NBA Power Rankings: Spurs Overachieving After 1st Week of NBA Season?

The San Antonio Spurs are winners of two straight, but where does that place them in the NBA power rankings?

Jeremy Brener | Oct 24, 2022

NBA Power Rankings: Spurs Overachieving After 1st Week of NBA Season? /

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San Antonio Spurs

The San Antonio Spurs are turning heads after a blowout loss on opening night.

Many people pegged the Spurs to be the worst team in the NBA this year after trading Dejounte Murray to the Atlanta Hawks and prioritizing development rather than contending for the play-in like the team has the past two seasons.

San Antonio's outlook placed them dead last in The Athletic power rankings at the beginning of the season. However, the 3-1 start has the Spurs jumping up four spots to No. 26 on this week's rankings.

Editor's Note: The Spurs improved to 3-1 on Monday night as they defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves on the road. This could slightly change their ranking going forward. This article was written before the win against the T-Wolves.

"A very surprising start for the San Antonio Spurs," The Athletic writes. "Why? Because they won twice! We saw them get absolutely destroyed in the first game to a Charlotte team that isn’t very good and missing its best player.

"Beating Indiana in the Tank Bowl wasn’t a big surprise because one of these teams had to win. But they went into Philadelphia and left Sixers fans booing in the first week. The quartet of Keldon Johnson, Jakob Poeltl, Devin Vassell and Tre Jones has been really fun so far. Poeltl is going to yield a nice return for the Spurs if they trade him to a contender at the deadline."

It's going to be hard for the Spurs to keep this pace up, but the first week shows that San Antonio may not be the team everyone expected to be.

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Published Oct 24, 2022

JEREMY BRENER

Jeremy Brener is an editor, writer and social media manager for several Fan Nation websites. His work has also been featured in 247 Sports and SB Nation as a writer and podcaster. Brener has been with Fan Nation since 2021. Brener grew up in Houston, going to Astros, Rockets and Texans games as a kid. He moved to Orlando in 2016 to go to college and pursue a degree. He hosts "The Dream Take" podcast covering the Rockets, which has produced over 350 episodes since March 2020. Brener graduated in May 2020 from the University of Central Florida with a Bachelor's degree in Broadcast Journalism minoring in Sport Business Management. While at UCF, Brener worked for the school's newspaper NSM.today and "Hitting the Field," a student-run sports talk show and network. He was the executive producer for "Hitting the Field" from 2019-20. During his professional career, Brener has covered a number of major sporting events including the Pro Bowl, March Madness and several NBA and NFL games. As a fan, Brener has been to the 2005 World Series, 2010 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 NCAA National Championship between the Villanova Wildcats and North Carolina Tar Heels. Now, Brener still resides in the Central Florida area and enjoys writing, watching TV, hanging out with friends and going to the gym. Brener can be followed on Twitter @JeremyBrener. For more inquiries, please email jeremybrenerchs@gmail.com.