Where National sites rank OKC Thunder: week 13 power rankings

It’s week 13 of the NBA power rankings and the OKC Thunder remained in the bottom tier of most national pundits’ lists.

Many of the top teams suffered from the dog days of winter when it’s clear teams are tired and are counting the days until the All-Star break.

Where National sites seed OKC Thunder in week 13 power rankings

As for the OKC Thunder, they didn’t just beat the Nets they pummelled them winning 130-109 but then failed to collect victories in their games versus the Wizards and Cavaliers. In week 14 they’ll be on the road traveling to Dallas, San Antonio, Charlotte, and Cleveland.

Here’s where the national sites ranked the team in week 13.

OKC Thunder power ranking – NBA.com:

In the OKC Thunder segment this week John Schuhmann dives deeper into the stats of Luguentz Dort pointing out his defense may not be all it’s cracked up to be.

He calls him “more unyielding than disruptive”. In fairness, when you’re playing on a team without a ton of defensive talent and consistently guarding the best player while also trying to make up for mistakes by the youngsters on the team it’s not surprising his defensive stats aren’t jumping off the page.

Put him on a defensive team and I guarantee you his numbers would sore.

For now, he accepts his role and the diminished stats that were robust when Chris Paul was still here. Give it time, and when Sam Presti finally assembles the right team around SGA, Giddey, and Dort things will return to the mean.

A portion of that Thunder excerpt is below and the full OKC segment and his week 13 power rankings can be found here.

Schumann holds the Thunder steady at 27th for week 13.

"We don’t necessarily think of Lu Dort as a guy who only scores, and he does generally guard the opponent’s most prolific perimeter player. But he’s of three players in the league – Bojan Bogdanovic and Kelly Oubre Jr. are the others – who’ve averaged at least 15 points, with fewer than five rebounds and two assists per game. Even on defense, Dort is more unyielding than disruptive, ranking 254th among 350 players who’ve played at least 300 minutes with just 1.4 steals + blocks per 36 and ninth on his own team in deflections per 36 (1.8)."

ESPN Panel:

In week 13, the ESPN panel also hold the OKC Thunder steady at  27th.

The panel’s week 13 NBA power ranking article can be viewed in full via this link.

"Kenrich Williams would probably get a lot more playing time if winning was the Thunder’s top priority. OKC has a plus-2.2 net rating with the 27-year-old, defensive-minded wing on the court and is minus-12.0 when Williams sits. He is the kind of role player every good team wants, so Williams is worth watching as the trade market intensifies. — MacMahon"

CBS Sports:

As we’ve noted repeatedly Colin Ward-Henninger of CBS Sports doesn’t use the same calendar for his power rankings. His seven days begin on the weekend and end on Friday. So every week the games played on Saturday and Sunday move to the next week for CBS’ rankings.

In week 13, Ward-Henninger drops the Thunder five spots to 29th to coincide with the losing streak.

To view CWH’s week 13 power rankings click here.

"OKC’s losing streak sits at five after dropping games to the Wolves, Nuggets and Wizards this week. It’s hard for this team to win when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander isn’t in top form, and he struggled this week, shooting 40 percent from the field and going just 1 of 8 from 3-point range. Lu Dort returned to the lineup and averaged 16.3 points and 4.3 rebounds in the three games."

SportsNet:

This will be the last offering from Steven Loung of Sportsnet who moved on from SportsNet so enjoy his final Tiers List.

"Embiid for MVP calls are likely to get loud"

"Injured elite"

"Hornets teetering on the edge of greatness"

"CJ McCollum is thankfully back"

"Tier 5: How much will the Pacers and Kings will be willing to sell off?"

The fifth tier is where the OKC Thunder land this week with the excerpt below. You can view Loung’s full tier list for week 13 here.

"The Indiana Pacers and Sacramento Kings aren’t going anywhere this season, but they do have some talented players such as Domantas Sabonis, Myles Turner, Malcolm Brogdon, De’Aaron Fox and Buddy Hield on each team. Any of these players could help a number of the many contenders sprinkled around the league and, for Indiana and Sacramento’s sake, could bring in the kind of desired draft assets and/or young players they’ll be looking for as the clubs move towards a rebuild — or just a start-from-scratch build in the Kings’ case."

Bleacher Report:

Andy Bailey of Bleacher Report offers his musing on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and puts the OKC Thunder 26th one ladder rung up from his previous rank.   A portion of the Thunder excerpt is noted below.

To view his entire power rankings for week 13 click here.

"Ineptitude of other teams in their range of the standings has helped the Oklahoma City Thunder stay within striking distance of the play-in tournament. And the star upside of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander may be enough to eventually push them to 10th.In Thursday’s blowout win over the Brooklyn Nets (who were without Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving), SGA went for 33 points, 10 rebounds, nine assists, two threes and two blocks."

In review, the national sites placed the OKC Thunder with a high of 26th and a low of 29th for week 13 of the power rankings.