NBA Power Rankings: Villanova Basketball is Taking Over and Kyrie is a Texan

The NBA Power Rankings are BACK (Because I remembered to do them this week). We have about 20 games left in the season which is so weird since the All-Star game just happened. Remember when the All-Star game used to be like, in the middle of the season?

Anyway, here are this week’s NBA Power Rankings:

7. Phoenix Suns

I guess I have no choice but to add the Suns to this week’s NBA Power Rankings. When you acquire Kevin fucking Durant, you get to be one of the top 7 stories in the league. Now, we can dissect the move and realize how overrated this team is.

We literally watched Durant spend the last 4 years in Brooklyn nowhere near the NBA Finals so the belief that trading away all of your wing defenders for the balding injury-prone middle-aged Twitter troll might be misguided.

Chris Paul trick y’all, man.

6. Kawhi Leonard

Don’t let Kawhi’s absence from All-Star weekend distract you from the fact that Kawhi Leonard is allllll the way back. Here’s what he did to the Warriors on Valentine’s Day:

33 points
12-for-17 shooting (70%)
7-for-9 from 3
7 rebounds
4 assists
1 steal
1 block

There’s truly only one thing that can stop Kawhi and the Clippers right now.

Russell Westbrook in his new Clippers threads, donning jersey No. 0:pic.twitter.com/VyIW6eTKPV

— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) February 23, 2023

Dear god, no…

5. Julius Randle

Not only was Julius Randle named to his 2nd career All-Star game, but he wasn’t the last pick in the draft. Sure he got crushed in the 3-point contest and he barely even played in the game but he was voted into the game and wasn’t picked last. That is a huge W for ya boy. Sorry, Sabonis.

4. Damian Lillard

Something interesting is happening in Portland. Damian Lillard has been Mr. Loyalty and hustle and the grind and doing it the ~~hard~~ right way. Dame is averaging 36 points this month including a stretch of scoring 33, 38, 40, and 39 in 4 consecutive games.

Shit, look at this halfcourt shot from the All-Star game. The net didn’t even move.

DAME FROM HALFCOURT 😱#NBAAllStar pic.twitter.com/oG4i8Msjda

— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) February 20, 2023

Meanwhile, the Trailblazers are behaving the opposite of officer Dame. They just got caught scamming the Golden State Warriors by trading them Gary Payton without letting them know that he is extremely injured.

I think Portland is tanking and everyone in the building knows except Damian Lillard.

3. Villanova

In 2016, Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart won the national championship playing at Villanova. In 2018, Brunson won the National Player of the Year Award and Villanova won the national championship again with Mikal Bridges.

Brunson and Hart have reunited on the Knicks and haven’t lost a game since coming together. Meanwhile, Mikal Bridges was sent to Brooklyn in exchange for Durant and now he’s casually dropping 45 points before the All-Star break.

Here’s Mikal Bridges scoring 15 straight points for the Nets over a three-minute span in the fourth quarter: pic.twitter.com/R8OU8GD86e

— Brett Usher (@UsherNBA) February 16, 2023

New York has become a nightly ad for Villanova basketball.

2. Kyrie Irving

Kyrie Irving gets a fresh start in a new city in front of new fans who are all supporting him and we’re all going to pretend as if he didn’t burn Brooklyn to the ground because they didn’t like how much he hates Jews.

The Dallas Mavericks are most likely going to give Kyrie the big max contract extension that Brooklyn was reluctant to give him and the clock restarts. The clock of how long it takes for everyone around Kyrie to start hating him.

This is a good example of what the Kyrie/Luka duo is capable of. Kyrie can hit impossible shots, make quick decisions when the opponent doubles Luka, put early pressure on the lane (and Luka took a catch-and-shoot 3!) and he’s got exceptional quickness and finishing ability. pic.twitter.com/x5yj51cLwj

— Bobby Karalla (@bobbykaralla) February 24, 2023

Kyrie and Luka are going to average 30 points a game together and lose in the first round of the playoffs together. Can’t wait.

1. Milwaukee Bucks

The Bucks have won 12 straight games. They are visibly the best team in basketball. I can’t not put them no. 1 in the power rankings, unfortunately. I don’t have much to say about Milwaukee. Khris Middleton had a couple 20 point games earlier this month and if he can get all the way to where he was in pre-injury then yea, the Bucks will probably be champs and blah blah.