Nine of the league’s 13 best teams, in this inaugural ALLCITY NBA power rankings, reside in the Western Conference. This is notable but also predictable given how damaged the weaker conference’s last two winners are going into this season. (The Indiana Pacers and the Boston Celtics both begin in the bottom half; it’s pretty much impossible to argue otherwise given that both are missing their best players.) Similarly, it’s no surprise to see the reigning champs on top. But while Oklahoma City may be on top, they certainly aren’t guaranteed favorites to repeat.
For these rankings ahead of Tuesday’s opening games, I’m ordering them first to worst as I see it. But we’re also setting the table for what every fanbase expects or should want from its team this season. For teams that aren’t your own, this is how you should view these other franchises around the league. Going forward, expect these power rankings to publish on ALLCITY every other week throughout the NBA season.
1. Oklahoma City Thunder (Last season: 68-14, 1st in West)
How to look at them: The league’s reigning champs, of course, are this season’s top dogs. They were, last season, one of the league’s great defenses in history; only nine teams since 1988 have had better relative defensive ratings than them. (That’s just a measure of their defensive rating compared to the league’s average.) It was in the vicinity — not quite, but close — as the best Detroit Pistons and San Antonio Spurs defenses of the mid-2000s. To the extent you can point out any weakness, it was the Thunder’s occasionally stagnant halfcourt offense, which slowed and became pass-adverse in some key postseason moments. Still, even then, Oklahoma City finished last year’s regular season with the league’s second most efficient halfcourt unit. Some of their players will only get better.
Look at them as the main threat to upset the league’s seven-year streak of different champions. To disrupt the league’s parity.
One question: Are we underestimating how likely it is they just roll out a 70-win season?
2. Denver Nuggets (Last season: 50-32, 4th in West)
How to look at them: Oklahoma City nearly got got by Denver just last season, and that was when the Nuggets had, by the end, just three-and-a-half players having any business on the court. No one’s counting on Jonas Valančiūnas or Tim Hardaway Jr. in a rematch, necessarily, but any more depth is better than what Denver has had since its title. And Valančiūnas as a proper backup for Nikola Jokić should make the regular season significantly easier to manage than it has been in the past.
That’s really the biggest unknown: Can these Nuggets dominate the first 82 in a manner unseen from them before? I’d imagine, if they’re more closely bunched with the teams beneath Oklahoma City, that it wouldn’t change anything. But a tighter race for the No. 1 seed would be proof of concept for everything we expect from them this season.
One question: This season’s script wouldn’t dare not give us this rematch against the Thunder, right?
3. Cleveland Cavaliers (Last season: 64-18, 1st in East)
How to look at them: The Cavaliers walloped the Miami Heat so thoroughly in the first round last spring that they finished with the playoffs up plus-105, second best to only Oklahoma City, despite losing in the next round. Yes, the questions they face headed into this coming year are existential about the current core’s continuation. It doesn’t really matter that they humorously juiced the stats only to exit in the second round. But given Cleveland’s injuries that series and what the Indiana Pacers went on to do, perhaps some grace, and belief, is warranted for a team that was so ascendent last season if they look like it again.
One question: We aren’t just wishcasting Evan Mobley into a top-10 guy, right? Is this the year he makes that unquestioned?
4. L.A. Clippers (Last season: 50-32, 5th in West)
How to look at them: Being both the league’s oldest and deepest team has a useful synergy to it. What the Clippers didn’t have last season, however, were enough two-way players. L.A. constantly made choices between defenders who couldn’t shoot (Derrick Jones Jr., Kris Dunn, Ben Simmons) and role players who were blindingly red targets (Bogdan Bogdanović and, though this is slightly unfair to him, Nicolas Batum). When Denver ended the Clippers’ season, it was because the Nuggets’ four-ish playable options were better than L.A.’s. At this point of their careers, that’s almost always going to be the case for Kawhi Leonard and James Harden in such series.
