NBA Power Rankings: Preview the Los Angeles Lakers and the rest

While it has only been two short months, the NBA is back again. So it is time for the preseason Power Rankings and a look at where each team stands.

After the longest season in NBA history, fans have now experienced the shortest offseason. That is, unless you are connected to one of the teams that did not make it to the bubble. For those organizations, you might even forget who the team is at this point.

No matter which side you fall on, this power ranking is for you. While throughout the season this will be for a week to week reaction and tracking of the goings-on in the best league in sports, this time is a little different. These are the preseason rankings that will project where every team will finish this season. We will recap who has left the team, who the newcomers are and maybe even allude to some award projections along the way.

Our own Duncan Smith projected win-totals for each team (see above) and we will be doing something similar here. For our gambling friends, I will be referencing the win totals The Action Network put out and predicting over-unders there.

Plenty has changed in the last two months but the top teams mostly remain the same. The Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks battled over the top of the power rankings for much of the post-seeding game run, occasionally interrupted by the LA Clippers, Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets. That will likely be the same for much of this season. That being said, there are some big risers and even bigger fallers. None of them is a bigger drop than our first team on the list.