2014-2015 Raptors Power Rankings

[stooley]

sooooooo
in a week they go 4-0, continue to lead the Easy and are behind 2-3 East teams in the Rankings.

What a crock of shit.

Well Hollinger's rankings are just math.

Reason why is Raps have had a really easy past 10 games (which hollinger emphasizes) and hawks crushed cleveland and beat the rockets, while the bulls beat the grizzlies.

And to be fair, I'm not sure that top 2/3 spot was completely legit in the first place.

[Mack North]

How are the Hawks better than the Raps when we've beat them twice already? The ignorance is astounding...

[Superjudge]

sooooooo
in a week they go 4-0, continue to lead the East and are behind 2-3 East teams in the Rankings.

What a crock of shit. I had to message shumann on twitter, what a prick.

I swear man...... if this team can run the table and get to the finals this year, I REALLY hope the raps and their management tell ALL these guys to shove it up their ass publicly.

[Superjudge]

Well Hollinger's rankings are just math.

Reason why is Raps have had a really easy past 10 games (which hollinger emphasizes) and hawks crushed cleveland and beat the rockets, while the bulls beat the grizzlies.

And to be fair, I'm not sure that top 2/3 spot was completely legit in the first place.

Hell no, HELL NO. Wanna know what number matters? Wins. Toronto has the most in the East. Period.

Toronto has the most. "Rankings" were created by the media outlets to give them a failsafe in which to push agenda's. Its a way they can use their own "subjectivity" to justify licking certain players or markets areseholes even when they arent doing well in the standings.

[CalgaryRapsFan]

Hollinger Ranking Update: Dec. 22st, 2014
Last Ranking Update (Dec. 21st): 4th
Today's Ranking: 6th

Last Conference Ranking: 2nd
Today's Conference Ranking: 3rd

Top 5

Warriors
Hawks
Blazers
Mavericks
Bulls

Raps bumped out of the top 5 again, and the Bulls make their debut in the top five. First time this season the Raps fall to 3rd in the conference.

At first glance it's weird to think that the Raptors dropped in the standings in the midst of a 6 game winning streak, but it makes more sense when you think about it. The streak (including 4-0 the past week) was against awful teams with dreadful records, which lowers the strength of schedule for games played and increases the relative strength of schedule for remaining games, essentially giving past wins less value.

According to mathematical rankings like Hollinger's, going 3-1 during a hard part of the schedule could have a more positive impact than going 4-0 against far weaker competition. Teams are expected to win against week teams and getting games against weak teams out of the way just means that there are more tough games ahead. Seems counter-intuitive, but makes sense.

This is also a big reminder why rankings (especially like Hollinger's) need to be taken with a huge grain of salt. Hollinger's rankings are as much about trying to predict future outcomes as they are about ranking teams based on games that have already been played (you can just check the standings to see that).

[Superjudge]

At first glance it's weird to think that the Raptors dropped in the standings in the midst of a 6 game winning streak, but it makes more sense when you think about it. The streak (including 4-0 the past week) was against awful teams with dreadful records, which lowers the strength of schedule for games played and increases the relative strength of schedule for remaining games, essentially giving past wins less value.

According to mathematical rankings like Hollinger's, going 3-1 during a hard part of the schedule could have a more positive impact than going 4-0 against far weaker competition. Teams are expected to win against week teams and getting games against weak teams out of the way just means that there are more tough games ahead. Seems counter-intuitive, but makes sense.

This is also a big reminder why rankings (especially like Hollinger's) need to be taken with a huge grain of salt. Hollinger's rankings are as much about trying to predict future outcomes as they are about ranking teams based on games that have already been played (you can just check the standings to see that).

I hear you.... but I quote myself, as I am the awesome;

Toronto has the most. "Rankings" were created by the media outlets to give them a failsafe in which to push agenda's. Its a way they can use their own "subjectivity" to justify licking certain players or markets areseholes even when they arent doing well in the standings.

Its a real thing man. Honestly.

[raptors999]

Toronto had nothing to gain last 6. If they lost to the Knicks they should drop like a stone in the rankings. Aldridge, Smith, Wear, Calderon, Prigioni an all white guy lineup.

