NBA Cellar Rankings Week 3: Wizards move down, Raptors shoot to No. 1

The Raptors make the list after going 0-4 and having a player actively being investigated for gambling.

Welcome to Week 3 of my NBA Cellar Dweller Power Rankings!

This week, ranking the teams felt particularly tough. The eight teams that are part of this exercise (welcome, Toronto Raptors!) went a combined 6-20, and three of the six wins were against other teams on this list.

If you need a refresher or an explanation, here is last week’s ranking.

8. San Antonio Spurs

Week’s record: 1-2

Season point differential: -7.4

The Spurs maintain the bottom spot on this list because of an all-around impressive week. In a narrow loss against the Grizzlies, Victor Wembanyama posted 31 points and 16 rebounds and was a +15 for the game, an absurd number for a loss. Then, in a Wembyless win over the allegedly contending Phoenix Suns, Jeremy Sochan had an out-of-body experience. Sochan put up 26 points and pulled down a career-high 18 rebounds while sinking the dagger three to send Phoenix packing. (Side note: the Suns have the toughest remaining schedule in the NBA and are almost certain to be trapped in the play-in tournament. Just something to keep an eye on).

Sandwiched in between the two aforementioned games was a real stinker: a 131-106 blowout loss, also versus the Suns. The loss was an overall rough game for the Spurs, whose leading scorer that night was Keldon Johnson with a paltry 14 points. That being said, the Spurs supporting cast around Wemby is night-and-day better than it was to start the season, and I am incredibly excited to see which direction the team goes this offseason. I have a sneaking suspicion a Trae Young trade is on the horizon.

7. Memphis Grizzlies

Week’s record: 1-2

Season point differential: -6.9

The Memphis Grizzlies’ season from hell continued with a 1-2 week featuring an inevitable elimination from playoff contention.

The most intriguing part of this Grizzlies season has been the personnel: late-round youngsters, spare parts and off-the-grid hoopers have eaten up most of the Memphis’ minutes this year. GG Jackson, the 45th pick in last year’s draft, has been absolutely hooping in the second half of this season, and he put up 35 points on 7-for-14 shooting from deep against the Warriors this week. Also, he was born on December 17, 2004, making him over a full year younger than me (man, I am starting to feel old). The win over the Spurs featured a start from old Wizards friend Jordan Goodwin, who has been playing almost 28 minutes per game since arriving in Memphis last month and is still searching for a permanent home. Also, as I was going through box scores, I noticed that someone named Mãozinha Pereira played six minutes in the loss to Denver. No disrespect to my man Mãozinha, who I am sure is a great guy, he was just so far off my radar that it took me by surprise.

The Grizzlies will be fine. This season was so marred by injury that it is honestly just nice to see guys like Desmond Bane and Jaren Jackson Jr. still suiting up and playing instead of being shelved for the remainder of the season. Now those are two guys who love the game.

6. Washington Wizards

Week’s record: 3-0!!!!!!

Season point differential: -9.7

The Washington Wizards of Capital One Arena have won THREE consecutive games, their longest win streak of the season and only their third time winning consecutive games. This win streak was hugely important for a number of reasons:

1. With a 14-58 record, the Wizards have now ensured they’ll keep their heads above water in future discussions of the all-time worst NBA teams.
2. Tristan Vukčević made his NBA debut. The 21-year-old rookie has been playing with Partizan Belgrade in Serbia for most of the season and will now have a chance to get some early NBA experience under his belt.
3. Trade deadline acquisition Richaun Holmes averaged 15 rebounds a game over the three wins, providing some much-needed help on the glass. Washington is not no longer the worst rebounding team in the NBA, having been usurped by the Charlotte Hornets.
4. The Wizards won three straight games with some of their fringier players like Justin Champagnie, Patrick Baldwin Jr., Jared Butler, Jules Bernard and Johnny Davis all playing significant minutes. Hopefully this experience is impactful in their development.

5. Detroit Pistons

Week’s record: 0-4

Season point differential: -9.1

We’re entering an incredibly marginal top five here: all five of these teams had dismal weeks, so I’ll try to split hairs as best I can.

The Pistons went 0-4 this week by shooting themselves out of games; over an entire week the team shot 27.1% from deep. They also let Donte DiVincenzo scorch them for a career-high 40.

There were certainly bright spots, though. Cade Cunningham put up 23 points and 10 rebounds against Indiana, while James Wiseman had 24 points against Boston and notched a double-double against New York. I’m not giving any weight to a couple of good Wiseman games, and I’m almost certain by this point he’s cooked product, but it’s nice to see someone other than Jalen Duren grab a few rebounds for Detroit.