What the Clippers are attempting through the roster they built this season is to prove there are other ways to win than sheer stardom. John Collins shouldn’t be played off the court on either end; Chris Paul, Bradley Beal, and Brook Lopez provide more usable depth options. It’s a bet that’s totally worthwhile, but one with many ways it can still fail.
One question: Even with the added depth, can you really trust Leonard to be available and Harden to be effective once the playoffs arrive?
5. New York Knicks (Last season: 51-31, 3rd in East)
How to look at them: Tom Thibodeau’s Knicks, last season, were clocked with zero possessions of zone defense. They were the only team in the league who didn’t even try it out once, and it’s that stubbornness that has led to Mike Brown leading the Knicks this season. That despite New York’s offense not being the problem, they shot the fourth-fewest 3s last season despite playing most of the season with Karl-Anthony Towns at center. That even though the Knicks surprisingly made it to the conference finals, it felt like more could’ve been done with this roster.
Is there? Guerschon Yabusele is a delightful addition; we’ll find out whether he’s better paired with Towns or Mitchell Robinson. Those two are poised to start together, and Josh Hart’s role off the bench is a cleaner fit. There’s a reason to buy in.
One question: This season is the Knicks’ most hyped and anticipated since … which decade?
6. Golden State Warriors (Last season: 48-34, 7th in West)
How to look at them: This team won at a 61-win pace after the Jimmy Butler trade last season. They had the league’s best defense in that span despite a tough draw with opponents’ 3-point luck. Now this formula only works with Stephen Curry, of course, which was quickly proven after his second round injury, up 1-0, led to Golden State’s quick dismissal. It also might not always work in the regular season when Butler, Draymond Green and newly added Al Horford modulate how much they exert any given night. But so many legendary players go out on the decline with disappointing rosters around them. There’s every reason to believe this one isn’t that. It’s elderly with thin margins, but too few people are acknowledging how dominant last season’s stretch run really was for Golden State.
One question: Can Jonathan Kuminga play the role he wants enough, when this older roster inevitably rests and misses games, to also do the Warriors’ role for him when needed?
7. Houston Rockets (Last season: 52-30, 2nd in West)
How to look at them: There are several wannabe contenders without true point guards this season; Houston’s, at least, is an unintentional experiment into what that looks like. The Rockets are poised to start one of the tallest lineups that this sport’s history has ever seen. There’s enough size, talent, defense, and smarts to set an irreproachable floor; this team will win games, especially against weaker opponents. It’s just … how far can that and Kevin Durant take what remains a flawed half-court offense?
One question: Would All-Star Amen Thompson fix these problems before they start?
8. Minnesota Timberwolves (Last season: 49-33, 6th in West)
How to look at them: It feels a tad disrespectful to underrate the twice-consecutive runners-up of their conference. I feel disrespectful in doing so. Minnesota fans, I’m greenlighting this screenshot you’ll save for when Minnesota gets back to the conference finals again. I don’t think they’ll do it. That’s quite possibly dumb.
It’s just … hard to fully believe in them, man. The roster’s declining faster than Anthony Edwards can improve. It’s not catastrophic they couldn’t retain Nickeil Alexander-Walker, but it’s another small depletion. It’s not ideal that Terrence Shannon Jr. feels likelier to make a bigger impact this season than Rob Dillingham. Minnesota’s still an incredibly competent team. They will bother and strain every opponent they face. It’s just tough to see that contention upside this year.
One question: Why wasn’t Joe Ingles nominated for Edwards’ White Boy of the Year award?
9. Orlando Magic (Last season: 41-41, 7th in East)
How to look at them: Desmond Bane won’t turn Orlando’s offense, fourth-worst in the league last season, into an unstoppable force. He’s a more feared shooter than the outgoing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, he can exploit that fear off the dribble, and he’s a wonderful fit with this team. But for this offense to become something approaching league average, it’ll take leaps from Paolo Banchero and/or Franz Wagner. Orlando also needs Tristan Da Silva or Jett Howard to demand rotation roles by on-court insistence rather than skillset scarcity.
