It's trade time in the NBA. With the calendar reading February, NBA GMs are looking to loosen their demands in order to fill necessary needs. The Lakers landed Pau Gasol last week and it appears that the Suns will take their chances on Shaquille O'Neal as both teams try to cement themselves as contenders. With Jason Kidd still on the trading block and Ron Artest and Mike Bibby still playing in Sacramento, the next few weeks should be interesting. Detroit has once again risen to the No. 1 spot in my weekly power poll. Here are my rankings for the first week in February.
BIGGEST RISE: Detroit Pistons from 5th to 1st.
BIGGEST FALL: Indiana Pacers from 22nd to 28th.
(Editor's note: "LW" indicates each team's ranking from CheChe23's previous week. —RTW)
| CheChe23's Power Rankings: February 6, 2008 | |||
| TEAM | RK (LW) | W-L | COMMENT |
 | 1 (5) | 34-13 | Detroit returns to the top spot thanks to a 23-point beat down of the Mavericks on Sunday, which is frosting-coated by a current five game win streak and topped by having Miami on the schedule for tonight. Sounds delicious. |
 | 2 (6) | 31-18 | I really wanted to be cliche and put Utah as "1a" this week, but No. 2 is good enough. The Jazz are 14-2 since the New Year and will try to add to their nine-game win streak tonight against Denver. |
 | 3 (4) | 34-14 | Shaq is wearing purple again, but this time he'll be able to get first hand revenge against Kobe and Phil as Phoenix and Los Angeles battle for the division lead. With Shaq moving out of the Heat and into the Sun, Phoenix might lose a few more regular season games but they've instantly become a legit threat come playoff time. |
 | 4 (1) | 32-15 | New Orleans ran off nine in a row before going belly-up this week losing to Golden State by 13, Sacramento by 9 and Utah by 22. When Phoenix handles business against New Orleans tonight the Hornets will fall right back to the 7-10 range -- where they've been all season. |
 | 5 (3) | 36-7 | Minnesota fans hoping to get to see Kevin Garnett on Friday are going to be disappointed. Garnett will not even be in the Target Center for the Wolves/Celtics game because of his injury. Lame. All those people who shelled out money for floor seats are pretty upset now, having to stand and applaud Brian Scalabrine in honor of KG. |
 | 6 (2) | 32-15 | Dallas was able to overcome the 23 point thumping Detroit gave them Sunday to beat the Orlando on Monday. Dallas has four winnable games this week, which could vault them into next week when they play Portland, Phoenix and New Orleans. |
 | 7 (7) | 31-16 | The Lakers lost Andrew Bynum and Trevor Ariza to injury but added Pau Gasol in a trade. The depth of the Top 10 in the NBA just got that much deeper. |
 | 8 (10) | 27-20 | Dear portland season ticket holders, from now on please do not anger LeBron James when Cleveland is in town, thank you. Last Wednesday against Portland, James took something said by a fan as motivation to take over the game. The Blazers had a 14 point second half lead that LeBron sliced through with three consecutive 3-pointers finishing the game with the go ahead bucket in the closing moments. The Cavs have won five straight road games for the first time since March 17-April 1, 1998. |
 | 9 (9) | 30-16 | San Antonio is now 2-2 to start their yearly nine game road trip. Damon Stoudamire might be able to stop the bleeding, but this week is a tough one for The Spurs tour which has stops in Washington, New York, Boston, Toronto and Cleveland. |
 | 10 (11) | 29-19 | Baron Davis is a Most Valuable Player candidate, but did not make the NBA All-Star game roster. A win over New Orleans last Wednesday doesn't seem as special with the way the Hornets flopped over the past week. But Davis missing the ASG proves how great the depth is in the Western conference. |
OUTSIDE THE TOP 10:
11. Portland Trail Blazers (27-20): The rest of the NBA is now taking Portland seriously, which has resulted in four losses in the last six games. The playoff race has officially started.
12. Orlando Magic (31-19): After tonight's game against New Jersey, the Magic will face the true test against five straight playoff teams (LAL, CLE, DEN, DET, TOR).
13. Denver Nuggets (29-18): The Nugget/Jazz game tonight could be a playoff preview. Crazy stat: Denver was 8-0 on Wednesday-Saturday but just 1-6 on Sunday-Tuesday in January.
14. Houston Rockets (28-20): Houston is winning games they should and playing great as of late. The Rockets have won eight of their last nine.
