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Welcome to a new series over at Charlotte Hornets On SI. Every Monday throughout the regular season, we will be power-ranking every team in the Eastern Conference.
Unlike the NBA Standings, this is a short- to mid-term reaction to what has been happening around the Association. This also means that a team that loses three games to great competition might find itself ahead of a team that won a game against terrible competition. Accordingly, all statistics provided in this series will always be taken from the past week of play alone.
(Editor's note: These power rankings were written before Monday's games.)
Expectations were low, but the Bucks have arguably subverted them throughout this first week of NBA action. At the very least, Milwaukee was expected to beat either Chicago or Washington, if not both.
The offensive output has actually been solid efficiency-wise. Defensive issues and foul trouble have caused the Bucks to lose three games that they were very much in up until the fourth quarter.
The reason why Brooklyn is ahead of Milwaukee for me is that a) the expectations for them were lower and b) they had a tougher schedule. And, quite frankly, they were very close to besting both the Hornets and the Cavaliers.
Still, Jordi Fernández's squad is very reliant on the scoring output of Julius Randle and Michael Porter Jr., and the younger players still have ways to go. Mikel Brown Jr. specifically hasn't gotten off to a great start, shooting only 27.8% from the field.
Highly-touted rookie Caleb Wilson has almost been emblematic of the Chicago Bulls as a whole this week. Has the rebounding been great? Yes! Have some of the offensive chops been enticing? Absolutely!
But, has three-point shooting been abhorrent? Also yes. As were the turnovers. Despite those two huge factors completely tanking it, it should be encouraging from a Bulls perspective that they were able to get a win and at least keep it close against the Wizards.
THE most underwhelming team of the week in the Eastern Conference, without a doubt. Every game for the Miami Heat has looked similar in one way, yet strikingly different in another.
In every matchup, the Heat are able to play one or two really good quarters where the defense looks stringent, and the offense is borderline unstoppable. But in the remaining quarters, you're presented with a team that looks like you grabbed 15 random NBA players and told them to go out there and figure something out.
The lack of stability and on-court chemistry has been striking. What makes the instability so worrisome is that it seems like the cause changes from game to game. Giannis Antetokounmpo was almost on his own offensively for the first two games, before going ghost on both ends against the Hornets.
Miami looks far from a team that can make a deep playoff run. If there's a silver lining, it's that during very small stretches, a functioning version of this roster was apparent.
A good horse only jumps as high as it has to. And maybe the Washington Wizards are the best horse of the week. Both the wins against the Bucks and the Bulls were unspectacular, but most importantly, they were wins.
It's also no shame to lose to Toronto at all. So what have we learned about the Wizards? Not a ton. They seem to be a borderline play-in team that really struggles against the best of the league.
Another question that hasn't been answered: What does AJ Dybantsa look like? This year's first overall pick has missed every game so far due to an ankle injury.
Both Paolo Banchero and Jalen Suggs are already out injured and will remain on the sidelines for a few weeks each. Not great news if you're rooting for Orlando. Despite those personnel losses and the on-court losses against Atlanta (close game) and Minnesota (not-so-close game), a gutsy win over the Knicks showed the Magic cannot be counted out.
Franz Wagner is still really struggling with his shot but is bound for a huge overall leap in the upcoming weeks. Tristan da Silva's hot shooting from the preseason has carried over. Wendell Carter Jr. is playing with a bit more of an edge so far. Then there's also Anthony Black, who will fill in for Suggs as a starter and just keeps getting better.
Orlando absolutely cannot sustain another injury to a starting player, and the initially questionable depth is definitely a concern now. But as long as the Magic can play the top half of their roster heavy minutes, they'll find themselves being competitive in most games.
This placement is maybe a little harsh for a team that's 2-1, especially considering there's a winless team ranked higher. It really is just the nature of the Pacers' wins and losses that earns them this spot.
They squeezed out a win over New Orleans, then got absolutely blasted by the Mavericks, before obliterating Brooklyn the day after with a second-half scoring flurry. There should be no doubt so far that both Tyrese Haliburton and the offense around him are very much back.
