A recap of the the post-trade deadline NBA Power Rankings.
Mar 3, 2011 - After a little break for the All-Star game and trade deadline shenanigans, SB Nation Arizona's look into the NBA Power Rankings returns. There were a handful of big trades that are likely to impact the top of the rankings, including (of course) the Carmelo Anthony move to the New York Knicks, the Boston Celtics sending gritty big man Kendrick Perkins to the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Atlanta Hawks picking up Kirk Hinrich, and the Portland Trail Blazers nabbing Gerald Wallace. Or, from the other perspective, the Denver Nuggets losing Anthony and the Utah Jazz losing Deron Williams.
It's a little too early still to see how these moves will play out, but they're going to make things more interesting as the seeding gets tighter. However, significant injuries are perhaps more pertinent to playoff rankings. The league-leading San Antonio Spurs are without Tony Parker for the next handful of weeks; his absence already cost them a game against one Western Conference rival, the Memphis Grizzlies. Speaking of the Grizz, they're without Rudy Gay for a while longer, as well. Newly-acquired Perkins is out three to five weeks already for the Thunder.
It would seem a lot of these changes would benefit our local Phoenix Suns, but the Nuggets refuse to let Carmelo's absence affect their play -- they've won four of their five games since the big traded. And the Grizzlies have won three of five since Gay went down with his shoulder injury. So the Suns are not catching any breaks in the Western Conference playoff race thus far, even with their improved play.
The Suns are ranked anywhere from 11 to 17 in the latest editions of the various weekly listings. In all cases they either stayed put or jumped up a spot or tthree thanks to a strong 4-0 start to the post All-Star home stretch.
But there's still a lot of white-knuckle playoff-imperative basketball to be played. On to the rankings!
SBNation.com | NBA Power Rankings: Spurs Lead The Way, Hawks Are Fools' Gold
The Spurs remain atop our NBA Power Rankings. What do they and the other contenders need to work on to prepare for the playoffs?
ProBasketballTalk.com | NBA Power Rankings: Trade deadline edition
The trade deadline shook the league last week, and the ripple impacts our NBA Power Rankings. But at the top it is all Texas.
NBA.com | Perkins trade will shake things up at the top
The three best players traded last week were Deron Williams, Carmelo Anthony and Gerald Wallace. But no deal will have more of an effect on the title contenders at the top of the Power Rankings than the trade that sent Kendrick Perkins and Nate Robinson to Oklahoma City for Jeff Green and Nenad Krstic.
NBA.com | Perkins trade will shake things up at the top
The three best players traded last week were Deron Williams, Carmelo Anthony and Gerald Wallace. But no deal will have more of an effect on the title contenders at the top of the Power Rankings than the trade that sent Kendrick Perkins and Nate Robinson to Oklahoma City for Jeff Green and Nenad Krstic.
CBSSports.com | Power Rankings: Heat improve by doing nothing at deadline
By now, you probably have read or heard about the winners and losers at the NBA trade deadline. Heck, you might even have initiated some of this banter. The fact is: You haven't heard it all.
SI.com | Spurs No. 1, Mavericks No. 2, Lakers No. 3 in NBA Power Rankings
The superstars headed East at the trading deadline, with Deron Williams leaving Utah for New Jersey and Carmelo Anthony going from Denver to New York. But after perhaps the most active swapfest in NBA history, the Western Conference controls the top spots in the Power Rankings.
ESPN.com | Power Rankings: Who's moving up after the deadline?
The Los Angeles Lakers have edged back into the top five of ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings ... at the expense of the Miami Heat.
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