One question: Will we get those developments?
10. Los Angeles Lakers (Last season: 50-32, 3rd in West)
How to look at them: Are the vibes already souring for Luka Dončić’s first full season? Late career LeBron James seems disappointed he can’t entirely dictate, for the first time in his career, what he wants. Deandre Ayton is a center who has been flatly rejected by multiple franchises. And while Jake LaRavia should fit in fine, Dončić surely didn’t love Dorian Finney-Smith’s departure.
It could all go more swimmingly than that. It just already feels like this year’s shaping up to be the true transition needed before the Dončić era truly begins.
One question: Does Dončić’s newly found fitness turn back the clock to what he was four seasons ago (a relentless driver), two seasons ago (the league’s second-best 3-point shooter), or just make him more available?
11. Detroit Pistons (Last season: 44-38, 6th in East)
How to look at them: Cade Cunningham is one more offensive development away from being an undisputed top-10 guy. It’s just never guaranteed any shooter turns into an off-the-dribble menace, and teams can still scheme some of Cunningham’s biggest strengths away from a guy who only took two such shots and made under 33 percent of them.
Can he make that leap now, or soon? It’ll determine what type of second-best player Detroit needs next to him, and how good he’ll have to be.
One question: Are we sure they don’t have that second star in Ausar Thompson?
12. San Antonio Spurs (Last season: 34-48, 13th in West)
How to look at them: Victor Wembanyama, provided health, is taking over this league. Hell, he probably already has. This year’s about how much more work San Antonio has left on the roster around him. In that sense, all eyes are on Dylan Harper. If he’s destined to be Wembanyama’s running mate, and he just might be, then his game is the type that should make that undeniable sooner than later.
One question: When Wembanyama and Luke Kornet play together, will their lineups be the best defensive ones in the league?
13. Dallas Mavericks (Last season: 39-43, 10th in West)
How to look at them: Everything about this team revolves around Cooper Flagg. All summer, it’s been pointed out this isn’t the typical landing spot for a No. 1 overall pick. Dallas is loaded with veteran talent, with future Hall of Famers, with very recent deep postseason success, with expectations. That’s been valorized as a positive, and it is: Flagg doesn’t have to spend his first few years bleeding his own blood to win, which is how he plays, for a franchise still secretly yearning to lose.
It’s also been suggested this makes Flagg’s role simpler. He can be himself and play more as a supporting figure. That’s where it goes awry. This season’s about Flagg because, for this Dallas team to work, it will be because of Flagg. It increasingly appears Dallas will start him, nominally, as the team’s point guard. He’ll be heavily involved in offensive initiation and handle lead guards from the opening whistle. And he’ll need to be good at those things from the jump for Dallas to survive until Kyrie Irving’s eventual expected return.
Flagg’s probably the best prospect taken first overall since Anthony Davis, his now-teammate whose desire to play power forward has complicated how much this team makes sense. But Flagg projects as the type of player who fixes complications.
One question: Can Flagg solve what dissonance exists within this roster from Day One or are more difficult team-building questions coming?
14. Atlanta Hawks (Last season: 40-42, 9th in East)
How to look at them: Atlanta, with its most talented team in the Trae Young era, has its chance to ascend this year. There are easily seen scenarios where they finish with a top-four seed, run past their projected win totals, take a playoff round or even two. But even then, that objective pales as compared to this year’s real objective: Is Atlanta sure Trae Young’s the guy to do it?
Young can become a free agent next summer; there’s been no extension reached between him and the Hawks. It’s fair for there to be hesitancy on both sides. Atlanta could slightly slow this accelerated timeline if it wanted — especially if that unprotected pick from New Orleans strikes gold. Atlanta drafts its new centerpiece to take Young’s place, Kristaps Porziņģis walks as an unrestricted free agent, the core (Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels, Zaccharie Risacher) remain committed for multiple future seasons. But it’s much more ideal that this dazzles with Young.
