The Golden State Warriors might have suffered a blowout 20-point defeat at the hands of the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday, but that hasn't stopped them from rising to second in NBA.com's power rankings just three games into the season.
Stephen Curry's heroics late in Thursday's stunning overtime victory over the Denver Nuggets has certainly a played a major role in the rise, with the Warriors having ranked eighth last week before back-to-back wins to open the season.
It's a major vote of confidence in what Golden State are building on the path to what they hope is a fifth championship in the last 11 seasons, but it also comes with an ominous warning based on their strong start 12 months ago.
Warriors have been here before early in the season
While the Warriors were ultimately forced through the play-in tournament to secure their playoff berth last season, few will forget their hot start that proved nothing but a false promise to what quickly followed as a brutal reality.
Golden State started 12-3 and were 10-2 when they held second spot in the power rankings in week five of last season. They ranked fourth in offense, fourth in defense and third in net rating at that point, utilizing a deep rotation to advantage before it all came crumbling down.
The Warriors would go 13-23 in their next 36 games before the Jimmy Butler trade, spiralling all the way down to 11th in the Western Conference and looking nothing like the team that was second in the power rankings less than three months earlier.
That's reason enough to warn against reading too much into power rankings at this point of the season, particularly for a veteran team like Golden State who are far more concerned with what happens come May and June.
However, there is reason for the Warriors to believe this rise to second in the power rankings is more sustainable than what we saw saw last season. Golden State have been simply elite since Butler's acquisition, and there's no reason that shouldn't remain the case so long as health and availability doesn't become an overriding concern.
Along with Butler, the Warriors also have a veteran stretch big in Al Horford who they didn't have 12 months ago, while the improvement in Jonathan Kuminga through three games has been both notable and important in their title chances.
So while last year's strong start does serve as a warning, there's no reason to believe that the Warriors can't continue the kind of form that's seen an early rise in the power rankings.