NBA Power Rankings: Sleeping giant awakes in West; Cavs ready to dethrone Celtics?

28. Brooklyn Nets

To be perfectly honest, I did believe the Brooklyn Nets were going to be in the conversation to finish as the worst team in the league. And while that is not completely off the table after the first two weeks of the regular season, it has become clear that the Nets have more talent on their roster than perhaps many believe. The Nets have two solid wins over the Milwaukee Bucks and Memphis Grizzlies to begin the year and the argument could be made that they probably should've also beaten the Denver Nuggets.

The Nets have had one of the most dynamic backcourts in the league through the early portion of the season with Cam Thomas and Dennis Schroder averaging a combined 52 points and 11 assists on efficient shooting percentages. Who knows how sustainable that will end up being this season but the Nets do have talent on their roster, not to mention quality veterans such as Cameron Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith.

I'm not sure how many games the Nets will end up winning but they're clearly not the afterthought that many expected them to be heading into this season.

27. Toronto Raptors

Thanks to injuries to RJ Barrett and Scottie Barnes at the beginning of this season, the entire outlook for the Toronto Raptors has been completely flipped. The Raptors are predictably off to a rough start to the season and it's probably only going to get worse now that Barnes is going to miss the next few weeks for the Raptors. Maybe Barrett is able to carry the Raptors on his shoulders for a while but this team doesn't have enough established stars to survive this type of momentary loss.

But it's not all bad. In the long run, this season was always about continuing to develop and find other young players who could be considered a part of the team's core. Losing Barnes for a few weeks shouldn't hurt much on that front. However, it could put the Raptors into such an early-season hole that they might not be able to climb out from. The ceiling for this season was always a spot in the Eastern Conference Play-In Tournament. That may already be in jeopardy for the Raptors.