NBA Power Rankings: LeBron’s struggles; Raptors’ early dominance

In the first installment of our 2018 NBA Power Rankings, we explore what’s wrong with the Los Angeles Lakers and the Toronto Raptors’ early dominance

Through the first two weeks of the season, it’s pretty clear that there’s going to be a learning curve for LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers. It’s not fair to entirely count them out at this point, but their struggles are certainly something to keep an eye on.

This is a team that is a bottom five 3-point shooting in the league, and that’s not great considering that we’re living in the 3-point generation. The Lakers will likely continue to struggle until these things are fixed.

By Christmas, we should have a better grasp of what this team will be this season.

On the other hand, the Kawhi Leonard experiment with the Toronto Raptors is absolutely a home run. The Raptors are 6-0 and hitting on all cylinders. There’s no question that this team go better than last season, and is only scratching the surface of their potential.

With that said, let’s get to this week’s rankings.