Asian Qualifiers Power Rankings: Which direction is your team trending?

BEIRUT (Lebanon) - Window 4 of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Asian Qualifiers is only a few days away. It seems like as good of a time as any to properly update the Power Ranking before the games begin!

Remember that 4 teams have already been eliminated from the Qualifiers, so we're down to only 12 teams to stack up against each other.

12	India have been clear about their objective over the past few months: gain as much as experience as they can for their young talents. And when they say young talents, there is heavy emphasis on the "young" part as they have easily been among one of the youngest teams on average. This means that fans will have to expect a lot of growing pains... and brace themselves for big losses.
11	It's a quick fall if you can't stay consistent. Kazakhstan were on top of the word lookin' down on creation in the past two windows and before they could only find the explanation why, they suffered a loss to Bahrain to close out Window 3 and went winless through Asia Cup 2022. They have been missing some very key pieces over the course of these four straight losses, but they're now in the position to prove themselves rather than being given the benefit of the doubt.
10	There's room to feel sorry for Saudi Arabia a bit. Their past 4 games - all losses - were again Lebanon (eventual Asia Cup Finalists) in Lebanon, Indonesia (hosts) in Indonesia in Asia Cup opener, Jordan (Asia Cup Semi-Finalists), and Australia (Asia Cup champions). It's not about to get any easier, too. They'll be facing New Zealand (Third Place at Asia Cup) before heading over the Manila to face the Philippines who are expected to have Jordan Clarkson for this game. It will be quite a big result if they can score a win (or two?) during this window.
9	Bahrain suffered three straight losses in the Asia Cup as well, but there was a bit more optimism to extract from their losses. Brushing aside their big loss to Chinese Taipei, Bahrain ere able to close out their Asia Cup appearance with two strong outings against China - by one point on a last-minute game winner - and Korea. Additionally, Bahrain also beat Kazakhstan in the previous window to earn their spot in the Second Round (which looks better then than now), so it seems that they're moving forward in the right direction.
8	It does seem a bit harsh to place a team struggled with injuries and made it to the Quarter-Finals of the Asia Cup to lose to the eventual Finalists (Lebanon) by 3 points here at 8th. Still, for whatever reasons and whether they were out of the teams' controls or not, China did look a bit out of sort and struggled in their past few games. Expect them to bounce back and make this ranking look silly as they are deep in preparation overseas with their focus now shifting to making the World Cup...
7	Not exactly the best Asia Cup outing for the Philippines with losses to Lebanon (who they'll be playing in this Window), New Zealand, and Japan. Moreover, the loss to Japan kept them out of the Asia Cup Quarter-Finals for the first time in 15 years. But that means that Gilas should be on a mission to prove themselves worthy of being viewed as contenders this window right? Their preparation for Window 4 is indicating something along those lines as they're lining up stars like Jordan Clarkson and Kai Sotto to be available. Will it be enough to win the confidence of the fans?
6	Iran's momentum has been swinging around all over the place in the recent months. They rebounded from back-to-back losses to Kazakhstan to start the Asia Cup strongly with a gutsy win over Japan in the Group Phase... only to lose to Jordan in the Quarter-Finals. Of course, we all found out that Jordan are tough as nails to beat, but it's still a slight knock in their resume. Iran have a tough window ahead with games against Australia (in Bendigo) and Japan, but if there's a team that can be expected to have the talent and experience to come out of a two-game stretch as such on a high note, it's a team like Iran.
5	Japan should feel good about the way their Asia Cup went, even if they were unable to make it through to the Semi-Finals. The players showed spirit and the system proved time and again how it could win them any game, if executed to its potential. Fans can expect some new elements to be brought to the table which could add even more dimension to the way Akatsuki Japan plays.
4	Oh, how the tables have turned for Jordan. They went into the Asia Cup with a big loss to Lebanon and started out slow in the Group Phase, so it should be easy to excuse anyone who previously counted them out in a previous Power Ranking, for example. Even though they ended the Asia Cup on two straight losses, it's tough to knock them down for losing to Lebanon by one point and to New Zealand on a barrage of late threes. Jordan will have to prove how well they can play in an away game situation in this upcoming window (against New Zealand). If they can get revenge against the Tall Blacks, the Falcons should be able to call this a pretty good summer.
3	The expectations weren't too high for New Zealand, so for the Tall Blacks to come out with a "dirty gold" (as Flynn Cameron calls the bronze medal) is a pretty good sign. This allowed them to identify some high-level young talents to develop while bringing back veteran stars as they are doing this window. It's going to be fun watching Fotu and Te Rangi back in action for the Tall Blacks (as Basketball New Zealand confirmed) as well as more of Shea Ili in the Asian Qualifiers.
2	Going down in a Power Ranking might look bad, but context is important. Lebanon were the darlings of the Asia Cup for how they rallied behind their leader, Wael Arakji, and pushed the 2-time defending champions to the brink by losing with the smallest margin possible of one point. They've always been loaded with confidence and there's no shame that they have to be taken down a spot in this Power Rankings because...
1	... when it was all said and done, Australia have remained undefeated so far. Sure, there were some signs of struggle in the past 8 games whether it was against China, Indonesia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Japan, New Zealand, and Lebanon (so almost every game). But through all the worries and concerns and upset alerts, the Boomers are the only team to have an 8-0 record through the Asia Cup and through Window 3 of the Asian Qualifiers. The target is, and will continue to be, on their backs until someone beats them and even if they fall from the top of the Power Rankings every now and then... they'll eventually make their way back up just because they keep on winning.

*The power rankings are entirely subjective based on recent events/results/announcements and is in no way a true, accurate ranking systems. All comments are purely those of the author.

** This version of the Asian Qualifiers Power Ranking is an update from the latest Asia Cup Power Rankings.