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But this year early on, more than most, we have proof of how much great coaching this league has to offer. The Pacers have strung together the offense they’ve been searching for, using a smallball 3-point barrage, and yet still have the third-best defense in the league, because Frank Vogel is a super-genius. The Heat don’t actually have that much firepower, but they are surging thanks to Erik Spoelstra’s terrific defensive work. Steve Clifford realized his offensive scheme wasn’t working, so he overhauled it, and now the Hornets are hitting teams in waves.

You’ve got your standby’s, with Gregg Popovich overhauling the Spurs and still dominating the league. You’ve got Rick Carlisle taking a pieced together roster and making them dangerous. There are so many teams who, without great coaching from their staffs, would have too much instability to succeed.

Paul George is a Jedi, Kawhi Leonard is an alien, the talent is there throughout these teams. You have to have talent to win. But coaching can take a good team and make it great. We’re seeing that this season.

Then there’s the Oklahoma City Thunder. The defense has made major changes to its scheme, and that’s been a real problem. For as much as Kevin Durant’s absence hurt the Thunder, their issues with the defensive scheme under new coach Billy Donovan have hurt almost as much. They were really struggling in that department for weeks. But they seemed to have turned a corner and in the past four games are red-hot, prompting a big move up in this week’s rankings.

Enes Kanter has provided a spark, and at least recently, hasn’t been a significant detriment on the defensive side. If they can get offensive boosts from Kanter in limited minutes while using their core veterans and racking up points like this, OKC is going to get scary in a hurry.

Here are this week’s power rankings.