[CalgaryRapsFan]

Its a real thing man. Honestly.

The math behind Hollinger's ratings is publically available and doesn't contain any bias.

As for other rankings, obviously there is going to be bias. I bet if we did a poll on RR to rank the top-5 or top-10 teams, there'd be huge differences and we'd probably have an entire thread dedicated to what "top" means (ie: at the moment, based on where they're expected to finish the regular season, based on chances of winning championship, combination of games played and expected future outcomes, etc....).

Of course there's bias, most of which is predicated by a combination of pre-conceived perceptions (Toronto has sucked for 19 seasons, so it's going to take more than a bunch of early wins in a shitty EC to wash off that stank), ignorance (even 'experts' can't watch every game from every team and have solid in-depth understanding of each team's strengths/weaknesses) and groupthink (media hype is a vicious cycle that can see a player/team go from diamond-in-the-rough to underrated to media darling to media hype machine to overrated in an instant).

I have no doubt that there is bias, especially when media outlets are competing for readership/viewership, but I don't believe that the NBA has an anti-Toronto agenda.

[stooley]

Hell no, HELL NO. Wanna know what number matters? Wins. Toronto has the most in the East. Period.

Toronto has the most. "Rankings" were created by the media outlets to give them a failsafe in which to push agenda's. Its a way they can use their own "subjectivity" to justify licking certain players or markets areseholes even when they arent doing well in the standings.

Well Hollinger's rankings are 100% objective. They aren't perfect, but there is no subjective bias. It's an algorithm. You plug in recent results and it spits out a number.

It's fair if you only care about the standings, but you gotta admit that they can sometimes be flawed too!

[JawsGT]

how we are only 10th on the NBA.com rankings is astounding. 2nd in points, 2nd in differential, 2nd in wins, 1st in the east and on a 6 game winning streak and only 10th, now thats a load of crap right there. If the Bulls or Cavs won 6 straight, they would be top 5 for sure regardless of competition played. I really hope the boys get 4+ wins on this road trip and straighten out these fools across the border.

[S.R.]

how we are only 10th on the NBA.com rankings is astounding. 2nd in points, 2nd in differential, 2nd in wins, 1st in the east and on a 6 game winning streak and only 10th, now thats a load of crap right there. If the Bulls or Cavs won 6 straight, they would be top 5 for sure regardless of competition played. I really hope the boys get 4+ wins on this road trip and straighten out these fools across the border.

NBA.com's Power Rankings are often bad - this week's especially so. The #1 team in the east is ranked as 4th in the conference (10th overall) while on a 6 game winning streak. So much star player hype in those rankings.

[3inthekeon]

It's 1 guy who does the rankings, just like at SI (4th) or ESPM (6th). People have biases. BFD.

[Raptorsnz]

How are the Hawks better than the Raps when we've beat them twice already? The ignorance is astounding...

H2H doesn't matter much, we beat the Hawks ages ago both times. The Hawks just beat the Bulls, Cavs and Rockets this week with the last 2 on the road without Teague and they've been dominating for weeks now, I understand why they moved up so much. The Cavs above us is more questionable but the Cavs always get the star team bump.

[mjt20mik]

Really.. John Schuman or whatever his name is, is an idiot. He came to twitter to explain that it was because the Raptors were terrible against teams above .500 and lost to the Cavs twice.

I wrote back telling him isn't Power Rankings done weekly, and if he wants to bring up the Cavs, we beat them once, beat ATL twice and won against Memphis. He did not respond lol.

[JawsGT]

Really.. John Schuman or whatever his name is, is an idiot. He came to twitter to explain that it was because the Raptors were terrible against teams above .500 and lost to the Cavs twice.

I wrote back telling him isn't Power Rankings done weekly, and if he wants to bring up the Cavs, we beat them once, beat ATL twice and won against Memphis. He did not respond lol.

Good rebuttal, and you can add this if you try him again: We are 7-4 against teams above .500, and 7-2 against the West. ATL is 5-4 vs above .500 and 4-2 vs West, CLE is 3-6 vs West and 8-6 vs above .500.