One question: Can Risacher give us a clearer idea how high his ceiling is?
15. Milwaukee Bucks (Last season: 48-34, 5th in East)
How to look at them: Is this really what Giannis Antetokounmpo wants? He has the type of roster around him that, finally, absolves him from his seemingly inevitable decision to ask out. Cole Anthony and Kevin Porter Jr. are the type of point guard options that vindicates whatever he wants. Thirty-plus shots per game? Sure, why not. Coasting on defense like peak James Harden? I’ll allow it. But Antetokounmpo’s so talented this team still squeaks into the league’s top half, barely.
One question: How many more soft-launched trade requests await before the real one?
16. Philadelphia 76ers (Last season: 24-58, 13th in East)
How to look at them: Somewhere out there, in some dimension, there’s a universe with a galaxy that has some sort of Earth-like planet where the Philadelphia 76ers win this season’s championship. None of these teams beneath them have that chance. The ingredients are here: the dominant two-way star; the dynamic lead guard; the do-everything veteran power forward; the point-of-attack defender they just drafted; the movement shooter with a bit more to his game than just 3s; the rotation guy who can give you that random 30-point postseason game. And yet we’re more confident in V.J. Edgecomb, Jared McCain, and Quentin Grimes fulfilling those last three descriptors, even as rosily as they were painted, than Joel Embiid and Paul George doing theirs.
One question: What devastating new way will the 76ers find to emotionally damage their fanbase this year?
17. Memphis Grizzlies (Last season: 48-34, 8th in West)
How to look at them: Memphis did two things this summer: It signed a second backup point guard (Ty Jerome) despite already having one highly competent one (Scottie Pippen Jr.), and it replaced the team’s third-best player (Bane) with the least ready-now lottery pick last draft (Cedric Coward). I’m all the way in on Coward’s future, but perhaps not this season. And I am worried about Ja Morant; it seems Memphis is, too.
One question: Does this team still have too many competent players to finish this low?
18. Portland Trail Blazers (Last season: 36-46, 12th in West)
How to look at them: This was the league’s fourth-stingiest defense after the All-Star break, and it just might be repeatable after the Blazers replaced Ayton and Anfernee Simons with Jrue Holiday and more Matisse Thybulle. (It’s no surprise Portland’s defense spike coincided with Thybulle’s return.) But while Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe occasionally look like No. 1 options, neither are particularly close to becoming ones just yet.
One question: Is Yang Hansen the league’s most beloved player by November?
19. Indiana Pacers (Last season: 50-32, 4th in East)
How to look at them: We won’t see the fully functioning Pacers this season, but we’ll see their influence — in more full-court pressures, in quicker offensive sets, in overall tempo — throughout the league.
One question: Can Jay Huff transform his unreal analytics into a real rotation role?
20. Boston Celtics (Last season: 61-21, 2nd in East)
How to look at them: We’ll never see the fully functioning Celtics, not this season, not again, after the salary cap had them tear down what led them to consecutive 60-win years. But we’ll see how they begin to remake themselves, and we know they’ll figure that out. They always do.
One question: Are we already annoyed with the Jayson Tatum injury watch?
21. Charlotte Hornets (Last season: 19-63, 14th in East)
How to look at them: Just three of Charlotte’s 16 wins came without LaMelo Ball last season. Yes, he plays like a YouTube video titled, “Increasingly Absurd NBA Shot Attempts.” Yes, his defense is a disaster. But his presence, unquestionably, is what powers what could be the league’s happiest 3-point offense in the league. With Brandon Miller and Kon Knueppel, Charlotte is building something of a core. They shouldn’t be as bad as last season went. But we’ll have to see it before, probably, any of us believe it.
One question: Is Ball ready to be a bit more serious, specifically defensively, this year?