RANK	TEAM		MOVE (LW)
1		I know no one’s really talking about them, but the Warriors are playing pretty well, don’t you think? Kind of flying under the radar, though. If only there was more coverage about how good this team is.	0
2		LaMarcus Aldridge sticks out like a sore thumb, Kawhi Leonard still has some problems taking over late in games, they have no 3-point shooters, and in spite of that, the Spurs are a machine of unstoppable precision and smothering defense. Nothing stops the machine.	0
3		Leading the Eastern Conference and earning wins over the Thunder and the LeBron-less Cavaliers. Miami has the No. 2 defense in the league and they’re just hitting their stride offensively. Anyone want to give Erik Spoelstra some credit? Anyone? Anybody? You, over there in the back? No one? OK.	2
4		I’m keeping them up here despite back to back losses to the Blazers and Jazz. They were finishing a West Coast road trip and the Clippers beatdown gets them some credit. Besides, they have to play the Warriors this week. I like to do nice things for people when bad things are about to happen to them.	-1
5		You think I’m crazy right? Do you realize they have a better net point differential per 100 possessions than the Cavaliers? Or that they have won six of eight with the only two losses to the Cavaliers and Warriors? It won’t last but the Hornets have a great vibe right now.	4
6		LeBron James seems like he’s walking around with a constant stress headache. Kyrie Irving and Iman Shumpert will be back soon, and that will cover a lot of problems, but will it fix their issues with intensity and focus?	-2
7		The Nuggets loss was bad, but this team is still playing well. They put up a fight vs. the Warriors which counts as a win here, and they still have a top-10 point differential per 100 possessions. The Jonas Valanciunas injury is really apparent for stretches, though.	-1
8		They’ve stopped the capitulation, despite Chris Paul and J.J. Redick being out again. The problem is this: Is any contender really frightened of the Clippers at this point?	4
9		I know, I know, they beat the Spurs. But the Hornets loss is the kind of game that shows how inconsistent they are. Their resume seems a lot stronger than their actual ability. They also have the same net rating (points allowed vs. points produced per 100 possessions) as the Pistons. Something’s up with this team that the wins and losses aren’t showing.	-2
10		They’ve won three of their past five to stabilize. I continue to marvel at how balanced their schedule is. They beat teams under .500 and lose to teams over .500 like clockwork. By the way, Rick Carlisle and Deron Williams getting along swimmingly is a little bit of a plot twist.	1
11		The Grizzlies have won nine of 12, but because they lost to the Spurs on national television it seems like they’re doomed. The Grizzlies are comfortably good-not-great. They are substantially worse than the top tier teams, but better than almost everyone else. “Trading for Mario Chalmers may have saved their season” isn’t exactly something I expected.	3
12		Dennis Schröder really wants to start. He could “start” by shooting better than 40 percent from the field and 30 percent from 3-point range. Get it? Start? He could … anyway, the Hawks are really uneven but they haven’t lost to a bad team in weeks.	-2
13		I doubted the Celtics last week in this space, they then beat the Heat and Kings, and hung with San Antonio to the very end. They’re finding ways game by game. The schedule suggest they’re about to fall off a cliff … which probably means they’ll somehow surge. They adapt to their environment.	4
14		Yes, the losses to the Hawks and Heat were winnable games late in the fourth, and OKC did beat the Kings, but the fact remains that Oklahoma City is beatable right now. They don’t have that extra gear. They’re like a race car without the horsepower. They just “look” fast.	-6
15		The Pacers win was one of the best of the season and Derrick Favors has been a total hulk. With Rudy Gobert out, though, their margin for error in every game is perilously thin.	-2
16		They looked like they had run out of juice and then rattled off four straight. They face the Hornets, Grizzlies and Pacers in a five-day span. Some might call it a challenge, I call it an opportunity (to be exposed as frauds). Optimism!	4
17		It’s a big jump for a team that’s looked terrible all year but they were always too talented to be in the dumps for long. They’ve won five of six and Donatas Motiejunas is back. The schedule is marshmallow cream this week. The Rockets might have turned the corner. (Brace for failure …)	7
18		Had a great West Coast road trip, were about to sweep it, had the Clippers right where they wanted them … and couldn’t hold it. Still, they’re looking like a real basketball team and have the eighth-best defense. They’re winning despite Victor Oladipo shooting below 40 percent. That’s a good sign.	-2
19		The Knicks have come back to Earth a bit, but remain competitive in most of their games. Also, the over/under on churches built in Kristaps Porzingis’ name by the end of the season is 15.	-4
20		When you look at it, they haven’t lost to a bad team in weeks, and just knocked off the Pacers. However they’re stringing this together, it’s working.	3
21		It’s alive! It’s really alive! It’s still not playing great defense and still has injury problems hanging by a thread, but it’s alive!	1
22		The young pups have started to slide, but their defense remains surprisingly strong. You know, when Karl-Anthony Towns gets to play. Which isn’t in the fourth quarter very often, for some reason.	-3
23		They’ve now lost seven of eight after Jeff Green hit a game-winning alley-oop Sunday. That sentence is unbelievable enough without this: the Suns are now 1-6 in games where the score is within three points in the final minute. Things, as they say, have taken a turn for the worse.	-5
24		John Wall’s pretty clearly hurt. The wings can’t rebound or hit shots (30th in unguarded catch-and-shoot field-goal percentage). They beat two good teams this week in the Cavaliers and Suns, but they also lost to the Lakers. They have the feeling of a team for whom it’s going to get worse before it gets better.	-3
25		Their last two wins are by a combined 33 points. That’s good, right? They’ve won twice in their last seven games. This team is weird.	2
26		Finished the East Coast road trip strong, with wins over the Raptors and Sixers. OK, so not that strong. Emmanuel Mudiay has hit a rough patch the last two, so of course, the Internet has decided his career is over. Note: His career is not over.	0
27		Last week I told you that the Kings were actually 5-5 when DeMarcus Cousins played, and so their problem was Cousins injury. Yeah, they lost three straight this week with Cousins. So that’s out.	-2
28		Gotta love the Nets with two wins vs. the Pistons and Suns to sucker you in before getting run out by the Knicks. The Nets are elite at pulling the rug out. They are not elite at basketball.	0
29		I have a STAT for you. You’ll want to sit down if you’re reading this on your phone while walking. The 76ers have been involved in 10 games within five points in the final five minutes. The Sixers have been outscored in such “clutch” situations by 71 points in 36 minutes the score was that close. SEVENTY-ONE POINTS IN THIRTY-SIX MINUTES. To call this tanking assumes that anything can submerge that quickly. This is teleporting to the bottom.	1
30		Kevin Durant says I’m not allowed to say anything negative about Kobe Bryant because of all the good things he did in his career. So I’m not going to mention that Bryant is one of 18 players to have at least 50 isolation possessions this season, and the only one of those to shoot less than 25 percent from the field. And I’m for sure going to just ignore the fact that he’s 11th in field-goal attempts per game for a team supposedly developing young guard talent or that he’s taking as many shots per 36 minutes as Russell Westbrook. Nope. Not going to say any of those things.