15. Toronto Raptors (26-21): T.J. Ford is back which should help relieve Jose Calderon's workload. Andrea Bargnani has sizzled lately, see this week's "HOT HOT HOT".
16. Sacramento Kings (22-24): Four wins in a row including topping last week's No. 1 team, at 22-24 the playoffs might start becoming a real possibility.
17. Atlanta Hawks (20-24): The Hawks are winners of two in a row. But W's are going to be hard to come by this month with eight of their next 12 games against playoff bound rosters.
18. Washington Wizards (24-23): The Wizards could lose their fifth in a row if they drop the game against San Antonio tonight. And with Denver Friday and Phoenix on Sunday, the losing streak could near double digits soon. Luckily Butler wasn't out too long.
19. Chicago Bulls (19-28): We have now entered February and Chicago still isn't winning every game they should -- that's not how you make the playoffs after starting so poorly. Or maybe it doesn't matter when you're team is in the East.
20. Philadelphia 76ers (19-30): Andre Iguodala and Andre Miller are leading the Sixers in scoring and assists. Philadelphia is three games back of a playoff spot.
21. Charlotte Bobcats (18-31): I want to move some of these teams down the rankings, but when every team is bad that just isn't possible.
22. New Jersey Nets (20-28): It's hard to freak out over the Nets recent stretch considering they are still in the playoffs if they started today and Jason Kidd and Vince Carter are still on the roster.
23. Minnesota Timberwolves (10-37): The Wolves have won five of their last seven. Any more of these win spurts and Minnesota will win their way out of the lottery pick.
24. Milwaukee Bucks (19-30): Last night, Mo Williams scored 32 points and added seven assists in the Bucks win, while Yi Jianlian recorded his first DNP of the season.
25. Seattle Sonics (12-36): Seattle looked great beating San Antonio, Cleveland and New York last week, but at the end of the day what does that get them?
26. Los Angeles Clippers (15-30): Losing to Minnesota and beating New York in the same week doesn't prove much.
27. New York Knicks (14-34): New York finished January with three losses and has started February the same way. Lucky for them they're playing the sliding Indiana Pacers at home tonight (who didn't love the Reggie Miller/Spike Lee rivalry?).
28. Indiana Pacers (19-30): Indiana is losers of seven straight and has gone 1-8 since Jermaine O'Neal sat on Jan. 19.
29. Memphis Grizzlies (13-35): After a week that included shipping off the best player on the roster and letting Stromile Swift move on, to go along with the fact that this team has a total of 13 wins and has lost four in a row, Memphis is flirting with the worst ranking in the league.
30. Miami Heat (9-37): Shawn Marion and Dwayne Wade make for a sick duo, but Udonis Haslem or Ricky Davis don't fit the mold to give Miami anything close to a Big 3. And therefore they won't be competing anything soon. Roy Hibbert would make this team legit.
HOT HOT HOT
1. Tracy McGrady - In his last three starts, McGrady has averaged 26.0 points, 7.3 assists and 7.3 rebounds. T-Mac lifted the Rockets to their fourth straight win Monday in Minnesota after calmly dropping the 3-point dagger in the final minute of regulation.
2. Andrea Bargnani - The first overall pick in 2006 has started showing his range lately (nine 3-pointers over the last three games) and has started to up his points per game as well. Bargnani has averaged 17.5 points per game over his past six games (9.9 ppg on the season).
3. Brad Miller - Could he play any better? I honestly didn't think Brad Miller was actually as good as he's played lately. I'm thinking about putting his name in the same sentence as Charles Barkley. Miller has scored 22 points in three straight games, adding 20+ rebounds in two of the three.
NOT NOT NOT
2. Jamaal Tinsley - After playing on an All-Star level at the start of the season, Tinsley has been unreliable lately. He is just as likely to come to the game and drop 10 assists and he is to drop two. If you're playing fantasy basketball, this sort of player can be a nightmare.
3. Shane Battier - If the Rockets want to push for the final spot in the playoffs, they'll have to get more production from the 6th overall pick in the 2001 NBA Draft. Eight points and five rebounds are decent numbers, but Battier needs to be a more of a 10.0 and 8.0 type of player. Luis Scola, Bonzi Wells and Chuck Hayes all average more rebounds per game than Battier, but are playing around 14 minutes less.
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