Does Brooklyn stay at its same spot? One team ranked ahead of the Nets comes off as one big surprise.
The Brooklyn Nets are streaking but it's the wrong kind -- helping persuade its latest updated power ranking.
But where they're ranked isn't the surprise. It's more which teams rank ahead of them.
Law Murray unveiled the latest NBA power rankings for The Athletic. Murray places the Nets at the same spot, No. 28 overall, from the previous week's rankings. He mentioned the string of seven-game slides as the reason behind the Nets' placement.
"The Nets began the season on a seven-game losing streak. They had a seven-game losing streak in January. They are on a seven-game losing streak now," Murray said.
He acknowledged that the Nets have had a rough gauntlet to face, though.
"This was a tough schedule for the Nets, but they began it with a bad loss to the Mavericks," Murray wrote. "The Nets haven’t beaten the Knicks in more than three years; that may be the only thing to watch for unless you’re a huge Danny Wolf fan."
Wolf has stepped up big after the NBA All-Star break -- showing the versatile post skill set that got him drafted by Sean Marks. Egor Demin and Nolan Traore established themselves as the consistent rookies -- even amid chatter that Kingston Flemings of Houston is a new potential addition come June.
Again, Brooklyn's three different losing skids have sparked its neutral 28th ranking. But here's one big surprise from Murray...
Ranking two spots ahead of the Nets are the Sacramento Kings -- the league's worst team. How is it that lowly Sacramento, at 14-48 overall, are rated higher than Brooklyn?
"The Kings have the worst record, but they got a couple of wins against teams that aren’t even in the bottom tier with them, so I’ll acknowledge that," Murray began. "Of course, the Kings went to Houston and Los Angeles and got buried, but this Kings team isn’t built to do much outside of seeing how hard Precious Achiuwa and Nique Clifford can play."
Still perplexing to place the Kings higher than Brooklyn. This is the same team that endured a longer losing skid compared to the Nets: 16 consecutive games before the Kings snapped it on Feb. 23. Both have sparked the most theories among fans that one or the other will land the top pick in the NBA Draft Lottery.
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