ESPN Power Rankings: Washington Wizards near the bottom

It’s no surprise, but the Washington Wizards are not being considered as a threat to the NBA’s title contenders.

We’re still more than two weeks from the start of the NBA season. Anything could happen during training camp or preseason games. No one knows this better than the Washington Wizards, who currently have five injured players as they enter day three of training camp: John Wall, Isaiah Thomas, C.J. Miles, Troy Brown, and Ian Mahinmi.

However, the uncertainty of the next few weeks is not stopping anyone from releasing their definitive ranking of all thirty NBA teams. Yesterday, ESPN joined the party by releasing their training camp edition of the NBA Power Rankings. Coming in at #25, your Washington Wizards!

The Wizards are ahead of the Charlotte Hornets (30), New York Knicks (29), Phoenix Suns (28), Cleveland Cavaliers (27), and Memphis Grizzlies (26). Good job, ESPN. The Wizards are better than all of those teams.

Where I take issue, though, is with the two teams sitting directly above the Wizards. Fellow Southeast Division members the Atlanta Hawks come in right above the Wizards at 24. The Chicago Bulls, now equipped with two former Wiz kids (Tomas Satoransky, Otto Porter) are 23rd.

Yes, these are projections for the upcoming season, but it’s worth noting that both teams finished with fewer wins than the Wizards last season. Chicago was victorious 22 times last season while Atlanta enjoyed a few more victories with 22. The Wizards had 32. In head-to-head matchups, the Wizards and Hawks were even, both teams winning a pair of games in last season’s four-game series. The Bulls got the best of the Wizards though, going 3-1 versus Washington last season.

Neither the Bulls nor the Hawks added any news studs to the roster from last season to this one. Then again, neither did the Wizards. I’d still take a Beal-led Wizards over both these young rebuilding squads. At least for now.