NBA Power Rankings: Magic SLEEPER contender? Will Kings or Cavaliers take the leap? | Hoops Tonight
Jason Timpf continues his power rankings ahead of the 2024-2025 NBA season with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Sacramento Kings, and Orlando Magic. Jason discusses why it is time for Donovan Mitchell and the Cavaliers to make a move, how much he believes in De’Aaron Fox and the Kings’ ability to make noise in the playoffs with DeMar DeRozan joining, and how high he believes the ceiling is for Paolo Banchero and the Magic!
Watch teams #20-18 here: https://youtu.be/2QeEMZyYFno
Timeline:
00:00 – Introduction
00:58 – #17: Cleveland Cavaliers
12:42 – #16: Sacramento Kings
21:50 – #15: Orlando Magic
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22 Comments
If Keegan takes a leap the kings are top 3 in the west is Keegan/ellis both take a leap they can beat anyone in the playoffs outside of a fully healthy Celtic team.
Damn no Houston. Iām def taking them over the spurs next yr
My assumption is the Rockets is not in the top-20, I personally think the Rockets are better than the Spurs and probably Clippers, just my personal opinion
how did the celtics catch a stray in this video!? lmao this is why ppl think jason is biased
this time he brought them up to insinuate that basically bos' dominance is due to unfair advantages like:
1. having first dibbs on free agents bc boston is a great market
2. paying for wins w "5 $30m players"
thats crazy bc:
1. bos' top 6 were all acquired through the draft and trade so free agent signings didnt benefit them at all (outside of luke n sam who didnt have any nba offers when they signed w bos
2.
– last yr as well as this upcoming yr, only 4 celtics' players are getting paid 30m not 5
– last yr celtics were not in the top 5 most expensive payrolls. teams that were more expensive included organizations at all levels of the nba; min an elite team, phx lac n gsw who were mid teams, n was a trash team. good teams like okc, ind, orl and sac were all in the bottom 3rd in payroll last yr. so theres no guaranteed correlation between payroll n on court success.
– the payroll excuse is hypocritical too, bc the warriors have had an extremely high payroll for all but 1 of their dynastic seasons n never once did jason reference THEIR spend.
celtics are good bc they have the best minds in the front office and they have the most versatile star core in the league. these guys and the role players deserve the credit for their dominance not the money. it IS possible to praise brad, the jays, d white, jrue, kp, al etc w/o saying $30m (which is only abt half a max salary atp)
Jason should be in some team's front office
Damn brutal Cavs anaylsis…. hope you are wrong.
Strus is a decent bench player, you can't have him starting
All 3 of these teams are as good as the Lakers
D'Aron Fox All-Defense candidate, huh? Because DeRozan is taking more shots. That is not really how it works defensively. You need a team that values defense, where 1-8 digs in. Playing next to Sabonis, DeMar, Monk, and Huerter isn't going to encourage that
(assuming heath) this my top 20 going into next szn:
1. bos 11. orl
2. okc 12. phx
3. phi 13. cle
4. nyk 14. hou
5. den 15. nop
6. min 16. lal
7. mil 17. sac
8. mem 18. gsw
9. ind 19. lac
10. dal 20. mia
lot of tough calls in there but lets discuss! what do yall think I have wrong?
I am a big Kings fan. To me, their best opportunity to get better right now is if Keegan Murray takes a leap. I like the DeRozan pick up, but he is not a gamechanger. Unfortunately, his lack of 3pt shooting doesnt open the floor as much as a good 3 and D guy. My wish is that they somehow pick up an above average defensive 4 with a decent 3pt shot. I know, that's asking a lot! Still hoping
no way trey lyles starts and demar hasnt been a 2 for a while now lol, he almost exclusively played at the 3/4 for chicago the last few years. my guess is the starting lineup goes like this: fox, ellis, derozan, murray, sabonis.
ohh ok so these are contender rankings not power rankings – as defined by jasons process last yr. that wasnt clear until the end of the cavs segment
Magic is obviously a better team than last year. Do you think it would be better if they add a good ball handler guard to be a primary ball handler instead of using these 2 great 3&D guard and let Paolo (or Franz) carrying the ball???
DeRozan is back to a guard? Wasn't he the SF for his entire Bulls run? Keegan starts at PF and Demar at SF. And Keon Ellis should be starting SG again since the Kings jumped to top 10 defense last year in games that Keon started. Barnes was cooked on defense last year, so Demar is not as much of a drop off, if at all, on defense as everyone thinks. And Sabonis is so underrated on defense it's ridiculous. Just because he doesn't block shots doesn't mean that he's not a plus defender in every single other advanced defensive category. Leading the league in defensive rebounds is a defensive stat, by the way. Almost every single successful defensive stand ends with a defensive rebound.
As a Wolves fans here are my power rankings (top 15):
1. Boston (you canāt have anyone else first)
2. Dallas (WCF winners and it wasnāt close and they added Thompson. Luka is also a year older)
3. Wolves (beat the reigning champs and swept the Suns, and they are a young team a year older)
4. Denver (They have Jokic)
5. Knicks (Brunson has an insane amount of help)
6. OKC (regular season Western conference champs with a ton of young talent. Until they do something in the playoffs against a team that isnāt injured I donāt see how they can be any higher)
7. Milwaukee (Similar to DEN, they have Giannis. If him and Dame are healthy they should be a top 5 team going into the playoffs)
8. Indiana (went to the ECF with a young but talented team. They should be better this season.)
9. 76ers (They will be good, but I donāt see them as a post season threat. Embiid sucks in the playoffs even if heās healthy and PG is the most overrated player right now. Maxey is their best player imo.)
10. Memphis (I would have them higher but I want to see how they do fully healthy)
11. Phoenix (they will be good in the regular season and have a great offense, but their defense is terrible)
12. CLE (I think they will take a step forward this year and be a true threat in the playoffs)
13. ORL (a young team that will be special defensively and take a step forward offensively. They are a poor manās Wolves)
14. Miami (if Butler remains healthy they could be a little higher)
15. Sacramento (they will be a solid team but they just donāt have the fire power to truly compete in the west)
Cavs entire season & offensive success hinges on Mobely & Garlands progression
Kings rotation barring trade is fox, Ellis, derozan, Murray, sabonis with monk, huerter and lyles playing major roles off the bench and len getting like 10 min/game
Don't forget that DeRozan was the 2nd most clutch player in the league last year. Fox is great down the stretch, but adding someone even better makes your team significantly better. I think they CAN be better than the team a few years ago who had the best offense in the league, although I'm not sure they WILL be.
I really think the kings are going to prove a lot of ppl wrong this season.
A little confused how fox led in steals and 2nd in deflections, 2nd in straight pickpockets and we are still talking about him like hes a mediocre defender…
Magic are too low. Why are you disrespecting them?
Won 47 games with a bunch of kids. All those kids got a game 7 experience and 1 more year of getting better. Note they have improved every year. Added KCP too. Top 6 team in the East is already guaranteed might get the 2nd seed too. Watch out for AB Jett TDS off the bench