NBA Power Ranking Lists: How Pundits Rank Houston Rockets Week 20

Where National Pundits place Houston Rockets on NBA Power Ranking Lists week 20

Week 20 of the 2015-16 season is in the books and with that the new NBA Power Ranking Lists are out, so lets take a look at where the Houston Rockets were ranked.

In Week 20 the Houston Rockets had 3 games featuring the Sixers, Celtics and Hornets. In the case of the latter two teams the Celtics were on an extended home winning streak (like Toronto was) of 14 games and the Hornets have been one of the hottest teams in the league since February alongside Golden State, San Antonio and Toronto. The Rockets took the first 2 games, but seemed to not have their legs versus the Hornets.

In week 21 the Rockets play 4 games finishing important season series against current playoff seeds above them the Memphis Grizzlies and LA Clippers. They’ll also play a back to back against the young Timberwolves who’ve been playing spoiler post All-Star Break and finish off against the Hawks.

Lets see where the pundits rank the Rockets in week 2o:

Pundits Lists:

John Schuhmann of nba.com  points to the two wins I noted above over the Raptors and Celitcs, but also notes how poorly the team has been doing in first quarters. He raises them a significant 5 spots . Full week 20 list

Matt Moore of CBS Moore continues to raise the Rockets up the ladder and this week he moves them up 6 spots. Complete list.

Marc Stein ESPN  Yep that stat Stein uses is courtesy of John Schuhmann up top, because well let’s just put it this way Schuhmann should have his own BBall nickname just for the amazing stats and details he pulls. I’m thinking if the Schuh fits, though others might not find that comical. (but I digress). Like the similar stat usage Stein also posts the Rockets at 14.  Full List.

Jeremy Woo of Sports Illustrated  Like most of the board Woo has the Rockets in at the mid level and points to what I’ve been saying for about 2 weeks now…. that the Rockets could end up moving up to sixth based on just playing .500 and relying on the injured Grizz and youthful Lillard having to do it all .  His full list is here.

USA Today Panels Unusually the king of just one line is actually pretty impressive this week noting Howard’s stat change this season. Here’s their full power ranking list

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• Houston Rockets: Evan Mobley worth a look at No. 2 in NBA Draft
• Houston Rockets: Ranking the top-five 2021 NBA draft prospects 

USA Today’s Jeff Sagarin continues to be a great list to keep up with given it records each teams strength of schedule, record against top teams and current performance over the previous weeks. I have to admit after becoming a true advocate of all the analytics of this list I’ve lost a bit of faith in it given he’s kept the Thunder and Clippers ahead of team’s like Toronto, Charlotte and Boston. Here’s the full list

That wraps up the National Media NBA Power Ranking Lists for Week 20 of the season. What are your thoughts on how the pundits ranked the Rockets? Let us know in the comments section below.

Next: East trip sparks Rockets

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