NBA Rankings: Raptors plummet out of top 10

Winners of 13 straight, no team is playing better basketball than the Atlanta Hawks right now. The Hawks should be considered legitimate championship contenders. Really, the only pressing concern with this team is just how many of their players will be named all-stars – take a look at their roster, there are quite a few who are worthy.

Sneaker-heads rejoice! At long last, Steph Curry has his own signature shoe. These sweet kicks drop just in time for all-star weekend. Can anyone honestly say they were expecting to see the day Curry had his own signature sneaker line when he was first drafted in 2009? I know I can’t.

In a fairly surprising move, the Grizzlies were able to land Jeff Green from the Celtics in a three-team deal. In the four games he’s played so far with Memphis, Green has looked good as the bench scorer the Grizzlies have needed, averaging 14.8 points per game. Memphis looks very scary right now.

After missing 15 games with a hand injury, Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard returned to the Spurs’ lineup Friday. San Antonio has appeared to be playing better immediately, having won the two games he’s been back for by margins of 14 and 20 points, respectively.

Washington has lost just twice in their last nine games and boast top-six level offence and defence in that span. I’d say they’re “executing” pretty damn well right now.

Thanks to the star power on their roster, the Rockets look like a threat to make some serious noise in the playoffs. However, with only a 10-9 record against teams at .500 or above, it’s still difficult to put Houston into that upper-echelon of NBA teams.

Potentially some very bad news. LaMarcus Aldridge appeared to hurt his left hand in Portland’s win over the Kings on Monday and didn’t return to the game. Here’s hoping it isn’t anything too serious as hand injuries can take a while to heal (just ask the Spurs).

Seriously, what’s with Mavericks players swatting things that aren’t basketballs? First the Tyson Chandler’s “shoe block” and now Dirk Nowitzki’s knocking a microphone out of a reporter’s hand while doing an interview with Chandler Parsons. Someone must get to the bottom of this!

Doc Rivers pulled off a three-team trade that brought his son Austin to Los Angeles, making the pair the first father-son coach-player combination in NBA history. Pretty cool story. Not sure what it’ll do for the team in the long-run (the younger Rivers averages just 6.9 points per game and shoots only 38.7 percent from the field for his career), but still a cool story.

After letting him walk in favour of Jeremy Lin, reports have come out that the Rockets are interested in bringing back Goran Dragic. So far, the Suns haven’t bit on anything and why would they? Dragic is an all-star calibre point guard and probably Phoenix’s best player. Unless another bonafide star is coming back, there’s no reason to trade Dragic only because he’s likely to opt out of his current deal at season’s end.

The Thunder are .500 again and look poised to make a run to the playoffs. What’s been their secret? According to Russell Westbrook, it’s been all about their “execution.”

Here’s Greg Monroe epitomizing the famed expression “silence is golden.”

After falling to the Cavaliers on Monday — the Bulls’ sixth loss in their last eight games — Derrick Rose summed up Chicago’s situation all too perfectly: “it’s f—ing irritating.”

The Raptors have looked terrible of late, having only won two games in their last nine coming into Monday’s contest. Thankfully they were able to squeeze out an ugly win against the Bucks that showed the team return to its defensive roots. The jury’s still out on whether or not Toronto can build on it though.

LeBron James is back from injury and, despite his return getting off to a rocky start (hello push-gate!), Cleveland has picked up three straight wins it desperately needed.

Anthony Davis has been sidelined the last three games with a toe injury and remains day-to-day. During this span without their star centre, the Pelicans have gone 1-2 with losses to the 76ers and Knicks (ouch), and a surprising victory over the Raptors thanks to this Tyreke Evans game-winning drive.

In the midst of a 10-game suspension for violating the league’s anti-drug policy, Larry Sanders has reportedly vowed to stop smoking marijuana as he does in fact want to keep being an NBA player. Go figure, huh.

The Hornets are playing their best ball so far this season, dropping just one game in their last eight while playing the best defence in the league during this span — only allowing 90.1 points per 100 possessions. Even more impressive is that they’ve been getting it done without their two best players, Al Jefferson and Kemba Walker, on the floor together as Walker was sidelined right as Jefferson returned from injury.

Tall Justice is back in Tall Justice 2! Shoutouts to the partner who fled town to go to Cleveland.

Anytime you can acquire two first-round picks in a trade it’s a good thing, but for Timofey Mozgov? Well played, Tim Connelly. Well played.

The Magic don’t win all that often, so on the rare occasion they have a game in hand, why no close it out with a little flair? Take it away Victor Oladipo!

Some advice, don’t ever play Trevor Booker in a game of H-O-R-S-E.

DeMarcus Cousins is back to putting up all-star worthy numbers but there’s a chance he could once again be snubbed, a fact that Cousins has appeared to be at ease with. One person who would disagree with a Cousins snub is Blake Griffin, who has lots of experience playing against him. Hopefully the coaches also agree with Griffin’s assessment, he should be there playing in New York.

The Celtics know how to tank right. With thanks to some of their recent moves, Boston has accumulated an impressive 11 future first-round picks, with a possible five selections in the first round in the upcoming 2015 NBA Draft. Whether Boston decides to make use of all these picks or maybe turn them into a star is unknown, but it’s nice to have that option.

With so much smoke surrounding Brook Lopez, it’s just a matter of when a deal happens, not if.

Five months after one of the most horrific injuries ever seen on a basketball court, Paul George was spotted dunking again in practice. Nice to see his rehab is going well.

Injured third-overall pick Joel Embiid is reportedly struggling with conditioning and maturity issues, and is supposedly 50 pounds heavier than the 250 he weighed last season at Kansas. Embiid and the 76ers have refuted this initial report, saying he’s 275 pounds. Seeing as Embiid really can’t do much because of his foot injury regardless how much he weighs, this is all kind of meaningless.

This video. That is all.

Andrew Wiggins scored a career-high 31 points on Saturday and appears to be rapidly improving with every game he plays. Also, Mo Williams (!) dropped 52 (!!). This isn’t a typo, Williams is now the T-Wolves’ single-game scoring record holder.

On Monday, the Knicks won for the first time in 16 games against an Anthony Davis-less Pelicans squad. Congratulations?