Power Rankings - Week 3

[bt]

Yeah, interested in what makes it as we're ranking above 4 teams with better records.

[PowerRankings]

We love the chatter. Gives reason to continue on.

Yeah, as I said in my first post, it's just for fun. It doesn't matter. And I agree only the PR team will know the exact formula. I'm just opening it up for debate/discussion. But based upon the rankings and what the PR user said, it looks like it puts most of the weight on the last 10 games and the offensive/defensive metrics over those past 10 games. I could be wrong, but it doesn't sound like strength of opponent or amount of home/away games are taken into account much (if at all). For example, beyond just the fact that 8 of my past 10 games were on the road, 5 of my games came against teams ranked in the top 7. I'm not saying I blame them. Making a really complicated formula that takes all of that into account would probably take so much time. I'm just having a fun discussion. I think that's the whole point of even coming up with the power rankings.

We do take into account a teams home/road ratio. In fact, according to your stats, Phoenix had the 11th hardest schedule over the last 10 games. 8 road games yes but games against Orlando, Charlotte, Toronto, Los Angeles, Utah and Sacramento. Our home/road ratio takes into account a teams record so not perfect as Los Angeles were 8-2 over this run but were just a .500 team when playing Phoenix. Road games yes but it wasn't a tough schedule compared to some others (only Miami, Houston and Atlanta mixed in) and you were outscored by 6 points per game over this span. Others with tougher schedules were not outscored by as much.

It's not perfect and a blow out then a close loss would still give a poor average. We may be able to add more weight to overall record and will revisit the formula for ranking.

[Marcos_Beck]

After wins against Detroit, Cleveland, Indiana and Denver, I hope I can climb some spots

[GreenBear]

We love the chatter. Gives reason to continue on.

We do take into account a teams home/road ratio. In fact, according to your stats, Phoenix had the 11th hardest schedule over the last 10 games. 8 road games yes but games against Orlando, Charlotte, Toronto, Los Angeles, Utah and Sacramento. Our home/road ratio takes into account a teams record so not perfect as Los Angeles were 8-2 over this run but were just a .500 team when playing Phoenix. Road games yes but it wasn't a tough schedule compared to some others (only Miami, Houston and Atlanta mixed in) and you were outscored by 6 points per game over this span. Others with tougher schedules were not outscored by as much.

It's not perfect and a blow out then a close loss would still give a poor average. We may be able to add more weight to overall record and will revisit the formula for ranking.

Glad to see it takes all of those other factors into account. To be fair, the games against Utah and Sacramento just happened this past sim and weren't taken into account during the power rankings. So you'd have to go back and look at games at Milwaukee (W) and at Washington (W). Granted, beating Milwaukee is a gimme (even on the road), but beating Washington on the road is a very good win. The losing by 6 points per game can pretty much be summed up by one awful 44 point loss to the Clippers. I'm not going to make an excuse for the game, just an absolute dud. But my team rebounded and won by double digits against the Clips the very next game. Still, playing at Rockets (#1), at Heat (#2), at Hawks (#6), Clippers (#7) home and away, at Wizards (#12)... those are 6 brutal games. I also played 2 teams in the middle of the pack: at Hornets (#16), home against Toronto (#14). The only easier games I had were at Orlando and at Milwaukee, which I won both.

I don't have too much of a problem with my rankings. I don't agree with them, but it sounds like they're based purely on a formula and I think it's a really cool feature. Appreciate the time you guys put in!