NBA
NBA Power Rankings: Roaring Grizzlies
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
While the Washington Wizards and Toronto Raptors have done their best to prove that they deserve mention among the Eastern Conference’s contenders, the Cleveland Cavaliers have shown us that they haven’t necessarily figured out all of their issues.
And while the Milwaukee Bucks have surprisingly found themselves with a real opportunity to sneak into the playoffs out East, their journey must now continue without their star rookie Jabari Parker.
Meanwhile, out West, the league’s onlookers routinely find themselves in awe of how competitive the conference is. If you’re hovering around 10 games over the .500 mark, maybe, just maybe, you will have an opportunity at a fourth seed.
Maybe!
Indeed, the Western Conference has given us a dogfight unlike one we have seen in quite some time, and the way it’s looking is that it would take a bear to come out on top. Kudos to the Memphis Grizzlies for emerging from the pack.
As December 15 has come and gone, the trade winds are beginning to swirl and it seems only a matter of time before Rajon Rondo and Greg Monroe are dealt and one other thing is certain: the wannabe contenders out West should try their best to secure some additional talent, because if there is one thing we have learned over the course of the first seven weeks of the NBA season, it’s this: it’s a Grizzly Warrior world, and it seems the rest of us are just living in (or observing) it.