Rick Carlisle's team hasn't figured out the defensive part quite as well up to this point. They have the 76ers, Heat, and Nets on their plate for this week. Two wins here would strengthen the argument that the struggles on the mini West Coast trip were simply growing pains.
Considering the circumstances, this week went pretty well for the Hornets. Without two starters and another key rotation player, they won two games. Now, yes, both of those wins came against winless teams. But assuming the injured players are bound to return very soon, the rest of the roster being able to scrape out these wins is a plus.
The Atlanta loss was, of course, an absolutely horrendous showing and a showcase of every problem Charlotte has right now turned to the max. The turnovers, the choppy offense, the inconsistent defensive effort. That game had it all. Still, it was only one game, and there was no better way to respond than a win over a desperate Heat team.
Was there more to the pair of wins than beating up on bad teams? We will find that out to some extent this week. The Hornets will play Washington twice, as well as Detroit and Philadelphia once. All teams with winning records.
I couldn't bring myself to put the reigning champs any lower than this. Sure, it's been a bad start to the season, and the efficiency of almost all players leaves something to be desired. Mitchell Robinson's absence is felt, too.
Nevertheless, all three losses came against quality opponents with playoff aspirations and were close calls. Which is not to say that these losses don't matter. It's just that the context matters too. If the Knicks continue to rack up losses in this fashion, the conversation around them will change accordingly. For now, it's too early to write them off.
Three games is a very small sample size, and two games is even less, which makes the Cavaliers especially hard to rank. And, funnily enough, their loss was arguably more encouraging than their win. The Cavs led Philly by 29 at one point and looked every bit as dominant as they often did last season, before squandering the advantage in a putrid second half.
They then almost did the same again versus Brooklyn but at least survived, against a considerably weaker team than the 76ers, of course. Cleveland also struggled to defend large leads in the playoffs this year, so again we don't really know anything brand new.
Every Hornets fan got a look at just how good the Hawks can be when they beat the brakes off Charlotte last week. Atlanta then suffered a close loss against Houston, but that shouldn't take away from how good this first week has been for them.
The offense is absolutely humming with everyone contributing. Jalen Johnson is currently averaging a triple-double; Alexander-Walker & McCollum are back at it like the offseason never happened, and even Dyson Daniels continues to find ways to be useful despite his shooting inability.
If you were to poke a hole in all of this, it'd be that the defense hasn't been good against both Orlando and Houston. It was magnificent against Charlotte, but that was partly due to how horrible the Hornets were.
The only other team to play two games apart from Cleveland, Boston gave a strong Detroit team a run for their money despite a horrible Jayson Tatum showing. It's not like the home opener against the Knicks was a superbly dominant performance, but it was another good team effort against a great team.
So yes, while a 1-1 record is unimpressive and Jayson Tatum was awful in Detroit, all in all, you still have to feel positive about Boston's outlook. Their in-control style of basketball is ingrained to their roster at this point, and they'll always be a tough out in every game or series.
Kawhi Leonard did not play against Minnesota, and Scottie Barnes went 0-for-12 from the field. That's important to mention, and it makes the big margin of defeat much easier to understand. Because in their first two games, the Raptors were dominant.
The vision for this team as a defensive juggernaut was in full effect early on. There still has to be some sort of consistent output, scoring-wise, though. How that can be maximized in different lineups is what the Raptors' coaching staff will be looking for in the upcoming weeks.
Whoever made the schedule for the first week of the season didn't do the 76ers any favors. The most injury-prone team in the East is also the only one that has had to play four games up to this point. Even more impressive is that Philadelphia hasn't wavered early on, looked at least competitive and at best superb in all of its games, and managed to share the load between its stars so far.
It's still absolutely in question if this can work over the course of an 82 game regular season. But for now, job well done by the 76ers and their coaching staff.
Sixth in offensive rating, seventh in defensive rating, the Detroit Pistons have shut their doubters (me) up early on. They are as tough as ever defensively and have caught fire from deep. The latter is especially nice to see from a team that has struggled so much offensively through the years.
All three of their wins have come against respectable opponents too, even beating Miami by 17 has to be acknowledged as anything but easy. Detroit's next matchup? The Charlotte Hornets!
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