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Time for another semi-regular round of NBA Power Rankings updates. The Portland Trail Blazers are 21-24, good for fifth in the Northwest Division and 12th overall in the Western Conference. Portland went 1-3 last week to conclude a 7-game road trip with a record of 2-5. I think I missed Power Rankings again last week so I'm not including previous ratings. Sorry.
Marc Stein, ESPN.com: Blazers are No. 19
Gotta be honest: We're probably going to need more time to digest that the Blazers lost to the Knicks by 42, made two trades, fired Nate McMillan, replaced Nate with a little-known assistant six years younger than 39-year-old Kurt Thomas, waived Greg Oden and then beat the Bulls ... all in the space of 72 hours.
John Hollinger, ESPN.com: Blazers are No. 14
John Schuhmann, NBA.com: Blazers are No. 21
It's unclear how you blow it up in Portland and leave both Raymond Felton and Jamal Crawford (shooting a combined 40 percent) on the roster. But the Blazers got a nice asset for Gerald Wallace, will probably have two lottery picks in this draft, and can part ways with Felton at the end of the season.
David Aldridge, NBA.com: Blazers not in top-15
Chris Sheridan, SheridanHoops.com: Blazers are No. 22
Kaleb Canales beats the Bulls in Chicago in his NBA head coaching debut as the Blazers hold them to 10 fourth-quarter points. "This was the most fun I've ever had in an NBA game," LaMarcus Aldridge said. Too bad things deteriorated so thoroughly in the days leading up to that most improbable of wins.
Kurt Helin, ProBasketballTalk.com: Blazers are No. 21
They have not thrown in the towel on this season yet - eight of their next 10 are at the Rose Garden and they could put together a little run. Either way, I like what they did. If you have to rebuild on the fly, it should look a lot like that (except for finding someone to take Raymond Felton).
Tom Ziller, SBNation.com: Blazers are No. 21
I like to believe that Portland's Friday win over the Bulls (!) was an ultimate F.U. from the remaining players to Paul Allen. "You're going to burn it all down, but leave us on the team? Say bye-bye to your ping pong balls!"
Jeff Sagarin, USA Today: Blazers are No. 14
John Hollinger's Playoff Odds...
- Portland has a 27.6 percent chance to make the playoffs
- Portland has a 0 percent chance to win the Northwest Division
John Hollinger of ESPN.com's advanced stat team rankings...
- No. 11 in Offensive Efficiency
- No. 13 in Defensive Efficiency
- No. 17 in Pace
- No. 21 in Rebound Rate
- Raymond Felton -- No. 48 among point guards
- Wesley Matthews -- No. 39 among shooting guards
- Jamal Crawford -- No. 11 among shooting guards
- Nicolas Batum -- No. 7 among small forwards
- LaMarcus Aldridge -- No. 5 among power forwards
- Kurt Thomas -- No. 53 among centers
-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter