2014-2015 Raptors Power Rankings

[Joey]

CBS has us at #4:

I think those CBS Power Rankings are going to be my go-to's. The Raptors blurb is good, but my personal favourite is Indiana's:

Haha Those are good! I'm unclear on the meaning of the write for Chicago though ...

watching this team is still like watching a Mack truck pull a flatbed of turkeys through a rainstorm. Even so, this team is still really good.

Is that a good thing? haha

[Scraptor]

Haha Those are good! I'm unclear on the meaning of the write for Chicago though ...


Is that a good thing? haha

Whenever I see a Mack truck pulling a flatbed of turkeys it's usually being driven by a team of ninjas that was looking for peacocks to sell in western Kyrgyzstan, so this makes perfect sense to me.

It's like you wouldn't even understand if I said the Raptors have been playing like a bunch of tenor-baritones after they threw sushi into a supermassive black hole while making straw hats for Kyrgyzstani orphans.

[ezz_bee]

November 11th
Today's Rank - 3
Yesterday's Rank - 3

Top 5
Warriors
Rockets
Raptors
Blazers
Heat

[Other Scott]

Haha Those are good! I'm unclear on the meaning of the write for Chicago though ...


Is that a good thing? haha

I think he's trying to say they're hard to watch, but I would think seeing a mack truck pull a flatbed of turkeys through a rainstorm would be a rather interesting moment, so that one sort of failed.

[Nilanka]

yeah i still stand by this

Bulls are ranked high because of their defense (with or without Rose). They beat the shit out of you and win games by simply being more disciplined, and outworking you. Thibodeau is the real deal.

A healthy Rose is just icing on the cake.

[Other Scott]

Bulls are ranked high because of their defense (with or without Rose). They beat the shit out of you and win games by simply being more disciplined, and outworking you. Thibodeau is the real deal.

A healthy Rose is just icing on the cake.

Yeah, but is this Bulls team minus Rose really that much better than last year? They added Pau Gasol, lost DJ Augustin who was weirdly one of their main scoring options. That should be a plus, except Pau may be starting to live on borrowed time.

I just don't see this as a 55 win team that most seem to be predicting. Unless Rose is healthy, and that looks more and more unlikely all the time, they are going to have trouble scoring. Not Pacers type trouble scoring, but trouble.

[ezz_bee]

November 12th
Today's Rank - 3
Yesterday's Rank - 3
Yesterday's E. Conference Rank - 1
Today's E. Conference Rank - 1

Top 5
Rockets
Warriors
Raptors
Heat
Mavericks

[WJF]

Nice to see that there is movement in the top 5, shows that teams can and will fall. I think it lend some legitimacy to what we see.

[ezz_bee]

Nice to see that there is movement in the top 5, shows that teams can and will fall. I think it lend some legitimacy to what we see.

Exactly. If raps become a fixture as the top 1 or 2 ranked team in the East will be getting all the credit we deserve.

[octothorp]

In Sagarin's NBA rankings, (also fully computer-derived, like Hollinger's), Raptors are also third, but looking behind the numbers are actually 2nd in two of of the three systems, ahead of GSW and behind Houston in both cases.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/nba/sagarin/

[Jclaw]

Everybody might want to make sure they are sitting down before they read this. It's not ESPN, it's not SI, it's not NBA...but it's also not Canadian..

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/f...warriors-fall/

[Scraptor]

I love all the love, but any system that doesn't account for strength of schedule doesn't really mean much to me. We've had the 19th easiest schedule according to ESPN so I think their RPI ranking of us at 6th looks more accurate, at least until we face and beat some tougher competition.

[Joey]

I love all the love, but any system that doesn't account for strength of schedule doesn't really mean much to me. We've had the 19th easiest schedule according to ESPN so I think their RPI ranking of us at 6th looks more accurate, at least until we face and beat some tougher competition.

How do you accurately account for Strength of Schedule when only 8 games have been played and the Conference looks nothing like it did last year though?

At some point, personal opinion still comes into play I would imagine.

[ezz_bee]

November 13th
Today's Rank - 3
Yesterday's Rank - 3
Yesterday's E. Conference Rank - 1
Today's E. Conference Rank - 1

Top 5

Warriors
Rockets
Raptors
Blazers
Spurs

I do believe Hollinger's metric takes strength of schedule (SoS) into account, as he does assign each team a (SoS) number. Unfortunately I cannot confirm this because you need to be an ESPN insider in order to read the article about his methodology and I am not an insider. Also, the fact that it took 6-8 games for each team to be played before the first rankings were posted supports this as well. Sample size still VERY small, but they finally have enough to put something up.

The top three teams haven't changed since the power rankings first got posted. However there's been at least 4 teams that have rounded out the top 5: Blazers, Mavericks, Heat, and now Spurs. The fact that there's been daily movement at the other spots but the top three have remained the same becomes more significant every game.

[ezz_bee]

How do you accurately account for Strength of Schedule when only 8 games have been played and the Conference looks nothing like it did last year though?

At some point, personal opinion still comes into play I would imagine.

EDIT: Didn't notice that my Hollinger thread was combined with the general power ranking thread. Most power rankings, although informed by stats/metrics are entirely subjective.

There is no personal opinion in Hollinger's ranking. It is a math equation that a computer runs every day after all games have finished. There is some subjectivity, but that was done in the creation of said math equation. The fact that there weren't rankings until 3 days ago speaks to the idea that the computer didn't have enough data to produce an output.

Hollinger also has a computer that creates playoff odds based on his power ranking that is also fully automated. However, it doesn't post it's first data until sometime in December, because it needs a larger sample size (i guess).