22. Miami Heat (Last season: 37-45, 8th in East)
How to look at them: Adding Norm Powell for nothing was good business. Having Powell in the same backcourt as Tyler Herro and Terry Rozier isn’t. The Heat should punch a bit above their weight like they always do, but that truly high-end ceiling isn’t there with this roster.
One question: Did you know Nikola Jović is technically British?
23. New Orleans Pelicans (Last season: 21-61, 14th in West)
How to look at them: The Pelicans, like Charlotte, are another second-to-last-place team last season with an undeniable talented star. He just needs to be a bit more available, a bit more professional, a bit more ready to set New Orleans’ tone, and to do so with no guardrails after their front office traded next summer’s first-round pick without protection. That’s … tough.
One question: As the entire NBA shifts to atypical point guards, doesn’t a healthy Williamson have a chance to be the best of them?
24. Chicago Bulls (Last season: 39-43, 10th in East)
How to look at them: Matas Buzelis is so cool. He’s a true building block, maybe more, which Noa Essengue can hope to join this season. But the ownership which begets this visionless front office has a manner of making even the brightest spots on this roster seem like you just stared too long at the sun. And that’s a dismal place to be, unfortunately.
One question: Does Chicago feel any fear about what Michael Jordan might say about them in his return to basketball commentary with NBC this season?
25. Phoenix Suns (Last season: 36-46, 11th in West)
How to look at them: It was a questionable basketball decision to trade for Kevin Durant, an outright damaging one to do the same for Bradley Beal. It was embarrassing how Mat Ishbia bloviated about those unproven rosters only for them to catastrophically break apart. But there is no shame about how Phoenix is resetting this season: rallying around its homegrown star, taking some chances on high-talent lottery tickets, emphasizing culture and work as the new identity, and just playing hard during this cursed timeline that will still take severall years to reset.
One question: Do you think Brian Gregory has this page bookmarked? Is it his home page?
26. Toronto Raptors (Last season: 30-52, 11th in East)
How to look at them: A wildly eclectic talent mix that only makes slightly more sense than the team to come next. The hope, this season, is that some semblance of a plan, or just life from their bench youngsters, becomes more visible.
One question: Which contenders should be eyeing Scottie Barnes as their Aaron Gordon?
27. Sacramento Kings (Last season: 40-42, 9th in West)
How to look at them: Things that excite me about the Kings this season: That one quarter Zach LaVine has every season where he hits, like, eight straight 3s; that Nique Clifford should be fun from the very first game; that’s it. This is one of the most dull, misfitting teams assembled in recent memory. I don’t care they won 40 games last season. This team, this season, will not.
One question: Could the Kings, with $94 million guaranteed still committed to LaVine and Domantas Sabonis next season, even try disassembling this roster next summer?
28. Brooklyn Nets (Last season: 26-56, 12th in East)
How to look at them: Brooklyn’s first round was a fundamental bet on the future of the NBA: That playmaking smarts, actually, has become the league’s most important skill even over shooting. Now, they just need one of these rookies to prove they have the true skill that matters: talent.
One question: Can we do something about Michael Porter Jr.’s access to microphones?
29. Washington Wizards (18-64, 15th in East)
How to look at them: Washington actually has a couple of veterans (C.J. McCollum, Khris Middleton) who could temper how bad this team’s been over the past seasons. Problem is, I’m not even sure I believe the sentence I just wrote.
One question: Is this the year that the lottery rewards basketball incompetency?
30. Utah Jazz (Last season: 17-65, 15th place)
How to look at them: Utah just doesn’t have the talent to be feisty if the team wanted to this season. It’s amusing to see Kevin Love on this roster. Do we know if he likes movies? I hope he can at least visit the Sundance Film Festival.
One question: When will Lauri Markkanen be freed?
Tim Cato is ALLCITY’s national NBA writer currently based in Dallas. He can be reached at tcato@alldlls.com or on X at @tim_cato.
