NBA Team Power Rankings: It's the Warriors and Everybody Else

Should we even bother with the 2017-18 NBA season?

It's a legit question because, y'know, Golden State.

Our numbers project that Warriors Stud No. 1 Kevin Durant will be the top player in the league, with Warriors Stud No. 2, Stephen Curry, coming in at four. Warriors Stud No. 3, Klay Thompson is Klay Thompson, and Warriors Stud No. 4, Draymond Green, is already in the conversation for Defensive Player of the Year. (And yes, Klay is slightly more studly than Dray, at least according to nERD, our in-house efficiency metric, that predicts Thompson will finish the season with a nERD score of 5.0, while Green should clock in at 4.5. You can read more about both team and player nERD in our glossary.)

All of which begs the question, is anybody beating the Golden State Warriors? This summer, the general managers in the Association answered that one with a resounding, "Nah."

Then again, stuff happens, so what the heck, let's go ahead and break down who has the best chance to challenge the Dubs, utilizing team nERD, our ranking system predictive of the team's ultimate winning percentage that scales from 0-100, with 50 as the league average.

Let's start out with 10 teams who, barring destruction of the time-space continuum, won't be challenging Golden State anytime soon.