4. Brooklyn Nets

Week’s record: 1-2

Season point differential: -2.6

The same way I give the Spurs some leeway because of their future outlook with Wemby, I penalize the Nets for their utter lack of direction. They do not control their own picks as a result of the 2021 James Harden trade, so they have no incentive to tank. The problem is, they do not employ any top-end NBA talent. Mikal Bridges is a great player but should be a third option on a serious team, while the rest of Brooklyn’s roster is seriously nothing to get excited about.

Reports surfaced this week that the Houston Rockets offered the Nets Jalen Green and multiple first-round picks in exchange for Mikal Bridges, an offer the Nets inexplicably refused. This came a year after after Brooklyn declined an offer from the Memphis Grizzlies for four first-round picks in exchange for Bridges.

In a seven-point loss to the Milwaukee Bucks this week, three Nets scored 20-plus points. Then, no Net managed to score 20 for the remainder of the week. Other than a 16-rebound outing from Nic Claxton in a win versus the Raptors, nothing jumped off the stat sheet this entire week for Brooklyn.

3. Portland Trail Blazers

Week’s record: 0-4

Season point differential: -8.2

Last week, I corrected a Week 1 mistake and spent a lot of real estate giving DeAndre Ayton some flowers for his stellar play. This week he played in one of four games and put up a mere eight points and seven rebounds. Now I’m not sure what to think.

The Blazers, losers of seven straight, might have already packed it up and hit the beach. Ayton, Anfernee Simons, Jerami Grant and Matisse Thybulle have all hit the injury report after what could have been an outbreak of tankitis in Portland’s locker room.

Luckily, Scoot Henderson looked pretty good this week. He followed up a 24-point, 10-assist performance with 22 more points in a close loss to the Denver Nuggets. In both outings, Scoot shot 50% from deep. Scoot has suffered through a tough rookie season, but as not only a guard who just turned 20 but also a product of the soon-to-be-defunct G League Ignite, I am still not ready to sound any alarms.

2. Charlotte Hornets

Week’s record: 0-2

Season point differential: -10.6 (wow)

The Hornets played two games this week. They were outscored by 64 points.

I honestly struggle to come up with things to say about Charlotte. With LaMelo Ball seemingly out for the season, despite not possessing the league’s worst record, this Hornets team is my pick for the worst team in the NBA. To be completely honest, this is definitely the team I have watched the least this season, and I don’t even feel that qualified to discuss them. They’re bottom five in both offense and defense and nurture the worst net rating in the NBA. On to the draft.

1. Toronto Raptors

Week’s record: 0-4

Season point differential: -5.0

I had already planned to add the Toronto Raptors to this ranking somewhere in the upper half, but the past week has been a trainwreck, so I’m debuting them at number one.

I’ll start with the good. Rookie Gradey Dick, who struggled to begin his career, has really busted out as a centerpiece in Toronto recently. Dick played hard all week, culminating in a ballsy 21-point performance versus Oklahoma City. If what we’ve seen in recent weeks holds, he’ll have no problem lasting long in a league that initially looked to be above his paygrade.

Additionally, Toronto has stumbled their way into the sixth-best lottery odds. This is an incredibly important position for the Raptors, who owe a top-six protected pick to the Spurs this season; even in a weak draft such as this one, holding onto that pick is absolutely mandatory, and it looks like the Raptors will be doing so.

Now the bad. Scottie Barnes is still out and has not yet been cleared for contact. I would imagine he is likely done for the season.

Now the disastrous. Raptors two-way forward Jontay Porter became the subject of an NBA investigation this week regarding improper betting practices. To keep it brief, a couple of Raptors games raised red flags: in two games that Porter left early, unders on his player props were DraftKings’ biggest moneymakers of the night.

The NBA, just like MLB and the NFL, has been playing with fire by not only accepting sports gambling but diving head-first into its depths without a flotation device. The NBA generates hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue annually by partnering with sportsbooks and cramming gambling advertisements down the throats of the consumers, and it was inevitable that a player would eventually get implicated. It makes sense that a player like Porter would be the domino to fall — Porter plays on a pro-rated two-way contract, making him one of the lowest-paid players in the NBA. The NBA is likely to make an example out of Porter, citing the sport’s integrity in issuing a monstrous punishment; while fair, such reasoning would be deeply hypocritical coming from a league that often appears more concerned with lining betting companies’ pockets than improving the product on the court.

This scandal is terrible PR for Toronto; every story covering it will feature a picture of Porter with block-letter “RAPTORS” across his torso. Plus, if Porter is found to have been involved in betting on his own unders, won’t the league have to investigate the team as well?

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It was great to see the Wizards pull through with a really strong showing this week, and hopefully they can extend their win streak (currently the longest in the Eastern Conference).

What did you guys think of this week’s rankings? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter @MarcoGacina!