’s playing the best basketball now in combination with overall body of work
If you have a comparable record to the other few teams near you in the standings, but have been playing better basketball as of late, which even with that jazz game, good luck finding a team who’s had a better last 3 weeks than San Antonio, you’re going to be high if not number one in the power rankings
No one thinks the Spurs are genuinely a better team than the thunder
Plenty of people think San Antonio is one of the best teams in the league who clearly has a roster that gives the thunder problems
There’s nothing controversial about any of that
Weird.
Why wouldn’t people think the Spurs are better than OKC?
Just look at the standings if you want a ranking of the best teams, power rankings are just an abstraction that allows teams within tiers to move above or below one another based on recent play. The Spurs are 5-1 with a +14.9 Net Rating over the last two weeks while the Thunder are 3-3 with a +3.1 Net Rating (including two blowout losses to the Spurs); nobody thinks the Spurs are the better team come playoff time, but for the snapshot of recent play, they’re currently playing like the better team
Don’t be jealous. It’s not their fault that your team has been plagued with injuries. We beat OKC 3 times. We beat the rockets and lakers once. And AFAIK, spurs beat your team without Wemby and Castle 🤣
They beat a team that was 24-1 three times, including two blowouts. Did you expect OKC to stay above them on the power rankings after all that? Power rankings are literally a week to week ranking of who’s playing the best at that time
This ranking is a massive joke, we should not take them seriously from now on.
Man y’all really in your feelings about this 😆
What losing three times to the same team over a few days and thinking you should still be ahead of that team in the rankings will do to an m’fer.